Jsl THE ANTIQUITIES OF AEEAN. *. / f?m Finfcal's and Bruce's Cave. THE ANTIQUITIES OF ARRAN: Skekjj of fyt EMBRACING AN ACCOUNT OP THE SUDEEYJAE UNDER THE NOESEMEN, BY JOHN M'ARTHUR ' Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers : for we are but of yesterday." JOB viii. 8, 9. ames acr, n. GLASGOW: THOMAS MUKRAY AND SON. EDINBURGH: PA TON AND RITCHIE. LONDON: ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE AND co. 1861. PREFATORY NOTE. WHILST spending a few days in Arran, the attention of the Author was drawn to the numerous pre-historic monuments scattered over the Island. The present small Work embraces an account of these in- teresting remains, prepared chiefly from careful personal observation. The concluding Part contains a description of the monu- ments of a later period the chapels and castles of the Island to which a few brief historical notices have been appended. Should the persual of these pages induce a more thorough investigation into these stone-records of the ancient history of Arran, the object of the Author shall have been amply attained. The Author begs here gratefully to acknowledge the kind- ness and assistance rendered him by JOHN BUCHANAN, Esq. of Glasgow; JAMES NAPIEE, Esq., F.C.S., &c., Killin; the Rev. COLIN F. CAMPBELL of Kilbride, and the Rev. CHARLES STEWART, Kilmorie Arran. 4 RADNOB TERBACE, GLASGOW, June, 1861. 2058000 CONTENTS. Page PREFATORY NOTE, 5 i|u Stair* CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION, .... ..... 11 " II. BARROWS AND CAIRNS, ....... 18 " III. CROMLECHS, .......... 37 IV. STANDING STONES, ........ 42 " V. STONE CIRCLES, ......... 48 " VI. URNS AND STONE-CHESTS, ...... 58 VII. ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS RELICS, . 62 II. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION, ......... 78 " II. FORTS AND CAMPS, ........ 76 " III. CAVES, ........... 96 IV. MISCELLANEOUS RELICS, ....... 102 ,T in fje Christian CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, ...... 107 " II. CASTLES, ........... 140 " III. OLD CHAPELS, ......... 174 IV. CONCLUDING SUMMARY, ....... 192 I. BRUCE'S CAVE. II. STANDING STONE MAUCHBIE MOOR. III. CONCENTRIC STONE CIRCLE MAUCHRIE MOOR. IV. BOON FORTRESS DRUMIDOON. V. BRODICK CASTLE. VI. KILDONAN CASTLE. VII. KILBRIDE CHAPEL. Vm. STONES IN KILBRIDE CHURCH- YARD. IX. STONES IN KILBRIDE CHURCH-YARD. X. ST. MOLIOS' STONE SHISKIN CHURCH- YARD. XI. STONES IN SHISKIN CHURCH-YARD. PAET I. STONE PERIOD. CHAPTER I. Introduction:. THE Island of Arran* lies at the mouth of the Frith of Clyde, and forms one of the Sudreyjar, or Southern Hebrides. It is twenty-four miles in length, by ten to twelve in breadth, and is divided by a string of heath-clad hills into the parishes of Kilbride on the east and Kilmorie on the west. Its shores are rocky and precipitous, here and there fringed to the water's edge with feathery brushwood, and indented by the Bays of Brodick, Lamlash, Whiting, Mauch- rie, and Ranza. From the summit of Ben Gnuis, or better still, from the granite brow of Ben Ghaioul, the coup d'ceil is magnificent in the extreme. To the north, rugged cliffs, mountain corries, * Glotta Hersey Arram Aran Arane Arrane Aren Arran Ar, a land ; nw, sharp points. 1 2 THE STONE PEEIOD. and dark ravines, open beneath us. The peaks of Cior Mhor, Ca.sdael Abhael, and Suidhe Fheargus, rise bare and grim. A light fleecy mist veils the paps of the Ciodh-na-oigh Maiden's Breast Beyond is the sweep of the eastern shore, with the waves surging on the golden sands of the Bay of Sannox. The islands of Bute and the Cumbraes sleep peace- fully on the glistening waters; and stretching still north- wards are the straggling lochs and lakes of Argyll and the surf-beaten Hebrides. To the east is seen the clear outline of the Ayrshire coast, with its sandy bays, busy harbours, and old castles ; and in the extreme distance, the white smoke resting over the towns and hamlets of the shires of Lanark and Eenfrew. Southwards are the purple ridges of the Ross and the Faerie hills ; the Holy Isle guarding the Bay of Lamlash ; the gray ruins of Kildonan Peel; the Craig of Ailsa looming like a spectre on the blue waves; and the dim shadowy out- line of the Irish coast beyond. Over the string of swelling heights, which intersect the island from north to south, the wild Highland features of the eastern coast are changed for the more regular characteristics of lowland scenery. Heath-clad hills stretch in gentle undu- lation along the coast, whilst fields of emerald pasture and waving grain, and wastes of moorland, extend along the shore levels ; with here and there a few village cots cluster- ing around the bays and within the glens. But Arraii must be examined and studied in detail to elicit all the richness and variety of its attractions. It offers an inexhaustible treasury of material for the zoologist, the geologist, and the botanist, amongst the crannies of the rocks INTEODUCTION. 13 at low water, along the shelving cliffs of the coast, and amidst the heathery nooks and woody dingles of the glens and hills and mountain streamlets. The rocks and the woodlands have their own peculiar charm ; the botanist may wander over the fields, the moors, and the flowery dells, and gather, year by year, fresh laurels with which to adorn the storehouse of his science; the geologist may re-clothe the primeval world, with its virgin forests ; trace out in the old strata the footprints of extinct mammalia, and from a few fossil remains reconstruct their huge proportions. But there is a later and a higher forma- tion which " pieces on in natural sequence to the geology," which has for us a deeper and more kindred interest. Buried amidst the heath, and hoary with the moss of ages, we dis- cover the rude monumental remains of primeval man the sole records which time has left us of his early history. The old gray cairns, the lichen-covered monoliths, the ruined forts and cells and castles of early times, lie scattered about in almost every dingle, glen, and moor of Arran. Many a wild and weird tradition hovers over these old monuments; but the origin and histoiy of the cairn and monolith builders remain shrouded in the mists of the past. That they were an earlier people than the Celtse is now generally admitted by ethnologists; and to distinguish them from the Indo-European tribes, whom they preceded, Dr Prichard has applied to them the somewhat hypothetical designation of " Allophyliaii." * * Dr Pricharcl's Natural History of Man, page 186; Wilson's Archaeology, page 101. 1 -t THE STONE PERIOD. It would be mere idle conjecture to attempt to indicate, with any degree of certainty, the time when these rude colo- nists emerging from their cradle-land in the East, and wandering over the vast forest-lands of the European Con- tinent landed in their fire-hollowed canoes upon the shores of the British Isles. It is more than probable, however, that long before King Chufu had commenced to build the great pyramid on the banks of the Nile, the rude Allophylian was rearing the barrow, the cromlech, and the stone circle, around the coasts of the Hebrides and within the glens of the Scottish mainland. But remote as these monuments are in their antiquity, the world has been now and again startled by the traces of the works of man, existing at a period apparently long prior to the first dawn of Adamic history. In 1797 several flint weapons were found in Suffolk, mingled with the bones of extinct mammalia, at a depth of eleven to twelve feet below the surface soil. Similar discoveries have been made in the gravel beds of Peterborough; on the coast of Ayrshire; in the Brixham Cave, Devonshire; in the caves of Sicily, and other places. About four years ago a series of borings were made in the deposits of the river Nile. "In the lowest part of the sediment, at the colossal statue of Memphis, at the depth of thirty-nine feet from the sur- face of the ground, consisting of true Nilotic sediment, the instrument brought up a fragment of pottery. Having been found at the depth of thirty-nine feet, it would seem to be a true record of the existence of man 13,371 years before A.D. 1854 reckoning by the before-mentioned INTRODUCTION. 15 rate of increase, seventy-three and a half inches in a century."* Whilst we attach but little importance to the finding of an isolated fragment of pottery in the Nilotic deposits, the dis- coveries of M. Boucher de Perthes, of flint instruments, in the neighbourhood of Abbeville and Amiens, recently investigated and verified by Mr Prestwich and other eminent geologists, are deserving of more serious attention. These implements consist of flakes of flint, broken and chipped into the forms of knives, arrow-heads, spear or lance-heads, and axes, all un- questionably of human workmanship. They have been disinterred from undisturbed beds of Drift, at an elevation of about two hundred feet above the sea level, superimposed by a layer of grayish sand containing the shells of fresh-water mallusca and a bed of brown brick earth, or ferruginous clay, or loam. Large quantities of these rude instruments have been found, discoloured and incrusted by their contact with ochreous matter and carbonate of lime. The bones of extinct mammalia, including the elephant, the rhinoceros, the bear, the hyena, and the tiger, have been dis- covered on the adjacent hills; and the entire evidence is suggestive of the existence of a rude and barbarous people, coeval with the huge mammalia, which prowled amidst the forests and jungles of the old world, probably before the British Islands were disunited from the continent of Europe.-f- * Communication by L. Horner, Esq., V.P.R.S., to the Royal Society, llth February, 1858. f "I ain warranted in asserting, that the most sceptical visitor to M. de Perthes' museum, will go away a convert to the opinion that the 16 THE STONE PERIOD. The implement remains of the sons of the Drift are dis- tinctive and peculiar in their formation, and possess but little resemblance to the beautifully polished arrow-heads and hatchets of stone and flint of the Allophylian and Celtic races. We may reasonably conclude, therefore, that the rude Allophyliae, who at a remote period inhabited our island, were preceded by an older and still more barbarous people, respecting whose origin and history we are entirely ignorant. When the adventurous AUophyliae first landed upon the shores of Arran, vast forests, infested by beasts of prey, covered the face of the island; dusky tarns glimmered in the deep conies of its glens, and along its coasts the ocean waves were still gnawing its sandstone cliffs into abodes for man. Along the surf-beaten shores, and within the forest glades, where the streamlets coursed down their rocky beds, the rude colonists built their huts of heath and branches, and raised the grave-mounds over the remains of their distinguished heroes; whilst with their frail weapons of stone and flint, they struggled for existence with the fierce denizens of the woods. We have no means of ascertaining how long the primitive Allophylise retained possession of the British Islands before the first wave of the great Celtic race broke upon our shores. Dr Wilson has associated the intrusion of the Celtse with the introduction of the metallurgic arts; but the monuments of many hundred specimens there assembled bear the plainest traces of human skill, and are genuine vouchers of the existence of man in the age of the fossil elephant and other gigantic animals entombed in the Diluvium of Geologists." Blackwootfs Magazine, October, 1860. INTKODUCTIOX. ] 7 the Stone Period were common to all primitive nations; and as, in the absence of more reliable data than the mere outward configuration and internal arrangement of the sepulchral mounds of Arran, it would be futile to attempt any indication of the period of their construction, or the people by whom they were built, we shall proceed to do little more than enumerate and describe these interesting monuments, and leave the enigma of their origin to be solved by more recondite and experienced archaeologists. CHAPTER II. garrofos* anir Cairns.t "Green along the ocean's side, The mounds arise, -where heroes died." THE tumuli or mounds are probably the most primitive and universal of all the old sepulchral monuments. Their existence has been traced in almost every country of the known world along the shores of Europe; within the steppes of Tartary and the wilds of Siberia; over the hunting-fields of North America, the prairies of Mexico, and the sunny plains of Africa; and within the forest ranges of South America and the jungles of Hindostan indicating one common sentiment of the human mind, in its primeval barbarism, the passionate desire for sepulchral honours. "If fall I must in the field," says Shilric, "raise high my grave, Vinvela. Gray stones and heaped-tip earth shall mark me to future times. When the hunter shall sit by the mound, and produce his food at noon, 'Some warrior rests here,' he will say; and my name shall live in his praise." * Barrow beorh bearw; hence to burrow. t Cairn Ksern a heap of stones; Carnydd Wales; Galgals France. The distinction between the Barrow and the Cairn consists in the former being composed entirely of earth, and the latter of stones, or stones and earth. BARROWS AND CAIRNS. 19 The himtiiig-groimd and the battle-field were the arenas where the sepulchral honours were fought for and won by the ancients; death was the gateway, and the grave-mound the entrance-hall to the Walhalla the Nirwana and the Elysium of the brave. The magnitude of the funeral pile and the tumulus appears to have been proportioned in accordance with the rank and celebrity of the chief in whose honour they were raised. But the Greeks and Romans launched out into great extravagance in the time of Alexander in the dimensions and magnificence of their sepulchral monuments. Several laws were made at Athens to restrain the vanity of the Greek tumuli builders. Plato proposed a regulation, that no mound shoidd be larger than what five men could complete in five days, nor a pillar higher than would contain four heroic verses. The "Adventures of Beowulf," an old Anglo-Saxon poem, contains the description of the pile and mound raised by the Saxons in honour of their deceased leader. The pile for the buniing of the body was "Hung round with helmets, With boards of war,* And with bright byrnies,t As he had requested. Then the heroes weeping, Laid down in the midst The famous chieftain Their dear lord. Then began on the hill The warriors to awake The mightiest funeral fires ; * Shields. + Coats of mail. ^0 THE STONE PERIOD. The -wood smoke rose aloft, Dark from the fire ; Noisily it went Mingled with weeping." After the burning of the body, they proceeded to rai.se "A mound over the sea It was high and broad By the sailors, over the waves, To be seen afar. And they built up During ten days The beacon of the war renowned. They surrounded it with a wall, In the most honourable manner That wise men could devise. They put into the mound Rings and bright gems, All such ornaments."* Mr R C. Hoare, who has acquired, by long and careful exa- mination, an intimate knowledge of the tumuli of the British Isles, has suggested for these monuments the following classification, based chiefly upon the peculiar characteristics of their configuration: The Long Barrow; the Bowl Bar- row; the Conoid Barrow; the Druid Barrow; the Encircled Barrow; the Enclosed Barrow, etc. This system of classification applies with equal pertinence to the cairns or stone tumuli, which, on account of the la pi- dose nature of the surface soil, predominate throughout the Highlands of Scotland and the Western Islands. The only specimens of the barrow, or earthen tumulus, * "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon." BAKROWS AND CAIRNS. 21 which have been discovered in Arran are a group, which at one time existed in Glen Cloy, near Brodick Bay. One of these mounds was depressed or hollowed on the top, and another was capped by a circle of stones "whose ends just appeared above the earth."* The former represents the Bowl Barrow, which is frequently to be met with in the Hebrides.-}- The latter is of rare occurrence in the British Isles, but prevails throughout the north of Eiirope. The most interesting and numerous of the Stone Tumuli, which we have observed in Arran, are the CHAMBERED CAIRNS, consisting of a series of cells or chambers of huge unwrought slabs, containing human bones or cinerary urns. Cairns of this class are common in Ireland, and are identical in formation with the Joettestuer, or Giant's Graves of Scan- dinavia. An investigation of their contents has disclosed the rude flint and stone weapons and ornaments of the Stone Period, beside the crumbling bones or inurned ashes of the dead referring to a period prior to the introduction of metals, and contemporaneous with the rites of the funeral pile. In Mauchrie Moor there may still be seen the inner trough or chamber of a denuded cairn, formed by four huge stones, beneath which a large heap of flint flakes and arrow-heads was lately dug up. In the same moor, forests of oak lie crumbling amid the heath and moss, which half conceal the grave mounds of the ancient islanders. It has been conjectured that these monuments have been * Pennant, Vol. III., p. 210. t About 2000 barrows of this description have been found in the Orkney Islands. Wilson's Archwoloyy, p. 55. THE STONE PEBIOD. used from generation to generation as the burial vaults of families or tribes; but such an hypothesis appears untenable when we consider the improvident habits of the early tumuli builders, and the exclusive use of the cairn as a monument for the brave and distinguished dead. It is more probable that many of these cairns may have been raised on the battle- field after some fierce intestine feud or foreign invasion. The confused and huddled appearance of the bones in the rude cells or catacombs confirms this opinion. In several of the chambered cairns which have been opened in England, the intersecting passage which divides the cells has been found strewn with bones, as if carelessly dropt whilst being hastily interred in the grave trough. The traditions too which float around this class of the Arran grave mounds are associated with the fierce raids and clanish feuds of early times ; and it is said that the ghosts of the buried dead were wont to rise from their graves and renew the combat in the shadowy folds of the evening mists. On the farm of Blairmore, near the base of Dunfitm, may be seen the scattered ruins of a chambered cairn.* On the stones being carried away some years ago, to build the Lam- lash school-house, a series of inner cells was exposed, each covered with a single flat stone. At Torlin, on a green bank near the shore, there is an interesting specimen of the "elongated" chambered cairn. It is intersected from east to west by a row of vaults, consisting each of six unhewn slabs, from five to eight feet square. These vaults or chambers were filled with human bones, * Pennant. Vol. II., p. 212. BAEEOWS AND CAIBX*. 23 .some of which, we were informed, were cleft as if from the blow of an axe or hatchet. This cairn was partially removed some years ago by a modern Goth, who rifled the cells of their contents, and strewed them over his field. With daring irreverence, he selected one of the largest skulls from the ghastly heap, and carried it home with him ; but scarcely had he entered his house when its walls were shaken as if struck by a tornado. Again and again the avenging blast swept over his dwelling, though not a sigh of the gentlest breeze was heard in the neighbouring wood. The affrighted victim hastened to re-bury the bones in their desecrated grave, but day and night shadowy phantoms continued to haunt his mind and track his steps, and a few months after the commission of his rash deed, whilst riding along the high road towards Lag, he was thrown from his horse over a steep embankment, and dashed against the rocks of the stream beneath.* It was with some feelings of trepidation, after listening to this fearful tragedy, that we proceeded to remove the stones and earth which filled the rifled cells of this ghost-haunted cairn ; but a few marine shells, mixed with the small delicate bones of birds, were all we could discover to repay our labour, -f- * This tradition is well known in Arran, and has tended to deepen the feelings of superstitioiis dread with which these monuments are generally regarded. f It is worthy of notice that in the barrows and giants' graves of Finland there have been found large quantities of the bones of birds and the skulls of small wild animals, suggestive of some old supersti- tion, the origin and nature of which are concealed amongst the mysteries of the past. It is probable, however, that the ancient Celts, like the Gauls, drew their auguries from birds, as they hold a promi- nent place in many Highland traditions. 24 THE STONE PERIOD. Some years ago a "white cairn," near Largiebeg, was denuded of its stones, exposing a range of chambers contain- ing several rude urns of unbaked clay, filled with earth and calcined bones. Near Dippen, on a little green knoll by the shore, there are the remains of a chambered cairn. The huge stone troughs appear to have been built irregularly near the centre of the mound. Between the little straggling village of Shiskin and Auch- ingallan, there stretches along the coast a broad waste of unreclaimed moorland, studded by groups of cairns, mono- liths, and stone circles. Near the southern extremity of the moor, within the lands of Torbeg Little Hill there may be seen the ruins of an interesting cairn, measuring about three hundred and fifty feet in circumference. It is inter- sected from north to south by a concentric row of chambers, each chamber consisting of five unhewn slabs of three to five feet in height. Wandering northward, towards the Mauchrie Bay, through the tall heath and the mossy tarns, we arrive at Tormore Great Hill deriving its name probably from some gigantic tumulus, which may have appeared in olden times, like a natural eminence rising above the waveless moorland,* for neither hill nor mountain ridge breaks the monotony of the dreary expanse of moss and peat-bog, excepting here and there the rifled grave mounds or fallen monoliths of the buried dead. About a stone's-cast from the shore we per- * On the farm of Tormore there is a cairn known by this name, but it appears to have but lately received the designation. BARROWS AND CAIRNS. :>.~> ceive the exposed cells of one of these cairns huge slabs of red sandstone and granite, deeply sunk in the moss. Still farther north, on the farm of Auchingallan, there is a tumulus known as the " White Cairn." "Where the lovely Glen Cloy Lewis opens into the Bay of Lamlash, a few minutes' walk from the mansion house of the Fullerton family, there is a green mound, which was dug into some years ago. On removing the superincum- bent earth and stones, a collection of small square chambers of flat unhewn slabs was discovered, from which were taken two rude clay urns of the primitive flower-pot pattern, con- taining calcined bones. Another interesting class of the sepulchral mound is the ENCIRCLED CAIRN, so called from its being surrounded by a circle of upright stones. This description of tumulus is of common occurrence throughout the north of Europe, and ap- parently belongs to an antiquity less remote than that of the chambered cairn. From the identity of their outward con- figuration with the encircled barrows of Norway and Sweden, a Scandinavian origin has been assigned to those which exist in the British Islands; but an examination of their contents controverts this opinion, and refers their origin to the tran- sitionary period of the metallurgic history, when the rude Britons were laboriously working the mines of Cornwall, and smelting and moulding the ores into weapons and instru- ments of bronze. The Greeks and Eomans, too, appear to have occasionally surmounted their sepulchral mounds with stone columns, and encompassed them with earthen vallums or stone I'll THE STONE PERIOD. circles.* The tumulus raised over the ashes of Patroclus, belonged to this class: 1 Jesigning next the compass of the tomb, They marked the boundary with stones, then filled The wide enclosure hastily with earth. "f It is probable, indeed, that many of the smaller stone circles, which fling their mysterious shadows over the glens and moors of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, are but the remains of encircled cairns rifled of their contents. On a green bank, near the shore at Mauchrie, there is a cairn about one hundred and fifty feet in circumference, which has been partly removed for the building of a neighbouring dyke, but the huge stone columns which surround the mound are still entire. In a few years the stone circle, with its halo of Dmidic superstitions, may be the only relic of the encircled tumulus. In the neighbourhood of Tonnore there is a cairn, noticed by Pennant, within a concentric circle.^ Near Corrie Crievie, to the south of the Preaching Cave, there is an imperfect cairn, within three concentric circles. Large rounded boulders from the passing stream form the in- terior mound There are the remains of a similar tumulus, about two hundred feet in circumference, in the neighbour- hood of Slidry. * Oa the removal of an encircled tumulus in the neighbourhood of Rutherglen, a series of cistvsens was discovered, containing amongst other relics two brass vessels, upon the handles of which the Roman name "Congallus," or " Convallus," was engraved. Wilson's Arche- ology, p. 55. t Homer's Iliad. Cowper's Translation, p. 420. J Pennant. Vol. II., p. 206. BAEEOWS AND CAIENS. 27 Another class of the sepulchral mounds of Arran is the SHIP BAEEOW or CAIEN, analogous in design with the Skibs- scetninger of Sweden. These tumuli are described by Chal- mers as "oblong ridges, like the hulk of a ship with its bottom upwards." From the Norse sagas we learn that it was an old custom to bury the daring sea Vikings beneath a barrow or cairn, constructed in the form of a ship, and occasionally the long dark galley itself, which had rode many a stormy sea, was dragged ashore to cover the ashes of its brave com- mander. There is an interesting example of the ship barrow, in the mound of Saint Columba, within the little haven of Churaich Port-a-Curragh* in lona. It is about fifty feet in length, and is said to have been built after the model of the rude currach of wicker and hides, in which the Saint landed on the island. A smaller ridge lies in juxtaposition to the large mound, which is supposed to represent the little boat towed astern. -f- On the bank of the Slidry stream, to the south of Arran, there is an elongated, ship-like cairn, exactly similar to the celebrated currach mound of lona. It is thirty feet in length, with a smaller ridge attached, measuring nine feet. The sides of the tumuli are trenched with flat, flag-like stones, and at each end there stands a large monolith of red sandstone, encrusted with lichen and moss. This monument is supposed to mark the grave of one of Fion-gal's heroes, about whom many strange stories are told. An anxious treasure-seeker, * Port-a-Curragh Bay of the Boat. t Wilson's Archeology, p. 57. 28 THE STONE PERIOD. who dug into the larger mound, is said to have found a huge bone, into the hollow of which he thrust down his foot and leg as into a boot* On the southern shoulder of one of the heath-clad hills which buttress the entrance to Glen Ashdale, there is another long ridge-like tumulus, with its smaller contiguous mound and standing stones, known in the district as the "Giant's Grave/' Dr Wilson has assigned the origin of these ship-like cairns of Scotland, from their resemblance to the Skibsscetninyer of the North, to the time "When Norse and Danish galleys plied Their oars within the Frith of Clyde." f But in the absence of more trustworthy evidence than the mere analogy of construction, such an opinion must be re- ceived with caution. The crowned and encircled tumuli are even more numerous in Norway and Sweden than the Skibsscetninger, but they are also of common occurrence in the British Isles, and, as we have seen, were in use amongst the Greeks and Romans. Many a brave Viking found his grave along the surf-beaten shores of the Western Isles, but tradition alone now hovers over the mound where his ashes sleep. There are a few more tumuli in Arran worthy of notice, though difficult of classification. Near the base of the Eoss Hills, where the Monie-mhor Glen narrows into a bosky ravine, there may be traced the * Headrick's Arran, p. 148. t AVilson's Archaeology, p. 57. BAKEOWS AND CAIENS. 29 remains of a cairn which, when entire, is said to have measured about two hundred feet in circumference. On being partially removed some years ago, for the building of a neighbouring dike, several cistvcens or stone coffins were ex- posed, consisting of six unhewn flags, and containing human bones.* On the banks of the Clachan Burnie rill of stones there is a circular cairn. Pennant notices the existence of an elongated tumulus at Feorling, in Drumidoon Bay. It was built of rounded stones from the shore, and measured one hundred and fourteen feet in diameter. Perhaps the largest cairn in Scotland, but of which scarcely a stone now remains, stood upon the shore at Blackwater- foot. It was of a circular, conoid formation, measuring two hundred feet across -f- about twice the size of the tumulus raised over the ashes of Patroclus on the plains of Troy. Several thousand cart-loads of stones were removed from this cairn for the building of the rude cots of the fishermen which cluster at the mouth of the Blackwater, when large numbers of stone coffins were discovered, filled with human bones, placed irregularly over the surface soil, but not a vestige of stone or metallic implement could be found. The huge flag- stones of the cistvsens may still be seen, built into the dikes and houses, investing the little hamlet with the mysterious memorials and ghostly traditions of pre-historic times. The cairn is not exclusively a sepulchral monument. Like * New Statistical Account, f Headrick; New Statistical Account, etc. 30 THE STONE PERIOD. the monolith, it was frequently raised to commemorate some civil compact, foreign raid, or clanish strife, and during the times of feudal chieftainship, the heath-covered mound was the primitive Justice Seat or Tynwald of the Highlands and Isles. A heap of stones was gathered on the field of Mizpah to seal the covenant between Jacob and Laban;* and from the time of Ezekiel to the present day, it has been the custom in the East to mark the spot where a murder was committed by a mound of stones. } Laws were promulgated by the early kings of Scotland from the coronation chair, "super montem de Scone."* Near Dun-tuilm Castle, there is a hill known as Cnock-an-eirich Hill of Pleas from which justice was dispensed in olden times. Thomas, the fourth Lord of Lovat, held his court on the top of Tomnahwich. These mounds were called, and in many parts of Scotland are still known, as moats, laws, and court hills. || Near the celebrated stone circles on Mauchrie Moor, Arran, there is a cairn, partly demolished, which Fion-gal, the hero of Highland tradition, is said to have used as his justice-seat ; and the stone, beside which the culprit stood a huge block of red sandstone, is pointed out as the "Panel's Stone." In Glen-in-tshuidhe there once stood a heath-clad mound * Genesis xxxi. 45, 46. t The Fidjee Islanders, as they wander through the dark forests of their native glens, frequently turn aside to pluck a handful of leaves to throw upon the spot where some warrior had been clubbed and scalped. Willis 1 Travels. J Chalmers' Caledonia. Pennant. Vol. III., p. 351. || These were occasionally natural eminences, but more frequently artificial. BARROWS AND CAIRXS. 31 of stones, called Suidhe Cliallmn Chille Saint Columba's Seat where the Saint is believed to have sat and refreshed himself when weary with his walk through the dense forest glades of the island. On the shore, near Catacol, there once stood a circular cairn, known as Aran* Ar Fhinn Slaughter of Fion-gal, said to have been raised to commemorate the invasion, defeat, and death of Manos, King of Sweden. An old Highland poem, which was wont to be chanted in the Isles by the ingle-nook, during the last century, contains the leading incidents of this episode in the traditional history of Arran. It appears that, on the defeat of his forces, Manos was disarmed and bound by Fion-gal, but on pledging his faith to return to his own country, and cease his predatory invasions of the Inisfail, -f- he was at once liberated by his generous conqueror. Scarcely had the Norse galleys, however, left the island, when Manos was induced by the entreaties of his men to return and renew the conflict. The sequel is thus graphically described towards the conclusion of the poem. We give the original and translation : " 'Se comhairle thug na sloigh Ar Manos mbr, na long aigh Tighin chuig' ar an ais o'n chuan Go maithibh sluagh Innsefail. Thill na laoich nan caogadaibh borb, Bu mhor an toirm ar an traigh. Mar fhuaim tuinne bha gach trend, Is faram nan ceud ann ar diiil. * Statistical Account. f Inisfail Tnnse nan Gall Isles of the Strangers a name given to the Hebrides. 32 THE STONE PERIOD. Chuir Fionn teachdaire gu luath Go Manos nan ruag is nan gniornh. ' Caite bheil do mhionna mora Fhir nach cum a choir ach cli.' Fhreagair an Triath gu fiata borb, Ar am biodh colg anns gach greis, ' Fhagas iad in deallt an fheoir Ar an Ion ud siar ma dheas.' Thug sinn an sin deannal cruaidh Mar nach fac 's nach cuala mi. Mar theirbeirt teine na nial. Bha gach triath a sgatha sios. Mar choille chrionaich ar ant shliabh Is an osag dliian ann nan car, B'amhlaidh slachdraich nan sonn A tuiteam fui 'r bonn 'sa chath. Thuit Manos, arman an nan t sluaigh Mar leig theine an cuan na sruth, B'aneibnin iolach nan laoich Nu air a chualas gach taobh an guth. Mach o fhear a dh'iarr a sith No ghabh a dhidion fu'r sgeith, Do chuideachd figh Lochlan gu fior Cha deachai duine d'a thir fein. Bheirimse briatha do m' figh Riamh ann stri nach d'fhuUing tair Gu 'n do thuit do na seachd cathain Trian do mhaithibh Innsefail." * TRANSLATION. " The hosts offered an advice To the great Manos of successful ships, To trace back their way upon ocean, To meet the chiefs of the host of Inisphail. So the heroes returned by their fifties fierce, And loud was their noise on the strand. * This poem occurs in the collection of Mr Duncan Kennedy, who was for some time resident in Glasgow. It is now in the possession of the Highland Society. Report of Highland Society on Ossian's Poems, pp. 828-332. BAREOWS AND CAIRNS. 33 Like a roaring wave each band advanced. Fingal immediately despatched a messenger To Manos of the victorious pursuits and exploits : ' Where are thy solemn oaths, Thou man that upholdest faith but with thy left hand?' Fierce and furious answered the chief, With the wonted frown of his wrath, ' I left them on the dew of the grass, In yonder meadow to the south-west.' We then made the impetuous onset, Such as I have not seen nor heard of. As a cloud gives out its fire, Each hero dealt destruction. As the decayed grove of the mountain Sinks under the rapid sweep of the whirlwind, So were the mighty overturned As they fell under our feet in battle. Manos, leader of the host, has fallen, Like a fiery meteor in the forth of currents. Grievous was the cry of his heroes, When their spreading voice was heard around. Except a man Avho sought his peace, Or who took protection under our shield, None of the followers of Lochlin's king Returned to his own land. I declare by my king, Who was never defeated in battle, That there fell in our seven bands A third of the chiefs of Inisfail." This interesting memorial monument of Fingalian prowess, the Aran* cairn, was removed some years ago, and from its stones an excellent road has been made by the utilitarian Islanders. -f- It was an ancient custom in Arran and throughout the * From which some etymologists have derived the name of the Island. t New Statistical Account. E '! t THE STONE PERIOD. Highlands to cover the spot with stones where the coffin was placed, on its way to the chureh-yard, whilst the weaiy mourners tarried by the road-side to refresh themselves. The old burial-place at Shiskin, on the west coast of Arran, was much revered by the natives, on account of its reputed consecration by Saint Molios ; and many of the villagers of Lamlash were wont to bury their dead within the sacred enclosure of the Clachan, beside the traditional tombstone of the Saint. On their journey across the moors, the funeral attendants halted near the head of Monie-mhor Glen, where a huge cairn of stones, raised during successive generations, now marks the site where the encoffined dead was placed.* Whilst wandering over the hills and the moors of the Island, we occasionally stumble against a little mound or cairn of stones but a few feet in circumference. Many of these tiny cairns, tapestried with heath and moss, are re- garded by tradition as the graves of lawless caterans, who perished by the dirks of rival clansmen in the old feudal times. Such is supposed to have been the origin of a small green tumulus which was removed some years ago from a heathery knoll, beside the little white cots of the Cordon, to the south of Lamlash. It is said that an old sceptic to ghostly superstitions, in spite of warning and remonstrance, carried away the stones of the mound for the building of a house for himself and family ; but though he toiled for days at the work, he could make no progress ; some unseen agency * Stat. Acct., Buteshire Local Tradition. There is the Hilloch Sireyne Mound of the Burden in loua, on which bodies brought to the Bay of Martyrs were placet! . BAKEOWS AND CAIRNS. 35 continued to demolish the walls as they were being built, and he was forced to relinquish the impious undertaking. The meagre acquaintance which we possess of the contents of the Barrows and Cairns of Arran, has induced us to em- brace these monuments generally within the Primeval or Stone Period; but though the sepulchral mound originated and obtained during the earliest times, it was likewise in common use during the later eras of pre-historic annals. In some Eastern countries it was associated with dishonour and desecration : Achan for his sins was commanded to be stoned by Joshua ; " and all Israel stoned him with stones ; and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day."* During the dark ages of priestly domination in Britain, the heretic and the suicide, who died without the pale of the church, were occasionally condemned to pagan sepulture. The reference by Shakespere to the burial of the unfortunate Ophelia, is doubtless in allusion to this practice : "But," demurs the priest, "that great command o'er sways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, Shards,f flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her." But amongst the early Britons the tumulus was regarded as the most honourable monument of interment, and was reserved exclusively for the chiefs and distinguished heroes of the communities or tribes. After the introduction of Christianity, however, the barrow and the cairn, though still reverenced for their antiquity, were abhorred for their un- * Joshua vii. 25, 26. t Fragments of Pottery. 3() THE STONE PERIOD. sanctity; and the old pagan mode of sepulture, with its cinerary rites and bardic elegies, was superseded by simple inhumation beneath the shadow of the Christian fane. The deep-rooted attachment of the Highlanders to the old customs and practices of their forefathers, preserved the use of the cairn, amidst the Highland glens and Western Islands of Scotland, long after it was abandoned in the south. " Gurri mi clach er do cuirn " I will add a stone to your cairn is a proverbial expression still in use in some parts of the Highlands. The sepulchral cairn, with its covering of velvet moss, tufted with fern and heath, which four thousand years ago was raised over the ashes of the distinguished warrior chief on the rocky shore of the Sudreyjar Islet, has its prototype in the little mound of pebbles, heaped over the grave of the humble islander in the clachan church-yard of Shiskin. The plough-share of the native agriculturist has passed over the site of many of the tumuli of Arran ; but the old grave mounds which still exist are regarded with feelings of superstitious reverence, and many a weird and wild tradition envelopes them with a mysterious and sacred protection. CHAPTER III. "Speak thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn The power of years pre-eminent and placed Apart, to overlook the circle vast." THE term Cromlech is derived from the Gaelic cromadh a roof or vault, and clach a stone.* It generally consists of three or four unhewn columns, capped by a huge block of stone, forming a recess or chamber underneath, within which were placed the bones or incinerated ashes of the dead. The origin and design of these monuments are shrouded in the mists of the past, but their intimate association with the chambered cairn, one of the earliest monuments we possess of the ancient Britons, suggests their contemporiety with the earliest dawn of the pre-historic era, when the rude Allophy- lise were building their huts of wicker and turf along the shores of the British Islands. Though of less frequent occurrence than the cairn or the monolith, their existence has been traced from the cradle- land of the human race, along the banks of the Jordan, to the sunny islets of the Mediterranean; over the European continent, and within the forest jungles of America. * In France, the Cromlech, consisting of four stones, is called a Dolmen; three stones, a Trilith; and two stones, a Semi-Molmen. 38 THE STONE PEBIOD. The cromlech, like the stone circle, was long regarded by popular superstition as a relic of Druidism, and many of the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, to the present day, believe that human sacrifices were offered by the Druid priest on its huge capstone, whilst the reeking blood of the victims flowed down into the little recess beneath. Modern investigation, however, has satisfactorily proved the sepulchral origin and design of these elaborate structures. They are occasionally found buried beneath the barrow and cairn, or enclosed within the stone circle ; and from the little chamber of the trilith or dolmen, the crumbling bones of the brave hunter or warrior chief have been disentombed. In 1825, a large cromlech, consisting of four stones, was exposed in removing a cairn on the neighbouring coast of Kintyre, and within the recess human bones were found, mingled with those of the horse and the cow.* A little to the south of Druim-cruey, in Arran, there lately existed an interesting cromlech, enclosed within a stone circle. It consisted of a large flat block of red sandstone, supported by three lesser ones, and is described by Martin as an altar-piece, upon which the ancient inhabitants of the island were wont to burn their sacrifices in times of heathenism.-}- Headrick refers to a remarkable specimen of the trilith, or cromlech of three stones. The copestone, of vast dimensions, is represented as resting on two smaller ledges, deeply sunk in the earth.:}: * Wilson's Archaeology, p. 67. t Martin's Western Islands, p. 220. % Headrick's Arran, p. 46. CEOMLECHS. 39 It has been asserted that the erection of this class of monu- ments was confined exclusively to a period prior to the intro- duction of the funeral pile; but an examination of the cromlechs of Arran has clearly evinced their association with the rites of cremation. One of the most perfect triliths we have anywhere seen, stands on the farm of Drumidoon, a little to the north of Blackwaterfoot. It consists of a huge block of red sandstone, resting upon two smaller ledges, and enclosing an area or chamber of two feet square, neatly trenched with small, thin flag-stones. This chamber was dug into some years ago, and a rude, flower-pot-shaped urn of unbaked clay discovered, containing incinerated bones. The urn and its contents crumbled into dust on being exposed to the atmosphere. Tradition relates that the daughter of Ossian was buried here.* The magnitude of this class of monuments, and the vast labour necessary for their construction, have excited the astonishment of every age, and invested them with the prestige of a supernatural origin. The huge cromlechs of Brittany, extending over an area of about eight miles, are the "Herculean work of Cyclops." In France they are known as "Faeries' Tables/' and the little chambers beneath as "Faeries' Grottos." In Scandinavia they were regarded as the abodes of the gods, and, long after the introduction of Christianity, received divine honours. It is still a popular belief in some parts of Anjou, that these vast amorphous blocks were torn from their native crags by the faeries, who carried them down * New Statistical Account. 40 THE STONE PERIOD. in their aprons, and reared them in circles and cromlechs over the grassy plains of the lowlands. A similar tradition accounts for an interesting trilith on Craigmadden Moor, Stirlingshire, the stones of which are of many tons' weight. " A narrow, triangular space remains open between the three stones, and through this every stranger is required to pass on first visiting the spot, if, according to the rustic creed, he would escape the calamity of dying childless."* But the faerie mythology which surrounds the cromlechs of Arran is not less marvellous than that which floats about the dolmens &nd tnliths of Anjou and Craigmadden Moor: Once upon a time a bevy of faeries met on the summit of Durra-na-each, near Shiskin, and proceeded to amuse them- selves by throwing down pebbles amongst the trees of the Mauchrie forest. The "rules of the game" required that the stones should be thrown from between the finger and the thumb. Many centuries have passed since then, and the giant oaks of the Mauchrie have crumbled into dust, but over the moor may still be seen the pebbles of the faeries in the gray monoliths and stone circles which lie buried in the moss and heath. The primitive design of the cromlech has been preserved, by successive generations, from the earliest dawn of archaeo- logical history till the present time. In the rude cells or * Wilson's Archaeology, p. 66. The fair maids of Columbiers, in France, are still accustomed to climb upon the cromlech and leave a piece of money on its copestone, believing that the offering will pro- vide them with husbands ere the year closes. WrigJifs Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 63. CROMLECHS. 41 vaults of the chambered cairn ; in the cistvcens or stone chests which have been disentombed from the British tumuli; and in the stone coffins and horizontal grave slabs, with their tiny supporting columns, of our country church-yards, we may trace the same peculiar constructive formation, conceived and designed by the old cromlech builders some thousands of years ago. CHAPTER IV. or " Those lonely columns stand sublime, Flinging their shadows from on high, Like dials which the wizard, Time, Had raised to count his ages by." MOORE. THE erection of stone columns, to distinguish the grave of the hero chief; to mark the boundaries of lands; and to com- memorate some civil compact, clanish feud, or foreign inva- sion ; were customs common to all primitive nations. These monuments are found in almost every glen and forest glade and mossy waste of the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles, but perhaps in no islet of the Hebrides are they so fre- quently to be met with as in the little Island of Arran. The origin and design of their erection are now buried in the secrets of the past. No rude inscription or hieroglyphic symbol has been traced beneath the encrusting lichen and moss; and no time-honoured record exists, to tell the story of their builders. Tradition has poured a flood of Fiugalian romance over the gray monoliths of Arran, and many a heart-stirring legend is told of the heroes who fought and died on the Mauchrie Moor, and who are now believed to lie buried beneath the tall columns which were raised in honour of their prowess. Stone, Mauchrie Moor. SINGLE MONOLITHS OK STANDING STONES. 43 There are frequent references, both in sacred and profane history, to the ancient custom of raising the monolith over the grave of the honoured dead. Beneath a pillar, Jacob buried his beloved Eachel; and Olaus Magnus informs us, that it was one of Woden's laws to raise the "bauta stein" over the graves of distinguished heroes. Stone coffins and cinerary urns have been occasionally dug up from beside the Arran monoliths, and the frequent associa- tion of many of these monuments, with the grave mounds of the early Islanders, indicates the sepulchral design of their erection. In the neighbourhood of the standing stones at Tormore, near Shiskin, stone coffins and urns have been found whilst removing the peat from the moor. Towards the south side of Kilmichael river, there lately existed, if it does not still exist, a standing stone about fifteen feet high, and near its base was discovered a stone chest filled with human bones.* The aged Ossian, wandering over the deserted wilds of Argyll, exclaims " Thou seest on every hill the tombs Of those who helped the unhappy. Thou seest their stones have sunk Amidst the rank rustling grass of the vale. The heroes have made their bed in dust; And silence, like mist, is spread in Morven." f Many of the monoliths of Arran are no doubt the relics of comparatively modern times. A few centuries ago, the lands of the Island were divided amongst several petty chiefs or barons, and standing stones were raised as landmarks to define the boundaries of their possessions, and prevent the * Martin's Western Islands. t Ossiau's Poems. 44 THE STONE PERIOD. encroachments of neighbouring chiefs. The traditional rever- ence with which the landmarks were regarded, entrenched as they are by the sacred commands of Scripture,* has preserved many of them from the desecration of modern utilitarians, and within the dells and over the heathery moors, these rude parchments of the Island chiefs may still be seen, mutely eloquent of the old feudal times. By the roadside between Brodick and Lamlash, there stand three massive blocks of red sandstone, which are said to mark the spot where the lands of three of the old proprietors of Arran met.-}- They had a curious custom for preserving the remembrance of these landmarks, and which appears to have been common to the Western Islanders : " They lay a quantity of the ashes of burnt wood in the ground, and put big stones above the sand ; and for conveying the knowledge of this to posterity, they carry some boys from both villages next the boundary, and there whip them soundly, which they will be sure to remem- ber and tell to their children.":}: The termini of the Romans are synonomous with the grandes lapides of our old chartularies. In the encounter between the gods, the poet represents Pallas as having " With strong grasp upheaved A rugged stone, black, pond'rous from the plain, A landmark, fix'd by men of ancient times, Which hurling at the neck of stormy Mars, She smote him." * " Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set." Prov. xxii. 28. f Local tradition. % Martin's Western Isles, page 114. Homer's Iliad Cowper's Translation, page 391. SINGLE MONOLITHS OR STANDING STONES. 45 The "Pictish Chronicle" describes the boundaries of the territories ceded to the Culdees by the Pictish King, as having extended " a lapide in Apurfeirt usque ad lapidem juxta Cairftul." " In King Malcolme's times/' says an old Scotch chronicle,* "was the red crosse erected, with the King of England's image on the one side, and the King of Scotland's on the other. This stone crosse was a march or mark between the two realms, standing in the middle of Stan-moore." And the celebrated stone on the field of Bannockburn "Whose granite hand, Held up the exulting banner of the Bruce, Which all the proud day laughed with glorious scorn Upon the baffled foes," is supposed to have defined the western boundary of the ancient chase, when the Scottish kings of old hunted the deer through the forests of the Highland borders. "f* The remem- brance of the march stones, which used to surround the borough towns of Scotland, still lingers among us; as also, the good old custom of riding round the boundaries in civic pomp. The standing stone was also associated in ancient times with the consecration of the newly-elected king or chief; and the covenant or engagement, made beside the rude monolith, was invested with the sacredness of the most solemn oath. Josiah made a covenant with God, and Abimelech and Adonijah were raised to the kingly office, "standing by a pillar as the * Published in 1612. f Wilson's Archaeology, page 92. 46 THE STONE PERIOD. manner was/'* These pillars were designated Kong-stolen by the Danes ; and amongst the northern nations were used till the end of the fourteenth century, in connection with the coronation rites of their kings and princes. -f- In the Scottish Highlands they are known as taniste* stones, the most remark- able example of which is the celebrated Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, which forms part of the coronation chair at West- minster Abbey. The ancient Scottish chroniclers, identify the Lia Fail with the stone which the patriarch Jacob used as a pillow on the field of Luz. It is said to have been brought over to Ireland in the days of Romulus; and for many ages the Irish kings were crowned upon it. From Ireland it was removed to lona ; thence to Scone ; and thence to Westminster Abbey by Edward I., where it now remains ; but the old bardic saw still holds good : " Except old seers do feign, And wizard wits be blind, The Scots in place must reign Where they this stone shall find."|| The Lords of the Isles had their taniste stone in Islay. It is described by Martin as " a big stone of seven feet square, in which there was a deep impression to receive the feet of M 'Donald." Standing upon this stone, the newly elected chief * 2 Kings xxiii. 3. Joshua xxiv. 26. 1 Kings i. 9. t Ericus was made King of Sweden in 1396, standing upon the Kong-stolen. J Tanaiste Gael a thane, or lord. Wilson's Archaeology, pages 97, 98. || Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum, invenient lapidem regnare tetentur ibidem. SINGLE MONOLITHS OR STANDING STONES. 47 is consecrated by the Bishop of Argyll, and received the allegiance of his vassals. The memorial standing stones appear, too, to have been designed and recognised as the popular records of important historical events, in olden times. A stone column was raised on the field near Kenfrew, where Somerled, " the mighty of the Isles," was slain; and a number of standing stones com- memorate the defeat of Macbeth near Dunsinane.* These monuments are known in the Highlands and Isles as cat- stanes, from the British cad, or the Scoto-Irish cath, a battle. At Maryreach, in Arran, there is said to have existed a stone column, which, tradition relates, was raised in remembrance of a treaty, entered into between the Islanders and the Norse- men in the days of Fion-gal.-f- At Kingscross, on a hillock near the shore, there is a monolith which marks the spot from which King Robert the Bruce embarked for the Carrick coast ; and in a neighbouring field, there is an unhewn block of sandstone, believed to be the sole relic of the rude cot in which the king resided, on the eve of his departure from the Island. Ossian beautifully and touchingly describes the feelings of veneration with which the memorial stones were regarded in early times. After the conflict between the forces of Cuthon and Fion-gal, a peace was declared between the chiefs, and the aged Lugar seizes the opportunity of addressing the two armies, as they are about to retire in friendship from the field: * Chalmers 1 Caledonia. Vol. I., pages 409, 410. t Local tradition. 48 THE STONE PEKIOD. " Why," he said, "should they who go together to the feast, meet in battle any more? Raise this gray stone, the daughter of the rock, on the heath of Moruth. The children of the years to come shall mark it. They will ask the aged warrior what it means. ' Lead me,' he will say, 'to the place.' With short, equal steps they walk beside him. The blunt spear supports his hand, and his gray dog, blind with years, attends his steps. He hath reached the place ; he hath felt with joy the stone. ' It is,' he cries, 'the stone of Moruth.' ' Here,' leaning to it his weary back, he adds, 'here your fathers met in peace ; they laid their hands together to rear this gray stone. Forget not, children, the peace of your fathers ; remember it when you behold the stone of Moruth ! ' Speak, O stone ! to the years that wander beyond the sun ; .... tell them, and the children who shall behold them, that here we bade the battle cease. Let the moss of years cover thee, thou sign of peace on Moruth ; let the ghosts of the dead defend thee ; let no unfriendly hand, no stormy blast, come nigh thee."* The standing stones are more numerous in Arran along the shores, where the ocean waves break in ceaseless surge against the pebbly beach or the rocky cliff. Their sides are scarred and seamed by the rains and snows of untold centuries ; but the fingers of Time have filled in the lines and wrinkles of age, with hoary moss and emerald lichen ; and now they " Look like Druids of Old with voices sad And prophetic, Stand like hoar with Beards that rest on Their bosoms, "f * Smith's Translations of " Cuthon." + Longfellow's Hiawatha. llm *k Mi CHAPTER Y Stout Ci " The hoary rocks of giant size, That o'er the land in circles rise, Of which tradition may not tell Fit circles for the wizard's spell ; Seen far amidst the scowling storm, Seem each a tall and phantom form, As hurrying vapours o'er them flee, Frowning in grim security, While, like a dread voice from the past, Around them moans the autumnal blast." MALCOLM. THE stone circle has been found in almost every country where traces of the barrow or the cairn have been discovered. Numerous hypotheses have been advanced to account for the origin and design of these mysterious monuments. The devotees of Druidism and Odinism have expended much use- less learning in support of their respective theories, but they have either ignored or disregarded the only source of informa- tion from which, in the absence of historical evidence, trust- worthy data could be derived ; and not until comparatively recent times were investigations made, beneath or around the monuments themselves, with the view of ascertaining the antiquity or design of their construction. The old Druid theosophy, still lingers among us. The stone circle is popularly regarded as the Druidic temple, and 50 THE STONE PERIOD. the cromlech as the altar, whereon the Druidic priest offered human sacrifices, under cover of the sacred grove though indisputable evidence exists to justify the conclusion, that many of the rude columnar circles and cromlech altars owe their origin to the time when the primitive Allophylian, armed with his rude weapons of stone or flint, was struggling with the fierce carnivora of the Caledonian forests. An interesting group of stone circles may be seen in the Mauchrie Moor, near the farm of Tormore, in Arran. Tradi- tion relates that Fion-gal and his heroes were hunting the boar in the woods of the neighbouring glens, when a fleet of Norse galleys was seen approaching the shore. Scarcely had the marauders succeeded in effecting a landing in the Mauchrie Bay, when they were attacked by Fion-gal and his followers, and driven back to their ships. A few of the Vikings whose retreat had been cut off were chased over the Island, over- taken and slain near the old fort of Dunfiun Fion-gal's fort. The Fingalian heroes who fell in the conflict were buried in the moor where they fought and died, and the huge stone columns, now half-concealed amid the tall heath, were raised in circles around their graves to the mournful song of the bards.* The Mauchrie group consists of eight circles, all more or less complete, running irregularly from east to west; each circle comprising four to fourteen columns of rude unhewn sandstone, measuring three to eighteen feet in height, with an average circumference of eight feet. The diameters of the enclosed areas range from fifteen to thirty feet. * Local tradition. STONE CIECLES. 51 On entering the moor from the Shiskin road, we wander, in a north-westerly direction, through deep tufts of heath, tiny tarns, and peat-bogs, and in a few minutes arrive at the first of these circles. It consists of eight granite columns, three to four feet in height, with an areal diameter of twenty- seven feet. The second circle is incomplete. It consists of three huge columns of red sandstone the largest eighteen feet in height, and two smaller stones, deeply sunk in the moss ; diameter of area, thirty feet. The third consists of six stones, forming three-fourths of a circle; areal diameter, thirty feet. The fourth measures fifteen feet across; and consists of six stones, averaging three feet in height. The fifth is an interesting specimen of a concentric circle. The inner circle consists of eight stones three to four feet in height; the outer of fourteen stones of similar dimensions. Diameter of area, twenty-seven feet. This monument is known as Suidhe-choir-Fhionn, or, Fion-gal's Cauldron Seat. The sixth consists of an erect column about twelve feet in height, with others just visible above the moss. The seventh consists of two erect stones, four to six feet in height; the others are deeply imbedded in the moss. The eighth is an imperfect circle, about twenty-nine feet in diameter. The stones are scattered and partially removed. A careful examination of these and of similar monuments in Arran, has convinced us of the sepulchral origin and design of their construction. On removing the moss and heath which clad the area of the concentric circle above noticed, large 52 THE STONE PERIOD. stones and boulders were exposed, which we succeeded in removing to the depth of three to four feet, but without arriving at the original soil. Farther investigation convinced us that these stones had been placed there, at some remote antiquity, not beneath, but over the surface soil, and that during many centuries, the forests which covered the moor* had grown up and decayed around them, until the tiny cairn became entombed beneath the peat and the moss, and the tops of the tall columns alone appeared above the surface, to distinguish the grave of the ancient warrior chief.-f- Human bones, urns, and stone chests are occasionally dug up in the neighbourhood of these circles ; and the same indi- cations of a sepulchral origin have been traced in connection with many of the encircled monuments of the Highlands of Scotland. Excavations were recently made in several small stone circles near the hills of Tuack in Aberdeenshire. In the centre of one of them, a cairn was discovered, from which a skull and bones were disinterred; and near the base of one of the columns, a hammer or axe-head of stone was found, placed over a heap of burnt bones. Urns filled with incine- * The roots and trunks of oak trees are still found imbedded in the moss. f Whilst the preceding pages were passing through the press, excava- tions were being made within the Torraore circles, by order and at the expense of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton. The result has fully confirmed the opinion we have above expressed respecting the sepulchral design of these monuments. A stone coffin containing a skull, and two rude cinerary urns containing calcined bones, were discovered ; and beside the remains of the distinguished native chiefs, were a few tiny arrow-heads, the frail weapons of the chase or the battle-field. STONE CIECLES. 53 rated ashes, and fragments of bronze, were dug up from the base of two of the stones of an adjoining circle. Whilst these discoveries tend to establish the sepulchral origin of the stone circle, they likewise prove the contem- poriety of this class of monuments with the two earliest periods of the archaeological annals; when the Allophylian and Celtic races were slowly emerging from their gross ignor- ance and barbarism, into a knowledge of the metallurgic arts, and the weapons of bronze were gradually superseding the hatchet, the spear, and the arrow-head of stone and flint. It is by no means improbable that the peculiar construc- tion of these monuments, in its adaptation to a sepulchral design, originated in the custom which existed amongst many early nations, of raising around the grave of the buried chief, as many stones as he had slain of the foe in the field of battle.* According to Boece, King Reutha who is said to have lived about two centuries before the Christian era " was the first king amaug the Scottis, that fand imagine, to put nobill men for their vailyeant dedes in memory, and maid rich sepulturis for the bodyis of thaim that war slaine be Britonis, in defence of this realme. He commandit also monie hie stanis to be set about the sepulture of every nobill man as was skin be him of Britonis. In memory heirof, sindry of thaim remanis yet in the hielands, that the pepill may knaw sic men were vailyeant in thair dayis ; throw quhilk, it came in use that the sepulturis of nobill men, was holdin in great reverence amang the people, "-f- * Wormii Monum. Dan. Pages 62, 63. t Croniklis of Scotland. The Secund Bake, cap. x. 54> THE STONE PERIOD. Ossian, too, indicates the custom of surrounding the buried hero with the memorial stones of his slaughtered foes, when he gives expression to the last wish of the dying Foldath : " Raise the tombs of those I have slain around my narrow house; often shall I forsake the blast to rejoice over their graves, when I behold them spread around with the long whistling grass."* Much of the uncertainty and obscurity which surround the origin of the stone circles may have been occasioned by the error into which many writers have fallen, of mistaking the purposes to which such monuments were applied in suc- ceeding ages, for the original design of their construction. When Time had invested it with the sacredness of antiquity, the stone circle was chosen, in many countries, as the council hall, or assembly chamber, where the sages and chiefs held their meetings, enacted laws, and dispensed justice, during the early historic ages. The shield forged by Vulcan for Achilles, bore amongst other devices, the representation of the "elders" sitting within the stone circle, and awarding justice to the plebeian throng " On rough hewn stones, within the sacred cirque Convok'd, the hoary sages sat."f And within the revered circle, by the side of the heathery hill, or in some bosky dell where the mountain stream mur- mured its music beneath the drooping foliage of the brush- wood the Highland or Island chieftain, surrounded by armed retainers, held his law court in the old feudal times. * Ossian's Poems, t Homer's Iliad. Cowper's Translation, page 318. STONE CIRCLES. 55 The stone circle was the justice-hall of the Orkney and Shetland Islanders until a very recent period, and it is still known in some districts by the name of the "Law-Ting." The chartulary of Moray contains the record of a regality court held by Alexander Stewart, Lord of Badenoch, son of Robert II., at the standing stones of Raitts, now Bellville, "apud le standand stanes de la Rath de Kingusy ;" and when the Bishop of Moray attended the court to protest against certain infringements of the rights of the Church, he stood "extra rircum." The comparatively tiny sepulchral stone circles of the Highlands and Isles may have furnished the plan to later monolith builders for the construction of the vast monolithic monuments of Avebury, Stonehenge, and Stennis, the origin of which still remains a subject for the theories of the anti- quary. In one of the stones of Fion-gal's cauldron seat Suidhe choir Fhionn there is a remarkable perforation, which was probably associated with some old superstition or religious ceremony, now forgotten. The hole is sufficiently large to admit the two fingers, and runs perpendicularly through the side of the column. Tradition relates that to this stone Fion-gal was wont to tie his favourite dog Bran.* The perforated columns are now of very rare occurrence in the British Isles, but it is probable that many of them have * " Before the leash was prepared for him, Bran, though but a whelp, Killed a deer more than each of the rest." Oman's Poems. 56 THE STONE PERIOD. been demolished on account of the heathen practices with which, even in comparatively modern times, they were con- nected, and to which frequent reference is made in the old Anglo-Saxon laws.* The Orcadian stone of Odin, situated near the Stennis circle, is a notable example of the perforated monolith. Lovers were wont to plight their troth standing beside it, by joining hands through the circular hole, and making the promise of Odin;^ but even this old custom may be the relic of some older and grosser superstition, drifted down by tradition from the wreck of pagan mytho- lo gy- We have never witnessed a wilder and more grandly solemn scene than these old circles on the Mauchrie Moor, looming in the shadowy indistinctness of an autumn moonlight. The silence and solitude were unbroken, save by the whir of the startled moor-fowl among the tall heath, and the mournful dirge of the waves on the neighbouring beach. Scattered around were the rifled cairns and gray monoliths swathed in the evening mists, which crept along the hills and over the moorland waste. The shimmering moonbeams glistened like spectral lights on the tiny tarns, and flashed a silvery track across the dark channel of Kilbrannan. As we wandered amongst the old ruins, the weirdly stirring legends of the past haunted our mind, till the wreaths of mist seemed to float about like shadowy phantoms, and the circling mono- liths and hoary cromlech appeared to rise from the heath, * Mr Wilford, in his "Asiatic Researches," takes notice of the exis- tence of perforated stones in some parts of India, t Wilson's Archaeology, p. 100. STONE CIRCLES. 57 like ghosts of the heroes of old, bending around the grave of their buried chief. Many of the stone circles of Arran have been removed to make way for the advance of agriculture. A concentric circle on the farm of South Sannox was demolished a few years ago for the building of a dike ; and a very complete single circle, which stood near the mouth of Glen Shirrag, was cleared away in preparing the field for the operations of the plough. But many of these monuments are still found in the Island, nestling amid the heath and brushwood of the glens, or rising from the grassy knolls around the coast. There is an interesting gray circle, surmounting a green mound, at Moniquil; and others may be seen at Mayish, Blaremore, Largiemore, Largiebeg, and other places. CHAPTER VI. $lrns anir Jltoitc- (Kjjcsts. "A little urn a little dust inside,' Which once out-balanced the large earth, albeit, To-day a four-years' child might carry it!" E. B. BARRETT. BESIDES the monuments which we have already described, and which appear to have been reserved for the great and the illustrious dead, cistvcens and cinerary urns are yearly dug up from the moors and the hills of Arran, undistin- guished by super-incumbent cairn or barrow. In a field near Largiebeg, there existed a large collection of stone-chests, some buried a little below, and others partially appearing above the surface soil This was probably a common bury- ing-place of the early Islanders, or of some petty tribe, whose wicker huts clustered around the Whiting Bay. All traces of these old graves are now removed the ploughshare of some daring Vandal passed over the field; and we were told that the upturned bones lay for many months scattered around ; over which the ghosts of the desecrated dead wan- dered by night amid fitful gleams of lurid light ! The cists or stone-chests of Arran are of the simplest and rudest description. They consist generally of six unhewn slabs about six feet in length and two feet in breadth. They occasionally enclose the cinerary urn, but more frequently the URNS AND STONE-CHESTS. -59 calcined bones of the dead. On the farm of Blaremore, there was dug up some years ago a cist about four feet in length, containing a skeleton placed in a crouching position, as if in readiness to start up on the first summons of the war-cry. Arrow and spear-heads of stone and flint are frequently found beside the rude tenement of the buried chief, as if to supply his wants in the chase, when he rises to the aerial halls of his fathers. It is probable that simple inhumation was the most ancient mode of interment, but the antiquity of the funeral pyre among primitive nations is proved from the association of calcined remains with the earliest sepulchral monuments of the archaeological stone period. The causes which led to the origin and prevalence of the cinerary rites, may have been the desire to preserve the bodies of the deceased from the desecration of enemies, and from the mutilating attacks of the wild beasts which prowled amid the primeval forests of the old world. 'The body of Cornelius Sylla was burned by his friends to save it from the malice of his foes; and the body of Saul was reduced to ashes apparently from the same reason. The adoption of urn-burial in the British Isles appears immediately to have followed the introduction of the funeral pyre, though it by no means superseded the more ancient mode of disposing of the dead by simple interment ; and the frequent association of the urn and cistvcen beneath the same cairn, proves the contemporiety of cremation with simple inhumation, and the equal respect with which these customs were regarded by the early Britons. Amongst the Greeks 60 THE STONE PERIOD. and Bomans, urn-burial for a time prevailed, with all the costly extravagance which characterised- their sepulchral tumuli and sculptured pillars. Their urns were of copper, gold, or porphyry, according to the rank of the deceased. Frequently large family urns were used, which received a part of the ashes of every deceased member, whilst smaller ones contained the collateral remains. The ashes of Domi- tian were mingled with those of Julia, and of Achilles with those of Patroclus. The practice of cremation obtained throughout the coun- tries of Northern Europe for several centuries after the Christian era. There are records of its existence among the Scandinavians till the latter part of the ninth century ; and during the thirteenth century, the Prussians are known to have burned their dead on the funeral pyre. We have reason to believe that the cinerary rites prevailed in North Britain until the diffusion of Christianity, when they were aban- doned for simple inhumation within the precincts of the Christian church. In the days of Ninucius, the Christians were denounced for their repression of cremation: " Ese- crantur rogos et damnant ignium sepulturam."* The earliest sepulchral monuments of Arran the cairn, the cromlech, and the monolith are associated with the cinerary urn; and it is probable that the custom of burning the body prevailed during the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Periods of the Island's history. A cist, containing a rude clay urn of the flower-pot shape, was dug up from the farm * On the relapse of the Esthonians to paganism in 1225, they disin- terred their dead, and burned them on the funeral pyre. UENS AtfD STONE-CHESTS. 61 of Arranton a few years ago; and, in the same neighbour- hood, a large stone jar, containing earth and cinerary ashes, was found, unaccompanied by the stone-chest. Similar relics of primitive art have been discovered beneath the moss in Glen Kill and other parts of the Island, besides those already noticed in connection with the cairns of Glen Cloy and Lar- giebeg. The rude, inornate type of these vessels assigns their origin to a period in the annals of Arran when the Islanders were yet unskilled in the knowledge of the manipulative arts. The ornate urns are probably the relics of a later period and a more advanced civilisation. They are generally asso- ciated with metallurgic remains, and possess, in the design of their ornamentation, a striking resemblance to the coarse knitted fabrics occasionally exhumed from the British tumuli. Whilst some workmen were engaged, about three years ago, in digging the foundation for the new village of Glen Cloy, a stone-chest and an urn of sun-baked clay, containing dust and calcined human bones, were exposed, about two feet from the surface soil. The latter was about eighteen inches in height, and exhibited some degree of artistic skill in its orna- mentation. Markings of the herring-bone pattern extended down the neck; whilst the centre of the vessel, which bulged out considerably, was surrounded at regular intervals by small raised knobs.* An urn of similar type was found a few years ago beneath the moss of the Mauchrie Moor. In shape, it bulged out abruptly beneath the neck, tapering gradually towards the bottom, and was adorned round the centre by an alternation of horizontal and herring-bone markings. * Letter by Dr Jamieson in Glasgow Herald. CHAPTER VII. " Behold yon huge And unhewn sphere of living adamant, Which, poised by inagic, rests its central weight On yonder pointed rock ; firm as it seems, Such is its strange and virtuous property, It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch Of him whose heart is pure ; but to a traitor, Though even a giant's prowess moved his arm, It stands as firm as Snowdon." MASON. THE rudely primitive construction of the early pre-historic monuments, has led the over-zealous advocates of geology to class many of them amongst the freaks or accidents of natural causation. The sepulchral cairn is occasionally mistaken for the morain drifted by floating icebergs from the North, and deposited within the glens and along the straths of our Island. The unhewn columns and cromlechs, we are told, have been riven from their native crags by some convulsive throe of Nature, and now lie imbedded amidst the heath of the moor- lands, to puzzle the antiquarian and excite the superstition of the credulous ; and so also the rocking stone has been classed amongst the marvellous ingenuities of natural phenomena. But the superstitious veneration with which the logan ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS EELICS. 63 stones have been regarded in every age, and in every country where they exist; their frequent association and occasional connection with the sepulchral cairns and monoliths;* and the unmistakeable existence of artificial construction which they exhibit, appear to us to furnish abundant evidence that these ponderous and ingeniously contrived monuments are the works of human design and labour. An interesting specimen of the rocking stone may be seen near the shore at South Sannox, Arran. It consists of a rounded mass of granite resting upon a narrow ledge of pud- ding stone. Mr Headrick, who was less of an antiquarian than a geologist, thus refers to it: "It is hardly credible that this stone could have rolled into its present position by accident. Its resting on a pivot, and having its edge propped by a small block of granite, seems to indicate that it was placed there by design. It very much resembles the rocking stones of Glen Nevis and other parts of the North High- lands." The most convincing proof of the artificial construction of these monuments rests in their intimate association with the cairns, the cromlechs, and the stone circles a connection strongly suggestive of their sepulchral design. Mr Akerman mentions that the famous Agglestone Barrow, in the Island of Purbeck, was surmounted by a rocking stone. And Appollonius Rhodius adds his testimony not only to the human contrivance of one of these monuments, but to its * The logan stones of Perthshire are reared amongst the sepulchral monuments of the early Britons. See Statistical Account, Wilson's Archaeology, Borlase's Cornwall, etc. 64 THE STONE PERIOD. design in increasing the distinction and celebrity of the sepulchral tumulus: " In Tenos, by the blue waves compass'd round High o'er the slain he heaped a funeral mound ; Then rear'd two stones, to mark that sacred ground, One pois'd so light, that as the mariner sees With wondering gaze it stirs at every breeze. 1 ' The rocking stone has been found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the continent of Europe, and in several countries of the East. Pliny informs us that, at Harpasa, a town of Asia, there was "a rock of a wonderful nature; lay one finger to it and it will stir, but thrust at it with your whole body and it will not move." Ptolemy Hephestion also refers to the Gygonian Stone, near the ocean, which "may be moved by the stalk of an asphodel, but cannot be moved by any force." Among the Phoenicians they were known as Baetyli, or animated stones, and held sacred by them. After the introduction of Christianity the rocking stones were designated the Clacha-brath, or stones of judgment; and it was believed that, so soon as these ponderous masses should wear through the pivots upon which they rested, the world would come to an end. For some years they were kept in constant motion by those who, like good Dr Gumming, were impatient for the consummation of terrestrial things ; but the judgment stones have now grown rusty on their pivots, and many of them have been overturned by time-serving world- lings, who had little sympathy with the anxious zeal of their millenarian brethren. The magnitude of the primitive amorphous monuments of ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS RELICS. 65 the stone period, and the vast labour which the early Britons must have employed in their construction, have contributed to deepen the feelings of veneration with which the mystery of their origin has, in every age, invested them. The reve- rend statist of Kilmorie, in describing the stone circles of Mauchrie Moor, remarks: "They consist of primitive red sandstone and millstone grit, a species of rock that is not to be found, in situ, near the spot. They must, therefore, have been carried from a considerable distance, up a long but gentle ascent, to their present position. The conveyance of such immense blocks from such a distance, and by such a way, would require more skill in mechanics than is possessed by the present inhabitants of the parish."* The universality of the monolithic monuments appears to evince the existence of a common sentiment of the human mind in its primeval barbarism. The rude Allophylian, whether amidst the old forests of the European Continent, or within the sea-girt islets of the Hebrides, must have often- times gazed with feelings of mingled fear and veneration on the sublime grandeur of Nature's works. The dense, dark forests the lofty mountains, with their serrated peaks the storm, with the lightning's flash and the surging sea, break- ing in foam against the rocky coasts filled his mind with an overwhelming sense of the existence of certain mysterious powers or divinities which governed the universe and over- looked the actions of man. Hence the Pantheistic, Polythe- istic, and Mythological systems, which, in one phase or other, * New Statistical Account. I 66 THE STONE PERIOD. have formed the creed of all early nations. The weapons of stone and flint, and other relics, found in the grave mounds of the early Allophylian and Celtic races, prove their recog- nition of, and belief in, a future existence ; and in the daring deeds and bravery of their lives, and the huge monuments raised over their graves, we may discover the expression of their homage and devotion to those sublime agencies of creative power, by which their minds were impressed and moulded. The honour and reverence with which the monoliths and cairns were invested by their builders, were increased in after times by the mystic and shadowy remoteness of their anti- quity, and the feelings which may have led to their erection were revived and expressed in the superstitious stone worship which prevailed in the East, and over the countries of the European Continent, centuries after the Christian era. Till the eleventh century, the laws of the Anglo-Saxons continued to denounce and prohibit the worship of stones and rocks.* The Scandinavians believed that a fairy or demon, whom they were bound to propitiate, resided within the Bauta-stein; and, during the last century, the inhabitants of the Western Isles were wont to walk round the cairns and stone circles from east to west,-f- as a mark of silent devotion. In the parish of Dunlop there is a large stone, known as " Thugirt Stone" thou great stone which was worshipped on bended knee by the devotees of popery; and a few years ago the * Pelgrave's Rise and Progress of the Celtic Commonwealth, t Called Deas-iul, or way of the South. ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS KELICS. 67 monoliths of Ireland were the objects of the most grovelling idolatry. The superstitions of the Arran people are deeply imbued with the legends of fairy mythology. The perforated column of "Fion-gaFs Cauldron Seat/' on the Mauchrie Moor, was believed to contain a fairy or brownie, who could only be propitiated by the pouring of milk through the hole bored in the side of the stone. The wife of Bath gossipp'd of the "old days of King Artour," when "all was this lond fulfilled of faerie," and adds " I speke of many hundred yeres ago, But now can no man see none elves mo.' In Arran, however, the belief in fairies still lingers in the minds of the older inhabitants, and many curious stories are told of the pilfering habits and cunning tricks of the wee- folks, who held their midnight meetings within the stone circles and old forts of the Island. Many of the minor relics of the stone period have been found beneath the moss and heath of the Arran glens and hills, but few of them have been deemed worthy of preserva- tion. Arrow-heads of stone and flint are frequently picked up by the natives whilst digging peat in the moors. These instruments are generally about one to two inches in length, chipped or polished, and cut into the form of the primitive heart-shaped type; but more frequently they are tanged between the barbs, for fastening into the cleft shaft. They 68 THE STONE PERIOD. are called elf-shots by the Isknders, and are supposed to have been used by the fairies long ago.* A beautifully polished spear-head, of fine granite, was found some years ago in the peat of the Monie-mhor Glen, also a stone hammer, about seven inches in length, pointed at the ends, and grooved in the centre to receive the handle. The stone hammers found in the grave mounds of the British Isles are of various forms and sizes, and must have cost the native artists much labour to chip and fashion into the re- quired shape with the frail implements at their command. "As we find the little flint arrow-head associated with Scottish folk-lore as the elfin' 's-bolt, so the stone hammer of the same period was adapted to the creed of the Middle Ages. The name by which it was popularly known in Scotland, almost to the close of the last century, was that of the Purgatory Hammer. Found, as it frequently was, within the cist, and beside the mouldering bones of its old pagan possessor, the simple discoverer could devise no likelier use for it, than that it was laid there for its owner to bear with him 'up the trinal steps/ and with it thunder at the gates of purgatory, till the heavenly janitor appeared, that he might "'ask, With humble heart, that he unbar the bolt.' "f Beneath the cairns and barrows of the British Isles, and of the North of Europe, there is occasionally discovered a small spheroid ball of polished stone, resembling the stone cannon- * Wilson's Archaeology, p. 135. t The arrow-head is known by the name of Tordenkikr, or Thunder - stone, by the Norwegian peasantry. ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS EELICS. 69 ball used in Scotland prior to the seventeenth century. It is difficult to conjecture the use to which these stones may have been applied by the early European races ; but their associa- tion with the arrow-heads and celts of the same material, favours the opinion that they were employed as projectile weapons in the chase or battle-field. A highly-polished ball of red granite was found in a cist dug from a field on the estate of Cochno, Dumbartonshire ; and another of flint was disentombed from a cairn on the moor of Glenquicken, Kirk- cudbrightshire. An interesting specimen of the stone ball is noticed by Martin, in his account of Arran. It is described by him as a beautifully-polished jasper stone, " about the size of a goose egg/' and was known- in the Island by the name of " Baul Muluy" the stone globe of Saint Molingus. The natives used it for the cure of diseases, and to swear the most solemn oaths by; and even during the present generation it has been consulted by the credulous Islanders. "Its virtue," says Martin, " is to remove stitches from the sides of sick persons, by laying it close to the place affected. If the patient does not outlive the distemper, it moves out of bed of its own accord."* It is also said to have been carried about by the M'Donalds of the Isles, and when engaged in battle, its possessors invariably secured the victory over their enemies. The name "Baul Muluy" has connected it with Saint Molingus of the Holy Isle, who is said to have been chaplain to the M'Donalds.-J- But tradition is at fault here ; and Saint * Martin's Western Islands, pp. 225, 226. t Ibid, p. 226. 70 THE STONE PEEIOD. Muluy must have been the favourite Celtic Saiut, Molocus, whose Baculum More big staff was carried before the Bishops of Argyll in their religious ceremonies. The custody of the " Baul Muluy" was a hereditary privilege, which for generations was enjoyed by the Clan Chattan, or Macintosh family, who were ancient followers of the M'Donalds. This curious relic was lost a few years ago by a gentleman to whom it was entrusted, who partook too much of the scepticism of the present age to appreciate its value.* The belief in the healing efficacy of ancient stone missies appears to have been a common superstition in the Western Islands. The famous brooch of Lorn was adorned by a charm-fraught globe of crystal. The natives of Skye had their Lapis Hecticus, for the cure of diarrhoea; and in the Church of Saint Columba, in the little Plada Isle, there used to lie upon the altar a round blue stone, which was employed by the inhabitants in the cure of certain diseases, and prized by the fishermen as an unerring indicator of approaching storms.-f- In these superstitions we may probably trace a remnant of the old magical system which so long prevailed in the East, and which is believed to have formed a prominent element of the Druidic theosophy of the British Isles. The Chelonitides was efficacious in appeasing storms; and the Hematites, Erotylos, Cornu, and Ammonis, like the Lapis Hecticus of Skye, and the Baul Muluy of Arran, were celebrated for * Statistical Account. f Martin's Western Islands. ROCKING STONES AND MISCELLANEOUS EELICS. 71 their medicinal virtues.* Many of these gems and crystal balls have been found in the Grecian and Koman sepulchres.-f- The perforated pebbles of the British barrows, like the gems of the East, may have been used by the early Britons as charms or talismans. Such relics are still known in the Scottish Highlands by the name of Clach Bhuai, or the powerful stones, on account of the inherent virtues they are believed to possess. The monumental remains of the early inhabitants of Arran are now fast disappearing from the Island., and soon all trace of their existence shall have been swept away by the ravages of time and the encroachments of agriculture. We would fain catch a few gleams of light, whilst we may, from these time-honoured records of the Arran of olden times, and of the stirring scenes which were being enacted around its shorelands and within its bosky dells, ere Time had began to obliterate its landmarks and efface the footprints of its prim- eval colonists. With feelings of instinctive reverence we gaze back through the long vista of past ages, and recall the pulsings and throb- bings of human life which lie entombed beneath the mossy cairns and enlichened monoliths. Dark forests cover the face of the Island, except where, here and there, the lofty summit of some granite mountain rises bare and bleak. A few sub- terranean huts, covered with heath and branches, cluster around the shores and within the glens. Amidst the jungles of Glen Cloy, Soordale, and lorsa, the wolf, the brown bear, * Humana gemmis attribuit Fata. Pliny. f Twenty spheroid gems were found in a single urn at Rome. 72 THE STONE PERIOD. and the wild boar roam in search of prey. With their weapons of stone or flint, the rude Islanders pursue the deer within its native woods; or, in their fire-hollowed canoes, follow the whale as it gambols in Brodick Bay.* The scene changes : The sun has cast its setting rays over a bloody battle-field ; the Plain of Mauchrie is covered with the dead and the dying, the heath is stained with their blood. The victors gather their dead in silence; and within the sacred covert the funeral pyre is lit, and the ashes of the heroes are laid in their urns. And so, "fancy unto fancy linking," we wander amidst the old ruins of the primeval past; and, whilst revelling in the beauty and sublimity of Arran scenery, our impressions are hallowed and deepened by the reminiscences and traditions of olden times which float around us. * In the carse lands of the Forth, harpoons of deer-horn have been found beside the skeletons of whales, about twenty-five feet above the full tide of the river. Wilson's Archeology, p. 33. See an interesting account of the canoes of the Clyde in " Glasgow Past and Present," Vol. III., by John Buchanan, Esq. PAET II, PERIOD. CHAPTER I. DURING their wanderings amid the forest ranges of the Euro- pean Continent, the early Allophylian and Celtic races appear to have lost all knowledge of the arts and civilisation of their birth-land. The relics disentombed from the grave mounds left in their track are the records of a people sunk in the lowest depths of barbarism and superstition. For many centuries the rude primeval colonists of the British Isles followed the restless, nomade habits which their fathers had acquired in their westward wanderings. With their frail weapons of stone and flint, they fought for existence with the fierce denizens of the jungles and forests; and shadowed forth, in vast amorphous monuments, their vague convictions of an over-ruling and all-permeating Creative Power. But, as time rolled on, another band of daring pioneers K 74 THE METALLUEGIC PERIOD. emerged from the old cradle-land of the human race, carrying with them the fruits of Eastern civilisation. The ships of Tyre and Carthage, freighted with merchandise, crowded the Mediterranean. A few adventurous galleys, bent on greater enterprise, passed the Pillars of Hercules, sailed along the coasts of Europe, and landed upon our shores. The treasures of the East were spread out before the astonished gaze of the primitive Islanders, and the native wealth of Cornwall was eagerly pledged to purchase them. As intercourse and commerce increased, the stone hammer and the lance-head of flint were flung aside for the spear and the sword of bronze, and afterwards of iron. Step by step civilisation and population advanced, till the forest rang with the stroke of the hatchet, fields were cleared and cultivated, and houses and fortresses superseded the caves and subter- ranean dwellings. The earliest historic reference to the Cassiterides, or Tin Mines of Cornwall, is made by Herodotus, who wrote about the middle of the fifth century B.C., but it is probable "that the Phoenicians traded with the miners of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands at a much earlier period; if, indeed, we must not look to these ancient Cassiterides as one of the chief sources from whence even the Egyptians and Assyrians de- rived the tin with which they alloyed and hardened their earliest tools." * The nomade habits of the primitive Britons, and the spirit of barterage introduced on the arrival of the Phoenician traders, must have ere long diffused many of the products of * Wilson's Archaeology, pp. 194, 195. INTRODUCTION. 75 Eastern civilisation over the whole of North Britain. The Caledonian forests supplied the hunter with the furs and the skins, which would be carefully preserved and exchanged for the coveted spear and sword of bronze. Whilst the possession of these weapons must have long preceded the knowledge of their manufacture, the contents of the grave mounds which stud the straths of Caleydon and the shorelands of the Western Isles sufficiently attest the striking progress which the North Britons had made in the metal- lurgic arts prior to the Roman Invasion. Their spears, axes, and swords were ornate with the tasteful devices of the native designer; plates of silver and gold adorned their shields of bronze, and their spear-heads were chased with the beautiful fret-work of the sculptured monoliths. The bronze helmet which had covered the head of the warrior chief, the brooch which had clasped his sagum, the golden tore which had covered the shoulders and breast of the Druid priest, the silver ring which had enfolded the long, fair locks of the maid of Albion, and the jewelled coronet which had encircled her snowy brow, have been disentombed from their mossy beds, and now enrich and adorn our cabinets and museums.* * Statistical Account, Archseologia, Gentlemen's Magazine, Wilson's Archeeologia, etc. CHAPTER II. Jforis auir Camps. "Nestling in the woody glen, Or perched on the tall summit Of the mountain cliff, The ruined walls are seen Of Camps and Fortlets The primitive defence- works Of the early Britons." As the possessions and pastoral wealth of the communities or tribes of North Britain increased, an organised system of defence was introduced for the protection of their territories against neighbouring aggression. The little hamlet by the shore, or within the copsewood of the glen, was entrenched and fortified camps were raised and envallumed in the dark mountain hollows, and around the territorial landmarks, or boundaries of the tribes, a series of forts was built of solid masonry. On the invasion of Caleydon by the Romans, many of these primitive defences were scattered over the country. Strabo and Diodorus Siculus describe Britain as "being for the most part flat and woody, and having many strong places on hills." These places were 'frequently besieged and garrisoned by the Eoman generals; and occasionally the FOKTS AND CAMPS. 77 Castella of the invaders were raised in juxtaposition to the native strengths, to command and overawe them. The British forts on Eldon Hill, at Inch Stuthill, near the Tay, and on the height of Castle Over, appear to have been converted into Roman posts. The Roman camp, at Lyne Kirk, is placed within the cluster of British hill forts, which formed the defence of part of th.e Gadeni territories.* After the lapse of two thousand years, the number of these native strengths, and the massive solidity of their construction, excite our surprise and admiration. In the neighbourhood of Blair Athol, within the circumference of a few miles, there are the ruins of no fewer than nineteen hill forts the walls of which are, in many instances, nine feet in thickness. The White Caterthun, in Angus, is a remarkable specimen of the British fortress. It encloses an area of 430 by 200 feet, and is surrounded by a series of concentric ramparts and ditches. The ramparts are composed of an accumulation of large loose stones, forming a wall upwards of 100 feet thick at the base, and 26 feet thick at the top. "The vast labour/' says General Roy, "which it must have cost to amass so incredible a quantity of stones, and carry them to such a height, surpasses all description." -f- The number, position, and general arrangement of these and similar strengths throughout the Highlands and Isles, seem to indicate that they were erected by each tribe along the borders of its territories, as a defence against the aggres- * Chalmers' Caledonia, t Wilson's Archaeology, pp. 412, 413. 78 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. sive inroads of its neighbours. When Agricola carried his conquests into North Britain, A.D. 81, the Hebrides, like the Mainland, were inhabited by certain communities or tribes, connected by a common origin, language and religion, but animated towards each other by feelings of jealousy and hostility, which frequently broke out into feuds and open warfare. The Glottians, who inhabited Arran at the period of the Roman invasion,* were either a distinct tribe, or a branch of the Epidii-f- of Kiutyre. In either case, their coasts were exposed to the raids of their more powerful and warlike neighbours, the Attacoti on the north, and the Damuii^: on the east, who must have cast many an envious glance across the intervening sea, to the little Glotta Isle, with its rich pasture hills and its well-stocked hunting grounds. To secure themselves against invasion, the Islanders looked well to the strength of their bows, and the keenness of their spears, girdled their coasts by a chain of forts, and built their camps within the secluded forest dell, or on the summit of the inaccessible mountain cliff. The Castles of Brodick, Loch-Ranza, Kildonan, and probably Lamlash, were the sole safeguards of the coasts of Arran during the fierce turbulency of the feudal ages, and the aggressive raids of the Reguli of * Chalmers' Caledonia see Map, also Maps of Ptolemy and Richard of Cirencester. t Epidii Ebyd a peninsula. t The Damnii were the most powerful and important of the Southern tribes of North Britain. They inhabited the straths of the Clyde, and the shires of Ayr, Renfrew, and Stirling. Ptolemy. FOKTS AND CAMPS. 79 Islay and Argyll; but centuries before these fortalices were erected, the estuaries, bays, and shorelands of the Island were protected by the fortresses and fortlets of the early Glottians. In searching out these old strengths of Arran, we may start from the southern crescent of Lamlash Bay, in the direction of King's-cross. Clumps of stunted birch and hazel fringe the coast, but the beach is rough and rugged; the cliffs and shelves of red sandstone are intersected here and there by dark veins or dikes of trap, whilst huge crags and boulders of conglomerate and granite are tumbled about in wild confusion. Not a creek or inlet, or patch of sand or gravel, is met with where a canoe or galley could touch with safety, until we arrive at King's-cross. Here the coast is low and level, and a pebbly beach dips gently into the sea, where a few fishing wherries ride idly at anchor. On a little emi- nence, a few yards from the rocky ledge from which the patriot Bruce is said to have embarked for the Carrick shore, there are the remains of a circular fortlet, which appears to have commanded the landing-place and harbourage in early times. Its walls, now levelled with the rank grass, are about three feet in thickness, and enclose an area of fifteen feet in diameter. This is the smallest and most primitive of the Arran defences, and was no doubt built by its ancient in- habitants as a place of security, from which, with their spears and arrows, they might harass and oppose the landing of an invading enemy. Eounding the Point, we follow the bold sweep of Whiting Bay, and reach Glen Ashdale, stretching inland from the shore between its green ridges. We wander along the mar- 80 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. gin of the meandering streamlet, through a forest of heath and fern, startling the caolacs dh u or rheadh at every step, and, passing the old chapel with its rude burying-place, arrive at the falls of Eis-a-cranaig a rich gem for the sketch- book of the artist. Perched on the terrace of a precipitous bank to the right are the remains of the primitive fortress of Glen Ashdale. Its gray ruins are now overgrown with feathery brushwood, but their extent and general appearance sufficiently indicate the former massiveness and strength of the building. Its walls are twenty-five feet in thickness, formed of huge blocks of sandstone and granite, compactly and solidly built, but without cement. The circumference of the whole is about 280 feet. From the situation of this strength, and the vast labour which has been employed in rendering it impregnable to the attacks of an enemy, it is probable that it was used as an encampment by the early Islanders for the security of their families in the event of invasion. In the neighbourhood, there is the Knocklecarleu Consultation Hill where, as tradition relates, the chiefs were wont to meet on the approach of a hostile fleet, to devise means of defence. The frail huts of the villagers have disappeared, but the Consultation Hill, the Camp, and the old burying-place,* are the enduring indications of an early population within the Glen and along the shores of the Bay. The next fort we meet in our ramble is that of Tor-Castle Castle Hill a little to the north of Slaodridh, situated on an artificial hillock, about fifty feet in height, near the shore. * We refer to the large quantities of stone-chests found at Largiebeg. FORTS AND CAMPS. 81 It is a round building, 160 feet in circumference, with walls from four to five feet in thickness. An adjoining outpost, or defence of smaller extent, protects the narrow entrance from the sea. The principal strength is skilfully and massively constructed. Its walls are now demolished, but the founda- tion stones still remain huge flat blocks of sandstone broken and chiselled by the native builder into regular and symme- trical proportions. On digging around the mound and within the ruins, we discovered large quantities of the bones of the ox, the boar, and the wild deer, mingled with the shells of the beach, and imbedded in a dark fetid loam.* Similar traces of animal inhumation, and occasionally urns and cistvcens, have been disinterred from within the primitive forts of the Mainland. Human bones, deer horns, and lance- heads were found some years ago on removing the earth which filled the trenches of three British Duns, which crowned the ridge of rising ground above the valley of Dalrymple; and under the ruins of the walls of a native strength in the parish of Pittenain, Lanarkshire, there were found several stone-chests containing incinerated ashes.^ Like the Norse Sea Kings, who regarded the Skibsscetnin- ger, or the galley in which they fought and died, as the most honourable sepulchral monument to the bravery of their lives, the British warrior may have yearned for the distinction of a grave within the walls of the fortress in the defence of which he received his death-wound. It is said that a battle was * Human bones are also said to have been found amongst the ruins, f Chalmers' Caledonia, Vol. I., pp. 87-96. Wilson's Archaeology, pp. 408-410. L 82 THE METALLUEGIC PERIOD. fought long ago around the Tor-Castle, between the natives of Arran and a band of marauders from Kintyre. The Arran men were encouraged to victory by the cheers of their wives - and children, who crowded the Clappen Hill to witness the conflict. After a desperate struggle the invaders were re- pulsed, and forced to seek safety in their ships. Tor-Castle is further remarkable for the existence of ancient plough-marks, popularly known as elf-furrows, which are still clearly traceable over its summit. Tradition relates that the rich black mould of the mound tempted the natives to reduce it to cultivation. This was many years ago, when the old rig system of farming obtained in the Island. The lands of the neighbourhood were partitioned between twelve families, each of which claimed a rig of the Castle HilL The mound was cleared of the rich verdure which mantled its surface, and drills of cabbages were planted within the ruined walls. But a signal retribution followed the commission of this daring sacrilege. Before the year closed, the children of the hamlet were fatherless, and eleven new graves were seen in the little church-yard of the district. The villager who escaped had been called to another part of the Island when the old building was being turned into a household garden, and thereby avoided the doom which befell his companions. The people of Arran still regard the old fortlet with a superstitious dread, and he is thought to have a bold heart who will venture to disturb its ruins or visit them after nightfall The popular tradition which prevails throughout the Low- lands respecting the origin of these early vestiges of hill cul- FOETS AND CAMPS. 83 tivation, relates " that at a time when Scotland was under a Papal interdict, or sentence of cursing from the Pope, it was found that his Holiness had forgot to curse the hills, though he had commanded the land usually arable to yield no increase, and that while this sentence remained, the people were necessitated to seek tillage ground in places unusual and improbable."* Elf-furrows have been discovered on many of the heights of Scotland, but they are of more frequent occurrence in that portion of the Western Highlands occupied by the Dalriadic colonists prior to the Scottish conquest, and have been sup- posed to indicate the existence of a very considerable popula- tion in those early times, possessing an intimate acquaintance with the means necessary to, and the advantages arising from, the agricultural development of their lands. -f* It is no less probable, however, that at a period when the valleys and straths of Caleydon were covered with dense forests and marshy jungles, the heath-clad hills may have afforded the readiest and most accessible tillage ground for the immediate necessities of the newly-arrived colonists. Leaving Tor-Castle, we continue our ramble along the shore-road. The wavelets surge on the rocky beach beneath us, and the brown hills on the right, flecked with granite blocks, tower above in wild magnificence. Before us is the bold promontory of Drumidoon, with its precipitous cliffs. We pass the village of Blackwater-foot, with its little fishing cots, and, threading our way between the shelving crags of * Sinclair's Statistical Account, Vol. XVII., p. 115. f Wilson's Archaeology, p. 123. 84 THE METALLUEGIC PEEIOD. the shore, ascend the ridge of the Boon, by a narrow path- way trod out amid the tall heath. In a few minutes we have clambered over the ruined walls, and find ourselves within the fortress. Dark columnar cliffs, resting upon a base of red sandstone, rise precipitously from the sea, to the height of 300 feet. From the northern terminus of the cliff, we trace the ruins of the huge wall eight to ten feet in thick- ness which surrounds the broad flat summit of the hill towards the land, and joins the extremity of the cliff on the south, enclosing an area of several acres. The remains of a gateway may still be seen near the centre of the wall, which appears to have been the sole entrance to the fortress. Large loose ledges of granite are strewn about within the interior of the building, resembling the ruined Weems uamha, a cave of Aberdeenshire. This is unquestionably the most interesting and important of the ancient strengths of Arran. Its inaccessibility from the shore, and the elaboration of its walled defences towards the land, must have rendered it a place of impregnable security. A great portion of the ruins have been removed by the natives for the building of dikes, houses, and other purposes ; but even the imperfect remains of this Cyclopean structure, and the incredible labour which must have been employed in dragging such massive blocks of granite up the steep acclivity of the hill, and rearing them around its summit, excite our astonishment, and heighten our estimate of the progress attained by the early Glottians in many of the arts and appliances of civilised life.* * These considerations led us at first to infer that the fortresses of Drumidoon and Tor-Castle owed their origin to a later period than FOETS AND CAMPS. 85 The numerous remains of sepulchral monuments scattered around, confirm the tradition that the Mauchrie Moor and the shores of the Blackwater were in ancient times the scene of a busy population ; and it is probable that the elaborate fortifications of the Doon were used by the early Islanders as a place of retreat, on the invasion of an enemy, where their families, goods and cattle, might remain in safety, when their deserted cots by the shore, and the surrounding forests, were swept by the fire of the invaders. * The natural position and architectural features of the Drumidoon, remind us of the fortified towns described by Csesar in his Gallic campaign. When the Aduatuci were informed of the defeat of the Nervii, and of the approach of the Koman conquerors "deserting all their towns and forts, they conveyed together all their possessions into one town eminently fortified by nature. While this town had on all sides around it very high rocks and precipices, there was left on one side a gently ascending approach of not more than 200 feet in width, which place they had fortified with a very lofty double wall; besides, they had placed stones of great weight and sharpened stakes upon the wall."-}- Martin relates that the Drumidoon was used as a girth or the forts on the eastern coast of the Island (Ed. New Phil. Journal, Vol. IX., Jan., 1859) ; but further investigation and comparison have convinced us that they are all the work of one period, and probably of the same people. * The whole of the present population of Arran might be readily assembled within its walls. f Caesar's Comment. B. II., chap. xxix. 86 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. sanctuary, and "whatever number of men or cattle could get within it, were secured from the assaults of enemies the pkce being privileged by universal consent"* Many of these consecrated places appear to have existed in Britain during the Roman invasion, and, like the Ba-dhun Hill of Eefuge in Moray, were invested in later times by the pres- tige of antiquity and the halo of traditional consecration. When the girth was abandoned, the chapel or cell of the Christians became the sanctuary for the criminal and the oppressed, and as early as the thirteenth century laws were enacted by the Scottish Kings for the regulation of these institutions : " Gif any fleis to Halie Kirk, moved with re- pentance, confesses that he heavily sinned, and for the love of God is come to the house of God for safetie of himself, he sail nocht tine life nor limme, bot quhat he has taken frae anie man he sail restore sameikill to hiin."-f- But the early Glottians enshrined their girth with the sacredness of stone walls, and trusted their safety to the inaccessible security and impregnable defence- works of their retreat. Before descending to our little snuggery at Blackwater- foot, we are tempted to rest a while on a ruined Weem, and admire the rich and varied scenic panorama around and beneath us. The balmy ocean breeze fans our cheeks; the sea-fowl flaps his wings above us, and the hollow beat of the wavelets on the rocks beneath echoes in our ears. The setting sun has flung a roseate glow over the purple hills, and lit up the dark moorland of the Mauchrie with its chameleon beams. Nestling amid the trees, and bathed in the shadows * Martin's Western Islands. t Alexander II., c. 6. FOKTS AND GAMPS. 87 of the hills beyond, are the white cots of Shiskin. The Clachan burnie and the Blackwater meander between emerald fields. North and south are the bays of Mauchrie and Drumidoon, with their fishing hamlets straggling along the golden sands of the shore, or embosomed in the copsewood which skirts the beach. The Atlantic waves roll between us and the dark headland of Kintyre the stronghold of feudal chieftainship in olden times, and the tryst of many a lawless invasion of the Arran Isle and the Clutha shores. Our next rest is at Loch-Kanza. We climb the green shoulder of Craig-na-Cuiroch, which rises from the southern shore of the Loch, and perceive the ruins of an old fort on a round plateau of the mountain ridge. It closely resembles, in extent and appearance, the strength of Tor-Castle, already described. By hurling down spears, missiles, and boulders from the walls of the Cuiroch-Craig, the ancient Islanders must have greatly harassed the landing of an invading foe, and cut off all access to the Glen by its principal entrance. The fort was visited by the present Emperor of the French in 1848. From Loch-Ranza to Sannox, the shore is rugged and precipitous, but an excellent road has been cut over the hills, so we follow it and revel in the wild magnificence of mountain, brake, and mossy tarn around us. We join the shore at Mid-Sannox. On a rising ground to the right is a heap of gray ruins the remains of the primitive defence which com- manded the Bay in early times. An hour's walk brings us to Brodick. The advance of agriculture around the shorelands of the Bay has obliterated 88 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. many of the vestiges of ancient habitation noticed by Martin, Pennant, and MacCulloch. The barrows, cairns, and monoliths which studded the hills and glens a century ago, have been mostly demolished, and their ruins used for the construction of drains, dikes, and bridges ; fulfilling the prophetic lament of the dying Conlach : "Place that gray stone at iny head, But the son of future times will not know it ; He will make it a bridge over some little stream Which he cannot bound across."* The remains of the fort at Brodick were reserved for a nobler fate. On its site, and from its stones, the old castle of Bradewick is said to have been built ;-f- but the castle has been so frequently razed and re-built, during the wars with England, that not a relic of the original building now exists. Besides the fort, towering above Ae beach for the defence of the Bay, the prudent villagers had their encampment within the Glen, like that of Glen Ashdale, for the security of their wives and children, on the alarm of invasion. The entrance to Glen Cloy is by a dark narrow avenue, em- bowered by the richest foliage of the beech and fir. As we pass the mansion-house of the descendants of Fitz-Louis, the valley widens between its purple hills; but, following the stream, we shortly arrive at the camp. It is situated on a green artificial mound, about fifteen feet in height known as the Tornanshiain Faeries' Mound nestling in the bosom of the glen, and buttressed on either side by the Faerie Hills, * Smith's Translation of Cathula. f Statistical Account. FOETS AND CAMPS. 89 the Black Hill, and the Craig-na-jolair Eagles' Eock. The walls of the building are from three to four feet in thickness, enclosing an area of about ninety feet in circum- ference. This is the "stalward plas" situated in "ane woody glen/' in which Bruce and his followers resided be- fore taking possession of Brodick Castle.* "The scenes are desert now and bare, Where flourished once a forest fair, When these waste glens with copse were lined, And peopled with the hart and hind." The old fortress, too, is now in ruins; and the cave ex- cavated by Douglas in the side of the mound as a place of concealment known as "Bruce's Cave"-}- has been swept away by the waters of the Cloy, which are here enlarged by the runnels from the surrounding hills. The fairies are believed to have been the latest tenants of Tornanshiain. Their elfin bolts have been found scattered over the moor of the glen ; and within the ruined walls of the camp there is a huge tabular block of granite "Where oft the faerie queen at twilight sat."J Leaving the "faerie haunted valley," the next fort we reach is at Springbank, situated on a little knoll, a few feet from the shore. It appears to have been but a small and primitive defence about fifteen feet in diameter, and circular in formation. The rank grass has overgrown its demolished walls ; but around them may still be traced the remains of * Statistical Account. Lord of the Isles, Canto V. f Local tradition. t Ibid. M 90 THE METALLUEGIC PERIOD. an entrenchment of earth. The fortlet at King's-cross, of the same tiny dimensions, was probably used by the early in- habitants of the district as a mere covert, from which to harass an enemy's landing, and thereafter abandoned for the open field, or the fastnesses of the woods; but the vallum encircling the strength at Spriugbank, proves that the Is- landers were prepared to defend their position against all the hazards of an invasion. A few minutes' walk along the stony beach, and we arrive at Dun-Fiun Fion-gal's Fort the connecting link of the chain of Arran's fort defences. A ridge of columnar trap rises over a bed of red sandstone to a height of about 600 feet above the sea level Around the flat summit of the hill, and following its configuration, are the ruins of a wall from three to five feet in thickness embracing an area of about 140 feet in circumference the stones of which, says Mr Headrick, bear the traces of vitrification.* Towards the south, the hill is ascended by a successive range of those broad irregular terraces which invest many of the moat hills and fortified sites of the Highlands. But the most interesting and suggestive feature of Dun- Fiun is its vitrified walls. About the middle of the last century the attention of the Antiquarian Society of London was first directed to the discovery, that the walls of many of the hill sites or forts of Scotland were burned or scorified, and in some cases fused into a porous slag. It was first con- jectured that this remarkable phenomenon was the result of volcanic agency, and that the hills whereupon vitrescency * Headrick's Arran. FOETS AND CAMPS. 91 occurred, were simply the craters of extinct volcanoes. This theory was ably opposed by Mr John Williams,* who main- tained that the vitrification was artificially induced as a cement for the consolidation of the loose stones of which the inner walls, and, occasionally, the outer defences of the forts are built. Then followed the hypothesis of Lord Woodhouse in I787.~f" Grounding his opinion on the complete dilapida- tion and partial vitrescency of the walls, and presuming that wood had been used in elevating and strengthening them, his Lordship inferred that the fire of a besieging enemy may have swept over many of the primitive hill-forts, demolished their ramparts, and caused the scorification and fusion of their stones. A more recent and probable theory was that advanced by Sir George Stuart Mackenzie, who supposed that the vitrescency had been occasioned by beacon-fires lit upon the summit of the hill-sites, to signal the alarm on the approach of an invading foe.+ History, sacred and profane, proves the antiquity and general prevalence of this mode of communication. It ap- pears to have been known to the Jews in the days of Jeremiah, and employed even as early as B.C. 1406, five centuries before the siege of Troy. From the Talmud, we learn that the appearance of the new moon at Jerusalem was announced to the captives at Babylon by hill-beacons : * Mr Williams was mineral surveyor and engineer for the forfeited estates of Scotland. f Published in the Transactions of the Koyal Society of Edinburgh. J This theory must have readily suggested itself to the mind of its originator, as the hill-beacon is the crest of the Mackenzies. 92 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. "Formerly fires were lighted on the tops of the mountains: but whether Samaritans led the nation into error (by lighting them at wrong places) it was ordained that messengers should be sent out. In what manner were these mountain fires lighted? They brought long staves of cedar wood, canes, and branches of the olive tree, also the coarse threads or refuse of flax, which were tied on the top of them with twine; with these, they went to the top of the mountains and lighted them, and kept waving them to and fro, upward and down- ward, till they could perceive the same repeated by another person on the next mountain, and thus on the third moun- tain, and so on." The simplicity and effectiveness of the signal fire, as a means of communication, must have suggested its use and recommended its adoption to the warlike tribes of North Britain. The isolation, elevation, and relative positions of the British vitrified forts, admirably fit them for beacon sites. In some districts of Scotland these eminences may be seen commanding the straggling lines of common fortlets, which defended the inhabited districts, and girdled the territorial possessions of the tribes. Between the Moray Frith and Strath Tay, there are at least ten hill-forts, the walls of which are more or less vitrified. The little Island of Bute had its thirteen forts, embraced between the signal sites of the Kyles on the north and Dun- a-goil on the south.* The Epidii of Kintyre had their coasts on the east and the west, guarded by the sites of Carradale and Dunskeig Hill,-f- and presuming that the Glottians were * Statistical Account. f Anderson's Highlands. FOETS AND CAMPS. 93 a branch of this tribe, the alarm of a hostile fleet menacing the southern or western shores of Arran may have been wafted across the Kilbrannan Sound by the friendly beacon in Carradale Bay. The walls of Dun-Fiun consist chiefly of porphyry and sandstone, which would be fused by a very moderate degree of heat. The blazing fire of a few logs and branches, piled within the fort, would melt its walls into a vitreous mass, resembling opaque glass or porous slag. * A better position for a beacon station than that of Dun- Fiun could not have been selected by the early inhabitants of Arran. It is situated towards the extreme east point of the Island, between the two important harbours of Brodick and Lamlash, and commands an uninterrupted view of the Clyde, as it opens into the Frith and expands into the Atlantic, whilst in the gray horizon the dark outline of the Ayrshire coast may be seen, which in these olden times was dotted and streaked by the strengths and hamlets of the warlike Damnii. A hostile fleet could not leave the opposite shores, or enter the Frith, without being observed by the wary sentinels of Dun-Fiun ; and the signal fire would herald the alarm of invasion over the entire Island. Such were the fortifications of Arran when the fleet of Agricola darkened the waters of the Clyde. They are but * " The bonfire lighted on the summit of Arthur's Seat in 1842, to welcome the Queen on her first visit to Scotland, particukrly fused numerous detached fragments of basalt, and imparted in some spots, to the depth of about half an inch, a vesicular structure to the solid rock beneath." Rambles of a Geologist, p. 366 Hugh Miller. 94- THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. rude monuments of primitive architecture, but the elabora- tion and massiveness of their construction must have rendered them a formidable means of defenca Their huge walls are now in ruins, "a gray mound of earth, a moss-clad stone, lifting through it here and there its gray head, are all that preserve their memory." But a romantic interest hangs over these old remains, and could we but read their history aright from the tangled web of mystic legend and tradition which surrounds them, we might have many a heart-stirring tale to tell of the heroic deeds of the brave Glottians in defence of their Island home. The rocks and the strata of the primeval world, buried far beneath the relics of human life, have opened their stony archives to the hammer of the geologist, and unfolded the history of our Island, cycles of ages ago, when prowling mammalia were the sole tenants of its virgin forests ; and perchance, too, from these later stone records, the fossil remains of human labour, industry, and skill, we may catch some glimpse, however faint, of the little Glotta Isle, when the hill forts rose entire around its coasts, and the encampments nestled in the corries of its glens : Clustering around its bays, and within its estuaries, are the rude huts of the inhabitants. Fields of gram wave along its alluvial shorelands, and herds of cattle graze over its pasture hills. But now the galleys of the marauding Dainnii are being wafted by sail and oar across the dark bosom of the Frith. Over the summit of Dun-Fiun, the signal fire is lit, spreading the alarm from hill to hill. The women and children are safely secured within the fastnesses of the woods FOETS AND CAMPS. 95 and the encampments of the glens. The shepherd leaves his flocks, the husbandman his fields dingle and cliff re-echo the shrill war cry of the Glotta Isle. Higher still the beacon glows, till the sky is flushed with its ruddy glare, and the responding signal gleams brightly from the Carradale site. The galleys of the marauders are now nearing the Bay; but the forts of Brodick and Springbank are bristling with the spears and the arrows of the hardy Islanders, who crowd their walls, and line the beach, ready to repel a landing. CHAPTEE III. "Who was it scooped those stony waves? Who scalped the brows of old Cairngorm, And dug the ever-yawning caves? ' 'Twas I, the spirit of the storm.' " WITHIN the level of the old sea margin, which has given to the coast scenery of Arran much of its pleasing'picturesque- ness and wild magnificence, the soft sandstone cliffs of the shore have been here and there riven into fissures by volcanic eruption, or honey-combed into caves by the ceaseless beat of the ocean waves. These natural recesses were the primitive abodes of the primeval colonists of Arran, when the old forest ranges covered the Island ; and even after its glens and bays were streaked with straggling hamlets, and its hills were crowned with fortlets, and the massive walls of its castles towered around its coasts, the sea-worn cave was the retreat, the hermitage, and the dwelling, of the exile, the recluse, and the hardy Islander. Towards the base of Tor-an-righ King's Hill are the caves consecrated by the legendary residence of Fion-gal and Bruce. The King's Cave is a capacious water-worn recess, about 100 feet in length, 49 to 50 in width, and 55 in height, CAVES. 97 scooped out in a cliff of fine-grained sandstone. The stratum dips on either side, from a central vein which intersects the roof, forming a Gothic arch. Part of the same vein descends towards the back of the cave, in a perpendicular column, to the floor, leaving on each side a small narrow recess, now partially blocked up with stones from the shore. The whole bears a singular resemblance to the hull of a ship with its bottom upwards. Several rude representations of goats, sheep, and cattle, are carved over the southern wall of the cave. There are also dogs chasing stags, men shooting arrows, and similar devices, which are supposed to refer to the hunting exploits of Fion-gal and his heroes. Fion-gal is said to have made Arran his resting-place when en route to the assistance of his allies in Ireland. He landed with his followers in a few rude birlings in the fine natural harbour of Mauchrie, and resided in the cave of Drumidoon. On his return from Ireland he spent a considerable time in Arran roaming through its forests with his favourite dogs. It was about this time that a son was born to him in the Doon cave. A straight groove is shown in the sandstone, of about two feet in length, which is believed to have been the exact size of the child's foot the day after his birth. From this infallible datum, the Rev. Mr Headrick has computed that Fion-gal must have been from seventy to eighty feet in height, and his wife from sixty to seventy!* The gigantic proportions of Ossian's hero are further attested by the tradi- tion, that he formed a bridge of stepping-stones between his * Headrick's Arrau. N 98 THE METALLUEGIC PERIOD. cave and the opposite coast for the convenience of himself and his followers. The legends of Bruce lend an additional charm to the cave of Drumidoon. On the arrival of the exiled king from the little Island of Eathlin, he is said to have resided for a time in this rude retreat, sustaining the spirits of his friends by " Auld stories of men that wer Set in tyll hard assayis ser." The streams and the woods provided for the frugal wants of the little fugitive band ; and there may still be seen the holes for the support of the transverse beams that held the pot in which the venison was seethed for the royal repast. On the face of the column which descends from roof to floor, there is the representation of a two-handed sword the claymore of the King deeply, and not inelegantly, cut. * Adjoining the King's cave, are his kitchen, cellars, larder, and stable. The stable is much larger than the royal palace. Its roof is supported by two massive pillars of red sandstone, which give it the appearance of some old Gothic ruin. At Kilpatrick, where the Hill of Learg-a-breac Green Furze Slope meets the shore, is the Preaching Cave, a com- modious water-worn recess. It is still occasionally used, being more central than the Parish Church. The song of praise from this temple of Nature, mingling with the anthem of winds and waves without, is in itself a deeply solemn service, more impressive far than the organ's swelling notes, or the chantings of white robed choristers. * Local tradition; New Statistical Account; Headrick's Arran. CAVES. 99 The Monster or Black Cave yawns beneath the bold cliffs of Benan Head, towards the south end of the Island. It is much the largest cave in Arran, and, like that at Kilpatrick, it has been used until lately as a place of worship by the Islanders. Within its walls the relics of ancient habitation have been discovered arrow-heads, chipped and polished, and flakes of flint, mingled with the shells of the whelk and the limpet, indicating that here the native artist had his workshop and his kitchen, and wrought out from the rough pebble the frail weapons of the chase. Many of the rude implements of stone and flint which have been found in the moors and glens of the Island, may have been the work of the "ancient arrow-maker " of the Black Cave. In the neighbourhood of the shooting lodge at Dippin, there is a dark recess which is believed to have a submarine communication with the Ayrshire coast. The old story of the piper and his dog was told us in connection with this cavern ; and it is said that the muffled notes of the pibroch may still be heard at night rising and falling on the passing breeze. There are several other caves and fissures around the coast of the Island; but though many of them are replete with scenic and geological interest, they are barren of his- torical or traditional attractions. The Holy Island the Melansay of the Norse writers landlocks the broad Bay of Lamlash. It was here that Haco moored the remains of his shattered flotilla after his signal defeat at Largs. Its geological features are similar to those of the greater part of Arran. Huge masses of claystone and 100 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. porphyry have pierced through the normal strata of sand- stone, and now tower above it in precipitous columnar cliffs to the height of a thousand feet. The barren ruggedness of the islet is pleasingly relieved by clumps of brushwood, tufts of blooming heath, and the emerald leaves and crimson berries of the Arbutus. The cave of Saint Molios, on the west coast, is a small water-worn recess, about twenty-five feet above the present sea-level, scooped out in the sandstone. A shelf cut in the side of the cave is pointed out as the bed of the Saint. His bath is within the tide mark of the shore below. A few yards to the south is the Saint's Chair a square block of red sandstone, surrounded by steps or seats; and near it is his spring of pure water, which was long resorted to by the people of Arran on account of its healing virtues. The caves of Scotland were the primitive cells of the early Culdee missionaries. Saint Columba and Saint Cormac had their caves on the Argyllshire coast ; and Saint Mungo had his bed, his bath, and his chair near the Molendinar Burn. There is a cave in Knapdale containing an altar, a font, and a cross cut in the solid rock.* The cave of Saint Molios was the shrine of many a weary pilgrimage a few centuries ago. Itinerant devotees from the Scottish Mainland and the outer Hebrides, and pious monks in long white robes from the adjoining monastery, flocked to the saintly hermitage, to count their beads and offer their orisons. The initials and monograms of these pilgrim visitors may still be seen scratched over the roof of the cave; and * Chalmers' Caledonia, Vol. I. New Statistical Account. CAVES. 101 there is a Runic inscription, neatly and regularly cut in characters of about an inch and a half in length, of which the following is a representation : The latter inscription Dr Wilson has translated thus: Nikulos ahane raist Nicholas engraved, or cut, this cave. The initial cross is the symbol of an ecclesiastic. It appears from the Chronicon Mannise, that on the death of Bishop Michael in 1193, he was succeeded by a native of Argyll, called Nicholas. The coincidence of name and place of nativity is remarkable, and renders the supposition extremely probable that the pilgrim Eune engraver of the cave, was none other than Nicholas, the Bishop of Man.* The cliff adjoining the hermitage has been long remarkable for its carbuncle, but like the gem of the Ward Hill referred to by Sir Walter Scott, " though it gleam ruddy as a furnace to those that view it from beneath, it ever becomes invisible to him whose daring foot scales the precipices whence it darts its splendour." * Wilson's Archaeology, pp. 531, 532. CHAPTER IV. Hlist.eIIan.e0as MANY valuable relics of the precious metals have been found in Arran, which might have proved of great importance in illustrating the pre-historic annals of the Island, but the late impolitic law of treasure-trove, by which all such articles became the property of the Crown, has invariably led to their concealment and destruction. The following account of a few of the metallic remains discovered in Arran is given either from particulars gleaned from the finders themselves, or from the corroborative evi- dence of persons by whom they were examined. On the farm of Catacol, there was dug up, some years ago, from beneath a large stone, an urn or jar of unbaked clay, containing silver coins and a gold chain of the common linked pattern. The treasure was sold for a few pounds to a goldsmith in Ardrossan. Jars containing coins are also said to have been found in the caves of the Holy Island. A quantity of silver coins was discovered in one of the graves of the old burying-place in Glenashdale.* * New Statistical Account. MISCELLANEOUS RELICS. 103 In a cist, which a labourer turned up several years ago in making a fence round his garden, "there was found a piece of gold in the form of a handle of a drawer, with some iron or steel much corroded at each end. The man concealed his prize till he got it disposed of to a jeweller in Glasgow, who melted it down into rings and brooches/' * Dr Wilson has identified this relic with the ringa eldingham, or bright rings, so frequently mentioned by the Scandinavian scalds, and which appear to have been used either as a circulating medium, or as ornaments for the person in early times. *f- Sturla, in his "Raven's Ode," describes the men of Bute as "the forlorn wearers of rings," and the Norse invaders as "the steel-clad exactors of rings." Eings, bracelets, and armillse of gold and bronze have, however, been frequently disentombed from the ancient British grave mounds the relics of a period long prior to Norwegian or Roman in- vasion. An interesting specimen of the copper cauldron was found a few years ago, on the farm of Auchincairn. It measured about sixteen inches in diameter, by twelve inches deep, formed entirely of one piece, and supplied with ring handles, which were fastened by small bolts or rivets. Three vessels of the same metal, and similar pattern, are said to have been dug up from the moss in Glen Cloy. Kettles and cauldrons of bronze and copper have been found in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of Europe. Caul- drons were conferred as prizes at the public games of Greece * New Statistical Account. f Wilson's Archaeology, p. 322. 104 THE METALLURGIC PERIOD. and Rome,* and they appear represented as part of the spoil and tribute of the Assyrians in the sepultures of Nimrod and Kouyunjik.-f- A mysterious importance was attached to these vessels in ancient times, apart from their supposed use as utensils for culinary purposes, and even in comparatively recent times they were greatly prized by their fortunate owners, less, pro- bably, on account of their intrinsic value than of the inherent virtues they were imagined to possess : " I received my genius From the cauldron of Ceridwen," says the poet Taliesin. Among the articles of value bequeathed by Cahir Mor, King of Leinster, to his family, were fifty copper cauldrons. And the biographer of St Patrick informs us that whilst the Saint was at one time wandering through a forest in Dumbartonshire, he was taken captive by a band of marauders, and bartered for a kettle ! An iron sword, much oxidized, about three-and-a-half feet in length, was found beneath the peat in Monie-mhor Glen. An anchor of curious shape and workmanship ; of a size * "All the people, by Achilles still Detained, there sitting, form'd a spacious ring, And he the destin'd prizes from his fleet Produc'd, capacious cauldrons, tripods bright, Fair prizes to the swiftest charioteers." Homer's Iliad. f Monuments of Nineveh, first series, plate 24 ; and second series, plate 35. MISCELLANEOUS EELICS. 10 .5 capable of securing a vessel of fifty to sixty tons, was found several years ago a little to the north of the Whitehouse, in Lamlash a few yards from the site of the old castle.* This discovery seems to confirm the tradition that long ago, ere the castle was demolished by the ravages of Time or the attacks of an invading foe, the galleys which entered the Bay for safety were anchored beneath its walls. An anchor of similar form to the above was found on the hill-side in Glen Cloy, a full mile from the present tide-mark, and a little above the old sea margin. It was immediately taken by the finder to the smithy at Invercloy, where it was wrought down into shoe-nails for the Arran fillies. The incessant abrasion of the granite la maladie du granite and the washing down of the loosened particles by the runnels of the hills must have effected considerable changes in the coast scenery of Arran since the time when the fleet of Agricola crowded the Clyde. The encroachments of the land upon the sea are strikingly exhibited in the sand banks and deltas of the principal bays and estuaries of the Island; and there can be little doubt that a few centuries ago the ships of the Islanders found a secure harbourage within the creeks or bays where the heath and brushwood now luxuriate. The circumstance, that the anchor of Glen Rosa was found a few yards above the old sea margin, does not militate against the supposition that the Glen was at one time an inlet of the Broad-creek Brodick. We cannot conceive for what purpose this heirloom of the sea could have been carried such a distance from the present tide-level ; but we can readily * See Chapter on "Castles." O 106 THE METALLTIRGIC PERIOD. imagine that it may have been hastily thrown on the rising bank of the Rosa creek, and left there by the improvident sailors of an Island galley. Anchors, cables, and oars have been dug up from the Lochar Moss, Dumfriesshire, about twelve miles from the present flood-mark;* and the rude canoes of the adventurous Cluthians have been found beneath the busy streets of St Mungo. In a field to the south of the Whitehouse there may be seen the vestiges of an iron forge. On removing a heap of dross and vitrified stones, we found the gravelly soil beneath, fused into a solid, slag-like mass. A weight and ball of iron were picked up beside the long-extinguished ashes of this primitive workshop. * Wilson's Archaeology, p. 31. PAET III, CHRISTIAN PERIOD. CHAPTER I. Historical Introduction:. A MOKE discriminative examination into the testimony of Greek and Roman writers, combined with the more trust- worthy evidence of archseological investigation, has at last succeeded in dispelling much of the obscurity and obloquy which have long hung over the history of the early Britons. From beneath the cairn, the barrow, and the monolith, antiquarian research has disinterred the records of a civilisa- tion, the existence of which has been jealously ignored or grudgingly admitted by modern historians, though the dis- coveries of archseology have been amply confirmed and illus- trated by the few incidental references of classic writers.* The indomitable bravery, the ardent love of freedom, and the superior military appliances of the British tribes, elicited the admiration of Rome's ablest generals. Tacitus admits * See Antoninus and Strabo. 108 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. that Caesar by his two campaigns made only the discoveiy of Britain, and not the conquest of it. The victories of Claudius, Suetonius Paulinus, and Ostorius Scapula, were fiercely contended. Seventy thousand Roman citizens and allies are said to have perished in the destruction of Cama- lodunum and Verulam,* and fifty thousand Roman troops fell in the attempt of Severus to punish the incursions of the Caledonians.-f- When Rome was in its infancy, a commercial intercourse was established between Cornwall and the markets of the Mediterranean ; and when Caesar first landed in Britain, its population was so great as to excite his astonishment: hominum infinita multitude est.^. Its colleges were crowded with students, and frequented by the elite of Gaul. " The Druids," says Caesar, "discuss and impart to the youth many things with respect to the extent of the world and of our earth, and respecting the nature of things." The system of their religion resembled in many of its dogmas the theo- sophy introduced by Pythagoras; and was incomparably superior in its purity and tendency to the dominant pan- theistic mythologies of Greece and Rome. The same Celtic people who opposed the lauding of Caesar in the south met the aggression of Severus in the north, and from their hill-forts watched the galleys of Agricola, as they sailed along the shores of the Western Islands. Though the fleet of Agricola may have anchored within * Tacit. Vita Agricola. Xiphilinus says "eighty thousand." t Giles' Ancient Britons, Vol. I., p. 238. % Cses. de Bello Gal., IV. Cses. Comment, B. VI., c. xiv. HISTOEICAL INTEODUCTION. 109 the bays and the creeks of the Hebrides, these Islands appear to have been but imperfectly known, even in number or geo- graphical position, to the classic historians. Pliny, the first who mentions the " Hsebudes," enumerates them at thirty,* whilst Solinus and Ptolemy agree in reducing the number to five Skie, Lewis, Rathry, Mull, and Hay. -f- It is probable that there would be more to repel than to invite the curiosity and cupidity of the Eoman circumnavigators in the wild, mountainous appearance of these surf-beaten Islands, surrounded by tides, currents, rocks, and skerries. The Island of Arran the Glotta Insula of Antonine's commentators is passed over in utter silence by the classic itinerants, notwithstanding the Roman fleet must have fre- quently darkened its shores when making for the harbourage of Alcluyd.| The progress of the Eoman legionaries has been accurately traced by means of the roads, walls, camps, and weapons which they have left behind them ; but no such evidence has yet been discovered to indicate that they had ever landed on the Glotta Isle. Within a century after the withdrawal of the Eoman armies from Britain, A.D. 503, the Scoti-Irish a cognate Celtic race succeeded in effecting a settlement within the mountainous passes of Argyllshire, under Loarn, Fergus, and Angus, the three sons of Erc. A friendly intercourse and * Pliny, lib. iv., c. xvi. f Ptolemy, p. 34. Alcluyd, or Dumbarton. Innes' Crit. Essay, Vol. II., pp. 689-694. There is a hill in Arran called Suidhe-Fheargus, upon which the son of Ere is said to have sat, and surveyed his kingdom. ] 10 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD. alliance appear to have existed between the Picti of North Britain, and the Scoti of Ireland, during the occupancy of Britain by the Romans. Sidouius Apollinaris mentions the Scots among the enemies of Caesar; and, about A.D. 360, large numbers arrived in the Glottse ^Estuarium Frith of Clyde and swept with fire and sword the coasts of the Romana Provincia. The Dalriadic* colonists gradually strengthened their posi- tion by intermarriage with the Picts ; and, by fostering the mutual jealousies and civil dissensions between the Cruithne, or Picts of the North, and the Piccardach, or Southern Picts, succeeded in extending their territories in the west, until, in 84-3, they placed their leader, Kenneth M'Alpin, on the throne of Scotland.-f Though rude, primitive, and warlike, the Scoti-Irish, who had thus established their ascendancy, and given their name to Scotland, were not ignorant of, or indifferent to, the arts of civilisation. From the middle of the fifth, till near the close of the eighth century, the Pictish and Saxon youth passed over to Ireland for their education, and, from the monasteries of Ulster, Christianity spread its conquests over the Western Islands and the Scottish Mainland, crushing out the old Druidic barbarities, and softening down the wild turbulencies of civil contentions. To the Dalriadic period Mr Wilson assigns the origin of those remarkable plough-marks, or elf-furrows, which appear * Dal-Riada Portion of Riada. A district in the north east of Ireland. t Chalmers' Caledonia, Vol. I., p. 3u4. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Ill on many of the heath-clad hills of the Western Highlands, "startling the believer in the unmitigated barbarism of Scot- land, prior to the medieval era, with evidence of a state of prosperity and civilisation/'* Tradition, too, dwells fondly over this early period, flooding the Highland glens with the romance of Fion-gal and his heroes. The harp of Ossian has left its dying echoes amongst the village cots of the Arran Isle.f It is probable that the success of the Dalriadic Revolution was mainly due to the assistance of the Cruithne or Northern Picts ; and the conditions of this alliance were soon explained in the occupation by the Cruithne under their leader Oree or Aurn of Argyll, the Isle of Man, and the Southern Isles, (including the Island of Arran,) and which, along with Lochaber and Wester Ross, thereafter received the designa- tion of Oirir Gael, j or the Coastlands of the Gael, in contra- distinction to their inland territories. Aurn had scarcely taken possession of his peacefully- acquired conquests, when his security was rudely disturbed by the arrival of a foreign foe, the daring Vikings of the North: "O'er the sun's mirror green Came the Norse coursers, Trampling its glassy breadth Into bright fragments. Hollow-back'd, huge bosom'd ; * Wilson's Archaeology, p. 123. t Ossian is said to have died in Arran. Statistical Account. t Oirir Gael hence Argyll. Skene's Highlanders of Scotland, Vol. II., p. 29. ] 12 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD. Fraught with mail'd riders, Clanging with hauberks, Shield, spear, and battle-axe; Canvas-winged ; cable-rein'd Steeds of the ocean." Cradled amidst the waves which lash the rock-bound shores of Norway, and inspired with a fierce, fearless love of danger, these Norse Vikings issued from the fiords and bays of Scan- dinavia in their raven-pennon'd galleys the terror of every northern sea and neighbouring coast. Incited by love of enterprise and discovery tempted, too, by the wealth of foreign climes, these hardy navigators, guided by the stars alone, steered their ships into un- known seas, landed upon the shores of Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, and gazed upon the sunny forest-lands of America, more than three centuries before Columbus set sail for the West.* A commercial intercourse appears to have been established between the Scandinavians and the inhabitants of the Western Islands prior to the Dalriadic invasion ;-f- but peaceful pur- suits were repugnant to the wild, restless spirits of the Norsemen, and obnoxious to their heathen deities. The favours of Odin and Thor were granted alone to the brave of heart and the daring in deeds ; and the goddess Hilda, with her weird sisters, hovered over the field of slaughter to convey the dying heroes to the halls of Walhalla. And so the Norse rovers went forth in their dragon-prowed galleys to grapple * Worsaee's Danes and Norwegians. t HISTOEICAL INTRODUCTION. 113 with the Storm-King; and seek new conquests in distant battle-fields. The terrible Dubhgall chief Eegner Lodbrog after devastating the coasts of England, made an attack upon the Sudreyjar, A.D. 855.* Aurn, the King of the Oirir Gael, was slain in the conflict, and the men of the Isles were forced into the service of the Dubhgall chief, and compelled to join him in his piratical aggressions.-}- The wild, lawless life of the Viking had much in it con- genial to the bold, free spirit of the Gael. The same restless love of excitement animated the breast of each, and the Gall- gael soon followed the roving life of the Norsemen for very love of it. Side by side their galleys ploughed the British seas ; side by side they fought, and together they shared the spoils of their plundering excursions ; and not more dreaded along the coasts of the Scot or the Saxon were the daring Vikings of the North, than the roving, loving Skotar- Vikings of Arran and Argyll, j Under their leader, Eegner Lodbrog, the Norsemen and the Gallgael invaded the Norwegian territories in Ireland, A.D. 856, and subsequently harried the Western coasts of England. During one of these expeditions, Regner was * The Western Islands were divided into the Sudreyjar and the Nordreyjar by the Norse writers. The former comprised all the Islands to the south of Mull; the latter, Mull, and all the Islands north of it. f Chron. No. III. in Innes' App. J The Gaels of the Western Isles early received the name of Skotar - Vikings or Gallgael Gaelic pirates. Arefroida, the oldest Norse writer we are acquainted with, mentions the occupation of the Heb- rides by the Skotar- Vikings. P 1 1 4- THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. driven by a storm on the shores of Northumberland. Ella. the Anglo-Saxon King, hastened to attack his scattered forces, which he met and defeated, taking their chief, with many of his followers, prisoners. On refusing, with Norse pride, to make known his name,* the brave Regner was thrown into a pen filled with snakes, and there died with the sivaris-song on his lips "Grynte wide Grisene Kjendte de Galtens Skjebne" how the young pigs would grunt if they knew the old boar's fate.^ Aulaf and Ivar, the sons of the Viking chief, on hearing of their father's fate, raised a large force to avenge his death, and being joined by Caittil-fin, who had succeeded Aurn as leader of the Gallgael under Regner, invaded and devastated the coast of Northumberland. Ella, the King, was taken prisoner, a blood eagle was carved upon his back by the sons of Regner, and he was left to die in the forest pen, where their father had sung his last swan's-song.$ Following up their success, Aulaf and Ivar sailed up the Clyde, harried its shores, and after a siege of four months, took possession of the fortress of Alcluyd. Meantime Harald Harfager the fair-haired had suc- ceeded in conquering and consolidating the three-fold king- dom of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark into one monarchy, * "I have been renowned in battle, but I never told my name to foe ; yield to me, then shalt thon know that the mark of my sword is in many a field." Ossian's Poems. t Worsaee's Danes and Norwegians, p. 33. J Ibid, p. 33. Annals of Ulster. Ware's Antiq. Hibern, p. 108. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 115 and in establishing himself king, A.D. 888.* The hostile chiefs, who had resisted his usurped supremacy, betook them- selves to their ships, and escaped to the Western Isles; thence issuing in great numbers, they invaded the fiords, and pillaged the coasts of the new kingdom of Norway, and returned loaded with booty to their sea-girt retreats. Harald, provoked by these outrages, assembled a large fleet, swept the western seas of the ships of these rebel chiefs, subdued the Islands which had afforded them shelter, and after establishing Sigurd one of his followers Jarl of Orkney and Shetland, and leaving a few of his bravest Vi- kings in the Western Isles to secure his conquests, he re- turned to Norway with much booty and many fair captives.*f* No sooner, however, had the galleys of Harald left their shores, than the native chiefs of the Hebrides rose against their foreign oppressors, slew many of them, and expelled others from the Islands. On the news of this revolt reaching Norway, Harald created Ketil the son of Biorn a chief of high rank, Jarl of the Hebrides, and despatched him with a powerful fleet, to reconquer the Isles, and hold them in tributive dependency to the kingdom of Norway. The success of Ketil's mission was complete, but no sooner had he subdued the Gallgael chiefs than he proceeded to establish the independence of his Jarldom, by strengthening his fleet, forming alliances with the rebel Vikings who still infested the western seas of Europe, and finally by proclaiming himself King of the * Torfseus' History of Norway, Vol. II., b. ii., c. xii. f Torf seiis 1 Orcacles, pp. 10, 11. 116 THE CHRISTIAN PEEIOD. Hebrides.* He was not long fated, however, to enjoy his treacherously-acquired honours. He died soon after, and was consecrated to Odin, with the spear mark on his breast. Ketil was succeeded by Mel, a native Gallgael chief, A.D. 914>, who was slain by his brother Sidroc.-f On the success of the Northumberland expedition, Sidroc, who had married the daughter of Ivar Beenlose the boneless was put into possession of the territories of Ella, and, on the murder of his brother, became independent King of the Isles and Northum- berland. Freed from the galling yoke of their Norwegian con- querors, the Skotar- Vikings assumed their old restless pre- datory habits. Secure within their Island and Highland fastnesses, they made frequent raids into the straths and glens of Scotland ; whilst the galleys of Arran, Kintyre, and Islay invaded the Frith of Clyde, and harried the coastlands of the Saxon Lowlanders. An unrelenting hostility to the Scotch and Saxon intruders long continued to burn fiercely in the breasts of the descendants of Aurn ; and for several centuries the lawless Islemen were known as the Viking or pirate Scots. The cairn-covered moors of Arran, Argyll, and the outer Hebrides are the traditionary battle-fields of many a fierce feud and raid of clan and race. But a common danger now menaced the independence of Scotland and the Western Isles, and induced a tempoi. alliance between the Scot and the Viking-GaeL From Ire- * Torfaeus' History of Xorway, Vol. II., c. xxix. f Niel and Sidroc are supposed to have been the issue of a Norwegian and Gaelic marriage. Skene. HISTOEICAL INTRODUCTION. 117 land, hordes of Norse pirates invaded the islet coasts of Scotland on the west, and from the south the Anglo-Saxons pressed northwards, spreading themselves over the Lowlands, and threatening to inundate the whole of North Britain. Aulaf, the son and successor of Sidroc, who is styled "Rex plurimarum insularum" by Saxon chroniclers, in order to secure a powerful ally in protecting his territories from foreign aggression, married the daughter of the Scottish King, Constantino III. The kingdom of Northumberland, won from Ella by the sons of Eegner Lodbrog, was invaded and wrested from the Gallgael by Athelstane, the Anglo- Saxon king. Aulaf fled to Ireland, and returned with 600 ships and a large force of northmen, joined the Sudreyjar and Scottish fleet under Constantine III., off the Island of Arran, landed on the shores of the Humber, and met the army of Athelstane near Brunanborg, A.D. 937.* The Norse Sagas tell of the valour and daring of Aulaf and his brave auxiliaries in the celebrated battle of Brunanborg; but the numbers and determined resistance of the Saxons prevailed, and the broken forces of the Viking king were driven to their ships in hasty retreat, -f Aulaf was succeeded by his nephew, Maccus MacArailt; but the ascendancy of the Saxons was now complete. They not only retained possession of Northumberland, but reduced to tributive subjection many of the Islands of the Gallgael. To Maccus, succeeded his brother, Gofra MacArailt, as * Worsaee's Danes and Norwegians, p. 34. t Annals of Ulster. Ware's Antiq., c. xxiv. 118 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. King of the Isles, who was slain in an Irish expedition, A.D. 989. The Islesmen, weakened by their struggles with the Saxons, now became a prey to the ambition of Sigurd II., Earl of Orkney. On the death of Gofra, Sigurd collected a large fleet from the Orkney and Shetland Islands, conquered the Hebrides, deposed their native chief, and appointed Gilli, a Norwegian of high rank, Jarl of the Isles. The Scottish King, Malcolm II., took advantage of Sigurd's absence to invade, by sea and land, his possessions in the North of Scotland ; and no sooner had the Earl returned to the Orkneys, than Eagnal, the son of Gofra MacArailt, instigated and assisted by the deposed native chiefs, wrested the Isles from Gilli, and established himself King of the Hebrides. Sigurd, roused by these outrages, determined to punish the rebels and aggressors. After reducing and plundering the Western Islands, he invaded the Scottish territories with a large force, met and defeated the army of Malcolm on the banks of the Beauley, and carried his devastations as far as the Frith of Tay. "The dwellings were all destroyed, When he burnt every where, Danger and death were not awanting, As among dry reeds, the red flames Sprung into the kingdom Of the Scots." * Meantime the Norwegian power in Ireland was threatened * Torfseus' Orcades. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 119 by the Irish, under Brian, their King. Sigurd collected a large fleet from the Orkneys and Western Islands, and hastened to the assistance of his kinsman Sigtryg, King of Dublin. Bravely the Norsemen fought on the bloody field of Clontarf, but victory was against them. The forces of Sigurd were scattered and driven to their ships, and their brave chief was left amongst the slain, with the raven- pennon, which his mother wove, wrapped around him as a winding-sheet.* For about twenty years after Sigurd's death, the Gallgael appear to have governed the Isles by their own native chiefs. In 1034 they were reconquered by Earl Thorfin, the son of Sigurd II. Thorfin possessed all the ambition and fierce daring of his father. He pushed his conquests into the very heart of Scotland, wrested nine Jarldoms from the Scottish King, and compelled the Ostmen of Ireland to pay him tribute. But as age crept over the brave Earl, he grew weary of raid and conquest. Prom a Culdee recluse, he had gathered some stray truths of the Christian faith, and with a new fervour stirring his soul, he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he received the "indulgence" and blessing of the Pope. On his return to the Orkneys, he replaced the raven-pennon which had waved over many a victorious battle-field, with the banner of the cross encouraged the progress of Christianity throughout his dominions, and reigned peacefully till his death in 1074.f When the news of Thorfin's death reached Ireland, the Ostmen shook off their allegiance, and in the flush of their * AVare's Antiq., pp. 114, 115. t Orkneyinga Saga, p. 87. 120 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. restored independence, swept the coasts of Scotland with fire and sword ; whilst Dianned, the son of Maeluambo, King of Dublin, invaded the territories of the Gallgael, and established himself King of the Isles. He was succeeded by Godred son of Sitric, an Irish chief upon whose death Fingal MacGodred became "rex Insu- larum." On the defeat of the Norwegians by Harold, King of Eng- land, at the battle of Stamford Bridge, Godred Crovan the white-handed who led the army of the King of Norway, fled to the Hebrides with a few galleys, and deposed Fingal, the Gallgael King, and expelled him from the Isles. After re- ducing the native chiefs to subjection, Godred sailed for the Irish coast with a large force of Skotar- Vikings, and eventually succeeded in conquering Dublin and a great part of Leinster.* Meantime, the growing power of Godred excited the jealousy of the Norwegian King, Magnus Barefoot. Overtures of alliance were made by Magnus to Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland, and a treaty entered into, importing the con- cession to Norway of all the Islands on the west coast of Scotland which could be circumnavigated by a sailing ship. After subjugating the Isles, Magnus caused his ship to be dragged over the narrow isthmus which connects the peninsula of Kin tyre -f with the Mainland. The crafty king sat himself at the helm, and steered his galley through the channel cut out in the forest glade by the hauberks and axes of his followers ; and, by this wily artifice, Kintyre was wrested from * Gregory's Highlands and Isles, p. 6. t Xow Tarbert a place over which vessels can be dragged. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 121 Scotland, and united with the Sudreyjar or South Isles, in tribute to the kingdom of Norway, A.D. 1093.* Magnus having deposed Godred, and established his son Sigurd, King of the Isles, returned to Norway with his fleet, where he introduced the Highland dress amongst his subjects. Snorre Sturleson, the Icelandic historian, who wrote towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, says : " They," the King and his followers, " went about the streets with bare- legs, and wore short coats and cloaks, whence Magnus was called by his men 'Barford' or 'Barbeen/ 'Barefoot' or Cfcspds. "I do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them, but Ave set Our foot upon some reverend history." THE introduction of Christianity into Britain was even more important in its results than the diffusion of the Metallurgic Arts or the Eomau Invasion. Among the distant Islets of the Hebrides, and within the glens and mountain retreats of Caleydon, where the Roman Eagle had scarce dared to penetrate, the banner of the Cross was borne by a few zealous missionaries, and the rude and warlike Britons were constrained to acknowledge the Divine potence of the Christian faith. During the third centuiy, the persecutions of Diocletian in the East had driven many Christian converts to the British Isles ; and ere the Roman legionaries had been withdrawn to protect the Capitol from the invasion of the Goth, the son of a British prince had visited Rome, and received a commission from Pope Circius, A.D. 38 -i, to preach the Christian faith among the heathen tribes of North Britain. The zealous Saint Niiiian built his Candida Case on the sea coast at OLD CHAPELS. 175 Withern, in Galloway* the shrine of many a pious pilgrim- age in later times. The good Saint died, A.D. 432, the year before Saint Patrick was sent on his mission to Ireland by Pope Celeste. But there succeeded him many other devoted missionaries St Palladius, St Rule, St Woloc, St Kieran, and St Kentigern, until, in 563, St Columba landed with a few disciples on the surf-beaten Islet of Hii, or lona the li Cholum Grille, *f- and there he built his church of wattle- work, and taught his missionaries, and sent them forth to teach and to preach throughout the Western Islands and Scottish Mainland. | The early pioneers of Christianity secured the confidence of the Britons by respecting their old customs and heathen rites, and gradually succeeded in weaning their affections from the creed of their fathers, by grafting its outward ceremonies and superstitions upon the simple formula of the Christian faith. The gray monolith, beneath which slept the ashes of the British hero, was sculptured with the Cross. The Christian Church was built beside the revered stone circle. The springs and the mountain streamlets which had been wor- shipped with Druidic rites, were consecrated by the Christian teachers, and converts to the new religion flocked to the holy wells to drink their healing waters. The smoke which * Bede, 1, 3, c. 4. f The Island of St Columba's Cell. It received the name of Ithon from the Scotch hence lona. The remains of the cells of the Scoti-Irish Saints have also been found in the North of Europe. 176 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. ascended from the funeral-pile was no longer seen hovering over the ashes of the hero-chief nor cairn, nor barrow, nor cromlech was raised over the cistvcen or cinerary urn ; but beneath the shadow of the Christian fane, a stone, with sword and cross sculptured upon it, rested upon the warrior's grave. Before leaving their native shores, the Scoti-Irish had re- ceived the blessing of St Patrick, and were accompanied in their expedition to Argyll in 503 by their faithful Christian teachers. A century afterwards the light from lona shed its rays over the heathen darkness of Caleydon; and the numerous remains of primitive chapels and cells within the Scottish glens, and along the shorelands of the Western Islands, attest the zeal and persevering assiduity of the followers and successors of St Columba. In the parish of Rothesay, in Bute, there may be traced the ruins of twelve chapels; in Harris, fifteen to twenty; and in many of the barren and deserted Islets of the Hebrides, now tenanted alone by the sea-fowl and the ptarmigan, we find the ruined walls of the early Christian oratories.* St Columba superintended personally his charges in the Isles, and he is believed to have occasionally resided in Arran, whilst visiting his faithful disciple St Molios, who laboured in the Island. There once stood a cairn or mound in Glen Suidhe, known as Suidhe Challum Chille, where St Columba is said to have sat and refreshed himself with his disciple, whilst travelling from Lamlash to the little chapel at Shiskin. * New Statistical Account. OLD CHAPELS. 177 St Molios,* as we have seen, lived in a sea-worn cave in the Island of Lamlash, thereafter called the Isle a Molass, or Holy Isle. Tradition relates that he officiated alternately at Lamlash and Shiskin, and died at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty. His tombstone is pointed out in the old church-yard of the Clachan. The traditional account of St Molios, however, differs somewhat from that contained in the "Acta Sanctorum," -\- where his history is sketched with all the minuteness of date and detail which characterises the legendary narratives of the Irish hagiography. He is said to have been born in Ireland, A.D. 566, about three years after St Columba arrived in Scotland. His eagerness and aptitude for instruction in- duced his uncle, St Blane, to undertake his instruction, and in the little Island of Bute, the young student spent his boy- hood days, reading and translating the Scriptures in the chapel of Kiugarth; or from the summit of Dun-na-Goil watching the clouds gathering around the peaks of Arran, and the waves breaking in foam against the Cumbrae Isles. After receiving the rudiments of his education in Bute, St Molios returned to Ireland. At the early age of twenty, he again visited Scotland, and for several years lived the life of a hermit in one of the Western Isles supposed to be the Islet of Lamlash. In 61 4 he was appointed to the Abbacy of Leighlin in Ireland, and afterwards raised to the dignity of a Bishop and Apostolic Legate to the Church in Ireland. | * St Molios Moliugus Maeljos Molios Servant of Jesus. f Bolandist's Collection. t Bryce's Arran, p. 141, on the authority of John M'Kinlay, Esq. X 1-78 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. The hermitage of the Saint was, for centuries after his death, the favourite shrine of pilgrims from the Isles and Mainland, who have left their initials and holographs scratched over its sandstone roof The progress of Christianity in the southern Hebrides was for a time retarded by the arrival of the Norse rovers. These lawless Vikings, imbued with the fierce, blood-thirsty spirit of their gods the terrible Odin and Thor swept the West- ern Islands in their long-oared galleys, harried the hamlets and lands around their coasts, and plundered and burned the chapels of the Culdee missionaries. Again and again the little island fortress of Christianity the Isle of St Columba was invaded and despoiled, its monasteries sacked, and the devoted monks put to the sword.* But the light of Christian truth ere long prevailed over the darkness of pagan superstition and barbarism. The monas- teries and chapels were rebuilt, new converts were made, and new lands visited and Christianised. *f- No sooner had the Norsemen begun to colonise the Islands they had conquered, than they, too, were gradually brought under the influence of the Christian faith. The raven-pennon was stript from their galleys and replaced with the banner of the Cross. Chapels and monasteries were respected and pro- tected, and the Viking chief was no longer interred beneath the Skibsscetninger by the shore, but found a grave within the hallowed precincts of the Christian church. * Annals of Ulster. t When the Northmen visited Iceland, in the ninth century, they found the crosiers, books, and bells of the Irish monks. OLD CHAPELS. 179 But though the Norsemen of the Isles had ceased to aspire after the pleasures of the Walhalla, they were Christians but in name. Now and again the Viking leader would turn pious pilgrim, and visit the Holy Land in his old age, but more frequently his Christianity was borne and enforced at the point of the sword. The Bishopric of the Isles, founded in 838, was united to the diocese of Man on the conquest of the Sudreyjar by Mag- nus Barefoot in 1093.* It was probably through the influence of Nicholas, the Manx Bishop, whose name appears cut in the roof of St Molios' Cave, that Reginald MacSomerled, Rex Insularum, founded a monastery on the Islet of Lamlash the Holy Isle towards the end of the twelfth century. The monastery was situated on the north-west side of the Island, and appears to have been subject to the Cistercian monastery of Kintyre, where the body of Somerled was buried. It was a common usage in monkish times to confer the smaller chapels or cells, with their fees, tithes, and altar- ofFerings, upon the religious houses of the Regulars,-!* and frequently certain lands and pecuniary gifts were connected with these grants. In accordance with this custom, Reginald supplemented the monastery of the Holy Isle with the lands of Lamlash, Shiskin, Benan, and Torlin, in Arran, and unum denarium ex qucdibet domo. J This grant was confirmed in * In 1334 the Island of Man was seized by the English; and in 1380 the united diocese of Man and the Sudreyjar was dissolved, and the Scotch thereafter chose their own Bishop for the Isles. Keith's Bishops. f Paisley had thirty parish churches, Holyrood twenty-seven, and Melrose and Kelso as many. t Reg. Mag. Sig., lib. xiv., No. 408. Chart of Paisley, p. 377. 180 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. 1508 by King James IV., in favour of David, Bishop of Argyll; and these, and the other possessions enjoyed by the good monks of Saddel, were thereupon erected into the "Barony of Sagadul"* During the "visitation" of Dean Monro to the Holy Island in 1594, the old monastery was "decayit," but for many generations the grounds adjoining were used as a burial- place by the people of Arran. Not a vestige of ruined wall or gravestone now remains. About eighty years ago, a boat was overturned whilst conveying a funeral party from Lamlash to the Island, by which several people were drowned. The burying -place was thereafter abandoned, and in 1835 the tombstones were removed, and a crop of onions and carrots was raised over the graves of the dead.-f* An aged hawthorn now extends its leafless branches over the site of the monastery, built by the son of the mighty Somerled. On leaving the graves of their fathers on the Holy Isle, the inhabitants of Arran looked around for another place to bury their dead, when, lo ! a bright gleam of light was seen flickering amongst the trees, where nestled the little chapel of Kilbride. This they regarded as a Divine signal, and the church-yard was thereafter chosen as their principal burying- placaj The old "paroch kirk" of Kilbride is situated to the * Reg. Mag. Sig., lib. xiv., No. 408, 481. f Xew Statistical Account. Local tradition. Ecclesia Sancte Brigide Saint Brigid Kirk. Kylbrid Kilbride Mark-na heglish (Blaeu's map). It is probable that, at one period, OLD CHAPELS. 181 north-west of Lamlash Bay. It is one of those rude and primitive, but picturesque ruins, which, though barren of architectural interest, heightens the charm of Highland scenery by the associations of olden times with which it is invested. Its massive, unchiselled walls, with their small arched doors and windows, and the general features of the building, indicate a venerable antiquity. It is now roofless. A stately ash rears its gnarled trunk within the sacred walls ; and a rowan-tree has wriggled its way through the chinks of the southern gable, shaking the old ruin with every blast of wind. From north to south, the building is intersected by a modern fence, which partitions, on the east, a small cell or chamber, a few feet square, paved with gravestones. The western division contains two door-ways the one on the south was the principal entrance to the church, the other, on the north, was wont to be opened on baptismal occasions for the escape of the fiend, but at all other times carefully closed. Near the door, and built into the northern wall, are the font and pesino. The " doctrine of regions " exerted a strong influence over the minds of the Scottish people, and to the present day, there exists in Arran a lingering remnant of this old superstition. The tombstones of many genera- tions surround the ruined chapel of Kilbride, but not a grave was opened to the north of the building, until the ground to the south was quick with human dust* Arran formed one parish. In 1294, a charter of Alexander of Ilyle is witnessed by Marice, the Vicar of Arran, and, in 1326, Sir Benedict is noticed as Rector of Arran. Origines Parocliiales. * The south was held sacred to tilings heavenly and Divine. 182 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. We have carefully searched amongst the tall grass for ancient sculptured stones, but though a few remain worthy of description, many of the most interesting have been almost entirely effaced by the tread of visitors. Near the entrance to the church-yard, there is a horizontal slab, with a floral cross and a long two-handed sword carved upon it probably the monument of a knight or esquire. There is an adjacent stone rudely shaped, bearing the effigy of a kilted Highlander, with sword by his side. Tradition has attached a tragic interest to this old gravestone. The story runs thus: There were two lairds or petty chiefs in Arran the one called Walter Fion, the fair-haired ; the other Duncan Tait. These men were sworn friends and insepar- able companions. A mischief-maker, of the name of M'Nish, wagered that he could alienate their affection, and change their friendship into mortal hatred. Meeting Fion on a certain day, M'Nish told him that the friend in whom he so fondly confided had conceived a great enmity towards him ; that he was secretly aspersing his character, and only waited the op- portunity to take his life. The same villanous lie was told the unsuspecting Tait, and as implicitly believed. Next morning the two friends met on the shore a little to the north of Lamlash. Without explanation, they drew their swords, and, in the fierce struggle for revenge, they were both slain. They were buried in one grave distinguished by this primitive sculptured-stone.* An adjoining slab bears the representation of a shield and sword, the symbols of a knight or man-at-arms. * Local tradition. OLD CHAPELS. 183 Within the chapel we discovered a cruciform head-stone. Another was found a few years ago beneath the ruins of the chapel, and is now placed over the grave of a Catholic sailor- boy who was washed ashore in Lamlash Bay. These pillar crosses were introduced about the middle of the eleventh century.* They are generally rudely chiselled, and exhibit the first deviation from the unhewn monolith of the early Britons. Among the enactments made in the reign of King ^Ethel- red, A.D. 994, is the following: "It hath been an ancient custom, in this country, to bring the dead often within the churches, and thus to make cemeteries of those places which have been consecrated to the worship of God. Now we desire that from henceforward no man be buried in the church, unless he be of the sacerdotal order, or, at least, a holy layman ; so that it be known that by the sanctity of his life, he deserved to have his body buried there." -f- This privilege, however, appears to have been more freely and widely conceded in later times. Within the little par- titioned cell on the east side of Kilbride Chapel, the floor is paved with gravestones, many of which are apparently of great antiquity. Since 1763 the Fullertons of Kilmichael have been buried here. There is the stone of John Fuller- ton who died in 1784 with this quaint epitaph traced upon it: " This was the man, who free from toil and strife, In his own ground did pass his peaceful life." * Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses, pp. 47-49. f Ibid, p. 16. 1 84 THE CHRISTIAN PERIOD. Another has the following inscription : Hear lays Pal Hamilton Captain of Arran P II M II PH EH Patrick Hamilton of Coats his son 16 64 Beside the Captain's grave there is a slab upon which we can with difficulty decipher Here lyes Nugent Kerr, son to Robert Kerr, Director of His Majesty's Chancellary of Scotland 15 April 1747 A stone, with a cross and sword elegantly sculptured upon it in bas-relief, may also be seen. It is in excellent preservation. The cross and its shaft are formed of the beautiful floral and knot-work ornamentation which so strik- ingly resembles the illuminated letters of the ancient Irish and Anglo-Saxon MSS. The sides of the stone are adorned by a trailing floral stem of graceful design. Some years ago the eastern gable of the chapel fell into ruins, and from amongst the stones a small square block of freestone was picked up, upon which are carved an elegant monogram, the date 1618, and a ducal coronet. It was no doubt a presentation to the Church by the Marquis of Hamilton, who was at this time patron of Kilbride and its d OLD CHAPELS. 185 chapels ; and the scriptural homily Fir Ood, carved beneath the initials of his Lordship's titles,* may have been often- times pointed to, by the reverend pastor in persuading the rude Islanders to a life of peace and godliness. On the reconstruction of the gable, this interesting stone was built into the wall, where it may now be seen partially con- cealed by the leaves of an ivy tree, which mantle the old building. The earliest record we can find of Kilbride Chapel occurs in 1357, when Sir John Menteith Lord of Arran granted to the monks of Kilwinning the advowson of the churches of St Bride and St Mary, with their chapels and pertinents. This grant was afterwards confirmed by David II. The King's confirmatory charter may be worthy of trans- lation. It runs thus : " To all the children of the blessed Mother Church now living, or yet to be born, who may see or hear these present writings, read : "John of Menteith, Lord of Arran and of Knapdale. Health in the Lord for ever. Know that I, for th_' . 18-36 .47, 89, 98, 150 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34 . 97, 101 . 38-40 31^33, 50, 97, 98 47 50 s 82 25, 58, 61 111, 112 ... . 90-93 145 78, 109, 113 GLASGOW: PRINTED BY THOMAS MURRAY AND SON. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 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