,
1
Prtsfntcii ft> the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
m
-- - •.*, £
• '•- ''' - "\
mi i i
P
: ' • 1 v i ,' "
> ' -
The Isle of Bute in the
Olden Time
The Isle of Bute in the
Olden Time
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND PLANS
BY
JAMES KING HEWISON, M.A., F.S.A. (SCOT.)
MINISTER OF ROTHESAY
EDITOR OF 'CERTAIN TRACTATES BY NINIAN WINZET"
VOL. I.
CELTIC
SAINTS
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCXCIII
All Rights reserved
TO
JOHN
MARQUESS OF BUTE, K.T.
PREFACE.
THIS work embodies the results of some studies of the
history of the Isle of Bute, suggested to me here by
visible relics of the olden time. It is the product of
the few leisure hours which could be gathered up for
several years out of a busy clerical life. As a labour
of love it has been executed with much difficulty, since
so important a subject demanded much research among
authorities, manuscript and printed, in the National
Record Offices and great libraries, access to which is
not easy to students in the country, who have a limited
time at their disposal to ransack rare and expensive
works.
In writing I have kept in view the purpose of pro-
ducing a readable book, as much as possible free from
technical phraseology, so that the ordinary reader may
not be wearied with multitudinous details which the
pure antiquary considers imperative ; and I have en-
viii Prt/ate.
deavourcd to strike the golden mean without defraud-
ing the subject of its primary demand for definite
accuracy.
It will have fulfilled my design if it causes those
who arc privileged to breathe the fragrant air of Bute
to take a protective interest in those fascinating frag-
ments preserved here, and if it draws upon these relics
the attention of others who love antiquities.
Bute has already been fortunate in having local
historians who have made good use of the scanty
materials available for the more modern epochs of
history. Their labours will be more fitly acknow-
ledged, and a bibliography of their works given, in
the second volume. Recent research, however, has
opened up richer treasure-houses to the chronicler,
and invested the decaying memorials of eld with a
new romantic interest.
Merit I venture to claim for this new work in
respect of the exquisite architectural illustrations of
St Blaan's Church prepared by Mr William Galloway,
architect, who has laid me under deepest obligation
by permitting reduced copies to be taken of his draw-
ings of that interesting edifice, and of the similarly
fine work of Mr James Walker, architect, Paisley.
I have to thank the Society of Antiquaries of Scot-
Preface. ix
land for the use of several engravings of objects found
in Bute. The minor illustrations have been prepared
from drawings by my own pen.
I have also to acknowledge obligations to the Rev.
J. B. Johnstone, B.D., Falkirk, author of ' Place-
Names of Scotland'; the Rev. John Dewar, B.D.,
Kilmartin ; and the Rev. D. Dewar, Applecross, who
have kindly given me valuable aid in reference to
the "Appendix on Place- Names," for which, as it
stands, I am entirely responsible : as well as to Mr
James Kay, forester, Bute ; the Rev. John Saunders,
B.D., Kingarth ; and the Rev. Peter Dewar, M.A.,
North Bute, who have kindly assisted me in my
inquiries.
The second volume will contain chapters on the
Homes and Haunts of the Stewarts, the Roman and
Reformed Churches, the Burgh of Rothesay, the
B randan es, the Barons of Bute, and the House of
Stuart, and will be illustrated.
J. KING HEWISON.
THE MANSE, ROTHESAY, September 1893.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
i. WHAT'S IN A NAME? ...... i
II. PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS, ..... 2O
III. MONUMENTS OF UNRECORDED TIMES, . . 36
IV. THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY — THE BRITISH
CHURCH, ....... 84
V. THE IRISH CHURCH, . . . . . .107
VI. THE HERMITS, . . . . . . .122
VII. THE CHRISTIAN ODYSSEY, . . . . .141
VIII. BELTED KING AND ROYAL ABBOT, . . . .154
ix. "BLAAN THE MILD OF CENNGARAD," . . .167
X. THE CONSECRATED COLONY, . . . . . IQ2
XI. THE SEVEN SLEEPERS, . ... 2OI
XII. MOSS-GROWN RELICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH, , . 213
XIII. THE NORTHMEN AND VIKINGS (GENEALOGICAL TABLES OF
THE ROYAL LINE OF MAN ; OF THE SOMERLEDIAN
LINE), ....... 236
XIV. THE BISHOPS OF SODOR AND MAN, .... 260
XII
Ccnttnts.
APPENDICES,
i. mt BUB or CUMBRAE, . . . . .281
It CHARTER DISPONING THE CHURCH Of KINGARTH TO
uninr, . .284
III. EXTRACTS FROM DEAN MVNROfe 'DESCRIPTION OF THE
WESTERN ISLES,1 ...... 285
IV. EXTRACTS FROM MARTIN'S ' DESCRIPTION OF THE WESTERN
: : \s: . . . . . . . .287
V. PLACE-NAMES V MITE, . .288
ERRATA, . . 300
INDEX, . . 301
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
ON SEPARATE PAGES.
PAGE
MAP, EOT SIVE ROTHERSAY, . . By J. K. Hewison, Frontispiece
GRAVESTONE IN ST BLAAN's CHURCH-)
u ii . Vignette
YARD (KILBLAAN), J
MAP OF BRITANNIA, FROM PTOLEMY, .... 5
THE DEIL'S CAULDRON AT KILBLAAN, By Mr James Walker, . 20
CRANNOGES IN DHU LOCH ) . . By Mr John Mackinlay, "j
r r 44
AND LOCH QUIEN, ) . .By Mr James Kay, )
DUNAGOIL FORT, . . . . . . .54
MICHAEL'S GRAVE, ....... 66
CARNBAAN, ... . . By J. K. Hevuison, . 74
KILMACHALMAIG CIRCLE, ...... 80
KILMICHEL CHURCH, EXTERIOR, . . . . .112
ii ii INTERIOR, . . . . .114
ST BLAAN'S CHURCH —
GROUND -PLAN OF CHURCH, CHURCHYARD, AND PRECINCTS,
BEFORE 1874, ....... l66
SOUTH WALL OF CHANCEL — INTERIOR ELEVATION, SHOWING
THE ORIGINAL CHURCH, . By Mr Wm. Galloway, . 175
GABLE BETWEEN NAVE AND'k
In u . l8o
CHANCEL — WEST ELEVATION, J
xiv List of Illustration*.
tr mum's CHURCH—
i/r It'*. Gmfomy, . 182
CABLE BETWEEN NAVE AND)
I » . 184
i:L— F.AST ELEVATION.
EASTERN OAiUt— EXTERIOR ELEVATION, •• . l86
•OCTH WAU. Of CHAHCEL— BX-\
> <t •• • loo
TERIOR ELEVATION,
GENERAL VIEW PROM S.W., . By Mr Jamtt Walker, . 192
EASTERN CABLE— INTERIOR EL- )
I By Mr If m. Galloway* . 200
RVAT1ON, .
OR GRAVE-SLAB IN ROTHESAY CASTLE, • 232
IN THE TEXT.
r.ROUXtVf LAN OP CASTLE CREE, . 49
it AULTMORE FORT. . . 5'
DUNBL'RGIDALE PORT, . 54
VIEW OP DUNAGOIL PORT. . . 56
SECTIONS OP VITRIPIEO WALL, DUNACOIL, Ry Mr John Hotlfymatl, 58
WEST VIEW OP VITRIFIED WALL AT DUNACOIL. . . 59
MCTIOSf Or VITRIFIED WALL ON EILEAN BUIDHE, . . DO
GROl'KD-PLAN OP VITRIFIED FORT ON EILEAN BUIDHE, . . 60
STONF. AXE FOUND ON AMBRISBEG HILL, . . 64
VIEW OP DOLMEN AT BICKER'S HOUSES. . . 65
CINERARY URN FOUND AT MOUNTSTUART, . . 69
JET NECKLACE FOUND AT MOCNTSTUART. . . . 70
TREPANNED SKULL FOUND AT MOUNTSTUART, . 71
PLAN OK CIST OR CELL IN CARNBAAN, . . . 77
VIEW Of STONE CIRCLE AT BLACKPARK, KINGARTH. . 79
GROUND-PLAN OP STONE CIRCLE AT KILMACHALMAIG, . . 8l
COLD RINGS, FILLETS, AND BAR OF SILVER FOUND ON PLAN FARM, 82
THE FIRST CHURCH OF THE CHRISTIANS IN BRITAIN, . . 90
List of Illustrations. xv
GROUND-PLAN OF ST NINIAN'S CHURCH AND "CASHEL," . . 96
GROUND-PLAN OF KILMICHEL, . . . .113
KILMACHALMAIG CROSS, . From Photo by Miss S. Macrae, 116
FIGURE OF SWASTIKA ON KILMACHALMAIG CROSS, . . 1 17
HEAD OF CROSS WITH RUNIC INSCRIPTION FOUND ON INCHMAR-
NOCK, . . 135
FOOT-FONT AT KILBLAAN, ...... 179
GROUND-PLAN OF ST BLAAN'S CHURCH, . . . 1 82
SOCKET OF CROSS AT KILBLAAN, ..... 193
THE BELL OF ST FILLAN, ...... 197
MARKS ON GRAVE-SLABS IN KILBLAAN CHURCHYARD, . . 21$
MARKS ON GRAVE-SLABS AT KILBLAAN, .... 2l6
GRAVESTONE FOUND AT KILBLAAN, . . . . .217
GRAVESTONES AT KILBLAAN, ...... 2l8
HEAD OF CROSS FOUND AT KILBLAAN, .... 2ig
GRAVESTONE AT KILBLAAN, ...... 2ig
ORNAMENT INSCRIBED ON GRAVE-SLAB AT KILBLAAN, . .219
ORNAMENT INSCRIBED ON GRAVE-SLAB AT KILBLAAN, . . 22O
GRAVE-SLAB IN KILBLAAN CHURCHYARD, . . . .221
GRAVE-SLAB AT KILBLAAN, . . . . . .221
GRAVESTONE FOUND IN INCHMARNOCK, .... 222
GRAVESTONE, OR CROSS-SHAFT, FOUND IN INCHMARNOCK, . 223
From Photo by Miss S.
CROSS IN ROTHESAY CHURCHYARD,
Macrae, . . .226
THE ISLE OF BUTE IN THE
OLDEN TIME.
CHAPTER I.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
" The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air. "
—MONTGOMERY.
JO obtain material from which may be formed a
historical survey of the Isle of Bute, in that dis-
tant epoch when it first came under the influences
of Christian civilisation, it is necessary to press
into our service not merely the data of the indispensable
chronicler, but also lingering folk-lore, now attenuated to the
vanishing-point; the evidence of ruined structures which
confess from their moss-grown faces their hoary antiquity ;
the testimony to growing intelligence from the relics of
industrial arts ; and such primitive ideas having historic sig-
VOL. I, A
2 fluff in the Olden Time.
nificancc as may be found embalmed in the names of places
and of individuals, and in customs dead or dying. These relics
are monumental. The synthetic method of reuniting these
broken fragments in order to form a symmetrical work which,
like a symbol, may represent in miniature the results of the
successive streams of life which once pulsated in the individ-
uals, tribes, and nation of Alban, must not be finally applied
until, after accurate scrutiny, these fragile survivals prove so
homogeneous as naturally to fuse into a unity. This is im-
perative where, as in the case of Bute, historic record is
•canty, local legend is sorely dctritcd, and the linguistic
impressions, from the moulds in which the early races cast
their thoughts, have been as rudely broken by foreign in-
vaders as their homes and temples by ruthless iconoclasts.
Though delicate its work, Archicology, like every other exact
science, is not now content to sec its peculiar field only
garnished with gossamers, which no explorer's foot dare break,
nor its dear stones left under a mantle of moss to be scorned
into oblivion. Its tool is no hammer to break, but the light
hand whose magnetism subtly picks from out the rust of
ages an enduring body, — in lack only of the re-inspiration of
its departed spirit. As that boon companion of the Celtic
missionary — the Anmchara> or soul-friend — carried in his
breast the other's confidences, so must the student of Eld
bear in himself the genii of his silent teachers of the moun-
tain and the muirland, so that when, in his love, he touches
their
" Worn faces that look deaf and blind,
Like tragic marks of stone,"
they may utter the weird talc of a wondrous past to him.
Bute has had a romantic history, which is largely accounted
What's in a Name? 3
for by its geographical and ethnographical position. By its
situation in the Firth of Clyde it was on the highway of the
sea-going nomads and nations on their northerly march of
conquest through Caledonia ; and being no mean " coign of
vantage," in course of time the isle became a debatable land
among the roving races. The Isle of Bute lies between the
county of Ayr on the east and the county of Argyle on the
north and west; is 15^ miles long, and varies in breadth
from \% to 6% miles. It contains (without Inchmarnock,
6/5.054 acres) 31,161.421 acres, or over 49 square miles
(North Bute Parish, with Inchmarnock, 15,546.012 acres;
Rothesay, 6,624.575 ; Kingarth, 9,665.888). Of the aborig-
inal inhabitants few traces remain; and, indeed, were it not
for the references to the early Church in the Irish annals of
the eleventh century, there would be no clear historical
record as to its separate existence till the time of the later
Norse invasions. Situated between the domain of conquer-
ing Romans and that of receding Caledonians, then between
the Brythons of Strathclyde and their Goidelic opponents in
the west, between these Brythons and the main body of the
Dalriadic Scots who swarmed out of Erin in the fifth century,
between these Scots and the redescending Picts of North
Caledonia at one time, and piratical Norsemen or Angles at
another, Bute seems to have been turned into a blood-stained
arena for warfare.
It is not to be wondered at that in the perplexing mazes of
Western geography Ptolemy and other early navigators either
omitted Bute or confounded its identity. Ireland and its
neighbouring isles were definitely known, and seem to have
been a source of interest on account of the alleged barbarity
of the inhabitants. Strabo informs us that, according to
Rute in the Oldtn Time.
travellers, they had then an easy method of Home Rule in
Erin by devouring their fathers before assuming paternal
Ittponsibilities.1
Ptolemy (A.I). 140), in his description of Britain, attaches
five islands, called " Tht Eboudai" (*E£ov&u), to the map of
Ireland ('\o\npvia), north of that country and between the
Hibernian Sea and the Dcucalcdonian Ocean.' He desig-
nates them Ebouda, Ebottda, Hrikina, Makos, Epidiou.
Malcos lies north of the others, which are all placed on the
same degree of latitude. Another island, called Afonaoida, is
placed south of these. Dr W. F. Skcne, after a careful col-
lation of texts, reads them — Afa/fus, Ebuda, Ebuda, Engari-
cenna, Epidium, and Monarina, and states his opinion that
the two Ebudai were probably Isla and Jura, Scarba was
Engarifcnna', Lismore was Epidiutn, Arran was Monarina,
corresponding to the group in the Irish documents, " Ara,
lit, Rathra aats innsi ore/if ana," — that is, Arran, Isla, Rachra,
and the other islands.' Dr Reeves identifies the Hrikina
('I'fxiVa) of Ptolemy with Rathlin — the Rictua of Pliny and
Ret /train of Tighcrnac.4
Pliny (23-79 A-D«) enumerates among the British Isles " the
H.x-budcs, thirty in number; and between Hibcrnia and
Britannia the islands of Mona, Monapia, Ricina, Vectis,
I.imnus, Andres."'
It is possible that Engaricenna was meant for Bute, and
that it is a form of a simple name — such as Ngari or Gari,
Sirabo, i. bit. iv.f ch. v. | 4, p. 399. Kohn.
' Clwrfii Ploienuri Gcographiit.' Ed. \VUbcrg, Eaeoduc, 1838, p. 103.
• Celtic Scocknd,' Skeoe, vol. i. p. 68. Edin., 1886.
' Ecd. Amiq. Down/ p. 288. Dublin, 1847.
•Ntf. Hi*.,' bk. hr., cb. x*x., voL i. p. 351. Bohn, 1887
What's in a Name? 5
which, signifying a mountain (ghari, gkerry, Sanscrit), is
common from the Himalayas to the Congo — still retained
in a corrupted form in Kingarth. In the Sclavonic tongue
gora is a mountain. And as in the Teutonic language burg,
a burgh, is related to berg, a mountain, so in Russ the word
for a burgh is gorod (Novgorod, new town), and in Polish grod.
I have also examined various editions of Ptolemy, and
found divergences of readings. A map of Britannia, from
Ptolemy, published in Bonn in 1462, gives Postmalos, to the
south of which are Ebuda, Engaritena, and Postepidu, and
beneath these Monarma.1 Any one conversant with the
difficulties of transcribing ancient manuscripts knows how
easily a writer to dictation transposes, omits, or repeats
letters, syllables, or even phrases, and how even two words
are slid together to form one. Engaricenna has the appear-
ance of an undesigned combination, as I shall try to show.
The earliest written reference to Bute is found in 'The
Annals of Tighernac ' of Cloinmacnois, who died in the year
1088, where, among other events connected with Ireland and
its Dalriadic colony, the deaths of " Daniel, Bishop of Cind-
garadh" and "John, Bishop of Cindgalarath" are chronicled
under the years 660 and 689 A.D. ' The Annals of Ulster,'
dating from 1498, refer also to these and other abbots of
Cinngarad, as is shown in a succeeding chapter.2 There can
be no doubt that the monastic establishment of Kingarth —
one of the two parishes of Bute — is the abbacy meant.
The place-name has usually been associated with the
Gaelic words Ceann-garbJi, signifying " the rough headland,"
1 Nordenskiold's 'Facsimile Atlas,' Stockholm, 1889.
" Chap. xi. 'Chron. Picts,' pp. 71, 73, 76, &c. Ed. Skene, 1867.
6 Hute in the Olden Time.
a designation truly descriptive of the southern shore of Bute,
now called Garroch Head, part of which is known in Gaelic
as Roimn-dmmhach, the feathered point But the body of
the word Cind-garadh is identical with the Celtic term for an
enclosed place, gairadkigurrdh.garrd (Gaelic, garadh, a dyke),
a word which passes into the Teutonic garth > and the English
gardtn. Ci*d or Ciati is the Gaelic ceann, head or chief.
So Cind-garadh signifies the head or headland enclosure, —
or the eminence of the enclosure, — as Kennavara, the high-
est site of Tircc, is the Ctann-na-Mara, " the eminence of the
•ea." I have afterwards to point out that this headland was
enclosed with a wall or sanctuary boundary from sea to sea
by St Blaan, so as to form the church's " garth " ; but there
may also have existed near at hand a fortified enclosure —
now the vitrified fort of Dunagoil (fort of the strangers) —
before St Blaan's day.
When the Irish strangers (Goill) held this enclosure, rath
(Goidclic for earth-fort), it is easy to sec how the place-name
was turned into Cind-gala-rath. The old parish school of
Kingarth stood on a field called Buttgarry, near Kilchattan
church, two miles from St Blaan's Church. Old Gaelic people
in Bute still call Kingarth Kennagairy. Thus, it is possible
the primitive word sounded to the Greek sailors' ears Ngari
or Engari, and on being repeated assumed the form of En-
gariktnna, or, on being written, was conjoined with the name
of the island of Canna, or the other Rikina.
In a ' Description of Britain,' composed in Latin, and dating
from the twelfth century, there is enumerated twice among
Gvnh Uryncich," Bcmicia's thraldom = Bamburough Castle. St Patrick
fcmihled at Hoaiaagaradh a church which was then called Kill garadh (Oran,
What's in a Name? 7
other isles in Scotland one bearing the name of Gurtk :
" Albania tota, que modo Scocia vocatur, et Morouia, et
omnes insule occidentales occeani usque ad Norwegian! et
usque Daciam, scilicet, Kathenessia, Orkaneya, Enchegal, et
Man et Ordas, et Gurth, et cetere insule occidentales occeani,"
&C.1 Dr Skene in his History says : " Ordas and Gurth are
probably intended for Lewis and Skye."'J In 1887 I ven-
tured, however, to draw the attention of this distinguished
Celtic scholar to my theory that Gurtk was no other than
Kingarth or Bute, and received the following reply : " The
names of Ordas and Gurth occur twice in the tract you refer to.
First, as ' Ordasiman, Gurth ; ' second, as ' Man et Ordas et
Gurth.' I take ' Ordasiman ' to be simply a misreading for
' Ordas et Man,' so that the two are substantially the same.
I have no doubt, looking to the mistaken forms of some of
the other names, that Ordas and Gurth are corrupted read-
ings of names a little different ; but looking to their being
conjoined with Man, and distinguished from Inchegall — a
name which embraced all the Western Isles, which the Nor-
wegians had occupied — I think the probability is that Arran
and Bute are meant. . . . The oldest form of Kingarth is
Cinn-garadh, and it is repeatedly mentioned in this form in
the Irish annals. Garadh in old Irish is any enclosed place,
and passes readily into Gurth. This I believe to be the true
meaning of the name, and to suppose that the second syllable
is 'garbh,' rough, I consider quite inadmissible." In the
seventeenth century Ninian Stewart granted a tack of the
teinds of Inchgarth (united to Rothesay) to Stuart of Askeoge.3
1 'Chron. Picts,' pp. 153, 154. 2 'Celtic Scot.,' vol. i. p. 396.
3 Scott's ' Fasti, ' vol. v. p. 29.
8 Rule in the Olden Tinu.
By this is probably meant Inchmarnock or " The Inch," as it
is commonly spoken of, whose church was probably served
from the Garth of St Blaan— the original parochia, parish, in
Bute. Not far from St Blaan's Church, and within its
"garth," stands the old mansion of Garrachty (Garadh-tigh),
in medieval times known as Garach.1 One of the hills above
it is called the " Harr " or head.
I imagine, then, that the parish got its descriptive name
from this Barr or hill (gnri), probably then the fortress on the
headland, which afterwards was supplanted by Dunagoil ;
and the name, having lost its original meaning, became asso-
ciated with the church enclosure. An instance of a similar
transformation of a word is found in Kelts, the scat of the
ancient monastery in the parish of the same name in County
Meath. Its early Irish name was Ccanannsa, Cenannus,
which means head-abode. In Columba's time its site was
called " L)un-chuile-sibrinnc," the royal dun of Diarmait Mac
Ccrbhaill. Columba marked off and blessed the site of the
town as Blaan set off Kingarth. The next form of the name
was Cenn-lios (lies, Irish for a stone fort), then Kenlis, and
finally Kelts. Hence Baron Kenlis of the British peerage is
known as Headfort in the Irish peerage.1
Several centuries elapse before the isle is designated Bute
or Kothcsay. Early writers considered Rothisay the older
name of the isle. John of Fordun, whose local knowledge is
generally so very accurate as to suggest that he had per-
sonally visited the Western Isles, thus refers to the Isles of
Albion : " But the first leader of those who inhabited them,
1 'Excbeq. Roils,' vol. v. p. 79.
* AiUmnan » 'Columba,' cd. Kccvcs, Introd., p. li.
What 's in a Name ? 9
Ethachius Rothay, great-grandson of the aforesaid Simon
Brec, by the interpretation of his name gave a name to the
island of Rothisay, and it bore this name indeed for the space
of no little time, until, when the faith of our Saviour had been
diffused through all the ends of the earth and the islands
which are afar off, Saint Brandan constructed thereon a booth,
in our idiom, bothe — that is, a cell — whence thenceforth and
until our times it has been held to have two names, for it is
by the natives sometimes called Rothisay — i.e., the isle of
Rothay — as also sometimes the Isle of Bothe."1 In enume-
rating the Scottish isles, cut off from the Orkneys, the same
writer mentions " the isle of Arane, where there are two royal
castles, Brethwyk and Lochransay ; the isle of Helantin-
laysche (Lamlash) ; the isle of Rothysay or Bothe, and there
a castle, royal, fair, and impregnable ; the isle of Inchmernok,
and there a cell of monks." 5 ' The Chronicle of the Scots '
(1482-1530) similarly declares : " Alsua ye first yat comme of
Mare Scotland in ye lesse yat now is ouris be ye grace of God
was callyt Rathus Rothia, eftir quhomm is callit ye lie and
ye Castell of Rothissaye, quhilk now is callit Bute eftir Saynte
Brandan." 3 ' The Metrical Chronicle,' written by William
Stewart, rector of Quodquen in 1530, which is not, strictly
speaking, a translation of Boece, but is founded on the ' Chron-
icon Scotorum,' in reference to the Irish king Rothus has : —
" Syne callit it to name B. . . .
The Yle of Bute, as my Author [say]
Efter his name gart call it Ro[thissay]." 4
1 'Chronica Gentis Scotorum,' lib. i. cap. 28 (vol. i. p. 24, Skene's ed.)
2 Ibid., lib. ii. cap. x. (vol. i. p. 43, Skene. )
3 ' Chron. Picts and Scots,' p. 380.
4 ' The Bulk of the Croniclis of Scotland," vol i. p. 27. London, 1858.
io Rule in the Olden Tim*.
In John Major's time (+1550) the isle went under both
names.1 Holinshcd ( + 1 580), following the common romance,
designates " Rothesay, the son of Notafilus," as the mythical
pre-Christian hero, who " named that isle which he first began
to possess Rothesay, after his own name.1 There was an
interesting variant in the form But/iania : " Buthania quae
Rothsay prius vocata," apparently preserving a trace of a
time when Bute was governed by a thane.8
But both Rothesay and Bute arc names apparently of a
Norse origin, Bute being the first mentioned in Norse records.
It has been attempted to trace Bute to a Celtic root — biadli,
food (Old Irish biad, Greek /&OTOV) ; but there is no mention
of this "island of food," in historical times, to corroborate
this good description of its fertility. Dr John Macpherson
thus refers to the probability of Bute being Epidium : " Cam-
den thinks that the ancient Epidium is the same with I la ;
M altos, Mull ; the Western Ebuda, Lewis ; and the Eastern
Ebuda, Sky. But if Kicina is the same with Arran, it is far
from being improbable that Epidium is the island of Bute,
which lies near it : Ey-Bhoid — that is, the Isle of Bute, in the
Gaelic language — being much more nearly related to Epidium
in its sound than I la. I have no objections to Camden's
opinion with regard to Alaleos and the larger Ebuda. . . .
It would therefore be equally proper with Camden's etymon
to call them Ey-budh in the British or Ey-bltoid in the Gaelic —
that is, the islands of corn, or metaphorically the Isles of Food.
The truth is, neither Camden or I can give any satisfactory
1 'Greater Britain,' p. 37. S. 11. S. «L, 1892.
1 lloluubed, 'Chron. of England,1 &c., p. 5. London, 1577.
' ' E&ttacU c variii Cronkis Scock,' Tutnbull, p. 5.
What's in a Name ? 1 1
etymon of the Ebudes" l In Johnston's ' Place Names of
Scotland' (p. 48) we find: "Bute. Norse Chron., c. 1093,
Bot ; 1204, Bote ; 1292, Boot; in G. Boite. Some think
G. bot, the hut or bothy (of St Brendan) ; but Dr M'Lauchlan
says (Hist, p. 316) fr. Bsete of Bute, son of Kenneth III.,
who lived early in eleventh century." In Blain's ' History of
Bute ' (pp. 6, 7), reference is made to Boot or Botey signifying
compensation, or an equivalent, and to Bute or Beute, signify-
ing spoil, as possible roots for the name. An analysis of the
oldest forms of the word may elucidate its meaning Its
present designation in Gaelic is Bold or Bbit (f.) One of the
headlands is known as Rhubodach (RudJia, a point ; Bbideach
or Bbiteach, of Bute). Rothesay is also called in the same
language Baile* Bhoid or Mhoid. How long these Gaelic
names have existed cannot be determined, since it is only
in modern times they appear in written form. And the pro-
nunciation of the genitive forms of two distinct words being
identical, it is thus difficult to settle whether the name was
derived from bbid, a vow, votive - offering, oath, or from
mod, moid, the Court of Justice or Mote, held in Rothesay ;
or again from a simple root Bot, of foreign origin, with a
meaning of its own. In this last form it is found in the
Islandic Sagas recounting the exploits of the Northmen in
the West.
To the Vikings the isle had the significant appellation
of Boty Bdtar (probably a plural form), Boot, Boet. Among
the documents seemingly taken by King Edward I. of
England from the King of Scots' Treasury at Edinburgh,
v
1 'Crit. Dissert, on the Origin, &c., of the Ancient Caledonians,' pp. 235-240.
London, 1768.
1 2 Mute in the Olden Time,
and vidcd in 1282, was one marked "A Charter of the
King of Norway concerning the Isle of Hot and certain
others conceded to the King of Man."1 Sturla (1214-
1284). the Norse historian of Haco, in the Saga giving
an account of the assault of the Norwegian fleet on a
castle in Bute, Botar (Mok svd inn til B6tar "),*—' The Account
of Haco's Expedition against Scotland, 1263,' mentions Bute,
/•'./, /.W«ir, seven times, and as a substantive thus : " ))a gcrdi
hann fim skip til Ik>tar" — i.e., he (Haco) also ordered five
ships for Bute.9 In the charter of Alan the Steward dispon-
ing Kingarth church and lauds to Paisley Priory in 1204, the
isle is called Bott ; and in the Register of the House it
reappears as Suit and Buyt — " Fcrchardo de Buit," " Nigil de
Buyt" * In a map of 1300, rcpublishcd by the Ordnance
Surveyors, I>ott is marked. Baliol included the isle in the
shcriftdom of Kintyre in 1292 as Boot (Act Pad., i., p. 44).
In Latin letters sent to Edward I. in 1301, Buth and Bwte
1 ' Robertsoo'i Index,' p. xxiii : "Charta regis Norwague super tnsula de Bot
c( (|uibuscum aliis conceals regi Manniae."
* ' Islandic ScfMi* voL il p. 147. The references to Bute in the ' Island ic
Sagas' tic UMK: —
•' Ok »va inn til Botar. Ok \*x satu Skotar i Kastulum ; ok var stivartfr fyrir,
cinn af Skotum." — ' Ilakonar Saga,' ch. 167 (421). 'Isl. Sagas,' vol. U. p. 147.
KulN Series. Edit, by Godbrand Vigfusson, M. A. London, 1887.
" Hann gurOi fimtin skip til Botar." — Ibid., chap. 320, p. 335.
" |>cir vkyllilu fara til Botar," &c,— Ibid., ch. 321, p. 338.
" Hann ^otlisk xtt-borinn til B6tar."— Ibid.
" lU'.t af i«ng>nj»tutn." — Ibid.
" |vir allir taman Norflrocnn, cr K v6ru i Bot." — Ibid., p. 339.
"Var )«t B6t, ok Henry, ok Kumreyjar."— Ibid., ch. 322, p. 340.
" pa let kooungr flytja lik frara holms inn til Botar ok var hann \»s jarflaS." —
Ibid., ch. 326, p. 349. ' Anecdotes of Olavc,' &c, by the Rev. Jamo JohnstOM,
p. 14 : * Antiq. Cello- Norman,' Ac, p. 31, ed. 1786. f
* Johiutooc's edit, 1782, p. 48.
4 ' Reg. Moo. de PaswlcV p. 15, pp. 127, 128.
What's in a Name? 13
are mentioned. The Exchequer Rolls of 1329 have Boyet
and Boct. It appears in 1375 as Bute; in 1501, Butt, The
Martyrology of Aberdeen gives Boit and Bute ; other Latin
writers Buta, Botha, Buthania, Dean Monro, 1597, Butt;
MS. Description of Scotland, 1580, Boyd. George Buchanan,
in his 'History of Scotland,' 1582, gives in connection with
Boot this interesting fact : " It hath but one town in it, bear-
ing the name of the island ; and in it an old castle called
Rothsey.' Blaeu's Atlas, 1662, has Boot and Buthe. In the
vernacular of Ayrshire Bute is known as Bit ; and an ex-
pression of a Lowlander's contempt for a pure Celt was
" a rank Hielan'man frae the isle o' Bit." This was per-
haps a reminiscence of the days when the Scots harried
Strathclyde.
The name Bot may be fitly associated with the beacons
raised by the northmen in time of war. Snorre the historian
(1178-1241) points out that Haco had stringent laws regard-
ing beacons, by means of which he was able to flash
messages over his kingdom in seven days. In the Laws
of Magnus, King of Norway, a chapter is found dealing with
the " Fire-watch " — " Um vita-vaurd," wherein authority is
given to the royal procurators to compel the bondsmen to
raise the watch-tower, gather the fuel, and light the beacon
on sighting the foe, under severe penalties.1 Olaus Verelius,
in his ' History of Gotric and Hrolf,' Kings of Westro-Gotia,
in explaining the fire-watch, observes : " Vitararz piles of dry
wood which are lit on maritime rocks for the purpose of an-
nouncing the approach of enemies ; they are also called bcetar
1 ' Magnus Konongs Laga-Bseters Gula-things-Lang,' Harvise, 1817, p. 85 ;
quoted 'Archoeo. Scot., 'vol. iv. p. 171.
I4 Rule in the OUU* Time.
* pan/ briar? » In the same author's 4 Index of the Scytho-
Scandinavian Language,' we find the entries: M Bota, eld
Tanda up eld. Igncm acccndcns Troj. S. ; " also, M Vard, ward,
wacht. cxcubix, custodia, vigilia. Byaward, Strandavard,
botaward. cxcubix circa pagos, in litore, in promontoriis ad
strucs lignum inccndcndos visa classc hostili," &c« That is
to say, Bota are lights, and Botaward is the fire-watch at the
fiamrrr OH the maritime rock, when a hostile fleet is in view.
In the Suio-Gothic glossary of John Ihrc the word is fully
explained, and is no other than the old English word bole, a
live fagot, which the English beet— to beet a flame— is con-
nected with.*
No finer example of a beacon-rock or pharos could be
found than that on the south-west coast of Bute called
Dunagoil, the fort of the strangers, which, when fired, was
visible to many forts on Bute, in the neighbouring isles, and
on the mainland ; and which, besides, is vitrified by the
action of fire. It may have given Bute its second name of
"The Beacon" in the olden time.
Rothcsay, as a place-name, is apparently Norse. The ter-
1 'lint Gotrici ct Hrolfii,' Upsala, 1664, quoted 'Archxo. Scot.,' voL IT.:
•• Vitar wot iriliriUHi lignorum strucs quae in maritimis scopulis inccmluntur ad
ctgnificandoin bostium adventum ; vocantur etiam bartar ct vanf-tartar."
' ' Index. Ling. Vet. Scrtho-Scandicac sive Gothicx,' &c., ed. 1691.
* '(ilouarimn Suio • Gothicum auctore lohannc Ihrc,' Upsalix, MDCCLXix.,
vol. i. pp. 254. 255. " Bota, accendere ignem. Alexander b6d et bdl oppbota.
Hist., Alex. M. khjrthmica. Alex, jusstt prram accendi. Belg., fvier bate* ;
A.S., AT/AM; Angl., Atari; Galli otim boater dixere unde bout c feu ; Ital., buita-
/**«, noliii fyrbStare qui ignem accendi t, metnphorice qui ducordias ferit Ostro-
batmemibm alias bete mtmAim ugnificat ncscio, an phari montilnis impocili
ikaoniinattooi occaMoni dederint." The ' New English Dictionary ' defines bolt
as "some kind of tool"!
What's in a Name ? 15
mination of the word, " ay or " ey," signifying, in Norse, an
island of the second magnitude (ey, a, oe, ay), is common in
the names of the Western Isles — as, for example, Cumbrae,
Sanday, Molasey (Holy Isle, i.e., Lamlash), Herrey (Arran),
Islay, Dyrey (Tiree). As before stated, Bute and Rothesay
were synonyms. In 1594 Dean Monro mentions "the round
castle of Buitt, called Rosay of the Auld." l During the Norse
invasions the castle does not appear to have had any desig-
nation, and is simply referred to as a " castle " (kastolum) in
B6tar.2 Consequently we may surmise that the name was
given subsequent to the raids of the Vikings and the invasion
of Haco, else so important a hold would be named in so full
a work as Sturla's contemporary ' Saga of King Haco/ in
which there are seven references to Bot and Botar. In the
'Chronicle of Man' Rothersay appears. In 1295 the con-
tracted form Rothir1 is met ; later, 1283-1303, come Rothyrsay,
Rotliirsai, followed by Rothesey and Rothesai (1404). In 1367
the "Castrum de Raythysay" is mentioned. From 1397
downward "Rosay" is the vernacular form. Wyntoun has
Rosay. The ' Metrical Chronicle ' refers to " the young
prince of Rosay." Martin (1703) takes a note of Rosa?
In the genealogical tree which the flattering medieval
chroniclers presented to the proud Scottish kings when the
independence of their realm was called in question by " the
auld enemy," among other nebulous monarchs appears Rothir,
Rether, or Rothrir — a descendant of Symon Brek ; and to
some such great hero the founding of Rothesay, on Rother's
Isle, was attributed. Martin says, " The people here have a
1 See Appendix.
2 "Hakonar Saga," ' Islandic Sagas,' vol. ii. p. 147. London, 1887.
3 See Appendix.
1 6 R*tc in the Olden Time.
tradition that this fort was built by King Rosa, who is said
to have come to this isle before King Fergus the first"1 R60i
is the name of one of the sea-kings found in the Norse
1 Rhymed Glossaries.' But it is to be taken into considera-
tion that the Butcmcn formerly preferred to call their burgh
" Bailc-a-mhoid " instead of Rothcsay, as Dr Maclea pointed
out a century ago: "The etymology of Rothcsay is not
fully ascertained. Some suppose it Danish. It is of Gaelic
origin ; the most natural and probable etymology of it is
Riogh suidht — that is, the king's seat, perhaps from there
being an old castle in it — the castle of Rothcsay, sometimes
the residence of certain of the kings of Scotland. By those
who speak the Gaelic language the parish is always called
Cilia bhruic, or Sgireachd B/mrie, — that is, St Brake's parish.
And the town of Rothcsay is called Bailea Mhoide, or the
town where the court of justice is held. The island of Bute
is itself called in that language Oilcan a' mhoidt, or the island
where the court of justice sits."8
In 'The New Statistical Account,' Dr Maclea's successor,
the Rev. Robert Craig, while ignorantly declaring that " Cilia
Bhruic" "is no better than a nickname," derives Rothcsay
from Rot/t-suid/u, a "circular scat," which, he thinks, is a
reference to the round artificial mounds on which the law
courts — Laws or Motes — were held.8
Rothcsay Castle is a round fortress, and, as suggested in
Mackinlay's history of the castle, may have been founded on
a primitive Irish fort or rat/t, from which it took its name.
" Rothcs may just be a corruption of G. rath, a fort."4 It is
1 Sec Appendix. * 'Sut. Ace.,' vol. i. p. 301. 1791.
* ' New Stal. Ace.,' p. 95- 1841.
• Johnston, ' PUce Names of Scotland,' p. 212.
What's in a Name ? 17
a significant coincidence that the diameter of this circular fort
is 140 feet, and that is said to have been the measure given
by an angel to St Patrick for the cashels or outer walls he
erected round his chapels.1 But there are many place-names
of the same build and feature originating out of different
ideas. Rhos or Ros in Cymro- Celtic signifies a maor, as
Rkoscollen, the meadow of hazels ; Rhos-du, the black moor.
In the Cornwall dialect Ros signifies a valley ; Rosvean, a
little valley ; Roskilly, a wooded valley. Ros in Goidelic
signifies a promontory or isthmus — e.g., Rosscastle, Rossbegh,
the birchen peninsula. It is noteworthy that the lands of
Rossy lie close to the island of Saint Braoch (Brioc) in
the South Esk near Montrose, while the lands nearest St
Brioc's Church in Rothesay are designated Rosland. The
mainland of Orkney is called Hrossey (horse-isle). Rothy
is a common prefix to place-names in Scotland, as, for
example, Rothy-brisbane, Rothy-norman, Rothie-may, &c. ;
Rothus-holm (Orkney). Aberdeen has its Rother's-toun.
Rudri (Latin, Rothericus)^ was a very ancient name among
the Brythons, and we see it descending to the famous Rudri,
whom we shall afterwards find claiming Bute from the Norse-
men as his " birthright." There is nothing improbable in the
supposition that the fortress was called after him.
However, I would suggest some connection between this
compound place-name and the Lawthing or court, which
must have been held in Rothesay by the Norse colonists.
The fortress or Mote of Rothesay may also have been the
Moot-stead or meeting-place of the court. According to the
writer of the ' Statistical Account of Scone,' the Moothill
1 Petrie, 'Round Towers,' p. 441.
VOL. I. B
I g Bute in the Olden Time.
there was known locally as Boot/till, and in Gaelic Tom a
Mhoid. The Norsemen, though holding the principle of
monarchy, were ruled by democratic assemblies called Things,
which exercised judicial and legislative power. These assem-
blies were national, district, or clan—Thing. M6t, and Hus-
thing, — and had their own especial functions assigned to
them. The Thingvbll (Thing-plain) was the place of assem-
bly, and in its vicinity was the Thing-brckka, or Thing-hill,
from which the decisions were promulgated.1 Cases were
also discussed within the ddmhrings, or circles of large stones,
which were also set apart for religious functions as well as for
duels. The assemblies were assisted in their deliberations by
lawmen or logmen, who, like the rabbis of old, were learned in
law and usage, and held their position by hereditary right, or
were chosen by the assembly. The lawman was chairman of
the Thing, and came to have great influence and power.2
From being originally a title of office (Lagamadr=juriscon-
sultusX it became the name which some powerful possessor
of it handed down to his lands and clan in Cowall and Bute,
—namely, Ardlamont and Kerrylamont (district of Lament ;
in 1488 Kcrclawmond). 'The Four Masters' refers to these
Lagmans as a tribe of Norsemen from the Innsi GalL or
Western Isles of Scotland, the first mention of them being
under the date of 962 A.D. (960, 4 M), when their fleet
plundered Louth. Magnus, "son of Aralt, with the Lag-
manns of the islands," plundered Inis Cathaigh, and carried
off Ivar, Lord of the foreigners of Limerick, — A.D. 974 (972,
1 I'ont, in hi* nap of Bute, marks on the Ardbeg shore a site called Rillevoil
(Hcilig-voll ?) beyond the old place of execution, the Gallows Koowc.
' The Viking Age,' by Da Chaillu, ToL i. chap. junri. ft *y. London, 1889.
What's in a Name ? 19
4 M). The representative of this functionary in the fifteenth
century was Lawmondson, the Coroner of Cowall, who paid
the dues to the Crown. In Orkney and Zetland the juris-
diction of this lawman and the authority of the primitive
Norwegian law were maintained till comparatively modern
times. And at the head court or Law ting the lawman or his
substitute, the head fold or foud, was assisted by assessors,
or, more accurately, jurors, called " Roythismen" or " Rotliis-
men."1 The term Rothismen is evidently derived from the
Icelandic raedi, defined by Vigfusson as " rule," " manage-
ment," connected with Icel. r/ttr, right, and was applied to
the old odallers, or free men, who alone had a voice in the
Thing. The descendants of these Rothismen in Bute may
have become those hereditary landholders, or odallers, who
were granted feu-charters as vassals by King James IV. in
1 506, and became incorrectly known as " Barons of Bute." 2
Thus Bute — Rothesay Burg in particular — was probably
the very centre out of which the lawman issued his edicts in
the district over which the Thing presided ; so that the Gaelic
names for the isle and town, Baile' MJioid and Eilean a
Mhoid, would represent the same idea as the Norseman had
when he called the mote or moat on its isle Rothis-ay — the
rule-isle, or the isle of management.
1 'Spalding Club Miscell.,' vol. v. p. 37.
2 See Appendix in vol. ii. for this charter.
20
CHAPTER II.
PREHISTORIC INHABITANTS.
For when the world was new, the race that broke
Unfathered from the nfl or opening oak,
Lived most unlike the men of later times."
—JUVENAL.
[HE existence of that mysterious stone circus,
adjacent to St Blaan's Church in the southern
extremity of Bute, popularly designated " The
Dcil's Cauldron," to which rustics and scholars
have assigned so many strange names and uses, naturally
suggests that the history of Bute extends to a past period
so remote as to be almost lost in oblivion. It is of the class
of mcgalithic structures found in many countries far separated
from each other, and usually referred to the workmanship
of a prehistoric race remarkable for architectural skill and
physical capacity. The silent masonry may yet divulge the
secret of its origin and purpose, together with the names
of its venerable builders. Meantime our historical data do
not warrant a precise delineation of the sequence of the
phases of civilisation witnessed here, in such terms as these :
" In the scale of the former occupants of Western Europe
we have, first, the flint folk of the geologist, then the reindeer
folk in a hunter state, then the polished-stonc-using folk
f
S"!" BLAN E'S • BUTE
• THE"BROCH" OR "DEVIL'S
SKETCH FROM THE
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 2 1
(or pastoral), then the Celts, and lastly, the Teutons." Had
the relics of past ages not been ruthlessly obliterated, the
contents of mounds and graves cast away without being
described, and primitive implements thrown aside, it might
be otherwise. Still a few objects of interest survive, however,
to illustrate several of these peoples and periods. While we
may infer that the primitive race or races which held the soil
passed through the three different phases of civilisation, —
the hunting, the pastoral, and the agricultural, — the work-
men who built this may be referred to so high an antiquity
as to warrant the earliest consideration of them at this
point.
The singular features and situation of the structure afford
a monument of a rude powerful paganism in retreat before
the irresistible force of a newer civilisation. For there is
a well-defined aim carried out in the form as well as in the
site selected. It is a massive circular wall from 9 to 10 feet
in thickness, composed of huge unhewn blocks of stones,
enclosing an oval space 33 feet 7 inches in the larger diameter,
and 31 feet in the smaller. The height of the wall still ranges
from 6 feet to n feet. A narrow doorway, 4 feet broad at
the entrance, and more contracted as it enters, pierces the
wall at the S.S.E. aspect. One of the stones forming this
entrance is 9 feet long and 2 feet thick. In structures of this
kind sometimes the entrance was also low, necessitating the
visitors to crawl in or stoop. Other huge stones, singly set
on end or built on each other, form a zigzag avenue up to the
door.
The inner surface of the wall (Plate III.) displays remark-
able polygonal masonry, formed of large smooth-faced stones,
whose irregular joints and courses are neatly fitted into one
22 llute in the Olden Time.
another without a binding medium, and present an even face
in the interior of the edifice. What remains of the wall is not
hollow, like other similar works in Scotland called Brochs,
which are generally placed on sites commanding a wide
outlook. The hollow portion of the walls, however, may
have been overturned. But this example is peculiar in
being cunningly disposed behind and beneath a precipitous
ridge, 70 feet in height, and in being built into this ridge
on the west out of the wild rocks that have been weathered
off the brow of the precipice which overlooks the circle. The
ridge itself is a natural citadel easily held on all sides, and
its strategic position could be rendered impregnable by such
strong outworks as still remain in their ruined condition.
The foundations of an outer defensive wall of similar con-
struction, 6 feet thick, are visible and run parallel to the
ridge on the cast so far, then sweep round so as to enclose
a large space beneath the ridge.
It is plain that the work is the product of fear rather than
of faith, and the final retreat of some tribe having reason
to shun observation, on account of a superior assailant.
When screened by brushwood, the hold would afford both
effective shelter for men and cattle and storage for valuables.
Fcrgusson, in ' A Short Essay on the Age and Uses of the
Brochs/ while attributing these strange buildings to a Nor-
wegian origin, says : " For all purposes of active or offensive
warfare the Brochs arc absolutely useless," yet " for passive
resistance they arc as admirable as anything yet invented."
" The Dcil's Cauldron," then, was the robber-proof " safe " ;
the overhanging eminence, the final stand at arms. No
ecclesiastical purpose can be quite suitably assigned to it, so
it must be referred to a very distant era, coeval probably with
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 23
the magnificent works in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Italy
of a similar character and construction.
The natives of Bute, in continuing to call it " The Dreamin'
Tree Ruin," preserve both its Celtic name and the memory
of an ancient superstition. The "Dreamin' Tree" is no
other than the Celtic words Druim-en-tre, the little ridge-
dwelling ; while the custom itself is clearly a survival of
tree-worship practised by the same race who piled up the
Circus.1 Till very recently there flourished within its
area an ash (some say a fir) which was " made for
happy lovers." Standing together they plucked its leaves
and ate them, believing this act to produce pleasant dreams
wherein were revealed their intended spouses and true fates.
Latterly, the tree had to be climbed together to obtain the
prophetic philter so eagerly coveted.
Several weighty considerations deducible from relics of
language, remains of megalithic erections — popularly known
as Druidical temples and Pictish buildings — and stone imple-
ments, tend . to prove that long before the Celtic people,
either Goidels or Brythons, occupied Britain and Ireland,
another great branch of the human family of non-Celtic
character had overrun Europe as far as Alban, carrying with
them an advanced knowledge of a practical rather than of
an intellectual type. Even Herodotus in his day does not
locate the Celts so far west as a tribe he names Kynetes,
or dog-men, whoever they were.
The so - called Turanian people (which is a convenient
name only for this particular type of people), as some eth-
1 Druim, Drom (Goidelic) ; Dram (Cym.-Cel.), a ridge; Tre, Tref (Cym. -
Cel.), a dwelling. This fate-making tree, sacred to the pagan Goddess of Love,
gradually stripped of its summer glory, withered and died, within memory.
24 Hutc itt tlu Olden Time.
nologtsts recognise them, emerging from Asia, were of a
restless, energetic, nomadic disposition, and having no equals
in architectural skill, left their impress in those huge struc-
tures of uncemcnted stone which arc called Cyclopean or
Pclasgic work. In the neolithic age their implements were
stone. The same characteristics which distinguish the
masonry of the primitive inhabitants of Egypt, India, China,
Mexico, who were not Celts, arc found in many buildings
in Scotland, and especially where the mysterious Picts are
known to have lived. Eventually these wandering Orientals,
— in an Iberian type, small, dark-skinned, curly-headed, long-
skulled, represented by the early tin-workers and traders of
ttritain, and probably the race in Ireland called Firbolg*—
migrated to Alban. They are still represented in Europe
by the Magyars, Lapps, and Finns, although in Alban they
gradually became lost beneath the stream of Aryan life—
namely, the Goidels and Brythons. In a late period, illus-
trated by Greek, Roman, and Irish chroniclers, we discover
these two branches of the Celtic race closely contending with
an ancient people, of different language and customs, till
they, pressed northward and westward, disappear in Cale-
donia. In other lands the same race in the tug-of-war gave
in to the Aryan, so here duly the Pict succumbed to the
Goidcl. This survival of the fittest was natural. The
Turanian was a pilgrim people, with no cohesive power to
underlie political and social life, so without literature and
a national spirit they were dispersed, leaving scarce a monu-
ment Similarly, the Picts have left so few memorials that
we must revert to the family stock to discover their real
character and habits.
Speaking generally, these pilgrims were nature-worshippers,
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 25
assigning deities, who were formerly human, to visible objects
and places ; were venerators of trees and sacred animals ;
adored the sun and stars ; had ideas of spiritual develop-
ment through the transmigration of souls ; and sacrificed
even human beings to appease their deities. Religion of
this kind is similar in its main features to the Druidism
practised by the Gauls, and recalls the occult intimacy with
the deities in nature which the Caledonian Picts in Columba's
time pretended to have. Their literature was only oral, and
their records were kept in very simple signs or symbols, and
consequently vanished. Their art was practical and even
beautiful, but conveyed the idea that the proof of physical
greatness was man's highest attainment. Some survivals of
this primitive spirit long lingered in Bute and the West Coast.
There is a remarkable harmony in Irish ethnologic legends
in attributing an eastern origin to the primitive conquering
races in Ivernia or Erin. , They variously trace to it succes-
sive migrations from Scythia, Egypt, Greece, through the
Mediterranean and Spain, through Gaul, or round by the
North Sea. Except in one particular, Bute is not much con-
cerned with these legends. But from the internal shiftings
of races and tribes in Erin, this general deduction may be
drawn ; that the aboriginal people, who were not Celtic, were
slowly cornered by the Goidels into north-east Ireland, or
Uladh — i.e., Ulster — or forced into the Western islands and
Caledonia, whither their kinsmen in Britain were also driven.
The distinctive features, customs, and ideas of the conquered
race remained long after their mother-tongue gave place to
that of their conquerors, just as in Bute, families of pure Celtic
origin, whose parents spoke Gaelic fifty years ago, can only
speak English now.
26 H*tt in tlu Olden Time.
These Ulidians, Picts, or Cruithnigh, occupied Bute, then
were disturbed by the Brythons, and finally amalgamated
with the Goidcls from Ireland. They obtained the name
Crttithni (Latinised Picti, painted) from their custom of paint-
ing the forms (Crotha) of beasts, birds, and fishes on their
faces and bodies.1
To these non-Celtic emigrants settled in Alban the Pictish
Christian missionaries first came from Minister, where the
Firbolg settled, and Ulster, as will be noticed again.
It appears from a mythical account of these early migra-
tions that, after the defeat of a people known as Firbolg, by
others styled Tuatha DC Danann, the former overran the
Western Isles, whence later the Picts expelled them. They
were credited with being descendants of Symon Brck, of
.Thracian origin, whom the Greeks had enslaved, forcing them
to dig earth and carry it in leathern sacks or bags (in Irish,
bolg\ They revolted, and turning their bags into coracles,
escaped to Ireland. To Hibernian moralists they had a bad
character, as shown in these lines :—
" Every blustering, vicious man . . .
Every gross, lying, unholy fellow—
Remants these of those three peoples
Of Gailitfin, of Fir Bolg, and of Fir Domnann.
Three remarkable traditions which have a family resem-
blance to this myth still survive in Bute. Perhaps the myth
is only a popular description of the practical work of the
primitive Ivcrnians, who mined for minerals and excavated
for their cyclopean buildings.
On the western shore of the isle, near Scarrcl Point, exists
1 Prof, kliys ' Celtic Britain,' p. 240.
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 27
a cave designated " The Piper's Cave," which the natives be-
lieved to be the opening to a subterranean passage through
Eenan Hill to Carnbaan or Achavulig (Ach-a-bhuilg), where
its exit was. Supernatural beings inhabited this dark retreat,
which no mortal dared enter. A bold piper essayed this for-
lorn-hope, and was heard by his friends gaily piping under-
ground until his slogan became hushed in the depths of the
mountain. As he passed under the hearthstone of Lenihall
farmhouse, he was heard lamenting that he had not a sword-
hand as well as two for his pipes, and he would have routed
the ogres and demons attacking him ("Da lamh air son a
Phiob agus lamh air son a chlaideamh."). Then the music
ceased — for ever.
Within a short distance of the scene of this exploit is a
series of underground buildings, like huge cists, called Carn-
baan, which also require consideration hereafter.
When St Blaan, whose imcle, St Catan, and mother, Ertha,
were Dalaradian Picts, after being educated by SS. Comgall
and Kenneth, also Picts, returned to Bute, he brought with
him holy earth, which the tradition says he had transported
from Rome. As he carried his precious burden up from Port
Lughdach, through Glencallum, to the site of his chapel, the
" rigwoodie," to which the creels of earth were suspended,
from his neck, broke. He implored a native woman, then on
her way to the shore to collect " moorach," little shell-fish,
to assist him, only to meet a refusal, however. The irritated
saint replied to the disobliging dame : —
"An uair a theid thu do an traigh
Biodh am muir Ian ann," —
z'.e., Whenever you go to the sea-shore may there be high tide.
And after his church was erected he broadened this curse by
28 Hulc in the Olden Tim*
enacting that no women were to obtain burial in his cemetery
beside the men. An adjoining piece of ground was assigned
to females ; and this custom of separate burial survived till
1661, when it was stopped by an injunction of the Presbytery
of Dunoon. This association of St Blaan with a basket or
bag is thus suggestive of the popular description of the race
he sprang from.
The medieval Castle of Rothesay, with its perfect Norman
masonry, is a circular fortress, and supposed, on account of
its form, to have superseded a Celtic Rath, and to have been
built by Rothir, a descendant of Symon Brek. The tradition
among the Gaelic-speaking natives was that " a race called
Pcchs " built it with stone from Mountstuart, and that every
stone was handed from hand to hand by a line of " Pcchs "
extending from the quarry to the fort This myth, reduced
to its elements, may perpetuate an important circumstance
corroborative of the activity of the original inhabitants of the
isle, who were not Aryans, or waggon-men, able to transport
stones by wheels, nor yet sea-dogs, like the Vikings, carrying
material by ships, but simple manual workers, of one family
with the Bag-men.
THE LANGUAGES OF ELD. — Were a scientific analysis
and classification of the place-names of Bute to be under-
taken, it would in all probability be found that, as in the
excavations of ancient cities like Rome and Jerusalem,
layers of dt'bris of one period arc found covered by those
of a later, and even the work of a departed generation is
intermingled with that of its successor, the surviving traces
of one dead language containing memorials of its immediate
predecessors.
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 29
Generally speaking, the Goidelic branch of the Celtic tongue
(as a spoken tongue) has held the field in Bute not less than
thirteen hundred years, since the sons of Ere established
themselves in the West. Consequently, in every quarter, we
find a preponderance of purely Goidelic nomenclature, where
one might otherwise have expected to discover reminiscences
of a prehistoric people of a different race. The hill-tops, the
prominent ridges, the striking features of the land, the lochs,
the quarterings of the land, the villages, the churches, with a
few exceptions, have been designated by Goidelic descriptive
names. In other districts it is common to notice the traces
of a conquered people in the popular names which linger in
the memory in reference to places esteemed by the conquered
or despised by the victor. Here it is otherwise, although
there is great reason to suspect that many of the place-names
have an origin with the primitive folk who preceded both
Brython and Goidel in Bute. (See Map, frontispiece.)
The paucity of the Brythonic or Cymro - Celtic names,
together with the situations in which they are found, leads
me to infer that the first people — call them Picts, Cruithni, or
Ivernians, — were driven out of the isle, northward, long before
the Dalriadic Scots or Goidels swarmed out of Ireland — i.e.,
the fifth century. Or it might even be that the Brythons
drove these Goidels west into Ireland, and that they after-
wards re-emigrated, like the Ivernians before them. Be that
as it may, I have afterwards to show (chapter v.) that there is
a reasonable ground for supposing that Pictish missionaries,
like Finnian, Faolan, Catan, Colman, and others — Irish
Picts — brought the Gospel specially to these primitive folk
in the West. And it was because broken families of them
lingered in the Western Isles and dales of the mainland that
3O flute in the Oldfn Time.
the Dalaradian pioneers of Christianity found their incentive
to mission-work here.
The Appendix of Place-names will more fully illustrate
this subject.1 Achavnlig (Ach-a-bhuilg) contains a word
which might be identified with Mg, a name in various com-
binations found in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Role was
an epithet of the early Pictish king Gartnail, and among the
Pictish names of witnesses to a benefaction of King I fungus,
given in the Legend of St Andrew, Bolgc appears. The
" Firbolg " were, according to the chroniclers, a people of
Ireland who "took possession of Manand and certain islands
in like manner — Ara and Ila and Rccca." *
In Kerryffrn (Ceathramh fern, the alder-tree quarter, &c. ;
Goidclic, fcdrna, s.f.) is preserved a word fern, which is the
Pictish equivalent for anything good. I am not aware that
the district known as Kcrryfern on the west side of Bute was
ever noted for alders ; and although the prefix is pure Goi-
dclic, there is nothing improbable in the supposition that the
idea "fern? which gave this district its name, was a primitive
survival.
Those obstinate words which cannot be interpreted, after
the solvents of the Brythonic, Goidclic, and Teutonic tongues
have been applied to them, might be set aside as a residuum
in which philologists are to seek for survivals of the primitive
tongue. I have already tried to show that Kingarth is a word
of primitive parentage, which now exists in a more modern
garb ; and there may be others which have assumed new
meanings by being found identical in form in two languages,
the first of which was strangled by its conquering successor.
1 Appendix I. * ' Chron. Picts and Scots,' pp. 23, 27, 187.
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 31
THE BRYTHONIC LANGUAGE is still represented by a few
names, which resisted the interference of the Goidelic in-
vaders of the land. The test-words of the Cymric language
are not all illustrated ; but of bryn, a brow, we have a survival
in Barone Hill ; of pen, a head (Goidelic, ben or cenn), in
Penycahil ; and of tre, a dwelling, in " Druim-en-tre ruin " (cf.
Cymric, dram, a ridge), the circular building at Kilblaan.
If scholars are right in associating the name of the Cumbrae
Isles (Kymry-eyiar, Norse) with those Brythons called the
Cumbras, the Cumbri, or Kymry, who possessed Cumbria or
Cambria — a name which signified felloiv-countrymen, and was
applied to the scattered septs of the Brythons wherever found
— then Bute may retain a reminiscence of them in the district
called Cummermennoch, Cumer, maen (Cymric, mm, men,
maen, a high rock ; ng]i, high), the high brow of the hill of the
Kymry, which might apply either to the fort on Barone or
on Dunallunt, between which the district lies, or to the now
•
dismantled Cnoc-an-Coigreaich. In the 'Saxon Chronicle'
we find Cnmerland, Cumberland, Cumbraland, for Cumbria.1
Llan, an enclosure, later the sacred enclosure or church, is
a Cymric word, apparently appearing in St Kruisklands
Church, and in Plan (Cym.,pwl, a marsh), the farm lying south
of St Blaan's Church and above the marshy ground of
Bealach Dearg Bog. In Rothesay, Rosland, in the vicinity
of the church, may be connected with Cymric Rhos or Ros, a
moor, and llan, the church.
Dal, a meeting-place, is probably found in Dunburgidale,
a fort ; Ardroscadale, a fort ; Birgidale.
There are several prefixes and suffixes almost identical in
1 Cf. 'Celtic Britain,' Rhys, p. 144.
32 Bute in the Olden Time.
both branches or the Celtic language which arc well illus-
trated here, such as —
Dun (Gym. <////), a hill -fort — DunaJlunt, Dunagoil, Dun-
stronc (Goidclic, sron; Cym. trwyn or tran, a pro-
montory).
Terr (Cym. twr), a mound, conical hill — Torrwood,
Torachrcw, Torachapplc.
7», land — Achantirie ( Tir-ith, land of corn).
Teach and Tigh (Cym. (?), a house — Teyrow, Tcyntudor,
Tighnlcanan.
Ardt a height — Ardmolcis, Ardroscadalc, Ardscalpsie.
Cam or Cairu, a heap of stones (Cym. karn, kern— Carn-
baan, Carnahouston.
Dair (Cym. dar\ an oak-tree — Bardarach.
/finis (Cym. ynys\ an island — Inchmarnock.
Hut the preponderance of the place-names arc of Goidclic
origin — a fact not to be wondered at, seeing that, until half
a century ago, the Gaelic language was native in the isle.
For example, Achadh (ach, agh, aitch, augh\ a field, plain,
or meadow ; BaiU (bal), a place, home, town ; fiarr, a
summit ; I-lur, a plain or battle-field ; Ccann, a head or
headland ; A'//, a church ; Cnoc, a hill ; Cult a back or corner ;
Ctathramh (Kerry), a quarter ; Dntim, a ridge ; Lean, Leana,
meadow, a swampy plain ; Learg, the slope of a hill ; Rath,
a round earthen fort ; Suid/if, a seat ; — are words of frequent
recurrence. Thus we have Achamore, Achawillig, Acholter,
llalianlay, Balccaul, ttarr Hill, Bardarach, Blarsgadan, Blar-
mcin, Ccanngarad, Kilblaan, Kilchattan, Knocanrioch, Meek-
nock, Culcvin, Culdonais, Druimachloy, Drumavaincran,
Kcrrycroy, Kcrrymcnoch, Lcancntcskcn, Balilonc, Largi-
brachtan, Largizcan, Cnocanrath, Suidhc Chattan, Suidhc
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 33
Bhlain, and others. On the farm of Greenan (grianan, a
sunny spot) the fields were named in Goidelic, until the last
generation, when English designations superseded them.
This is a very good example of the change which has
taken place : —
Blar-sgadan, battle-field of Misfortune (burial-cairns found
not far off).
Glas-trom, grey (blue or green) elder-tree.
Shan-tallon, seann, old ; talla, hall.
Cnapach, hilly, lumpy.
Reiliglas, reilig, a burial-place — the green burial-place.
Reilig-nerget, burial-place of Nerget
Reilig-vourkie, burial-place of Vourkie.
At what period the Goidels divided the isle into districts
(ceathramJi) is not determined ; but of this division there are
traces in those place-names — Kerrycroy, Kerrymoran, Kerry-
neven, Kerrytonlia, Kerrylamont, Kerrymennoch, Kerryfern,
Kerrycrusach. The appearance of Lamont (Norse, lagamadr,
law-man) in conjunction with Kerry would signify a period
contemporary with the Norse possession for the origin of
that word.
The Goidels called the district occupied by a family or
tribe (Cine) a Tuath. Each Tuath had a church, chief, and
poet.
The tribe (Fine) held the tribe-land, the arable part of
which was set off in shares to the free members of the tribe ;
the pasture-land being grazed upon in common.
The Flaith or nobles of the tribe held the inheritance land
(Orbd) as a personal possession, and under them were tribes-
men and stranger serfs. The Tuath was made up of Raths
or homesteads, each surrounded by its earthen rampart.
VOL. i. C
34 Bute in the Olden Time.
This word is preserved in North Bute in Cnoc-an-rath—
possibly also in Rothcsay. The burgh of Rothcsay still
possesses a part of the old Fccht-fint or tribe-land at Wcstland
and Ardbrannan. The leader or Toiseck of the tribe was
elected from the nobles, and was supported out of the tribe-
land. The Neils or Macneils of Kilmoric long held office
as Crowncrs of Bute, a function which in other places came
through appointment as a Toiseck-Dior, or leader in regard
to the law. When the tribe-land became the property of the
Crown, the Toiscch was called a Thane, and Bute is once
mentioned as Buthania. The word Tosh (now M'Intosh),
as a family name once so common in Bute, is said by Sir
John Skene to be the equivalent of T/tanus.1
The Tuath was divided into townships, Dailes, Bals, of
which there were Ballentua, Balicurich, Baliochdrach, Bali-
anlay, Balicurry, Balicaul, Balilone, Balnakelly, Bailc' Mhoid ;
and into homesteads, tighs, of which several have been
already mentioned.
The use of the word Butt — a small field, a word of un-
certain origin in this sense — to designate a small parcel of
land, is evidently much more modern than that of those
above specified. We have Butt Glencallum, Butt n' tuilk,
Buttblair, Buttnamadda, Buttnamcnna, Buttnaflorin, Buttin-
luck, Buttbruich, Buttcurry, Buttgarry, mostly in the parish
of Kingarth.
The Northmen have left fewer linguistic proofs of their
prolonged domination over Bute than the student would
expect The survivals, however, are definite. Ay or Ey, an
island, appears in Rothcsay, Cumbrac, probably also in
1 ' Rcgiam Majcstatcm,' bk. iv. c. 31. Cf. Skenc's ' Fordun,1 vol. ii. p. 447.
Prehistoric Inhabitants. 35
Scalpsie ; burg or borg, in Dunburgidale, Birgidale, prob-
ably also in Ambrisbeg, Ambrismore ; haugr, a heap or
mound, Ayshaug, Cuochag, Bruchag, Ascog ; wick or vig,
a bay, Ettrick ; strad (A.S.) stroede, a row or street, The
Straad ; /ms, a house ; ton or tun, an enclosure, Carnahouston,
Langill — in combination with chorad, quochag, &c. — lang,
long; gilt a glen with a stream flowing through it.
It will thus be seen that the Goidelic language has, at
least in place-names, held its own throughout the ages, and
in all the more prominent features of the land is likely to
continue into the remotest future.1
1 Merely for convenience, I use the terms Goidel and Goidelic in reference to
the Celts both in Erin and Alban in the earliest times, and Gael and Gaelic to the
Celts of Scotland only in our own day.
CHAPTER III.
MONUMENTS OF UNRECORDED TIMES.
" flow many different rites have these grey old temples known !
To the mind what dreams are written in these chronicles of stone ! "
— D. F. M'CA*THY.
[HE history of the early races who inhabited Bute
has to be painfully deciphered from such memo-
rials as their weapons, graves, memorial struc-
tures, forts, and dwellings in their now time-worn
condition afford us. Those periods into which antiquaries
divide prehistoric time, according to the character and
materials of which weapons and tools were made — viz., the
Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, — are sufficiently well illustrated
here to show that the same civilising movements which in-
fluenced other places influenced Bute in their respective
successions. The smallness of the area under investigation
makes it impossible to obtain very rich relics from which to
form generalisations. As is natural to suppose, men at first
used their hands, and then the rude natural objects that
seemed fitted to effect their ingenious purposes, — a fact borne
out by the observations of all who have studied the subject,
so that even the Latin poet, Lucretius, could write —
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 37
" Man's earliest arms were fingers, teeth, and nails,
And stones, and fragments from the branching woods ;
Then copper next ; and last, as later traced,
The tyrant iron."
Of the very early ages when uncivilised man supported him-
self by fishing and hunting and by herbs, roots, and fruits, or
even later, when he gathered the refuse of family and tribe
into " kitchen - middens," we have no memorials in Bute.
Having no protecting medium, the human bones have dis-
solved. No bone or wooden implements have survived. I
have been informed of the finding of undressed flint arrow-
heads, but one cannot determine whether these have de-
scended from the Palaeolithic or Primitive Stone Age or
were a later product.
TABLE OF PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS AND RELICS.
I. PIT-DWELLINGS : Barmore Wood and Hill; Barone Hill; Dunal-
lunt Hill.
II. CRANNOGES: LochQuien; Loch Dhu.
III. i. EARTH FORTS (Duns or Raths) : Dunallunt (No. i) (Blain, p.
117), round; Cnoc-an-Rath or Tom-en-raw (Blain, p. no),
round ; Nether Ettrick (?), oval ; Nether Ardroscadale,
round ; Ardnahoe, oval.
2. STONE FORTS (Duns or Burgs) : —
1. Solid Walls: Dunstrone of Lubas (BL, p. 71), oval; Carna-
houston (BL, p. 37), round (?); Dun of Scalpsie (Bl., p. 34),
oval ; Clachcarnie (BL, p. 35), oval ; The Fort, Mecknock,
removed (BL, pp. 91, 117); Castle Cree (Mackie's or
Macrae Castle) (BL, p. 91), oval; Bicker's Houses, oval;
Dunallunt (No. 2), round; Aultmore (Kilmichael), semi-
circular ; Cnoc-an-coigreaich (Auchantirie), round ; Ardma-
leish (BL, p. 114), removed, round ; Barone Hill (BL, p. 86),
oval ; Drumgirvan (BL, p. 35), irregular circle ; Balilone
(BL, p. 35), oval.
2. Hollow Walls .' Dunbtirgidale. (Probably also Cree's Castle
38 KnU in the Olden Tim*.
and The Dreamin* Tree Broch at St H loan's Church,
round.)
3. Vilrijitd Walls: Dunagoil (Bl., p. 75; Reid, pp. 15, 16),
irregular, to suit ground ; (One of the Burnt Islands)
Eilean Iluidhc (III., p. 116; Reid, pp. 15, i6\ round.
(CASTLES: Kelspoke; Kilchattan; Wester Kames ; Kames; Castle
Crcc (see above) ; Rothesay ; Meikle Kilmory ; Ascog.]
IV. GRAVES:—
1. Cists without urns: Dunagoil (Bl., p. 78), bones, parts of skulls;
St Illaan's Churchyard, bones ; Craigbiorach (M acconachic
MS.); Bruchag, Kerrylamont, bones and ashes; Cnoc-nn-
coigrcaich and Mid-field, Auchantirie, skulls and ashes;
Rhubodach, skull.
2. Cists with urns : Straad (Ord. Surv.), urn ; Nether Ardroscadale
(III., p. 92), urn; Hill of VVindyhall, several urns; Mount-
stuart, urn, trepanned skull, beads, bronze, 1890; (S.-E. of)
Mickle Kilchattan, urn.
3. Barrows: (Carnbaan) ; Kerrylamont (2); Calmorayin; Mount-
stuart, removed (Bl., p. 59) ; Kerry tonlia (2\ largest mound
opened, found empty; Watch Hill, Upper Ardroscadale,
bronze weapon and cist.
4. Cairns with cists: (N. of) Bruchag (Maccon. MS.), 1817, orna-
mented urn; Scalpsie, oval (Maccon. MS.), several urns;
Ilreckoch (Bl., p. 85), urn; Reiligxdain, 19 cists, i urn,
removed (see chap, viii.)
5. Cairns or barrows unopened: Rudhabodach ; Kerrycrusach
(S.S.E. of): Ardroscadale (No. 2); Scalpsie; (Ayshaug)
Stravannan; Inchmarnock; Undraynian Point; Kerry-
tonlia; Ballycurry; Dunagoil.
6. Graveyards with cists : Kilblaan ; Inchmarnock; Stravannan.
7. Disappeared burial-places : Kilmachalmaig ; Reilignerget ; Reilig-
glas; Reiligvourkie ; Reiligvdil; Clachieran ; Gallachan (?).
V. STONE CELLS OR CISTS :—
1. Dolmens: Bicker's Houses ; Kilmichael (Michael's grave).
2. Passage Graves (?) : Carnbaan (Lenihuline, Bl., p. 100).
VI. STONE CIRCLES: Blackpark, Kingarth ; East Colmac.
VII. MONOLITHS : Largizean (3); Craigbiorach; Acholter (W. of);
East Colmac (S. of); Ardmaleish (N. of), Skippers Wood;
(Kilwhinleck, removed; Ballycurry, removed, BL, p. 91);
St Ninian's Point
Monuments of Unrecorded rfimes. 39
VIII. SCULPTURED CROSSES: Rothesay Churchyard (Kilwhinleck ?) ;
Rothesay Castle (St Brioc's Church?); East Colmac
(Colman's?); Inchmarnock (2) ; (Guthleik's ? and another).
IX. FINDS:—
Rude stone implements : arrow-heads, Loch Fad ; flints, New Farm ;
(flints in Cumbrae).
Polished stone implements: Ambrisbeg Hill (Lochend, Greenan,
Loch Greenan, lost).
Querns : Loch Fad ; Kilblaan (2) ; Rothesay Castle ; Barone Park ;
Crossbeg (1891) ; Scalpsie (1891); Kingarth (1893).
Weapons : bronze swords, Upper Lubas ; Ardroscadale.
Ornaments : (undistinguishable) reputed tomb of St Blaan.
Vessels: craggans in Rothesay Castle ditch.
Rings: Plan Farm. (See fig., p. 82.)
Fillets : Plan Farm. (See fig., p. 82.)
Coins : Plan Farm.
" Treasure-trove" : on shore opposite Millbank, Ascog.
DWELLINGS AND FORTS. — In prehistoric times the resi-
dences of the unsettled and uncivilised tribes were, like the
wigwams of the American Indians, or the huts formed of
branches and reeds by the Africans, of such an evanescent
and slim character as necessarily to have perished now.
Where natural caves, wave-worn in cliffs, or formed by pro-
jecting rocks, afforded places of shelter and concealment,
primitive men sought their first home. There exist a few
such on the rocky shores of Bute, which, even to this day, are
frequented by "tribes of the wandering foot." But their
debris gives no indications of their prehistoric occupants.
The next form of habitations were pits, or shallow excava-
tions in the soil, of a round or oblong form, about 7 or 8 feet in
diameter, with a turf or earth ring round each of them, to sup-
port the slight roof-trees, covered with sods, heather, or rushes,
which kept out the wind and water. They were frequently
on slopes. A small aperture behind afforded entrance to the
40 Jiuie in the Olden Time.
dweller and egress for the smoke from the hearth, composed
of three or four flat stones. On these floors arc found the
charred remains of fuel and of food ; but when undisturbed
they are discoverable by the richer greenness of the turf
covering the pagan's homestead. In some places they are
found in clusters — and not improbably the earthen ramparts
(duns or raths) which crest our hills gave protection to groups
of these simple dwellings. Four excavations, over 6 feet in
diameter, on the north side of Dunallunt Fort, might with
safety be taken as indications of human habitations of this
type. But of these pit-dwellings I have not been able to
inspect an example which might be viewed without doubt as
to its original purpose. On Barmorc Hill and in the wood
several scooped-out hollows are seen, but these may have
been the hearths of the charcoal-burners of a modern day.
An aged native informed me that, in his boyhood, there were
similar stances of these so-called British houses on the north-
ern face of Baronc Hill. These I have not been able to
discover.
One of the most interesting survivals of unrecorded ages
is the Crannog (Celt, crann, beam, tree), or lacustrine house,
built of wood on small, oftentimes artificial, islands, or on
piles, near the shores of lakes. In some cases these crannoges
are entirely constructed from the water's edge upward, stone,
clay, and wood being utilised, and the edifice was protected
by a circular wooden stockade; in other cases, a basis of
stones, on an island or peninsula, was made the foundation
of the wooden superstructures. In early times they were the
regular dwellings of a fisher population ; in later days they
became refuges and retreats. Herodotus (450 U.C) first
draws attention to these lake-dwellers on Lake Prasias in
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 41
Thrace, whose descendants to this day live in houses perched
over the water.1 It is in connection with the instructions of
the Persian king, Darius, to his general, Megabazus, in Thrace,
to clear out the Pseonians.
" Those who inhabit Lake Prasias itself were not at all subdued
by Megabazus. Yet he attempted to conquer those who live upon
the lake in dwellings contrived after this manner : planks fitted on
lofty piles are placed in the middle of the lake, with a narrow en-
trance from the main land by a single bridge. These piles that
support the planks all the citizens anciently placed there at the com-
mon charge ; but afterwards they established a law to the following
effect : whenever a man marries, for each wife he sinks three piles,
bringing wood from a mountain called Orbelus ; but every man has
several wives. They live in the following manner : every man has
a hut on the planks, in which he dwells, with a trap-door closely
fitted in the planks, and leading down to the lake. They tie the
young children with a cord round the foot, fearing lest they should
fall into the lake beneath.
" To their horses and beasts of burden they give fish for fodder ;
of which there is such abundance, that when a man has opened his
trap-door he lets down an empty basket by a cord into the lake,
and after waiting a short time, draws it up full of fish."
The excavations of these lacustrine abodes in Switzerland,
Ireland, and Scotland prove, by means of the stone imple-
ments exposed in them, that they have existed since the
Stone Age — there being found " dug-outs," or canoes from a
single bole, querns, hammer-stones, celts, whorls, bone tools,
and other primitive utensils.
These island refuges, however, have been utilised in com-
paratively recent times as strongholds in face of an invading
foe. In 1005 the great Irish hero, Brian Boroimhe, invaded
1 Bk. v. cap. xvi.
42 Bute in the Olden Time.
the Western Isles, and the chronicler says: "By him were
strengthened also the duns, fastnesses, and islands, and cele-
brated royal forts of Mumhain."1 In the seventeenth century
the Scottish Highlanders fled to crannoges with their valu-
ables in times of danger. Two crannoges exist here, — in Loch
Quien (Gael, cuithc, a little trench or mound, a cattle-fold)
and in Loch Dhu. As Mr John Mackinlay had an oppor-
tunity in a dry season of examining these strange structures,
I give in full his descriptions of them : —
" The ' crannoge ' of which I am now to give an account was
discovered by me in the summer of 1812, and is thus described in
a letter, dated 1 3th February 1813, which I wrote to the late James
Knox, Esq., of Glasgow, who immediately sent it to his friend,
George Chalmers, Esq., author of ' Caledonia ' ; and this letter led
to my having a long correspondence with him relative to the
antiquities of Buteshire. The following is an extract : —
" ' There is a small mossy lake, called Dhu-Loch, situated in
a narrow valley in the middle of that strong tract of hill-ground
extending from the Dun-hill of Barone to Ardscalpsie Point, to
which valley it is said the inhabitants of Bute were wont to drive
their cattle in times of danger. I remember, when a schoolboy,
to have heard that there were remains of some ancient building in
that lake, which were visible when the water was low ; and happen-
ing to be in that part of the island last summer (1812), I went to
search for it I found a low green islet about 20 yards long, which
was connected with the shore, owing to the lowness of the water,
after a continuance of dry weather. Not seeing any vestiges of
stone foundations, I was turning away, when I observed ranges
of oak piles, and on examination it appeared that the edifice had
been thus constructed.
41 'The walls were formed by double rows of piles 4^ feet
asunder, and the intermediate space appears to have been filled
with beams of wood, some of which yet remain. The bottom had
1 ' Wan of GaedhU,' p. 140.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 43
been filled up to the surface of the water with moss or turf, and
covered over with shingle, or quarry rubbish, to form a floor. The
ground-plan was a triangle, with one point towards the shore, to
which it had been connected by a bridge or stage, some of the
piles of which are still to be traced. There is reason to believe
that the space between this building and the shore of the lake was
much deeper, or else was so soft as not to bear a person's weight,
which it can scarcely do yet. The foundation was secured by
a bank about 6 or 8 feet broad, formed with small piles, filled up
with moss ; and when the superstructure had decayed to the high-
water level, the gravel of the floor burst out and covered part of this
bank, which gave the islet its present shape. The water of tne lake
is of a dark colour (as its name imports), owing to the bottom being
wholly moss, and this circumstance has prevented the decay of the
piles as high as the water reached, as they still continue in the state
of moss-oak, many trees of which are to be seen in the bottom of the
lake when the water is clear. This uncommon building was perhaps
the pr&torium of this extensive natural fortress, formed by a double
range of hills which seem anciently to have been covered with
wood.'
" At the south end of the lake there are several large roots of
oak-trees still fixed on the ground where they grew : the stems had
decayed down to the roots, where they were about 3 feet in diameter,
and the roots were preserved by a coating of moss-earth.
" I revisited this islet in the summer of 1826, which was un-
commonly dry, and the water in that lake was consequently much
diminished. On that occasion I observed an extension of the fort
at the south-east corner, formed by small piles and a framework of
timbers laid across each other, in the manner of a raft. It seems
to have formed the foundation of some wooden erection which was
destroyed by fire, as the tops of the piles were charred ; those piles
(as well as the framework) were only about 4 inches in diameter.
I took out one of the larger piles of the original edifice, which
was 5 inches in diameter, and the point seems to have been cut
by a celt, or stone axe, as the cuts were hollow, or as it were
conchoidal.
" There is another insular fort in Loch Quein, which loch is
44 /?*/* in the Olden Time.
situated near the south end of the valley between Rothesay and
%Tl!p^ft Bays. And it also may be described as a crannogc, in the
wider sense of the term.
" I visited it in the summer of 1814; but owing to the water
being pretty deep, and there being no boat on the lake, I could not
get upon the islet to measure and examine it more closely ; but
when viewed from an adjacent height, it appeared to be an oval of
60 or 70 feet in its longest diameter. The islet (which is on the
south-west side of the lake) seems to be natural, or the wall of stone,
or stones and turf, follow its shape. The wall appeared to be 2 or
3 feet thick, and about a foot in height remained. There arc two
rows of piles extending obliquely to the shore of the lake, which
cither supported a bridge or a hand-rail ; Ix-twecn the piles the
ground is covered with flat stones, not raised like a causeway, but
rather seeming to have been used as stepping-stones. The depth
of the water here appeared to be about 2 feet ; at another place it
seemed not to be above 18 inches; but the bottom is soft and
mossy.
" In the north end of this lake there is a conical pile of stones
like a cairn, 9 or 10 feet in diameter, at the level of the water, which
is there about 5 feet deep. The use of this pile of stones I cannot
conjecture." f
Crannog in Loch Quicn. — After a personal visit I find that
Mr Mack inlay's account is quite conjectural. The island is
of a pear-shape, lying 100 feet from the west side of the loch,
and is surrounded by 2 feet of water. It is composed of a
dark vegetable soil filled with stones broken from the hillside
and water-worn stones, and without doubt is artificial. The
centre of the isle is 2 feet 3 inches above water-mark. Huge
blocks round the edge of a circular mound seem to be traces
of an encircling wall An excavation among some scattered
1 ' Proceeding* of the Soc of Antiq. of Scot.,' vol. ii. pp. 43-46. Read iSth
January 1858. " Notice of two ' Crannoges,' or Pallisaded Islands, in Rate, with
TUns." By John Mackinlay, F.S.A. Scot.
CRANNOGEoR WOODEN FORT ,N DHU LOCH m BUTE
^Additional
ftr&cfart
CRANNOGE, LOCH QUIEN
ytle row oF Piles with stories bebvirf
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 45
stones in the centre of the mound exposed some flat stones
which had been subjected to fire. A complete excavation
would prove satisfactory.
The isle had been connected with the mainland by a cause-
way about 7 feet broad, laid with small flags between two
rows of oak-posts, and fragments of ten of these substantial
trees are seen in the water still projecting from the mud.
One black oak-post, 6 feet long and 6 inches in diameter,
with tool-marks on the cut ends, lies on the causeway.
The other cairn referred to is a mere congeries of stones,
about 60 feet in diameter, and 2 feet above the level of the
loch. Here I found a smooth stone, like a grain-pounder,
having two parallel incisions upon one face.
FORTS. — Nearly every commanding and impregnable emi-
nence in Bute seems, at one time or other, to have been occu-
pied by a fort — composed either of a rampart of earth or a
stone wall. These I treat of from their simple up to their
complex form.
Dunallunt (Dun-allerd), or Cnoc-an-dune (342 feet), is a
grass-grown hill, whose top is entirely enclosed within an
earth-built fort, 120 feet in diameter. The steep slopes on
the north and east sides are cut by a ditch, out of which an
earthen fence has been raised, apparently as an outer defen-
sive circumvallation. The earth wall on the top is consider-
ably flattened down. Within the circle on the north side four
hollows appear as if they indicated the sites of primitive
houses.
Cnoc-an-rath, or Tom-en-raw (the hill of the rath or fort),
is a circular earthwork thrown up on the ridge, at North Bute
Church (122 feet), between Ettrick Bay and Kames Bay. It
46 flute in the Olden Time.
is still entire, is surrounded by a stone wall built by Lord
Bannatync, and is planted with firs, among which is the tomb
of a former proprietor.1 The fort is an irregular circle, 88 feet
and 91 feet in diameter. The fosse is 10 feet deep. In early
Celtic times a homestead was called a Rath, because within its
enclosing wall, rath, the house and cattle-houses were built
Aitrick (Atrig, Athriochg, Ettcrick (Pont has Ettricks), or
Cnoc-an-Rath, Ordnance Survey), is a huge lovely green
mound, situated in the valley of Drumachloy, 180 yards west
of the farmhouse of Nether Ettrick, at the junction of Drum-
achloy and Ettrick Hums. It has every appearance of
having been formerly a fortified place. According to Mr
Lyttcil (' Landmarks/ p. 300), " Great quantities of the stones
which formed the ramparts have been removed within the
memory of persons still living in the island. From north to
south the fort or palace would be about one hundred paces in
length, and the breadth from cast to west about fifty-four
paces." The upper surface of the mount is oval in form, and
is 60 feet above the level of the burn at its western base. No
traces of stone having been utilised in the ramparts arc now
visible, which leads me to think the circumvallation was of
earth.
Nether Ardroscada/e.—On the crest of the ridge above,
and north-west of this farm exists the outline of a circular
fort of a simple character, the circumvallation being of earth,
unless the stones have been totally removed. It is 80 feet
in diameter. The walls of what may have been folds to the
south of this circle, composed of huge stones, arc still lying
partly in situ.
1 "James Hamilton of Kameft, tx>ra 141)1 July 1775 ; died 5th January 1849."
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 47
Upper A rdroscadale Watchhill is in reality a burial-mound,
and as such is treated of elsewhere.
Dunalhmt (No. 2). — The scanty remains of a circle, 80 feet
in diameter, composed of stones and earth, are visible on the
brow of a rocky ridge 50 yards above the road, direct west of
Largivrechtan farmhouse.
Dun Scalpsie (pronounced locally Scaupsay) is reared on a
bold precipitous rock overlooking the Bay of Scalpsie, and
having an aspect towards Carnahouston, the Dunstrone of
Lubas, Dunagoil, and other forts in Arran. It is also a dry-
built, irregular, circular structure, composed of the stones
lying at hand, some of which measure 3 feet by 2 feet. Some
parts of the wall are still in situ, and the walls of the door-
way remain 4 feet high, being composed of large stones. In
the larger diameter, north and south, it measures 87 feet ;
south and east only 77 feet. The internal diameter is 54 feet.
The walls vary in thickness, — on the south-east side about 9
feet ; north-west, at doorway, 14 feet 6 inches ; north side,
where the stones are piled 5 feet high, the breadth appears to
have been 20 feet. The doorway piercing the wall at the
north-west is barely 7 feet at the outer entrance and 10 feet
at the inner. There is no appearance of wall-passages. The
south-east slope is defended by two fosses.
Ardnahoe is an irregular oval plateau crowning a high con-
glomerate rock facing Scalpsie Bay, and measuring about one
quarter of an acre. On the land side it has been defended by
a substantial rampart, 126 feet long, semi-oval in form, and
composed of earth and stones, few of the latter remaining.
Carnahouston, on the confines of the farms of Ambrismore
and Ardnahoe, was formerly a stone fort raised on the plateau
overlooking Scalpsie Bay, and opposite Dun Scalpsie. All
48 Bute in the Olden Time.
that remains of it is an irregular circular mound about 70 feet
in diameter, on which a few stones lie scattered (Rlain, p. 37).
The stones were removed for building purposes in the begin-
ning of this century.
Clachcarnie, or Clachan Ard, on Ardscalpsic farm, is a small
fortified enclosure on a bold rock looking down on the sound
between Bute and Inchmarnock. The wall is a semi-oval
work defending the S.S.E. side, and with a natural breast-
work on the opposite side enclosing an oval space, in the
longer diameter 72 feet, in the shorter 54. The wall, now
cast down, has been 12 feet thick, and formed of the big
stones plentifully lying at hand.
Dunstrom is a high rock surmounting the Sound of Bute,
on the same ragged ridge as Dunagoil. Its eastern side is a
wild precipitous cliff; the western is a steep grassy slope;
the northern is a red sandstone cliff; the southern is steep
but accessible, and by it is access to the top. The crest was
crowned by an oval stone fort, measuring- 77 feet by 42 feet
in diameters. The wall seems to have been 4 feet thick. The
contour of the western face is fortified by a strong dry-built
outwork, now thrown into confusion. Parallel to this, farther
down the slope, at distances varying from 9 feet to 4 feet, is
a second wall, and many of the stones of both walls arc yet
;// situ.
The forts of Dunagoil, Ardnahoc, Carnahouston, Scalpsic,
and Baronc are in view of Dunstrone.
Mecknock^ according to Blain (p. 91), " was a stone encamp-
ment on the confines of the farms of Nether Kilmory and
Meek nock, which went by the name of The Fort : its materials
were removed not many years ago towards building dykes on
the first-named of these farms."
Monuments of Unrecorded Times.
49
Castle Cree is a remarkable stronghold perched upon a
huge clay-slate rock, almost perpendicular on three sides,
which rises 50 feet above a meadow close to the west shore
of Bute upon the farm of Upper Ardroscadale. On the fourth
side the rock is separated from the high ridge east of it by a
deep natural fosse, not exhibited in the following illustration.
The top of the rock slopes to the west, and round a large
portion of its rugged irregular brow the walls of the fortifica-
tion have been deftly built, wherever a foundation was secure,
so as to include as much free space on the crest as possible.
Ground-flan of Castle Cree.
A view of this almost heart-shaped site leads me to suppose
that the configuration of the ground suggested a name for the
castle, — Crid/ie, which is pronounced Cree, being the Gaelic
for a heart. Parts of the walls are thrown into confused
heaps, but at the eastern apex (the easiest assailed portion)
the building is quite entire, and gives proof of the immense
strength of the fort, that section of wall being over 20 feet
thick. Here, within, three portions of the wall still stand,
to the height of 4 or 5 feet, being substantially built of
moderate-sized stones cleft from the adjoining rocks,— ap-
VOL, i. P
5O Bute in the Olden Time.
patently forming a chamber (or a tower 1 1 feet in diameter
internally). These walls all round are 1 1 feet thick, and
have no cementing medium. Without excavating I cannot
determine exactly whether the fort covered the entire rock
or only a part of it, being oval in form, but I incline to
the latter idea. The accompanying plan will illustrate the
present condition of this interesting ruin. It is also called
Macrae Castle (' Landmarks/ p. 303) and Mackic's Castle
(Blain, p. 91 X
Bicker's Houses.— On a ridge of the heathy muirland between
Barmore Hill and Kilmory Hill, looking down upon Loch
Quien and Scalpsic Bay are remains of what evidently has
been an oval fort. It has not hitherto been mentioned by
writers on Bute, or marked on the Ordnance Survey. In its
internal diameter, from north to south, it measures 116 feet;
from east to west, 99 feet Both on the northern and southern
segments the walls are distinctly visible, and in the southern
part, where the doorway has been, two or three courses of the
wall are still standing. Here the wall is not so thick (4 feet)
as on the northern side, where it is 8 feet thick. Such dimen-
sions lead to the conclusion that it had been a fort. Strong
walls in the vicinity have probably used up the larger stones
of which it was composed.
Aultmorc (great stream) is a stronghold or place of refuge,
singularly situated on the south side of the precipitous
declivity overlooking the gorge of Aultmore burn in Kil-
michael farm. A strong dry-stone wall, now overgrown with
grass, brackens, and whins, 76 feet long, forming the arc of a
circle, cuts off an irregular oval area, quite inaccessible on the
other segments of the circle. This wall is 12 feet 9 inches
thick on the south side, where it is fully exposed. At the
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 5 1
distance of 30 feet from the northern extremity it has been
pierced by a doorway, to all appearances 3 feet wide. Lying
in this doorway is a magnificent micaceous schist monolith,
8 feet 7 inches long, tapering from 22 inches to 18 inches
broad, and 8 inches thick. In the middle, evidence of an
Ground-plan of Aid (more Fort.
attempt to halve the stone by cutting are visible. The
diameter of the area, north-east and south-west, is 60 feet ;
south-east and north-west, 50 feet. On the south side the
wall is nearly 6 feet above the level of the fosse.
Cnoc-an-coigreaich (hill of the strangers) was a circular stone
fort on Auchantirie farm, removed about fifty years ago to
build dykes and drains. The stance is visible yet, and the
plough sometimes turns up the " founds." A tradition says
52 Bulc in the Olden Time.
a chapel stood here. In the same field several cists contain-
ing skulls have been found.
Ardmaleish Fort was a dry-stone fort in sight of Eilcan
Buidhc, which formerly stood on a crest between the farm-
house and Ardmalcish Point. According to Blain (p. 1 14), it
was removed to build dykes : " Among the ruins were found
two pairs of querns or handmills, indicating that the aborigines
were not only acquainted with the raising of corn but knew
how to convert it into meal towards their subsistence. The
only other discovery worthy of remark was a few of the lower
steps of two stairs, provided for the convenience of the people
when they had occasion to ascend the wall." The circular
foundations are partly visible, and it seems to have been So
feet in diameter.
Drumgirvan, according to Blain (p. 117), was an oblong
war-station a mile south-cast of Baronc Hill. On a rocky
ridge overlooking Baronc farm and Loch Fad, on the boundary
of Auchamorc wood, arc the distinct remains of walls built
on the rocky ground as a defence to what seems to have been
a " fank " or " stcll " for cattle. On the west side there is a
deep trench behind the wall. The circular wall round the
fold has been of turf. From the irregular outline of these
works I conclude that this place of retreat had been im-
provised in a hurried manner, perhaps in more modern times.
The Ordnance Survey omits it.
Barone Fort. — The crest of Baronc Hill (529 feet) is en-
circled by the remains of a very strong fortification, dry-built
with the stones easily procured out of the slate -rock of
which the hill is composed. The stronghold has enclosed
an oval area, 200 feet in diameter east and west, and 145
north and south. The wall has varied in thickness from
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 53
10 to 12 feet. While the greater part of it is dismantled, a
good specimen of it is afforded on the south-east side, where
the massive stones remain in situ to the height of over 3 feet,
and give indication of an attempt to vitrify them. The steep
rocky ascent on the northern face rendered a wall so heavy
less necessary, and in consequence the foundation of it there
is less distinct.
An outer defensive wall, of no less massive proportions, had
been thrown round the fort in the shape of a lozenge, so as to
completely utilise the natural strategic position of the rocky
summit.
To this secure retreat, as afterwards falls to be narrated,
the burgesses of Rothesay and their families fled in times
of hazard.
Dunburgidale (Dun, Goidelic, a hill-fort ; Burg, Teutonic, a
fortified place ; Dal, Cymric, a folk-mote, or Dail, Goidelic, a
valley). — This compound word gives traces of the successive
occupants of the stronghold — Brythons, Goidels, and North-
men. It is a circular stone fort situated in a hollow on the
ridge of hills overlooking the valley of North Bute and the
Bay of Rothesay. It lies above Acholter farm. It occupies
a naturally round rock with steep grassy approaches, and is
in view of other forts on the island and mainland. There are
no outer defences. The walls are dry-stone, built with the
material scattered in the vicinity, but are much thrown down,
without, however, destroying the outline of the fort. The
stones are not larger than those used in ordinary dykes.
On the north side a portion of the wall, 6 feet high, is still in
good condition. The N. and S. diameter is 90 feet ; E. and
W. 93 ; the inner 67. The walls measure from 10 to 14 feet
thick, and are tunnelled on the west side by a passage 2 feet 3
54
BmU in the Olden Time.
inches broad and still 2 feet 6 inches deep. This passage was
exposed on the fort being carefully opened by the Marquess of
Bute. The doorway pierces the E.S.E. wall, which is 14 feet
thick, being in the inner side 6 feet broad, in the outer about
10 feet broad The illustration will better explain this inter-
esting fort, which is similar to a brock
of DumburgidaU Fort.
Balilone is marked on the Ordnance Survey as a circular
cairn on the crest of the peninsula which juts into the north
end of Loch Fad. At no distant date this peninsula was an
island. In wet seasons it is so still. It was eminently suited
for a stronghold, being a steep rocky ridge on three sides,
about 40 feet high. The fort, for such it was, is of oval shape,
to suit the ground, and, roughly speaking, measures 84 feet
from north to south, and 60 feet from cast to west. Parts of
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 55
the walls are still in situ, and seem only to have been about
4 feet thick, but in places are built to the edge of the rock.
Traces of small houses or built-retreats are visible within the
wall : to obtain a proper estimate of the fort an excavation is
necessary. On the west or land side of the island, where the
natural defences are weakest, two very strong parallel walls,
composed of huge stones, run southward for over 100 yards.
Across the middle of the island another strong wall is seen,
meeting a wall running south on the east side. These enclo-
sures bear signs of cultivation in former times. According to
the Ordnance Survey a quern and arrow-heads were found on
this spot. A little west of the fort is the stance of a steading
overshadowed by three old sycamore-trees, which Dr Maclea
in his Visiting Book for 1774 marks as " Baileanloine waste "
and tenantless.
Dunagoil Fort. — The south-west point of Bute is a very
rugged and precipitous ridge of porphyritic trap running
parallel to the coast -line, N.N.W., and, at that part called
Dunagoil, terminating in a small grass - grown plateau,
rising above the sea 100 feet, and on three sides quite
inaccessible.
On the north a face of perpendicular rock, columnar in
formation, sinks into a little grassy dale, — once enclosed
with walls, — wherein remain two cairns and two prehistoric
graves, opened and found to contain human remains in the
beginning of this century.1 The westerly front drops sheer
down upon the rough coast-land. The side extending to
the S.S.E. is more of a rocky slope stretching downward
1 Blain's ' History of Bute,' p. 78*
56 Bute in the Olden Titne.
to the parallel crest of rugged rocks, swilled by the sea ; at
the point there a capacious cave, yielding no "finds" as
yet, pierces the headland.
The access to the crest was apparently from the cast-
most corner, but on the southern side facing the sea the
wall is pierced by a gateway 8 feet broad. This indicates
I'ifiv of Dmuigoil (front the wttt),
that here was the access from or egress to Port Dornach
below.
The upper contour of the side running to the S.S.E. is
guarded by the crumbling ruins of a wall, which gives evi-
dences of having been vitrified from end to end, although only
here and there the vitrified portions are still /// situ. The
slope beneath is confusedly covered with the fragments of
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 57
rocks and such debris of the fused wall as has not rolled into
the hollow beneath.
The form of the crest within the fort is seen from the
accompanying plan. (See Plate VI.)1 A rich dark soil
covers the crest, and in the scooped-out stances of former
dwelling-places nettles grow in wild profusion.
The wall itself, laid down in the shape of a bow, measures
285 feet in length, and generally speaking is 6 feet in thick-
ness,— the greatest height of any part remaining being a little
over 4 feet. This wall is built of the stone of which the rocky
site is composed, and a few gathered stones. Some of the
blocks in the wall measure over 2 feet long. Some of them
bear no trace of fire-action, others are reddened, many are
reduced to scoriae or slag, while the remainder are roasted,
glazed, or fused singly, or bound into solid masses through-
out the line of the wall. At the south-west side, where the
doorway is, the remanent stones have least felt the fierce
fires of the vitrifying builder ; but below this portion, on the
slope, are scattered the roasted lumps of vitrescible matter
defying disintegration.
The most intact part of the wall, at the western extremity,
is not vitrified through and through, but the fused part juts
into the loose masonry which forms a backing to it — the
vitreous stream having run into the interstices of the dry-
built wall to form holdfasts, or simply penetrating like a
wedge. Consequently when the front face is undermined, by
the weather eating away the mould, or cattle displacing it,
the vitrified blocks above being left to rest on movable foun-
dations, are easily detached, and by their centres of gravity
1 By Mr James Kay, forester to the Marquess of Bute.
58 Hutc in tlu Olden Time.
becoming displaced arc toppled over. This accounts for the
destruction of the upper portions of building otherwise so in-
destructible. Fortunately some of the lower parts of the wall
arc preserved, and from it we sec that the fusing fires have
only put a hard face upon the rampart. I am indebted to Mr
Honey man, architect, for two sketches of sections of the wall
at Dunagoil, exhibiting the union of the vitrification to the
unccmentcd masonry.1
The fusing has been most effective at the western extremity
of the wall, and this I account for by the fact that, when the
prevailing wind here — the south-west wind — was utilised to
Sutittu of Vilrijud Wall, Dmtagnl.
feed the fires playing on the outer face, the direction of the
tongues of flame would be the same as that in which we find
the vitrifacturc greatest. Indeed, where the flame of this hot-
blast — terrific at times, if so needed — was blown right through
the angle of the wall at the westerly point, there the vitreous
infusion is deepest, the vitrifacturc most complete, and the
material most compacted. This western part of the wall is
47 feet long. At its broadest portion it measures 5 feet
6 inches of solid vitrification in breadth, and 4 feet 4 inches
in height At the back of this mass lies a regularly built
1 ' Note on a Vitrified Fort at Rhufrcsan, Ardmarnock, Argyllshire.' By John
Hoocyman, F.K.I.U.A. 1886.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 59
wall 3 feet 6 inches broad, the stones of which have also been
subjected to fire, however without being fused. These stones
resemble in size those used in ordinary dyke-building. The
interstices between them are now filled with earth. I observe
in the Eilean Buidhe Fort (see below) a similar proof that
the vitrifaction is greatest exactly at those points where
the strongest wind — in this instance the south-east wind, by
the reason of the situation of the hills, blown up the Kyles as
West View of Vitrified Wall at Dunagoil.
(Traced from a photograph. The under portion represents grass-grown rock.)
through the nozzle of a bellows — impinged upon the wall ; an
observation which may also account for the imperfect fusion
of parts of the structure.
Eilean Buidhe (the yellow isle), one of the Burnt Islands,
lies to the north of Bute in the Kyles of Bute, and is crowned
with the remains of a vitrified fort. The islet, composed of
gneiss, is 21 feet above sea-level, and covered with scanty
vegetation upon the summit only. The fort is a complete
circle, 67 feet in diameter from crest to crest of the ruined
wall, which in many parts is quite levelled and overgrown
with rough grass, through which the fragments of the vitrified
6o
Jiutc in the Olden Tint*.
work appear. At other points the wall is in good preserva-
tion, showing at the north-cast a face 4 feet high and 5 feet
£K/MM */ Htn/StJ Wall on Eitean BtuJlu (noriktm ttgmenf).
thick, and also on the south-cast a solid mass of vitrification
over 5 feet thick.
What is a remarkable feature of this fort is the apparent
Ground -plan of VHrifitd Fort on Eilean BuUht.
stances of four towers at the cardinal points of the compass.
Unless the upper portions of the wall in toppling over had
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 6 1
occupied the ground in such a way that the material was
ready to be utilised in later times for these little breastworks,
a look of the ground is sufficient to suggest that there existed
four little towers 14 feet each in diameter. And unless the
south-west wall in falling only rolled down the bank a few
feet, there has been an outwork on this, the most assailable
side.
The doorway has been through the wall at the E.N.E. point,
where the defence was strongest.
It is noticeable that the vitrification is best illustrated on
the eastern half of the circle, and at those points where the
blast, confined within the throat of the Kyles, was blown from
the south-east with pointed, concentrated, and penetrating
violence upon the masonry. It would be significant if the
outer part of the wall on the south-east, and the inner part of
the wall on the north-east, showed more traces of liquefaction
than other portions, since at Dunagoil the most vitrified ma-
terial is found in the direction of the prevailing wind.
In the body of the wall are seen stones which have not
yielded to the fire, but, rendered friable, have been banded to
the vitrescible stones by the vitreous stream.
How or when these vitrified structures came into existence
we have no historical record. The methods employed by the
fort builders in vitrifacture are also unknown. Blain declares
that at Dunagoil fragments of charcoal were found in the in-
terstices of the fused material. There can be no doubt what-
ever that the ancients thoroughly understood the smelting of
mineral and the fusion of igneous material, and that they
applied this knowledge to the class of structures under our
review.
Vitrified building was long a mystery to both the scientific
62 Bute in the Olden Time.
and antiquarian worlds* Mr Williams, a mineral surveyor,
drew attention to the subject over a century ago, and came to
the conclusion that the vitrification was intentional, so as to
form a cement to strengthen the structure, an opinion homol-
ogated by Dr Maculloch. Mr Pennant ascribed them to
volcanic origin : Lord Woodhouselce, who made an exhaust-
ive study of the subject, thought the fusion was the result of
accident in an assault by fire upon the forts: Sir George
Mackenzie attributed them to the effects of beacon-fires.
Dr Hibbert, in a learned paper, after a full investigation
into the subject, came to conclusions which may be simplified
thus : '—
1. That vitrification is neither the result of volcanic agency
(i>., the theory of Pennant, West, Barington) nor the
result of a regular fabrication to form a cement
(Williams, 1777).
2. That Lord Woodhouselee's theory (1787), that vitrifica-
tion may have resulted from conflagration of wooden
ramparts, is not established.
3. That the number of vitrified sites is referable to an
extravagant consumpt of fuel when Scotland was
densely wooded.
.}. That if vitrification resulted from fires used in national
observances, the vitrified sites will bear diversified
characteristics.
5. Some vitrified sites were popular rendezvous in times of
war and peace.
6. Many vitrified sites were the effects of beacon-fires,
formed by piles of wood (Sir George Mackenzie).
1 ' Arducol. Scot./ vol. iv. pp. 179, 180. fciiiu, 1857.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 63
7. Fires on religious or festive occasions may have produced
them.
8. Most of the oldest Duns exhibit no vitrification ; vitri-
fication is not confined to areas bounded by stone
ramparts.
9. The vitrification, in some instances, is almost invisible ;
in others incredibly continuous and intense.
10. The term Vitrified Fort is frequently erroneous, since it
cannot be proved vitrification is confined to fortified
sites.
11. That since vitrification is an incidental, not a designed
effect, Vitrified Forts should be termed Vitrified
Sites.
The Neolithic or later age of stone, distinguished by its
graves, cromlechs, dolmens, passage-graves, cists with bodies
unburnt, and pile-dwellings, is more fully illustrated. By
this time men had discovered the method of polishing their
stone implements and giving them a fine finish. A few of
these have been found and preserved. An exquisite specimen
of a stone axe was found by Mr N. Duncan on Ambrisbeg
Hill in 1870. It is now in the possession of Mrs Wm. Hunter,
London. It measures 10^ inches long, 3^ inches broad at
its broadest part, the face is 2^ inches broad, the thin end I
inch broad, it is 2 inches thick, and 10^5 inches in girth at the
broadest part. It is composed of diorite. Others have been
found at Lochend, Greenan, and Loch Greenan, but have
disappeared.
Many kistvaens, or stone chests, have been opened through-
out the island, but unfortunately no accurate account of their
contents exist, and it is impossible to state which of them
64
Bute in the Olden Tinif.
belonged to the Neolithic, which to later ages. They are,
however, arranged as far as possible, previously, in a table,
and appear to have existed, for the most part, since the Hronzc
and early Iron Ages. Generally speaking, in the Neolithic
Age the body was buried in a kist in a sitting or contracted
Stone Axe found on Ambritbtg Hill.
posture ; in the Bronze Age it was cremated and the ashes
placed in an urn ; in the Iron Age it was laid at length.
In the hollow between Harmorc Hill and Kilmory Hill
what seems to have been a dolmen (Celt, daut, a table ; tnafti,
a stone — table-stone) or table, composed of two large unhewn
stones, supporting a flat stone, is visible at a place called
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 65
Bicker's Houses. It stands, as figured here, on a bracken-
covered mound among a congeries of stones of all sizes, like
the rubbish-heap of a quarry, which, despite the confusion in
which they lie, indicate they have been formerly used in some
strong edifices. At one part it seems as if there had been a
wall not less than 8 feet thick, at another about 4 feet. In
the southern foreground a rifled sepulchral cist, 3 feet 6 inches
long and 2 feet broad, is found. The table-stone itself is a
rugged oval, now resting on the western point of its longer
View of Dolmen at Bickers Houses.
diameter, which measures 7 feet, with 6 feet for the shorter.
It is a huge flake of the slate-rock cropping up around, and is
21 inches thick. The stone which now supports it is 42
inches long, 28 inches broad, and 24 inches thick. Close by
are the silent ruins of human habitations, beside the sheep-
folds constructed of the stones so conveniently gathered by
the men of a past age, who then largely populated this retired
quarter. The fort on the hill-crest was their warlike work.
Memorial Stones (Celt., menhir — maen, a stone ; hir, long.
VOL. I. E
66 Bute in the Olden Time.
Scandinavian, Hautastonts). — Of upright stones, probably
reared to perpetuate the memory of some now forgotten
famous personage or striking event, still a few arc left — at
Largizcan (3), Craigbiorach, Acholtcr, East Colmac, Ardma-
leish, St Ninian's Point, Skipper's Wood, Aultmorc. None
of them are marked with runes or cups, and neither history
nor tradition breaks their silence.
Michael's Grave, as it is locally known, is undoubtedly
the ruined remnant of a very fine dolmen. It consists of a
mound some 10 feet high, on the brow of a field, 600 yards
south of Kilmichael farm, in the field adjoining the chapel,
in North Bute, crowned by large clay-slate stones, evidently
the pedestal of the table-stone now lying beneath them (in
the foreground of the illustration). On the south side these
stones arc five in number and placed side by side, nearly cast
and west, the largest being 4 feet 3 inches high. On the north
side one much smaller stone is /';/ situ, the rest have been
displaced.
The table-stone is an irregular oval, 6 feet 9 inches by 4
feet 6 inches and 9 inches thick. The mound has apparently
been rifled when the table-stone was overthrown.
Various theories prevail as to what these Dolmens (or
Cromlechs — *>., circle or crooked stones) are. Sir Daniel
Wilson says : " We have no satisfactory evidence that these
are Celtic monuments. The tendency of our present re-
searches leads to the conclusion that they are not, but that
they are the work of an elder race, of whose language we
have little reason to believe any relic has survived to our
day." ! Formerly antiquarians supposed that these dolmens
1 ' AiducoL and Prehist. Ann. of Scot.,' p. 68.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 67
were the altars on which the victims were sacrificed by the
Druid priests : —
" Here blazed the sacred fire, and, when the sun was gone,
As a star from afar to the traveller it shone ;
And the warm blood of the victim have these grey old temples drunk,
And the death-song of the Druid, and the matin of the monk."
Now, however, one prevailing opinion is that their use as
sacrificial slabs was a development of their original purpose
as sepulchres — a perfect type of which tomb was a cist or
chamber (formed like a rude house from which the spirit had
escaped), covered with a mound, and surrounded by a ring
of great stones. Sometimes this symbolical house of the
dead was left open, and the cist was near at hand. At
Bicker's Houses the exposed cist is 20 feet from the Dolmen.
There is, however, nothing improbable in the supposition
that even in the Viking age the Norse colonists may have
erected or utilised this as a Jwrg or altar built of stones,
which, generally speaking, was reared on a sacrificing mound
or height. Thus the Saga narrates how —
" He made me a horg
Reared of stones ;
Now have these stones
Become gler [as glass].
He reddened it in
Fresh ox blood.
Ottar believed
Always in Asynjur." l
The very name Bicker's Houses, the history of which I
have not traced, has a Norse ring about it. The Northmen
1 ' The Viking Age,' Du Chaillu, vol. i. p. 356.
68 Bute in the Olden Time.
also broke the backs of their human victims on a stone called
11 Thor's Stone," or the " blood-stone." To later times super-
stitious people have retained some primitive custom of
passing through the apertures in these dolmens in the belief
that this form of piety would ward off* the visitations of evil
spirits, and provoke the grace of a happy Providence for the
future.
Tlte Bronze Age, especially the later portion of it, is not
without representation in the barrows, stone cists with their
urns, and the bronze weapons which have been discovered in
Bute. Of the earlier period when stone was giving place to
metal, and when the dead were laid singly unburnt in cists
under round or oblong barrows, the want of accurate in-
formation regarding the graves opened leaves nothing to be
said.
The Watchhill on Upper Ardroscadalc was, on excavation
a few years ago, found to be a grave-mound, composed of
stones from the shore and earth, in the centre of which was
a cist containing fragments of bones, and what seems to have
been, from its description, the remains of a bronze sword.
The most interesting grave of this early period is that
exposed, on 23d March 1887, within Mountstuart policies,
close beside the West Lodge, above Kerrycroy burn. In
a letter to Dr Anderson of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, the Marquess of Bute writes regarding the
discovery : —
"The surface presented some irregularities which I had always
looked on as a natural hillock, hut which, I am now inclined to
think, must be the remains of a tumulus. About 18 inches below
the surface the men came upon a large rough slab of red conglom-
Monuments of Unrecorded Times.
69
erate substance, 5 feet long by 3 feet 3 inches wide and about 6
inches thick. It must have been brought from the sea-shore, about
a quarter-mile distant. It rested upon six weather-worn flattish
stones set upon their ends — two at the head, two at the feet, and
one at each side. Although the actual receptacle for the corpse
was thus not entirely defended, it was very partially filled. When
I looked in at first it appeared to be about three-quarters filled with
sea-worn pebbles and sand. At the north-east corner appeared one-
half of a funeral urn, which had fallen over eastward, and towards
the south-west corner the face and left brow of the skull. We care-
fully removed the urn. There
was nothing in it but pebbles
and sand and a small piece of
cinder. We then took away
the large covering - stone and
endeavoured to move the body,
but hardly anything remained
of it, and what there was came
to pieces in our hands. The
teeth are very fine. You will
notice a peculiar perforation in
the left temple, which I opine
may mark the place of the
wound by which the deceased
was killed. Close to this per-
foration is some hard black adherent matter which I do not under-
stand. The head lay on its right cheek, looking eastwards, or rather
turned eastwards, and looking a little upwards. At this end the grave
was filled with sand and pebbles, in which I am inclined to think the
head had been purposely pillowed and partially embedded. The
grave itself measures internally about 4" feet 2 inches by about 18
inches wide. The corpse had lain upon a prepared floor of sea-
pebbles, sand, and gravel. There were one or two pieces of
something burned under the upper part. It had been curled up,
the thigh and shin bones being very close together. The remains
of the decomposed bones were adhering to a great many of the
pebbles with which the grave was nearly filled. Near the feet and
Cinerary Urn found at Mountstuart.
70 Bute in the Olden Time.
again near the head we found what seemed like the remains of
a pin or skewer. The um was at the north-east comer. In the
place where the hands had been, in front of the chin, there was
a very small piece of corrupt bronze, perhaps the remains of a ring.
Jtt Nttklatt found at Mount tttiarl.
Under where the neck had been, we found i oo jet beads of different
sizes, along with six larger pieces which had gone to make up the
necklace. There must have been four rows in the outer divisions of
this ornament and eight in the central. There is also one small
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 7 1
perforated triangular piece of jet. The large stone on the east side,
which lay almost in the lap of the corpse, may, I think, have been
pushed forward in process of time by the pressure above and
behind." l
At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, held on I4th
December 1891, Dr Munro, the secretary, read a paper upon
these remains, which he referred to the early Bronze Age : —
" The bones having been submitted to Dr Beddoe, he gave it as
his opinion that they were those of a young woman. The skull has
a small perforation on the left side of the frontal bone about an inch
from the outer angle of the eye-orbit. The exterior edge of the
cavity, which measures about an inch in diameter, is slightly raised
Trepanned Skull found at Mountstuart.
above the normal surface of the surrounding bone, this feature being
the result of a pathological process which could only take place in
the living body. The actual perforation, which does not exceed
three-quarters of an inch in diameter, takes the form of a bluntly
defined triangle bounded by thin edges. The conclusion is that
this perforation had been intentionally performed on the living
1 ' Glasgow Herald,' March 25, 1887.
72 Bute in tht Olden Timt.
subject, and that the subject survived the operation Tor a consider-
able time, probably for many yean. The generalisation which it
was the object of the author to establish — viz., that trepanning the
human skull for therapeutic purposes was not an uncommon surgical
operation among the neolithic inhabitants of Europe—could only
be established on a number of examples widely distributed. To
this Scottish example he therefore proceeded to add about twenty
Continental examples distributed over almost the whole of Europe.
In the course of this description the curious fact was noted that the
pieces cut out of the skull were worn as amulets. Professor Struthcrs
agreed with Dr Munro that the skull from Mountstuart was that of
a female, and that the perforation was made during life. Professor
Duns exhibited the skull of a man of mature age from an ancient
grave, which had been trepanned" !
I examined, on April 10, 1889, two cists in the Mid-field,
Auchantiric, close to each other on the crown of the field
beside Cnoc-an-Coigreaich. They both lay exactly east and
west in their greatest length. The top slab of the first
measured 3 feet 6 inches by 3 feet ; the slabs forming the
sides were 31 inches inside and 14 inches; the cist being
13/4 inches deep. What seemed burned ashes alone strewed
the bottom. A heart -shaped slab covered the other cist,
which measured within 28 inches by 19 broad, by 13^ deep.
The brown dust betokened cremation, but the perfect skull
of a young person gave no similar indications. The upper
jaw contained a few back teeth, under which new teeth were
found projecting out the old. No implements were found.
The adjoining field contains many cists of the same kind.
> 'Scotsman,' isth December 1891. Cf. ' Fortnightly Review,' February 1893.
On August 9, 1892, at the meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, Dr
Howdcn read a paper supplied by Dr Robert Munro on the subject of "Trepan-
ning the Human Skull in Prehistoric Times," and referred to the Moontstuart
skull.
Momunents of Unrecorded Times, 73
Tumuli, or mounds of earth, or cairns of stones covered
with earth, — a few in number, — remain undisturbed by the
ruthless ploughshare, and still possessing their hidden con-
tents. These represent labour, and as only the influential and
mighty could command this, we may conclude that all these
mounds and cairns cover a popular personage, or a leader of
men, in
"A little urn — a little dust inside,
Which once outbalanced the large earth, albeit
To-day a four-years' child might carry it."
These tumuli are tabulated at the beginning of this chapter.
There are several important monuments of a prehistoric
age which might with propriety be referred to the earliest
epoch, including the stone cells at Lenihuline, as well as the
stone circles at Blackpark-Kingarth and Colmac, all of which
give proof of the dexterity of the aborigines in handling huge
blocks.
Carnbaan, or white cairn, is one of the most remarkable
relics of a bygone age which exist in Bute. It is to be found
in the south-east corner of South Lenihuline Wood, close to
the stream. We are indebted to Mr Blain (pp. 100, 101) for
a long description of it, as it appeared at the beginning of
this century, in these terms: —
" A pile of stones thrown together in a rude manner along the
surface of the ground in the form of a cross, the body whereof has
been about 168 feet long by about 15 in width, and the transverse
about 75 feet or thereabout. Of this last little now remains, as the
fence of the wood has been cut alongst it, and the most of the
stones of which it was composed carried off to help in facing up the
enclosure there, and in its neighbourhood. The shaft of the cross
was all along formed below into cavities or chests by the placing of
large broad stones at the sides, end, and bottom of each, or where
74 Bute in the OMtn Time.
stones of sufficient sue were not at hand, it was done of common
masonry, without any sort of mortar ; all of them had l>ccn covered
with other flat stones. They were discovered on taking away mate-
rials for the ncighlxniring fences, when many of them wen destroyed
or filled up. A few, after having been looked into, remain unfilled,
and were left uncovered until about a dozen years ago, that the
farmer, finding some of his sheep occasionally fell in, and, not being
able to extricate themselves, perished by famine, he filled them up
or had them destroyed, except one left for a specimen, but so far
covered as to prevent the sheep from entering. The dimensions of
it arc about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide, the depth at present about
30 inches ; it may have been deeper, though now filled up with rub-
bish. . . . The people in the neighbourhood regard it with some
degree of awe, and I was told by a farmer that apparitions arc some-
times seen about it. When I questioned him concerning their form,
and whether he had seen any, his answer was that they resembled .1
sail set upon a vessel, but added honestly that for his own pan he
had not beheld it He told me that considerable numbers of adders
lurked in the cairn."
After speculating upon the various uses it might have been
put to, Mr Blain concludes it was " a fanciful work of some
hermit who had chosen that neighbourhood for his retire-
ment," and that it was a Christian cross.
In 1858 Mr John Mackinlay thus described it: —
"This cairn, called 'Cairn-baan,' — />., the White Cairn — is
situated in the east end of the south wood of Lcnihulinc — the
Field of Hollies — in the north end of Bute. It consists of a mound
of stones 200 feet in length, lying east and west, and from 15 to 24
feet in breadth. Near its east end there is a transverse piece, like
the transom of a cross, 47 feet in length. When the wood was
enclosed, many years ago, the portion of the stem of the cross
(about 25 feet in length) above the transom, which projected beyond
the line of fence of the wood, was removed, and its materials were
used in the construction of the fence ; but the form and extent of
the part removed was (and I believe still is) perfectly distinct, its
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 75
outline being defined by a line of small debris. At the west end of
the stem of the cross there is a cell, 4 feet 6 inches long by 2 feet
3 inches wide and 3 feet deep, the top, sides, and ends of which
are formed of flags of schistus. The country-people believed that
there was a series of such cells all along the body of the cross ;
and in order to ascertain this point I took a labourer with me in
summer 1833, and opened up the top of the mound all along at
short intervals, and found that the whole of the mound was com-
posed of shapeless lumps of wacken, schistus, and quartz, about the
size of a man's head, and apparently brought from the channel of the
burn at the bottom of the bank on which it is placed ; and I could
find no trace of any cells, or any flags capable of making them,
except one or two near the intersection of the cross, where it is said
that a cell or cells were found at the time the east end was removed.
" It may be inferred, from its being made in the form of a cross,
that it was constructed after the introduction of Christianity, as a
penance for some grievous offence ; and that the cell at the west
end, which the top flag only partially covered, leaving an opening
wide enough to let a man creep in, was a place of penance, in
which the offender might crouch while reciting his penitential
prayers. At least this cairn does not seem capable of being used
for any other purpose." 1
The writer here refers to the Borras or Borradhs in Kilfinan,
as explained in the 'Statistical Account,' vol. xiv. p. 257.
I am able, after several inspections of the cairn, to supple-
ment and correct these details.
The cairn is now a long congeries of moss and grass grown
stones, broken from the slate-rock cropping up in the vicinity,
and extends within the wood 165 feet, varying in breadth
from 15 feet to 19 feet over its irregular ridge, and 5 feet
high. The Ordnance surveyors make the cairn terminate in a
circular mound within the fence, which, as Blain states, severed
1 "Description of a Cairn on the Island of Bute." By John Mackinlay, Esq.,
F.S.A. Scot. Read I3th December 1858. ' Proc. Soc. Ant,' vol. iii. p. 180-182.
76 Bute in the Olden Time.
the cross-head ; but beyond this fence and fosse a slight mound,
some 20 feet in diameter, is still visible at the cast end.
The cairn declines westward. At its W.S.W. end it termi-
nates in a circular congeries of stones, moss and grass grown,
22 feet in diameter (as shown in the illustration), in the centre
of which remains a cell, partly covered with a flagstone. The
cell in its greater length lies E.N.E. and W.S.W. It is com-
posed of four great slabs set on edge, which measure as
follow : —
E.N.E. 3 ft 2 in. high X 3 ft. 4 in. broad at floor.
S.W.S. 3 .1 OH .. X 3 •• 5 .1 n
N. 3 n ii n n x 4 M 4 M n (in middle).
S. 3 n o n n x 4 n 8 M n n (n in. thick).
The lid measures 5 feet 9 inches long and 5 feet broad, and 5
inches thick. The aperture is I foot 10 inches long and I foot
broad. All these stones are blocks of the natural rock, in no
way dressed, and irregular in shape — three of the side slabs
terminating in points on which the lid rested, and probably
swung. The bottom of the cell is overlaid with a layer of vege-
table mould, but is floored with thin flags about I foot square.
At a distance of 30 feet from the cast end another quite
intact oblong cist is exposed at the south side of the main
body of the cairn, its greater length being at right angles to
the direction of the cairn. It consists of four slabs set on
edge, and measures internally 3 feet long, 2 feet broad, and 2
feet deep. The covering, which is a ragged triangular slab,
measures 5 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet 6 inches broad (at the
broadest part), and 5 inches thick, and rests partly over and
upon the cist
No fewer than fourteen cavities exist along the length of
the stone-formed ridge, but it would, in their present confused
Monuments of Unrecorded Times.
77
and ruined condition, be hazardous to infer whether these
were each an independent cist, or only parts of a continuous
passage throughout the cairn. The stones lying in these holes
vary in size from I foot to 3 feet and more.
Plan of Cist or Cell in Carnbaan.
The purpose for which Carnbaan was gathered, and the
two cists still left intact were set up, I think cannot be far
to seek. It is a sepulchral monument.
Tacitus informs us that the Germans had underground
dens into which they fled for safety from their enemies, to
escape the cold, and wherein they stored their fruits.1
Diodorus Siculus says of the ancient Britons : " They
1 Tacitus, (De Moribus Germanorum,' cap. xvi. : "Solent et subterraneos
specus aperire ; eosque multo, insuper fimo onerant, suffugium hiemi, et recepta-
culum frugibus, quia rigorem frigorum ejusmodi locis molliunt ; et si quando hostis
advenit aperta populate, abdita autem et defossa, aut ignorantur, aut eo ipso
fallunt quod quasrenda sunt."
78 Bute in the Olden Tim*.
dwelt in mean cottages, covered for the most part with
reeds or sticks. In reaping their corn they cut off the cars
from the stalk, and so house them up in repositories under
ground ; thence they take and pluck out the grains of as
many of the oldest of them as may serve them for the day,
and after they have bruised the corn, make it into bread." !
Unless the shaft of the cairn had originally been a con-
tinuous passage, there is no suitability in this mass of small
stones for so useful a purpose as a granary. The lid of the
greater cist is so large that one implies it was not meant for
frequent moving, which would be necessary if the cell was
only a lurking-place in times of danger. From Blain's
account it would appear there had been several others of
a similar form throughout the cairn. These must have been
much smaller in dimensions, as no very large stones arc
visible now. Both cists arc after the type of burial-cists.
It is possible the cairn was a tribe burial-place in the early
period of Christian civilisation, while the pagan form of burial
still lingered side by side with belief in the cross.
The Circle in Blackpark, or Langalchorad, plantation, 580
yards distant from Kingarth Parish Church, is now (as in
Blain's day, p. 67) represented by three huge stones,— one
being a reddish conglomerate, the others being whin. They
form a segment of a circle which must have been 86 feet in
diameter, and, at the same ratio of distances between the
remaining stones, must have been bounded by nine stones.
From the middle stone the other two are respectively 28 feet
and 30 feet distant They measure in height, respectively,
7 feet (i>, the conglomerate), 8# feet (the middle stone), and
1 Bk. v. cap. ii.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 79
7 feet. The middle stone, as shown in the illustration, is split
into two halves. I have been informed by an aged lady,
lately deceased, that in the beginning of this century one of
View of Stone Circle at Blackpark, Kingarth.
the stones rocked. There is a small excavation in the middle
of this circle, the object of which is not ascertained.
We may say of these stones what Matthew Arnold says of
" the giant stones of Carnac " : —
" No priestly stern procession now
Moves through their rows of pillars old ;
No victims bleed, no Druids bow —
Sheep make the daisied isles their fold.
From bush to bush the cuckoo flies,
The orchis red gleams everywhere ;
Gold furze with broom in blossom vies,
The bluebells perfume all the air."
80 Bute in the Olden Time.
While the purposes of these circles have long occupied con-
sideration, and the result has been to assign them various
•Ml as temples, courts of justice, burial-places, it may not be
far from the truth to view them in relation to the worship of
the sun.1 Developments might arise. A pure sun-worship
might be associated with or give place to the worship of
ancestors when their burial-places were surrounded with a
circle. There too sacrifices, even human, would be acceptable,
and the altar become a bloodstone as among the Northmen.
The use of criminal victims might suggest its fitting nature
for courts of doom and trial ; and when all these purposes
were superseded, the circle remained in use to mark the tomb
of the honoured dead, with whom in most instances it was
associated.
On Largizean farm, adjacent to the sea-shore, three large
whinstone boulders arc reared in a line, about 10 feet from
each other. They measure respectively 5 feet 2 inches high
by 4 feet 2 indies broad ; 5 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 4 inches ;
7 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 10 inches. What object they served
has not been demonstrated, and it would be idle to conjecture
whether they were grave-stones (bautasteinar), landmarks for
boats, or altars (stalli).
In the same field, at the northern fence, several spear-heads
were found.
The bronze weapons found on Lubas by the Rev. Mr
M'Gill are thus described in the ' Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries ' : " Three bronze broad daggers or sword-
blades, with rivet-holes at their broad extremities for fasten-
1 Rhys, Lect. ' On Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic
Heathendom,' pp. 191-197. Load., 1888. Hibbctt Lectures, 1886.
Monuments of Unrecorded Times.
81
ing the blades to the handles ; they are from 10 inches to
13^ inches in length, and 3 inches in breadth at the base
or widest part next the handle. One of them is much
corroded. Found along with two others in the parish of
Kingarth, Bute." 1
Kilmachalmaig Circle. Almost in the centre of the lovely
fertile strath stretching between North Bute Church and
Ettrick Bay, exists a circular beech plantation, 460 yards
direct south of South St Colmac farmhouse. Encircling
almost the whole area of the plantation are the stones, which
A 9
t
Ground-plan of Stone Circle at Kilmachalmaig,
Distance from
To centre
centre of
of
Ft.
In.
A, Broken
A
B,
18
0
B, Broken
B
C,
20
0
C, 7 ft. 3 in.
high
4 ft.
2 in. broad,
2ft.
thick
C
D,
13
6
D, 6 ft. 7 in
high
,5ft.
broad,
2ft.
6 in.
thick
D
E,
21
6
E, Broken
E
F,
19
0
F, Broken
F
G,
17
O
G, 5 ft. 3 in.
high, 2 ft.
6 in. broad,
2ft.
6 in. thick
G
H,
8
6
H, 5 ft. 9 in
high, 3 ft.
broad,
2ft.
8 in.
thick
H to
A,
34
o
1 'Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Scot.,' vol. iv. p. 396, loth February 1862.
VOL. I. F
82
fiittf in the Olden Time.
originally formed a ring 45 feet in diameter. Of these, two
on the north side arc quite entire, and also two on the south
1
GoU Kings, Fillets, and Bar of Siher found on Plan Farm, 1864.
side, one of which, however, is displaced from the circle.
Other four stones arc visible above the grass ; but having
Monuments of Unrecorded Times. 83
been of the slate-rock of the district, have been broken
away.
The stone H has evidently been displaced a little. The
circle when complete consisted of nine stones, and the
diameter of the circle would consequently be 45 feet. No
tradition nor name attaches to the circle, but it may have
given part of the name to the adjoining farms of Kneslag-
vourathy, Kneslaglone and Kneslagmory (Crioslach, Goidelic,
a circle), and, indeed, the vourathy of the first place-name, if
it could be interpreted, might throw light on the subject.
Finds. The rings, fillets, &c., referred to in the Table of
Relics, as found at Plan, are thus described in the Catalogue
of the National Museum of Antiquities, in which they are
kept : " From near St Blane's Church, Bute — viz., penannular
ring (190 grains) ; small ring of twisted wires (202 grains) ;
fillets or bands with punctulated ornamentation ; small bar
of silver (228 grains), found with pennies of David I. of Scot-
land, Henry I. and Stephen of England — Treasure Trove,
1864.
84
CHAPTER IV.
THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY—
THE BRITISH CHURCH.
" O melancholy brothers, dark, dark, dark !
O battling in black floods without an ark !
O spectral wanderers of unholy night !
My soul hath bled for you those sunless years,
With bitter blood-drops running down like tears :
O dark, dark, dark, withdrawn from joy and light."
— " B. V."
|T the time when Christianity began to contend
with heathenism in the British Isles, the abo-
riginal inhabitants, wherever existing, practised
those rites of Druidism described by Csesar in
his description of the Gauls, and by Tacitus in relation to the
Brythons of Mona. Human sacrifices to the gods, and the
search for auguries in the entrails of the sacrificed victims,
with other detestable superstitions, characterised the Druidism
practised in the dark oak-groves.1
The Celtic Brythons seemed to have been polytheists of a
more refined type, as Professor Rhys points out, worshipping
great deities, corresponding to the Mercury, Apollo, Mars,
1 Tac, 'Ann.,' xiv. 31.
The Introduction of Christianity. 85
Jupiter, Minerva, Dis of the classical Pantheon, as well as
minor deities, divine mothers and virgins, spirits, and heroes,
who were given " local habitation and a name " in prominent
places and useful objects.
The Goidels in Erin introduced Druidic customs into their
religion, and retained the " Drui," the " Gall-Drui " (the foreign
Druid), who acted as a priest and wizard, and pretended to
have a supernatural influence with the gods and over the
elements. These Goidels, in St Patrick's day, were wont to
worship Cromm Cruaich, a god represented by a gold idol
surrounded by twelve other stone idols, and sacrificed their
children to it. They also venerated the Side, who dwelt in
mounds, and especially the spirits in wells, to which propitia-
tory gifts were offered.
" The honouring of sredhs and omens,
Choice of weather, lucky times,
The watching the voice of birds
They practised without disguise." *
The Drui wore a white vestment and had his head tonsured
from ear to ear, a custom borrowed by the priests of the Celtic
Church till it conformed to the Roman usage. Cursing, spells,
change of person into the form of animals and hags, also
formed part of their creed.2
In the struggle between Christianity and these heathenish
beliefs the worship of the deities gradually disappeared, but
many of the superstitions lingered to influence the popular
mind and even to form the bases of mythical stories. In Bute
and Arran native farmers have scrupulously prevented the
1 ' Chron. Picts and Scots,' p. 42.
- ' Trip. Life of St Patrick,' vol. i. clviii. By Whitley Stokes. London,
86 liutc in l/te Olden Time.
opening of mounds supposed to be sepulchral, on account
of some regard for the departed spirits ; and fairy talcs
arc not yet extinct among the older natives, especially in
Arran.
A tradition assigns to invisible spirits the ruining of a
cottage built in Glcncallum by one Malcolm Mackay, who
married a Boyle of Lubas. The offended Feys carried house
and inmates off bodily, and dropped only the lintel of their
door in Bransar Bog, where it was found.
One myth, associated with the birth of St Blaan, is that his
unknown father was a Sith or fairy, who dwelt in "The Holy
Well," or " Blaan's Well," beside his chapel. This well is also
credited with a virtue, remedial of sterility, when the spirit
is propitiated with an offering in silver or gold, — an exercise
in faith very recently observed in more instances than one.
In Irish legend the usurper of kingly authority is repre-
sented as a cat-headed monster, himself dogged with mis-
fortune and his kingdom with misery until the lawful ruler
obtains his sway. A Cairbrc Cinnchait (cat's head) or Cait-
chcnn (cat-headed), whom the later writers identify with the
leader of the servile classes who rebelled and overcame their
aristocratic masters, is believed by Professor Rhys to be
simply the " Culture-Hero " of Celtic religion, making warfare
against the evil powers of darkness and winning a victory
over them.1
One of the panels of the antique cross standing in Rothcsay
churchyard contains the figure of a cat-headed monster, with
a crowned head. There waves over its back a tail terminat-
ing like a trident This figure may allegorise the struggle
1 Rhy*. • Hibbert Lcct ,' p. 313.
The Introduction of Christianity. 87
with the powers of Hades, and be a visible memorial and
survival of a primitive myth. (See illustration, chap, xii.)
Myths die hard, and this one may have retained its popular,
educative significance to that late period of the Celtic Church,
the tenth century, when the sculptured high crosses were
erected.
I have searched diligently to discover if the Dalriadic Scots
had left in Bute any products of the folk-fancy of their native
land, especially any stories of Finn and his heroic band. As
yet I have been without success, owing, no doubt, to the fact
that generations ago Butemen lost their purely Goidelic in-
stincts, although for fashion and politic purposes they clung
to their moribund language. There still exist several place-
names into which lively imagination might read Fenian
tradition, but the attempt to do so has no corroborating
warrant. For example, Dunagoil might be interpreted as
the Dun or fort of Goll, the great, squint-eyed, heroic swords-
man of the Fian band, of whom Dunbar wrote : —
" My fader, meikle Gow MacMorne,
Out of his moderis wame was schorne ;
For littleness was so forlorn,
Siccan a kemp to beir."
Similarly Craigagoul might be the rock of Goul ; Beallach-
derg may mean the pass of Dearg, — another Ossianic hero ;
Bronoch and Branzet might have a real or fanciful connection
with Bran, the famous dog of Finn. Into Kilwhinlick, in its
old form of Kilconlick, as it appeared in 1440, the partial Gael
might read the name of Conlaoch, the son of Cuchullin,
whom his father slew in a javelin fight. But no tradition
now clothes these spectres of imagination with historical
88 Bute in l/t€ OlcUn Tinu.
substance, and consequently one cannot conjure them up
to illustrate the fancy of the old-time folk.
The stone quarry of Craigmalinc on Ambrismorc was
credited with being the habitat of witches, and a hollow
sound heard when tapping the road near the spot indicated
their subterranean abode. It is told that an old laird of
Ambrismorc had disappeared for four days, having been
spirited away to this darksome cavern. But coming to him-
self he had drawn his "joktalcg, or lang-kail gullcy," and
driven it into the door-lintel, and the sight of gleaming steel
had undone the uncanny spell, so that he emerged scathlcss.
It was a nice fancy the Celts had which permitted them so
inoffensively to describe how their local "Tarn o' Shanter"
passed a witching time among the spirits.
Down to the seventeenth century, witchcraft had its ill-
fated votaries and victims in Kingarth and Rothesay, and
their pranks in the " turning of the riddle " fall under obser-
vation in the later ecclesiastical history of the Isle.
When, how, or by whom the knowledge of the Christian
faith first reached Britain is not determined. The growth of
Christianity has shown features so unique that it is hazardous
to dogmatically dismiss those discredited traditions which
bring some of the apostles and first converts so far west.
Clement of Rome, Bishop of the Eternal City, writer of the
first century, and possibly the friend of St Paul mentioned in
the Kpistle to the Philippians, thus refers to the apostle's mis-
sionary enterprise : —
" Because of envy, Paul also obtained the prize of endurance,
having seven times borne chains, having been exiled, and having
been stoned After he had preached the Gospel both in the East
and in the West, he won the noble renown of his faith, having
The Introduction of Christianity. 89
taught righteousness to the whole world, and having come to the
Limit of the West, and borne witness before the rulers. Thus he
was freed from the world, and went into the holy place, having
shown himself a pre-eminent example of endurance." l
The mystery shrouding St Paul's movements does not per-
mit any emphatic belief that he ever reached Spain, or in
Cadiz, that famous emporium for traders, planted a church
out of which pioneers might have ventured with the merchants
to Ireland. The beautiful story of the friend of St Paul 2 and
the poet Martial, Pudens, marrying in Rome the graceful
Claudia Rufina, "sprung from the painted Britons," and of
the return of her father Caractacus, as a Christian, in 58 A.D.
to rule over Siluria, and to become the British ancestor of
the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, is even
doubtful.
The likeliest channel for the transmission of the Gospel was
through the Roman armies or the energetic merchants who
profited by their victorious advances. It must not be over-
looked, however, that the Pentecostal power of the first Church
was not suddenly and without results obliterated, and who
can say how far it reached ? According to Tertullian, it pene-
trated where never a Roman blade caused fear.
By the end of the first century the Romans were well ac-
quainted with the coasts of Britain, their coins of date 70 A.D.
having been found also in Ireland. Agricola himself made a
flying visit to see the situation of the Western Isles. So what
men of war achieved was equally easy for men moved by the
Spirit of God. Indeed an Irish tradition maintained that
1 Ep. I ad Cor. 5 (Lightfoot's ' Epistles of Clement,' pp. 46-52).
2 Some say Pudens was half-brother of St Paul.
Mute in the Olden Time.
Altus a soldier present at the Crucifixion, being converted,
came to Erin to preach the crucified Redeemer.
The Roman practice of enlisting conquered peoples into
the auxiliary legions made it possible for the British, and also
the Caledonians, to become early acquainted with " the foreign
superstition." Some of these were stationed in Pamphylia,
where Paul and Barnabas first touched Asia after leaving
Cyprus, as well as in other Roman colonies. When invalided
and discharged they might easily have become vehicles of the
new faith. From inscriptions and official lists of regiments it
CHurfh of tk* Cbnjluns 9n
South
appears that these provincial troops were through time even
trusted to serve in the districts whence they had been drafted.
In the third century, during the Roman occupancy of
Britain, the Christian religion, according to Bede, had taken a
The above illustration is copied from a plate in Sammc's ' Antiqua Illustrata,'
I»nd., 1676, vol. i. p. 212, which is said to represent the church built by Philip
the Deacon at Ineswithren or Glastonbury. Sir Henry Spclman took the measure-
ment* from an old plate preserved after the destruction of Glastonbury : length
60 feet ; breadth 26 feet
The British Church. 91
deep root there, and had its testimony sealed by the blood of
native martyrs. During the next century its influence was
distinctly felt in Alban, as we may infer from the origin of St
Ninian, also of St Patrick, in Christian homes there. At two
Councils held in the fourth century — Aries and Ariminum —
British bishops were present, and possibly also at that of
Sardica. In 386-400 A.D. the Church was settled in Britain,
had chapels, altars, Scriptures, and discipline, and held the
Catholic faith.1
The writings of Bede (673-735) indicate that he wrote from
selected material with such care as was possible to a historian
of his age. It is not to be forgotten that the spread of Chris-
tianity was combined with great intellectual activity, especially
in Ireland, two of the results of which were the transmission
of the Gospels in lovely MSS., and the recording of the not-
able sayings and doings of the distinguished Celtic teachers.
The preservation of some fragments of St Patrick's writings,
and the acknowledged use by Adamnan in the life of Colurnba
of biographical material, handed down by his predecessors,
go to show that early writers, who may have occasionally
lapsed into the error of recording insufficiently attested facts,
and however much they may have adorned their tales as the
fanciful medieval monks did, were not without good founda-
tions for their literary work.
Scientific archaeology, working upon the architectural,
monumental, literary, and traditional relics of those early
times, will soon be able definitely to illustrate how these
early teachers, now attenuated to shadows on the horizon of
history, were once substantial personages, and to resolve the
1 Hadclan and Stubbs Cone., vol. i. p. IO.
92 ttute in tlu Olden Time.
incredible accretions in their biographies into the proofs that
the mythical accounts of them were agreeable to the popular
mind, which would not readily let such great men die. And
even in this exact age, we must treat traditions tenderly, lest
scepticism may extinguish too hastily the last flicker of some
expiring truth which a kindly memory has tried to preserve
from destruction. All traditions arc not myths : all extraor-
dinary events not untrue.
Pilgrimages of British converts to the holy places in Pales-
tine and to the tombs of the martyrs were not infrequent.
Theodoret, the profound Bishop of Cyros (-4-457), wno wrote
the life of Symeon Stylites, informs us that among the pil-
grims who visited Antioch to hear the ascetic Symeon's fiery
preaching from his pillar, 36 yards high, were Britons.
Jerome mentions how Christian pilgrims were noted for
vending news ; and as, at first, the Gospel story passed from
mouth to mouth, like the talcs and ballad histories of our
country, it spread rapidly. Missionary enterprise was per-
sonal The rapid successes of Ninian, Patrick, Columba, and
Kentigern, who often at a single interview mollified a pagan
tribe, incline me to believe that Christianity had previously
filtrated among the northern heathen folks, requiring only its
latent power to be set in motion by a dauntless missionary.
With the time came the man, Ninian. Bcde thus refers to
Ninian : —
"In the year of our Lord 565, when Justin the younger, the suc-
cessor of Justinian, had the government of the Roman Empire, there
came into Britain a famous priest and abbot, a monk by habit and
life, whose name was Columba, to preach the word of God to the
provinces of the northern I'icts, who arc separated from the southern
parts by steep and rugged mountains : for the southern I'ict? , who
dwell on this side of those mountains, had long before, as is re-
The British Church. 93
ported, forsaken the errors of idolatry, and embraced the truth by
the preaching of Ninias, a most reverend bishop and holy man of
the British nation, who had been regularly instructed at Rome in
the faith and mysteries of the truth ; whose episcopal see, named
after St Martin the bishop, and famous for a stately church (wherein
he and many other saints rest in the body), is still in existence
among the English nations. The place belongs to the province of
the Bernicians, and is generally called the White House (Whitherne,
or Candida Casa, Galloway), because he there built a church of
stone, which was not usual among the Britons." *
To Ailred, Abbot of Rievaux (c. 1150 A.D.) we are indebted
for the preservation of more than the saintly man's biography.
Ninian, born 360 A.D., was the son of a British chief or
prince in the Roman province of Valentia, who was a Chris-
tian. But the people he settled among were the deadly
enemies of the Brythons — the Niduari Picts, or men of the
Nith, who occupied the district of the Solway between the
Nith and Loch Ryan, and were included in that province.2
And it may be remarked that few churches dedicated to St
Ninian are found in the Western Isles, which in Ninian's
time were being overrun by Irish Celts, as if his sympathies
lay rather with the primitive folk from the Mull of Galloway
to Dunrossness.
It was easy for Ninian to go to Rome, where he probably
arrived when Damasus was Pope, 385, for a Roman road
led direct from Valentia to the imperial city. After conse-
cration to his episcopal office, and to service in his native
land, he returned about 397, coming by way of Tours,
where St Martin resided. From him he got two masons to
erect the church at Whithorn, which was not finished when
1 Bede, « Hist.' Bk. iii. cap. iv. 2 Ibid., ' Life of St Cuthbert,' cap. xi.
94 Bute in the Olden Time.
news of Martin's death arrived. Ninian dedicated the church
to the memory of his friend — according to others, his uncle.
During this time Ninian lived in a cave, long pointed out by
tradition at Glasscrton, which has lately yielded many proofs
of the saint's humble residence there.1 To the school built
along with this church pupils thronged, until Rosnat was
known as " The Great Monastery," from which many preachers
and monks issued to the mission-field, among the number
being Finnian, the teacher of Columba.
The numerous churches bearing his name, nearly seventy
in number, testify both to his own restless energy and to the
affection which his brave and devout life inspired in his pupils.
For, as a general rule, early Celtic churches retain the names
of their builders or founders, although it was also customary
for missionaries to dedicate newly planted churches to their
spiritual teachers or favourite saints. How far he wandered
from "Alba," or "The White House," is unknown. The
kingdom of Strathclydc, whose capital was Alcluith or
Dunbrcatan, now Dumbarton, was evidently awakened by
his missionary fervour, and its blind King Tuduvallus or
Totail had his sight miraculously restored by Ninian. The
marvellous results of the spiritual education of barbarians
were easily mistaken for miracles. The tale of the saint's
pastoral staff illustrates this tendency to magnify the strange
influence of the new religion on rude minds. One of his
pupils, fearing castigation, purloined the master's pastoral
staff, and with it entered a wicker-woven coracle to make off,
without perceiving that the skin covering of the boat was
1 'Proc. Soc. Antiq.,' 188485, TO!, vii. ; 'Arch, and Hist. Coll. relating to
Ayrshire and Galloway,' vol. v. p. 6, 1885.
The British Church. 95
absent. Water poured through the crazy frame so as to
imperil his safety. The ingenious youth applied the staff
to stop a hole, when instantly the danger ceased, the waters
quelled, and the boat made headway ; for the staff acted as
mast, sail, and rudder, and then as anchor, when the boat
came safely ashore. The astonished truant wisely betook
himself to prayer, and the staff, which he had driven into
the earth, grew into a tree, beside which arose a living spring
of water. In gratitude he reared a memorial chapel there,
which he dedicated to his teacher. This myth evidently
arose out of an allegory intended to suit the ideas of a
marine people, who associated with it a story of a gospel-
voyager's escape, and the custom of planting the church
near spots and objects worshipped by the heathen — wells
especially.
A ruined chapel and well dedicated to St Ninian are pre-
served on the Isle of Sanda ; and on St Ninian's Point, Bute,
the ruins of an antique church, near which a never-failing
well is found, are memorials of the mission of the saint in the
west. The simplicity of the latter edifice suggests that it
is coeval with Ninian. The stone church, erected by Ninian
and named after his uncle, Bishop Martin, stood on a small
peninsula known as the Isle of Whithorn.
Similarly this one stands on a narrow promontory, called
St Ninian's Point, on the west coast of Bute and on the
northern shore of St Ninian's Bay. On the occasion of very
high tides or wild storms this promontory is turned into an
islet, like Lindisfarne and St Ninian's Isle, Dunrossness.
The walls still standing, about 2 feet high, show a rect-
angular building, composed of small rough flat stones
gathered on the rocky shore, and compactly bound by red
96 Bute in the Olden Time.
clay. The church stands W.N.W. and E.S.K. It measures
externally nearly 32 feet long and 2 1 feet broad ; 4 feet thick
in the gables, and 3 feet 6 inches thick in the side walls ;
internally, 23 feet long, and from 13 feet 6 inches to 14 feet
broad
At a distance of 1 3 feet from the cast end the foundations
of a wall appear as if a square chancel existed. A break on
Ground-plan of St Ninian't Chunk and " Casket."
the southern wall of the nave indicates where the door opened
on a pathway still visible. The foundations of a " cashcl " or
circular wall, originally about 3 feet thick, composed of large
blocks, also bedded in clay, forming an oval enclosure So feet
in the N. and S. diameter, 72 feet in the E. and W. diameter
round the church, are plainly visible ; and the remains of two
other walls running cast and west from the " cashcl " to the
sea are traceable. Traces of the stances of other buildings
on the point yet exist. On dilapidating the eastern gable
The British Church. 97
to obtain material for a garden wall, a few years ago, a man
discovered human bones, and happily desisted from further
desecration of the sacred spot
About 50 yards beyond the enclosure, and but a few feet
above tide-mark, a modern crystal well proffers its cool re-
freshment ; but no tree lives to memorialise the miracle of
him whom Sir David Lyndsay styled " Sanct Ringan of
ane rottin stoke."
No history attaches to the church, and we can only con-
jecture that Ninian himself reared it. It was in the zone of
his immediate missionary influence, and it is very improbable
that the Goidelic abbots and bishops, before or after Columba,
would there dedicate a church to the Brytho-Pictish teacher.
In 400 A.D. Bute -men may still have been the primitive
Ivernians, with or without a mixture of the Brythons from
Strathclyde. In Bute traces of the Brython people are not
so numerous as those of the Goidels. But doubtless the
Cumbras, Cumbri, or Kymry overran Bute as well as the
Cumbraes, leaving their language impressed in place-names,
such as Barone Hill, Cummermenoch, Plan, St Cruiskland,
Penycachil, and others, as mentioned in the second chapter.
Wherever these Kymry, or countrymen of Ninian, were
settled, Christianity would be propagated. So we may look
upon St Ninian's Church as the outcome in the west of the
vitality of the early British Church in the fifth century.
After converting the Southern Pictish kingdom to Christ, St
Ninian retired to his White House to die, and the i6th of
September 432 A.D. is accepted as the day of his death. An
Irish Life, cited by Archbishop Usher, records that he departed
life in a monastery he had founded at Cluayn-coner, now
Cloncurry, in Kildare,
VOL. I, G
98 Bute in the OUUn Time.
As to an estimate of his missionary work little can be said,
since it could only be the work of the pioneer preparing the
way for other preachers to the fickle pagans. Then, the
Christian life was only an interlude between the sports of
war. Consequently after Ninian's death we find the influence
of the Church in Strathclydc somewhat retrograding through
the political exigencies of the time. His immediate succes-
sors and pupils did not succeed in capturing popular favour
so as to leave memorialised by the names of their churches
in their spheres of influence those deep impressions made
by them. The security of Roman patronage and toleration
had departed with the legions recalled home in 41 1 A.D., and
among the unloosed races the spirit of peace was little wel-
come. Hence a great blank occurs in the record of the
Church in Strathclydc, for about a century, till the patron
saint of Glasgow, St Kentigern, in the time of Roderick the
Liberal, Rhydderch Hael, restored the prestige of the Church
collaterally with St Columba. But before his appearance the
fervour caused by the rise of the heresy, called Pelagianism,
in the British Church, gave an impulse to Cymric missionaries
to visit the outposts among " the apostate Picts."
In order to stifle this native heresy assistance was invoked
and received from the Church in Gaul, and St Germanus,
Bishop of Auxerrc, an eloquent defender of the faith, was
sent in 429, and again in 447, to oppose the heretics.
Out of the wild west there came a pupil to him, Brioc or
Brieuc by name. He was a Brython of noble birth. His
parents, Cerpus and Eldruda, were idolaters, in the province
of Corriticiana, now Cardigan. Brieuc, having followed Ger-
manus into Gaul, was trained to the priestly office, and re-
turned to his native land to convert his parents and his idol-
The British Church. 99
atrous kinsmen. He built at least one church, and educated
several disciples in Britain. Brieuc is also numbered among
a famous band of Celtic teachers who issued from the monas-
tery of Iltut, at Llan-Illtyd in Wales, and on the pressure of
the Saxon invasions crossed the sea to Brittany. This makes
him contemporary with Germanus of Paris, however, and
renders it difficult to date his career. In Armorica he founded
the famous monastery and church in the town which still
bears his name, Brieux, which was instituted into a bishopric
in 844 by the Pope. The medieval chroniclers adorn his life
with many miracles. He died about the year 500 in his nine-
tieth year. The hagiologists assign the ist of May for his
festival.
According to Gildas the historian, it was the joy of the
Britons to plough the seas, and there is nothing improbable
in the supposition that Brieuc visited the northern Church to
fan into life the flickering embers left on the altar of St Mar-
tin's, at Whithern. This visit would naturally explain why
the church of the ancient parish of Dunrod, on the shore of
Wigton Bay, opposite Whithorn, bore a double dedication to
St Mary and St Bruoc. A similar association distinguishes
the parish church of Rothesay. As has already been pointed
out in Chapter I. p. 16, Rothesay church was called by the
inhabitants, last century, " Cilla'bhruic," and the parish
" Sgireachd Bhruic." The ruined chancel, or chapel, in the
churchyard, is now called St Mary's chapel or church. This
structure is usually assigned to the thirteenth century, but
the lower portions of the walls bear evidence of a remoter
antiquity.
Before the old parish church was removed in 1692, Timothy
Pont noted " Lady Kirck " on his map. The Chronicle of
ioo Bute in the Olden Time.
Man ( 1 200- 1 37<5X recording the burial of Alan, Bishop of Sodor
and Man, M in the church of the blessed Mary at Rothcrsay in
Bute" in 1320, and also that of Bishop Gilbert M'Lclan, in
the same place, a few years later, does not refer to St Brieuc's
Church.1 These omissions prove nothing, however. The older
dedication may have fallen into abeyance under Romanising
influences.
It is generally believed that a resuscitation of dedications
to old Celtic saints whose names had been omitted from the
calendars since the time Queen Margaret tried to reform "the
barbarous rite " of the Columban Church, took place through
a Celtic movement to counteract the Anglicanisation of the
Scottish Church through the use of " the Sarum Service,"
This restoration of the festivals of the Celtic saints found
greater favour during the times of the Wars of Succession.
Then, not infrequently, to satisfy opposing clerical parties, a
double dedication, to a great Roman saint associated with a
local one, was sanctioned. But, unless there was some local
connection with this British missionary, there appears no rea-
son for the resuscitation of his name in Bute. A fair is still
held in Rothesay on what is called " Bruix Day," which falls
on the third Wednesday of July. But formerly a fair was also
held on the first Wednesday of May (' New Statistical Ac-
count,' p. 117)1 This lends corroboration to the opinion that
St Brieuc was honoured here specially.
But Mr J. C. Roger, in a notice of the ancient monuments
in St Mary's, asserts that "the only foundation for the name"
is the popular designation of the midsummer fair of Rothesay,
1 'Antiq. Cdto. Norm.,' by Rev. J. Jobostone, 1786; ' Chroo. Man.'
p. 46.
The British Church. i o i
instituted by charter of James VI. in I584-85.1 The author
of the ' Statistical Account ' of Rothesay, the Rev. Robert
Craig, made a more egregious blunder in asserting that
" ' Cilia Bhruic,' said by him [Dr Maclea] to be the name given
to that church by the Highlanders, is no better than a nick-
name, there being no such saint in the Romish Callendar." 2
The charter in question, however, appoints two fairs to be
held, on the 22d day of July and the 2$d day of October, an-
nually, without mentioning either as Bruix Day. Scepticism,
as well as faith, must be reasonable. It was customary in the
Celtic Church to assign more than one day for the commemo-
ration of a great saint. For example, for Finnian of Clonard
three days were marked in the calendar. The tradition of
the natives, and the recorded opinion of the gifted Gael, Dr
Maclea, are not unharmonious with the checkered history of
the primitive Church. At St Breock, Cornwall, the parish
fair is held on the ist day of May. A little church dedicated
to Brieuc stood on the island of Inchbraoch, in the South
Esk, near Montrose. From the 'Register of Aberdeen' it
appears that in 1328, when witnessing a charter regarding the
adjoining lands of Rossy, John de Cadiou designates himself,
" Rector insule Sancti Braochi"
The parish of Craig, in Forfarshire, is made up of the two
old parishes of Inchbrayoch or Craig, and St Skeoch (Skaa
or Skay) or Dunninald (Doninad). The church of St Skay
stood on a cliff overlooking the mouth of the South Esk.
Rothesay also has its Skeochwood, without a clerical dedi-
cation. It is a remarkable coincidence.
1 ' Proc. Soc. Antiq.,'vol. ii. p. 466. Edin., 1859.
2 ' The Statistical Account of Buteshire,' p. 102. Edin., 1841.
IO2 Bute in the OltUn Timt.
Why St Brieuc should be honoured in the far-off country
of the Vcrnicomcs (the MeaUe or non-Celtic aborigines) in
Northern Pictland. and also in Galloway and Bute, unless the
missionary, sprung from the idolatrous primitive folk, had
penetrated (as St Blaan in the next century also penetrated)
their retreats to preach in a dying tongue, is difficult to under-
stand. His name, doubtless, represents some interest the
British Church had in the Christianising of Caledonia, espe-
cially that very part where St Ninian laboured long before.
Further, St Ninian's influence was not local merely, but
extended to Erin, which, according to some, he visited, where-
in, according to others, he died. There the activities of the
British Church commingled with those of the native Church,
and a free intercourse and migration of pupils between their
respective seminaries of learning arose. This was more
especially the case after the death of St Patrick, when the
Welsh Church sent missionaries to the Irish, "who had lost
the Catholic faith," and introduced the Order of Mass used
by SS. David, Cadoc, and Gildas — about 544-565. The fame
of "The Great Monastery" was worthily sustained by its
wise master, Nennio (Monennus, Manccnnus, or Mansenus),
who crossed the Irish Channel, and in the sister isle roused
the fervour of the Pictish and Goidclic youth in the sixth
century. Among the students who sought his monastic
discipline were Tighernac, afterwards Abbot of Clunes ; Enda
of Aran, whom St Brendan visited ; Eoghan of Ardrath ;
and the still better known Finan or Finnian, the founder of
Maghbile. But a slender link, almost one invisible, connects
this Finan or Finnian with the Isle of Bute.
According to Blain's ' History of Bute ' (p. 398), a chapel
formerly stood on the farm of Kilwhinleck. In Dr Maclea's
The British Church. 103
Glossary of Place-names, appended to Blain's ' History ' (p.
445), Kilwhinleck is interpreted to mean " Cillchumhangleag
— Cell of the narrow flag or stone." (Other forms of the
name are Brythonic, Kilqukenlik, Kilquhandy. The Goideli-
cised form is (1440) Kilconltck, Kilfeenleac.*) Tradition points
out the spot where the chapel stood beside the original farm-
steading. Nothing of it remains, not even the font which lay
there neglected till within living memory. The lovely site,
about two miles from St Ninian's Church, is in a district
specially reminiscent of Irish history, where the Neills long
held sway over the Mac-gill-chiarans and others, beside Kil-
keran and Kilmorie. But Dr Maclea's derivation is not
satisfactory, if for no other reason than this, that Celtic
churches bore a founder or a patron's name, while the idea
under "cell" is misleading. Who then planted Kil-quhin-
leck?
When it is recollected that Gw in Welsh corresponds to F
in Gaelic, the transformation of the name of Finan into Wynnin
by the Brythons in Bute, as in Kilwinning, is seen to be easy.
Some pronounce it Kil-feen-leag, which induces the suggest-
ion that the name memorialises " the stone church of Finan
or Wynnin," or the " church of the flagstone of Finan." In
the early Irish Church the slab, leac, on which the patron
saint was born, or slept, or under which he lay buried, was
held in reverence, and pointed out in the church dedicated to
him. In pre-Reformation times Rothesay parish was attached
to Kilwinning Abbey, and till 1639 was included in the Pres-
bytery of Irvine.1 A family called " Makgylquhynnych,"
1 " Carta to the Abbacy of Kilwinning, of the ad vocation of the Kirk of Rosay,
by James Stewart, grandson to the king (i.e., Robert III.)." — Robertson's ' Index,'
p, 140, No. 42.
104 ft*tt in tltt OleUn Time.
who in 1 506 were infcft in the lands of Cawnoch, or Tawnic,
in Bute, seem to bear the patronymic of the saint ; while
Winnyhill (now Windyhall, with its traditional graveyard)
and Langrewinnog (Font's Atlas) may retain traces of the
honoured name of Winnin.
Finan or Finnian, Bishop and Abbot of Maghbilc, now
Movillc, in the county of Down, was a prince of the house of
Dalfiatach, and was born about the beginning of the sixth
century. His birthplace was in Dalaradia, that district of
north-west Ireland which sent so many missionaries of Pictish
blood into Caledonia. He was therefore a Ulidian, or Non-
Celt, with all the restless energy of his race. In the opening
stanza of an ancient Irish poem in the ' Saltair na Rating
Finan of Movillc is mentioned as the patron saint of Ulidia,
and Columba of the Clan Neil. H is parents, Cairbrc (Corprcus)
and Lassara, early intrusted his education to distinguished
teachers, Colman of Dromore and Caylan, both of whom had
studied under Ailbe, the pupil of St Patrick, and of Mediae
of Noendrum. Caylan or Mochae directed Finan to the
monastic school of Ncnnio at Whithorn, after which he went
to Rome for three months, and on the completion of his
studies there became a priest. Finan brought with him
from Rome a copy of the Bible, partly translated, partly
corrected by St Jerome. Columba, having stealthily tran-
scribed this precious book, originated a dispute, the final
result of which was the voluntary exile of Columba to Alban.
Columba's copy of this manuscript and its casket, called the
"Catliach " or Battler, after a most romantic history, has become
the property of a representative of the original keepers, Sir
Richard O'Donnell of Newport, Mayo, by whom it is ex-
hibited in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. When
The British Church. 105
opened in 1814 it was found to contain the manuscript of a
portion of the Gallican Psalter, as corrected by St Jerome
from the Hexaplar Greek of Origen.
A fuller account of this wonderful episode will be found in
Bishop Healy's ' Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum.'1
On his return to his native land, Finan founded the famous
school of Maghbile, about the year 540 ; and afterwards
that of Driumfionn, Dromin. At the former he taught the
quarrelsome boy CrimtJian (wolf), afterwards renowned
Columba (dove).
He has been by some identified with St Frigidianus, Bishop
of Lucca in Italy, a contemporary Irish missionary. The
Irish chroniclers say he died and was buried in Maghbile
about the year 576-579, the loth September being observed
in his honour. To him they assigned the fame of being the
" first who carried the Mosaic law and the whole Gospel into
Erin."
Scottish tradition, crystallised in the ' Breviary of Aber-
deen,' makes Finan a contemplative student and a skilful
artificer, who provided himself with a mission-ship in which
he and other teachers set out for Alban.
After many hardships they at last landed at the mouth of
the Garnock, in Cunningham, Ayrshire. Miracles duly fol-
lowed. An angel, in a vision, directed Finan to build his
church on the spot where the ruined Abbey of Kilwinning
now stands. He next made the dark grove of Holywood,
near Dumfries, his retreat. Thereafter, according to Bishop
Usher, he " died in great opinion of sanctity, and was buried
at Kilwinning."
1 P. 248. Dublin, 1890.
106 Bute in the Olden Time.
How far the influence of St Finan or Wynnin penetrated
can only be guessed at by marking the diffusion of churches
and holy healing • wells dedicated to him — tg., Kilfinan
parish in Argyllshire. And none of these are beyond the
sphere of the efforts of the preachers issuing from St Ninian's
monastery. A St Finan was also known as Findbarr or
White-head, and under this name we find traces of him in
the west, in Kintyrc, where also was Winnin's healing-well ;
in Barra ; in Ross ; in Barr parish, Ayrshire, where stood
Kilbar. A peculiar corruption of his name is also found in
Kirkgunzcon in Kirkcudbright
Whatever may have been the aim of St Finan's mission
to Strathclyde, we may associate his work with that of the
British Church, which, in the west, was gradually being over-
lapped by that of the Irish Church, stimulated by the spirit
of St Patrick and of his distinguished successors. Most prob-
ably, too, the kindred of the Cruithni or primitive folk at
home delighted to hear in Alban, from St Finan, the Gospel
in their Pictish tongue.
As to the extent and results of missionary enterprise,
emanating from the British church at Whithern, we have
scarcely the slightest trace left us whereby to form any
conclusions. It may, however, be taken for granted that it
was not the work of merely isolated wanderers, to-day in one
vale, to-morrow in another, but rather the extension of
mission settlements in heathendom, under fearless preachers
like SS. Ninian, Finan, Faolan, whose stations were linked
to each other by pilgrim preachers coming and going. This
will account for the penetrative energy of the British Church.
107
CHAPTER V.
THE IRISH CHURCH.
Not as the conqueror comes, they, the true-hearted, came ;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums, and the trumpet that sings of fame ;
Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear ; —
They shook the depths of the desert's gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer."
— HEMANS.
'HE western coasts of Scotland have a double
interest in the remarkable life and work of St
Patrick, inasmuch as probable tradition assigns
to them the place of his nativity, and they very
early felt the power of the Christian activities he set in
motion in Ireland. It was in "the Britains," his native land,
Patrick was reared by his father, Calpurnius, and mother,
Concessa, who tilled a little farm beside Bannauem Tabernise,
in some Roman colony. Calpurnius was also a decurio, or
local magistrate, and united to his secular office the spiritual
one of deacon in the church. His father, Potitus, was a
priest, and the son of Odissus, a deacon. From this Christian
family Patrick, or, as the Celts styled him, Succat, sprang
about the year 373 A.D. His capture by Irish pirates in his
sixteenth year, his sale to Miliuc, a chief in the Braid valley,
near Slemmish (Ballymena), where he was set to herd sheep
io8 Bute in tlu Oldtn Time.
or swine, his escape to his parents in Britain, are accepted as
historical facts, which go along with tradition to prove that
it was in the Cymric district of Dumbarton Patrick was born.
The memory of his experiences became Patrick's call to a
mission among the heathens of Ireland. After betaking
himself to the best colleges, perhaps at Whithcrn, and prob-
ably in Gaul and Italy, and one account takes him to the
famous monastery of Lerins in the Mediterranean, he became
a priest, and about the year 397 returned to Ireland.
Dr Whitley Stokes, in order to reconcile the discrepancies
in the Lives of the saint,1 suggests that Patrick at first had
no commission from Rome, and after labouring for thirty
years among the pagan tribes without much success, went
back to Gaul in 427 A.D. to obtain episcopal ordination
and Roman authority, to the want of which he attributed
his small success. When studying under St Gcrmanus of
Auxcrrc he heard of the death of Pal 1 ad i us, who had been
sent by Pope Celestinus, in 431, to "the Scots believing in
Christ," and was directed by St Germanus to take up the
mission of Palladius. Consequently Patrick, without pro-
cccding to Rome, received episcopal consecration from
Bishop Matorix, and returned to Ireland in the year 432.
He was then sixty years old. As a Gallic missionary he was
accompanied by assistants from Gaul, and also strengthened
with funds for the work. Under him the advance of the
Church throughout the land can only be likened to a
triumph, the result of which was the rearing of numerous
churches, the conversion of tribes totally, and the education
1 • The Trip. Life of Patrick,1 by Whitley Stoke*. London, 1887. VoL L p.
The Irish Church. 109
of very many priests and teachers, who disseminated the
Gospel far and wide.
After sixty years of missionary enterprise, he died, it is
said, on the i/th March 463, aged ninety years, and was
buried in Downpatrick.
The phenomenal reverence in which St Patrick's memory
was held in early Ireland and Caledonia can scarcely be
sufficiently appraised now, and this affection was expressed
in the phrase, " Sanctus Patricius Papa noster," and in the
custom of naming churches and wells after the saint.
Whether in Alban this originated in the personal intercourse
of the saint — Manxmen declared Patrick was their first
preacher — or in the gratitude of pupils, cannot be ascertained.
The inhabitants of Muthil until very lately (i.e., about 1835)
held St Patrick's name in so high veneration, that on his day
"neither the clap of the mill was heard nor the plough seen
to move on the furrow." l
His power in Erin was even more commanding. He cast
a spell over the land, till his disciples, with " a roving com-
mission" to carry the Gospel, swarmed everywhere. The
fame of St Patrick penetrated to the East as well, and crowds
of foreign ecclesiastics — Egyptians, Romans, Gauls, Britons,
Saxons — came to Erin to be taught by him or his disciples.
Without a doubt these preaching pilgrims, men and
women, were borne, in the fifth century, over the Irish
Channel along with the hordes of marauders — " Hibernici
Grassatores" — who were colonising the Western Isles. It
was their mission to the pagan islesmen. It was congenial
work for kinsmen, too.
1 ' New Stat. Ace.,' Perth, p. 313.
1 10 Bute in the Olden Time.
So we find the alleged mission to Caledonia of Palladius
the martyr carried on by a branch of the Irish Church
ministered to by Picts, the disciples of St Patrick, who had
pushed up the valleys as far as Abcrnethy, the capital of the
Pictish kingdom. Bute was on the route of this and succes-
sive migrations. And in Bute dedications to saints, who
were highly esteemed in northern Pictland, are found.
It is a noteworthy fact that the early Irish chroniclers and
hagiologists do not make St Patrick the first bishop ordained
by the Roman Church to carry the Gospel into Erin. In
a MS. Life of Ailbc, afterwards the famed Bishop of Emly,
it is recorded that this youth was converted by a " Christian
priest" who had been sent direct from the Roman see to
disseminate the Gospel.1 To St Patrick, however, is generally
assigned the honour of teaching Ailbc, and consecrating him
the first Bishop of Minister, with his seat at Cashcl, during
the reign of Aengus(-f 490). Of his pupils much in reference
to Bute can be said. But before touching upon this connec-
tion it is necessary to allude to two contemporaries of St
Patrick, who, according to Dempster's 'Menologium Scoti-
cum,1 were honoured specially in Bute.
In the Calendar, under April 1 1, Dempster gives : " In the
Isle of Bute [the festival] of Macocus, priest, disciple of St
Patrick, the apostle of the Irish."2 The same authority
associates the $th October with his day at Dunkeld. Came-
rarius, in his Calendar, under 7th October, improves upon
Dempster by recording that " St Macceus came out of Scotia
[i>., Erin] with St Patrick." s The identification of this
1 ' De Script. Hibcrni.T,' Jac. \Vaneo, p. i. Dublin, 1639.
* " Insiila Data Maccd vatis S. Patricii Hibcmorum Apostoli discipuli B."
' " Sanctus Macccus cum Sancto 1'atricio Scotia egreuus."— Forbes Gil., p. 241 .
The Irish Church. 1 1 1
preacher is somewhat difficult, some considering him to be
Mahevv of Kilmahew. He may have been no other than the
Pictish youth Mochoe or Mochay, of Dalaradia, whom Patrick
educated to the priesthood and saw settled as the Abbot and
Bishop of Antrim, who died 23d June 497.
The Antrim families who colonised the west coasts may
have carried his cult here, there being no more feasible reason
for the local reverence shown to him. The once powerful
family of Maccaws of Garrachty bear a name not unlike
that of this forgotten bishop. No trace of his residence
survives, however.
The rapid spread of Christianity after the time of St
Patrick renders it credible that his disciples migrated even
to the remotest isles in our northern archipelago, where they
erected those primitive cells whose ruins are yet to be found
in unlooked-for places. What authority Dempster had for
numbering Machilla among these voyagers is not implicitly
reliable. Under October 4 of the Calendar he gives : " In
Bute [the festival] of St Machilla, who veiled St Brigid ; " and
again, under February i, " In Scotia [the festival] of Brigid
the Virgin, who, having been deceived by an earthly spouse,
took the veil of virginity, in the Scottish Hebrides Isles, from
St Machilla, in whose testimony the dry wood of the altar,
on her touch, became green again."
Camerarius, without mentioning Bute, assigns the pth of
October to Mathilla.
There is evidence in Dempster's statement of a confound-
ing of two bishops, Maccaldus of Man and Maccaleus of
Cruachan Brigh-eile, and of a too ready acceptance of irre-
concilable traditions. The bishop who veiled St Brigid at
Usny Hill (Westmeath) was Maccaille, the son of Caille or
1 1 2 Bute in tlit Olden Time.
Cuillc (Macelcus, Maccleus), and was a pupil of St Patrick,
consecrated to his episcopate about 465 A.D. Another of the
same band, who is also called a Bishop of the Isles, was
Hybar, or Iborus, who was visited by the virgin Mod wen na,
a contemporary of Brigid.
The annals of " The Four Masters " record that this Bishop
Maccaile died in 490.
Did he visit the Bute churches in his day? We know
of the restless desires of his famous contemporaries to seek
retreats, — Ailbe yearning to sail to far-off Orkney, and Enda
actually accomplishing his aim in the Aran Isles, while Brigid
herself roamed everywhere in her " parish " or mission-field,
"spread over the whole Hibernian land."1
The diminutive church, called Kilmichel (pronounced by
old natives Kil-muchil), whose ruins in the lonely churchyard
on the north-west coast of Bute still happily remain, may,
with little impropriety, be associated with the name of St
Patrick's pupil. The period in which it was customary, in
the British and Irish Churches, to dedicate to St Michael is
so much posterior to the date to which we might be war-
ranted in assigning the erection of this primitive edifice, that
the presumption in favour of the Irish missionary is worthy
of consideration.
Indeed, the field adjoining Kilmichel contains a tumulus
surmounted by a dolmen, which is known popularly as
" Michael's Grave," thus indicating that the local patron was
not looked upon as of celestial origin. And down to the end
of last century several families of Mac-gill-mhichclls kept up
in Bute the trace of this patronymic.
1 Cogitosus, ' Prol. Tr. Thaum,' p. 518.
The Irish Church. 113
Worship seems to have been kept up here till into the
eighteenth century. Martin, in his ' Description of the
Western Islands of Scotland,' says of Boot : " The churches
here are as follow, Kilmichel, Kilblain, and Kilchattan in
the South Parish ; and Lady Kirk in Rothesay is the most
Northerly Parish : all the inhabitants are Protestants." l
" Far on its rocky knoll descried
Saint Michael's chapel cuts the sky."
Kilmichel is now a roofless, but otherwise well-preserved,
fane. The sea-smoothed stones from the beach beneath it
Ground-plan of Kilmichel.
compose its walls, which are bound together with earth. The
building is rectangular in form, and lies oriented, measuring
VOL. I.
1 See Appendix.
IT
1 1 4 Bute in the Olden Time.
externally 25 feet 4 inches in length and from i8# feet to
19 feet in breadth ; and internally, 19 feet 2 inches by 12 feet
9 inches. The side walls are still 6 feet 9 inches high, nor
seem to have been higher. A narrow doorway, 2 feet 6
inches, breaks the north wall
A rough slab, apparently the altar, remains in situ in the
eastern end. The altar-stone measures 4 feet 4 inches long,
2 feet 4 inches broad, and 5 % to 6 inches thick. The sup-
ports arc respectively 20 and 21 inches above the earthen
floor. The sill of a small window, high on the south wall,
is visible. Two aumbries appear in the west and south
walls. The curves on the west gable corners indicate that
the roof was of a beehive type, but the presence of a few
thick slates, pierced for pins, lying on the clay floor, rather
opposes this idea at first. There is no record of any services
held here in Protestant times, and the chapel may have
been repaired with slates, during the " resurrection scare,"
for a ward-house. The ancient burial-ground, still utilised
occasionally by families on the Argyleshirc coast, is sur-
rounded by a circular wall, measuring 84 feet and 78 feet
in its diameter. A holy or lover's well also exists close by.
There are in Bute two dedications to St Brigid, the pupil
of St Maccaile, the one at Kilbride in Glenmore, about three
miles from Kilmichcl or a less distance over Torran Turach
Hill ; and the other at St Bride's Hill, Rothesay, now covered
by the museum. Of St Bride's chapel and cemetery at the
former place not a trace now remains, save in the name of
the farm of Kilbride, the hill above it called Kilbride Hill,
and the farm in the vicinity, Drumachloy (Drum-a-chlaidh),
ridge of the churchyard.
To the latter (Rothesay), which was used as a place of
The Irish Church. 115
worship down to the period of the Reformation, reference
will be made in connection with the Roman Church in a
succeeding chapter.
This romantic virgin, St Brigid, was a Ulidian by birth,
being a native of Fochard, near Dundalk, about the year 453.
From her youth, under the influence of the Church organised
by Patrick, she increased her reputation for sanctity and holy
works, so that her fame was wellnigh equal that of the apostle
of the Irish. As stated before, she was consecrated by
Bishop Maccaile, and gathered round her crowds of virgins
and widows for Christian education. The establishments
she founded were subsequently governed by bishops under
a regular rule. Her famous community at Kildare, founded
in 490, became an influential colony in a prosperous town,
richly endowed on behalf of her pupils and the poor. Among
her more distinguished contemporaries, and also pupils, was
St Brendan the Voyager, who went to St Brigid in search
of instruction. St Brigid's nuns spread over Ireland and
Scotland, and their cells and churches were affiliated with
the mother-house. So great was the honour in which she
was held that she was known as " the second Mary " and the
" Mary of the Irish," and both Marys were invoked in prayer
for protection. She died in the year 523. It is natural, then,
to suppose that the Scots, who were then firmly established
in the Western Isles, had carried her cult with them ; and her
pupils, following the track of the Ulidians into Pictland,
founded the establishment at Abernethy, where her relics
were preserved, perhaps setting up on their march the
many chapels which bore the name of Kilbride. Dr Mac-
pherson even associates her name with the name of the
Hebrides Isles,
116
Bute in tht Olden Time.
As has been previously mentioned, one of the teachers of
St Finnian was St Colman, Bishop of Dromorc, who was a
Dalaradian Pict, educated in Antrim by Caylan, and in
Munster by Ailbc. He flourished early in the sixth century.
He appears to be remembered in the name of Colmac
(Calmac) farms in North Bute, which till recently went under
the more correct designation of Kilmachalmaig. There are
now no remains of the chapel which stood on East Colmac,1
1 It was utilised for building the steading by the fanner one hundred years ago.
The Irish Church. 1 1 7
and the traces of the cemetery, visible in the end of last
century, are totally obliterated now. One relic of this seat of
worship alone survives in the massive flat-faced boulder of
trap, with its deeply incised cross, preserved in a field. It
measures 3 feet 7 inches high and 19 inches broad, and is of
varying thickness. The circle in which the cross is cut
measures 12^ inches. This church was used for divine
service till long after the Reformation. In 1591 we find
Figure of Swastika on Kilmachalmaig Cross.
Patrick M'Queine, pastor of Kingarth, has Killumcogarmick
(Kilmhichoarmick) added to his charge.1
Of this Colman's residence in the new colony of the Scots
nothing is known. Tradition, however, declares he lies buried
in Inchmacome, formerly Inchmocholmoc, the church dedi-
cated to him in the lake of Menteith. And his festival is
kept on the 7th of June.
1 Scott, ' Fasti Eccles. Scot.', Part V. p. 29.
1 1 8 Bute in tlte Olden Time.
He was apparently one of many missionaries, like Fillan
and Kessog, who came from south-west Ireland to minister
among the primitive folk, with whom their kinsmen were
coming into closer alliance in Caledonia. And it is quite
probable that these little-known preachers were only casual
visitants, bishops-errant, like Tight-mac, "the man of two
districts," and Bcrchan, " the man of two portions," passing
as it suited them to the various stations in the mission-field.
As it is, their work sufficiently illustrates the fervour caused
by the Irish Church of Patrick and his immediate successors,
down to that period when their kinsfolk had founded a secure
kingdom over the sea. They were the pioneers of the Colum-
ban institution, and prepared the way for that rapid diffusion
of the Gospel which characterised the ceaseless movements
of the monks from lone lona. Far too little credit is given to
these dauntless missionaries who threaded kyle and forest,
and marched over moor and mountain, with no armed escort
save the thrice-armed spirit dwelling in the sacred Gospel
they carried in their satchel, probably because their vagrant
ministry looks of little value in the bright light that reveals
the wonderful work of Columba. They first scattered the
seed ; lona had the garnering of the harvest and the glory
thereof.
An inquiry as to the teaching and polity of the Church
these missionary bishops represented may be fitly introduced
here.
The differentiation of the early Irish Church from the
British Church, if at all appreciable, lay more in its ecclesias-
tical polity and liturgical forms than in the substance of the
teaching of the Gospel. But it is nearly as difficult to settle
definitely now whether the Celtic Church, in either branch,
The Irish Church. 1 1 9
acknowledged any delegation of authority from the Roman
See, or considered itself absolutely independent, as it would
be for an intelligent Englishman to conclude whether or not
those remote parishes to which the General Assembly has
occasion to send commissions are connected with the Church
of Scotland, whose edicts are not observed within their pro-
vince. No British liturgy exists ; the Irish liturgy can only
be guessed at from fragments of it preserved in early books.
We are dependent upon 'The Tripartite Life of St Patrick'
for definite information regarding the teaching and modes
of worship in the Church in his day. It is clear the early
teachers faithfully maintained the Holy Scriptures as the
rule of faith, and used the version of the Bible prepared by
St Jerome. There are substantial reasons for believing that
they also possessed a vernacular version, if not of all, of some
of the books of the Bible, the Greek portions of which were
studied by the more famous evangelists, like St Brendan. A
liturgy was also used, and from surviving fragments it appears
to have been related to the " Ephesine " rather than to the
" Petrine " family of liturgies — that is to say, it was different
from the Roman, and if not identical with the Gallican liturgy
was similar to it.1
Of the coequality of the Trinity they had no doubt. In
' The Tripartite Life,' Baptism and the Eucharist are men-
tioned as Sacraments, but Penance, Marriage, Holy Orders,
and Extreme Unction are not referred to as Sacraments ;
while Confirmation, if not accepted as of divine institution,
was esteemed to have an imperative importance. There is
only a slight trace of the honours paid to the Virgin Mary in
1 'The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church.' F. E. Warren. Oxford, 1881.
1 20 Bute in the Olden Tinte.
the same work. According to the editor, " The Blessed Virgin
Mary is never mentioned cither by Patrick or Sccundinus,
Muirchu or Tircchan."1
Communion was partaken of in both kinds, the wine being
mixed with water in the chalice, and sucked through a fistula.
Prayers and fasting on behalf of thodcad were indulged in,
and much virtue was attributed to severe fastings and ascetic
mortifications of body and soul. One saint went so far as to
recognise a redemptive power in the painful burrowing in the
flesh of a dainty beetle ; others practised philanthropy more
humanely by ministering to lepers ; still others sealed them-
selves up in silent cells (deiscirt, desert) to be alone with God.
Every day was consecrated to unremitting labours in the
Gospel. Sabbath was indeed a day of worship, divided into
eight watches, like the other days of the week, and was fully
observed in the saying of Mass, the chanting of the 150
psalms, and preaching to the people. The clergy, — deacons,
presbyters, and bishops, were married. A notable feature of
the consecration of bishops was the practice of consecration
by a single bishop, sometimes at a leap, without the candi-
date having received orders as a deacon or priest.
The first Irish bishops were not invested with a territo-
rial jurisdiction, but each usually exercised his mission in
the tribe or sept which had invited him into residence, and
acquired the authority which was permitted to him in the set-
tlement of priests and churches, over which he remained as
steward.
Priests and virgins had a "roving commission" to "sing
and say" over the land. It is interesting to find that the
1 WhiUcy Stokes, 'Trip. Life,' p. clxv.
The Irish Church. 1 2 1
catacombs in Rome have preserved the monuments of " vir-
gines peregrinae," like those of the Celtic Church.
The size, importance, and influence of a complete ecclesias-
tical establishment (inuintir), such as that presided over by
St Patrick, may be inferred from the functions of the twenty-
four persons who were in office along with him — viz., bishop,
priest, judge, bishop-champion (polemic), psalmist, chamber-
lain, bell-ringer, cook, brewer, two waiters, charioteer, firewood-
man, cowherd, three smiths, three artisans, and three em-
broideresses. To these has to be added, probably, a " Culdee
of his household, Malach, the Briton," whom the saint on one
occasion invited to restore a dead boy to life, so that we ima-
gine he was the "medicine-man" of the colony. To this
monastic system I shall revert when dealing with the remains
of the abbacy at Kilblaan in a succeeding chapter.
122
CHAPTER VI.
THE HERMITS.
" The bravely dumb that did their deed,
And scorned to blot it with a name,
Men of the plain heroic breed,
That loved I leaven's silence more than fame."
— J. R. LOWELL.
NE of the immediate effects of the teaching of men
of the type of Patrick and Ailbe was a strong
part of some of the converts
to the faith to separate themselves entirely from
the world, and endeavour to live the new life of purity and
holiness unhindered by social claims and unmolested by
common temptations. In some sweet or stern retreat,
according to the romantic or stoical texture of his soul, in
darksome cave, sequestered glen, or precipitous isle scarce
accessible save to the surges and the wild birds, the Christian
recluse chose to sit apart, " a melancholy man," engaging
himself
"In heavenly vision, praise, and prayer,
Pleased and blessed with Cod alone."
Whether this practice was a spontaneous outcome of the
influence of Christianity on certain retiring dispositions', or
The Hermits. 123
was the result of an imitative contagion spread from the
far East, it is not necessary here to inquire. Enough it is
to know that the same features which distinguished the
customs of the Anchorites in Syria were illustrated in Ire-
land, and the Celtic hermits abandoned themselves to a
severely solitary life, to be quit of the restraints of our com-
mon lot. They formed a third class of saints, according to
a very ancient catalogue disinterred by Archbishop Usher.
" CATALOGUE OF THE SAINTS IN IRELAND ACCORDING TO THE
DIFFERENT TIMES IN WHICH THEY FLOURISHED.
" The First Order was in the time of St Patrick. They were all
then great and holy bishops filled with the Holy Ghost, 350 in
number, the founders of churches, worshipping one head — namely,
Christ ; following one leader, Patrick ; and having one tonsure and
one celebration of Mass and one Easter, which they celebrated after
the vernal equinox ; and what was excommunicated by one Church,
all excommunicated. They did not reject the service and society
of females, because, founded on Christ the Rock, they feared not
the wind of temptation. This order flourished during four reigns
— that is, during the reign of Laeghaire, son of Niall (A.D. 432), who
reigned thirty-seven years, and of Ailill Molt, who reigned thirty
years, and of Lugaid, who reigned seven years. And this order
continued to the last years of Tuathal Maelgarbh (A.D. 543). They
all continued holy bishops, and they were chiefly Franks and
Romans, and Britons and Scots by birth.
" The Second Order of Saints was as follows. In the Second
Order there were few bishops, but many priests — in number 300.
Whilst worshipping God as their one head, they had different rites
for celebrating, and different rules of living; they celebrated one
Easter on the 1 4th moon ; they had a uniform tonsure, videlicet,
from ear to ear. They shunned the society and services of women,
and excluded them from their monasteries. This order also flourished
during four reigns — i.e., during the last years of Tuathal Maelgarbh,
1 24 Bute in the Olden Time.
and during the thirty years of Diarmait's reign, the son of Ccarbhall ;
and during the time of the two grandsons of Muiredach, who reigned
seven years; and during the time of Ardh, son of Ainmire, who
reigned thirty years (A.D. 597). These received their rite for cele-
brating Masses from the holy men of Britain, from St David and St
Gildas and St Docus. And the names of these are — Finnian, Enda,
Colman, Comgall, Aidus, Ciaran, Columba, Brandan, Birchin, Cain-
ncch, Lasrian, Lugcus, Barrind, and many others who were of this
Second Order of Saints.
" The Third Order was of this kind — they were holy priests, and
a few bishops, one hundred in number, who dwelt in desert places.
They lived on herbs and the alms of the faithful ; they despised all
things earthly, and entirely avoided all whispering and detraction.
They had different rules [of life], and different rites for celebrating ;
they had also a different tonsure, for some had the crown [shaven],
but others kept their hair on the crown. They had also a different
paschal solemnity ; for some celebrated it on the fourteenth, but
others on the thirteenth moon. This order flourished during four
reigns — that is, from the time of Aedh Slaine, who reigned only
three years ; and during the reign of I>omhnall, who reigned thirty
years ; and during the time of the sons of Maelcobha ; and during
the time [of the sons of] Aedh Slaine. And this order continued
down to the time of the great plague (in A.D. 664)."
(Then follows a list of their names.) Then the writer
says: —
•
"Note that the First Order was most holy, the Second holier,
and the Third holy. The First glowed like the sun in the fervour
of their charity ; the Second cast a pale radiance like the moon ;
the Third shone like the aurora. These Three Orders the blessed
Patrick foreknew, enlightened by heavenly wisdom, when in pro-
phetic vision he saw at first all Ireland ablaze, and afterwards only
the mountains on fire; and at last saw lamps lit in the valleys.
These things have been extracted from an old ' Life of Patrick,' " *
1 Quoted from the Salamanca MS., j>. 161 (published l.y the Marquess of Bute),
The Hermits. 1 2 5
Among the anchorites enumerated by this catalogue one
bears the name of Ernan, of whom more anon.
In the monastic system of the Celtic Church, however,
many of these anchorites submitted themselves to the juris-
diction of the superior of the monastery, and consequently
we find their cells forming part of the establishment. Of St
Molaise, founder of the monastery of Daimhinis, St Cuimin
of Connor wrote : —
" Molaise of the lakes loves
To be in a prison of hard stone,
To have a guest-house for the men of Erinn
Without refusal, without a particle of churlishness."
The isolated oratory or hermitage was called desertum, in
Goidelic, deiscirt, also carcair, cell, and clochan. This cell or
desert was a voluntary retreat for prayer, as well as a place
of penance for infringement of the monastic rules, or other
sins. Some recluses elected a life of perpetual incarceration,
living in dependence on their fellow-Christians. When built
of stone, clochan, and attached to a church, this cell, with one
small bole whereby to introduce the Sacrament, a second for
handing in his eleemosynary meal, and a third for granting a
glimpse of day to a sealed-in hermit, was verily a miserable
residence. I have visited, in Ratisbon, a very good example
of such an oratory, called " the Chapel of the holy Scot Mer-
chertach, in which he lived as a recluse (indusus) for fourteen
years," — in which he died (1080 A.D.), and lies buried. It had
formerly no door. One window looked into the Obermunster
Church, to which the cell was attached ; another gave light ;
by Dr Healy, ' Insula Sanctorum,' &c., pp. 160, 161 ; Usher, ' Brit. Eccles. Antiq.,'
cap. xvii. vol. vi. p. 478 ; Lanigan, ' Eccl. Hist. Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 330.
1 26 ftutt in the Oldtn Time.
the third was used for taking in his food. I was glad to leave
its musty sanctity for sweeter air in a freer life. It is quite
possible that the circus at Kilblaan — " The Drcamin* Tree
Ruin " — was latterly used as a place of retreat for recluses.
I have previously alluded to an instance where the inmate
of a dtiscirt or cell was a Culdcc, and the reference is one
of the first importance, in so far as it suggests a different ex-
planation of the special functions of that order from what is
generally accepted by historical students. From ' The Tri-
partite Life* of St Patrick it appears that, in a missionary
journey, he found that one Ailill's son had been devoured by
swine, all but his bones. These the saint had gathered, and
ordered " a Culdec of his household (Ct'li n Dt dia Muintir) —
namely, Malach, the Briton, to bring him to life," Malach
refused. Whereupon St Patrick laid terrible curses upon
the house of Malach (deiscirt, cell Malaich\ and asked his
attendant bishops, Ibair and Ail be, to raise the youth. On
their united prayer, the dead son of Ailill came to life.
This call of the Culdee from the solitary life of the desert,
where, cut off from all human interests, the life of another
was of small moment to him, to undertake humane work in
its most difficult form, prompts the inquiry whether or not
the Culdees were not the Christianised successors of the
Druada, or priestly magicians, who pretended to possess mi-
raculous powers. (See chapter iv.) Their conversion would
loose them from their self-deception regarding sorcery and
spells, and inspire them to use the righteous methods of the
Christian " medicine-man." Studied seclusion is the univer-
sal attribute of the family of the witch of Endor in the rudest
or the most advanced nations. That feature may have sur-
vived in the case of Malach till, by failure, his pretended
The Hermits. 127
power was banned away. In time, with chastened and cur-
tailed pretensions, the Culdee, spouse of God, betook himself
to the office of alleviating the miseries of the poor and of
healing the sick, when called upon to manifest his peculiar
skill and love.
Then we notice them growing into communities like a
higher order of the " Brothers of Misericordia," sustained by
the faith that they had power over the frailties and diseases
of men, and united by a common humanitarian aim. Thus
they had gradually developed out of retiring soothsayers into
the Hospitallers of the Celtic Church, — a useful community
of " Servants of God," living under their own monastic rule,
but living to succour the infirm, the sick, and the dying. If
any reference could correct the popular ideas regarding these
Culdees, who are commonly equated with the ordinary monks
and bishops of the Irish and Caledonian Churches, it is found
in the 'Annals of Ulster,' where, narrating the ravages of the
Norse invaders, in 92 1 A.D., they note how " they saved the
houses of prayer, with their people of God, the Ceilean De,
and the sick." Thus it was to the poor and the distressed
the Culdees had their mission, and they were not invested
with a cure of souls whatever.
" Servants of God ! or sons,
Yours is the praise, if mankind
Hath not as yet in its march
Fainted, and fallen, and died."
Among those providers for and caretakers of the poor was
one Ernan.1 There were many famous Ernans or Marnans
in the Irish Church. There was Ernan a priest, already men-
1 Ernan =dear or little Ern : Mernan = Mo-Ern-an, my dear Ern.
1 28 Bute in the Olden Time.
tioncd in the Third Order of Saints, and another of the same
name was abbot in Tory Island. One of the twelve disciples
who accompanied Columba into Alban was Ernaan.or Ernan,
his maternal uncle. The saint had also a nephew of the same
name. He was selected by Columba to be overseer of the
favourite monastic retreat of that saint in an island called
Hinba, which has hitherto remained unidentified. Lanigan
was of opinion, considering that George Buchanan refers to
Inch-marnock as Mernoca, while a Columban house stood
on the isle, that this Hinba might be Inchmarnock.1 It is
more likely, however, that Hinba was nearer to lona. Dr
Skcnc identifies it with one of the Garvclloch group. Here
Columba was visited by four renowned founders of monas-
teries, Comgall, Cainncch, Cormac, and Brendan the Voyager.
In the words of Adamnan, Columba's biographer: "They
chose with one consent that St Columba should consecrate
the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist in the church in their
presence: . . . and there, while they were celebrating the
solemnities of the Mass, St Brenden Mocu AIti, as he after-
wards told Comgcll and Cainncch, saw a certain comet-like
fiery globe, and very luminous, on the head of St Columba,
who was standing before the altar and consecrating the holy
oblation ; and (it continued) burning and ascending upwards
like a column, until they finished the most holy mysteries."1
In the same place he also received wonderful visions and
visitations from heaven.
There was another Ernan, Ernaine mic Crcsenc.or Mcrnoc,
whose name, according to Dr Reeves, is preserved in Kilmar-
1 Lanigan, ' Eccl. Hist.,' vol. ii. p. 168.
* Atlaronan'* 'Columha,' lib. iii. cap. 17. Reeves' ed., pp. 219-222.
The Hermits. \ 29
nock and Inchmarnock. He was a servant-boy in the monas-
tery of Clonmacnois when Columba visited that school about
the end of the sixth century. Perceiving him touching the
hem of his garment, Columba seized the boy and looked at
him. The bystanders asked the saint to pay no heed to "the
unfortunate and naughty boy," and were answered by this
prophecy : " This boy, whom ye now despise, will henceforth
be very agreeable to you, and will improve from day to day
in good conduct and virtue ; and will be gifted by God with
wisdom, learning, and eloquence."
In the Aberdeen Breviary, St Marnan or Marnock is re-
ferred to under the date March I, A.D. 625 ; in the Irish
Calendars the festival is placed at August 18, and the saint
identified with Ernin of Rathnew in Leinster and Kildreen-
agh.1 As a preacher he became venerated as a God on earth
— "tanquam Deus in terris." He appears to have come to
Banffshire, where, at Aberchirder, he died at an advanced
age, and was buried. At least his relics were deposited there.
The saint's head was brought out periodically with great
solemnity to be washed, and the water used for that purpose
was dispensed for the healing of maladies. Accompanied by
the clan Innes, the head was carried in public perambulations
around his church at Aberchirder, and oaths were frequently
taken and bargains made in its presence.
Of this Ernan the Felire of ^Engus says : —
" Mac Cresini Mernoc
Morais Fradait fairind," —
i.e., Mernoc, son of Cresen, magnified the Lord with numbers.
1 ' Brev. Aberd.,' pars hyem. fol. Ix. b. Ixi. ; ' De Scot. Fort.' (Paris, 1631), pp.
108, 109 ; Marian Gorman, ' Cal. Dungall,' p. 223.
VOL. I. I
1 30 Bute in the Olden Time.
The 'Annals of Tighcrnac* chronicle his death at ist March
625 — M Quies Ernainc Mic Crcscnc " ; but other annalists,
whom Usher follows, assign his death to 635 A.I>.
It is to none of these evangelists I venture to assign the
honour of impressing his name in public memory in reference
to the Inch. In a list of saints whose natal days were un-
known, Dempster gives " Ernanus, Abbas in Buta in Scotia." '
This shows that Dempster dissociated Ernan from Marnock
of Kilmarnock, whose day he gives, and from other Ernans,
who were priests or bishops. That Inchmarnock sheltered
a community of regulars is evident from the words of
Fordun : " Inchcmernoc, sive insula Sancti Mcrnoci et ibi
cclla monachorum " — Inchemernoc or the Isle of St Mernoc,
and there a cell of monks.2 In the Life of St Brendan we
seem to light upon a trace of the founder of this retreat, and
to him our western shores arc indebted for attracting the
great gospel-voyager here in his quest for Elysian fields.
One evening when St Brendan was " in his warfare " in
south-west Ireland, his nephew Barinthus, a scion of the
southern house of Niall, came to him in much mental distress,
but with prayerful spirit. St Brendan inquired why he should
thus be sad, when Barinthus replied : " A disciple of mine,
Mcrnocatus by name, procurator for the poor of Christ, has
fled from my sight, and has wished to become a solitary, and
he has discovered an island beside the mountain Lapiflis,
called ' the delicious island.' After a long interval it was
reported to me that he had several monks, and that God had
displayed many miracles through him. And so I determined
1 ' Mcno. Scot.'
* ' Scotich.,' ii. cap. x. Ed. Goodall, vol. i. p. 45 ; Skcnc's ed., vol. ii. p. 39.
The Hermits. 1 3 1
to visit my pupil." The narrative tells how, after a three
days' voyage, master met pupil, accompanied by his brethren
in the work of the Gospel. Their habitation was spacious.
Their food was apples, nuts, roots, and herbs. Mernocatus
then embarked with Barinthus to exploit a lovely land — " the
land of the promise of the saints," he called it — lying to the
east, bathed in light, rich in fruitage, gay with flowers, and
glistering with precious stones : Christ was its light alone,
and it lay open for the inheritance of His saints, some of
whom were already in possession to greet the visitors.
After a stay of forty days, in which they were nourished
by no earthly food, the explorers returned to Mernock's isle,
to be welcomed by their brethren, who recognised from the
fragrance of their garments that the voyagers had been
lingering in Paradise.
On hearing of this singular experience, St Brendan, with
whetted curiosity, determined also to set out in search of this
promised land, so that the flight of Mernoc was the origin of
the many strange quests in early and in medieval times for
the Isles of the Blest. Mernan's name is fixed in Ardmar-
nock, Tighnabruaich, and in Kilmarnock near Toward, Cowal.
In Kilbarron, the church of Barinthus near Tralee, we find
a word very like Barone Hill.
The scene of the legendary exploits of St Brendan is, with-
out doubt, laid in the western seas from Brittany to Orkney,
and, though often confused, the local character of the wild
isles in the Caledonian sea cannot be mistaken. If, with one
MS., we read for Lapiflis, " montem Lapidis" — the mountain
of stone — we could locate the isle at Ailsa Craig, or " Paddy's
Milestone," a landmark to guide the mariner to the " delicious
isle" of Inchmarnock, which, always fertile, was formerly
132 Bute in the Olden Time.
covered with a luxuriant forest of oaks and nut-trees. That
Inchmarnock was formerly prolific of nuts was remarkably
illustrated a short time since when the present tenant of
South Park was draining in a moss, which is also full of
magnificent oak-trees. He alighted upon a bank of nuts,
about 3 feet in thickness, all of them preserved by their peaty
envelope. Arran had the poetic name of Kamain Abhlach, or
K a mania of apple-trees : —
" The applcy Emhain of the yews.
Smooth top-coloured are its trees."
Alban itself might be the mythmaker's "land of promise,"
open to the coming Goidclic saints, since early geographers
always placed it east of Erin.
Romance, then, may be fitly wedded with fact in the
selection of the prayerful pupil of Harinthus as the recluse
who first set foot on Inchmarnock, and founded the little
oratory " Kildavanach " — church of the monks — which Hlacu
in 1662 fixes on his map. At first he would be alone, like
Cieran and Catan, Molios and other hermits : —
" His dwelling a recess in some rude rock ;
Book, beads, and maple-dish his meagre stock ;
In shirt of hair and weeds of canvas dressed,
Girt with a bell-rope that the Pope has blessed."
But clamorous converts would invade his solitude, and per-
suade him to become their "papa" or spiritual father. A
church and its accompanying settlements arose. Blain men-
tions that in his day "the island was also furnished with
a devil's cauldron situated near the south corner," but I have
not been able to regain traces of this " desert " or " carcair "
to which the eremites retreated. How, when, or where Ernan
died cannot be ascertained. As the birds hush their songs
The Hermits. 133
and drop unseen in the forest, so has evanished the hermit of
the Inch. He must have undertaken his pilgrimage before
530 A.D., when St Brendan began his wanderings, as Kessog,
the hermit of Luss, did out of the same province of Munster.
The only visible remains of this interesting settlement are
the extra verdant turf of the cemetery, now converted into
a stack-yard, and a single slab or cross-shaft carved with
three small crosses on one face, and a larger cross on the
reverse. A few of the ancient cists still lie under ground
unmolested. The churchyard, which had attained no small
repute "in the isles around," continued to be used within the
memory of the last generation. Another graveyard known
as " The Women's Burial-place " was traceable in a field
adjoining the church about thirty years ago.
The church existed into the eighteenth century. The
stones of it were sacrilegiously applied to build the adjoining
farmhouse ; but the tenant, Alexander M'Donald, afraid or
conscience - struck, wrote the Rev. Dugald Stewart, parish
minister of Rothesay, detailing the affair, and offering to
make a money atonement for the grave offence. The minute
of session, of date 24th April 1718, runs thus : —
" The minister reports he had the other day received a letter
from Alexander M'Donald in Inchmarnock bearing : That lately,
when his house was a-building, the masons, without his knowledge,
had carried away sundry stones out of the chappell, and put them
in the walls of the house ; and when the same came to his know-
ledge, he was highly displeased, and caused a mason value what
stones were so misapplied, and in consideration for the said stones
taken out of the chappell to build his house, he sent ten pounds
ten shillings Scots to the session, to be by them applied to the
behoof of the poor as they thought meet, which letter and money
the minister presented to the session ; and the letter being read
1 34 Rule in the Olden Time.
eoram, the tension appointed the treasurer to take the said ten
pounds ten shillings and charge it with the ordinary collections."
More than a hundred years afterwards some of the grave-
stones were utilised as " bissen-stoncs " in an adjoining cow-
house. Soon a mysterious malady destroyed the cattle. The
unhappy victim is said to have reverted to an old custom,
once prevalent in the Highlands, for appeasing the offended
deity, and offered a burnt-offering of a sheep or cow upon
the sea-shore. There still exists a doggerel diatribe, called
•• Inchmarnock Churchyard, or the Gall's Sang," which was
sung through the Rothcsay streets in 1829, in reference to
this incident.
The medieval history of Mernoc's Isle is, as yet, in-
volved in obscurity. A single relic of Norse occupation was
brought to light in 1889 in the old churchyard by Mr Charles
M'Phee, the farmer. It is the fragment of a rune-inscribed
cross-slab, of schistose slate, forming that part where the
arms of the cross unite with the shaft The mutilated in-
scription runs: "... KRUS . THINE . TIL GUTHLE . . ."-
*>., This cross to Guthleif or Guthlcik. Nothing is known
of its associations or the person it commemorated.1 (See
chap, xiv.)
The inhabitants of Inchmarnock have from time imme-
morial recognised the jurisdiction of the church of Rothesay
parish till the isle was incorporated in the parish of North
Bute in 1844. What grounds there were for supposing that
it was extra farochiam, and attached to the lands maintaining
the Cistercian Monastery of Saddell, I have not found out
1 " Notice of a Fragment, Ac.," by G. F. Black ; • Proc. Soc. Antiq.,' vol. wL,
new series, pp. 413, 4J8-443-
The Hermits. 135
It is said to have been granted to the monastery by Roderick
of Kintyre, a grandson of Somerled of Man, about the year
1 220. No trace of such a gift appears among the charters of
the house still extant. Perhaps the awkwardness of collect-
ing the teind sheaves gave rise to the idea that, like the lands
of the Cistercians, it was exempted, by a Papal constitution,
from paying dues.
Head of Cross -with Runic Inscription found on Inchmarnock.
The Celtic evangelists and hermits went when and where
the spirit moved them. After throwing a twig in the air the
pilgrim marked the direction it pointed to, as it lay on the
ground, and followed that till he found a desirable cell. At
first he was more scantily provided for than the islander
hermit (eremita insulanus) of Inchcolm, who was "content
with such poor food as the milk of one cow and the shell and
small sea-fishes which he could collect."
136 Bute in tht Olden Time.
St Catan, who gave his name to Kilchattan liay, Little
and Mickle Kilchattan farms, and Suidhe Chatain Hill in
Bute, was a contemporary of Ernan, according to the most
trustworthy accounts.1 Unfortunately the biographies of two
pilgrims of the name of Catan, Cathan, Kcddan, or Caddan
have been intermixed. In the Irish and Latin ' Life of St
Patrick/ Catan is mentioned, along with Acan or Brogan, as
a presbyter whose duty, among the domestic ministers of
St Patrick, was the care of the guests.*
When St Patrick was engaged preaching in Northern
Ulster "a son of light" was born to Madan, a Dalaradian
Pict of royal lineage. This youth, Catan by name, was
educated by the aged St Patrick in the last quarter of the
fifth century, and by him set apart as a bishop. Being of
the First Order of Saints, A.ix, 440534, who were bishops,
he neither despised the services nor the society of women.
His intense religious enthusiasm showed itself in frequent
fasting. It grew into the yearning for the solitary life, for
which he relinquished the activity of the episcopal office.*
So, accompanied by his sister Ertha or Bertha, he sought
retirement and a cell in Bute, somewhere beneath the shadow
1 " 17 May. Insula Buta Cathani episcopi qui S. Blani ex Bertha sororc avun-
culus unde Kilcathan locus diet us. Gcorg. Newton." — 'Menolog. Scot.' 'Act*
Sanctorum/ by John Colgan, pp. 233, 235. Lourain, 1645.
* The Egcrton MS. ' Life of St Patrick ' gives : " Cruimthir Catan ocas Cruim-
thir Acan a da foss" — Presbyters Catan and Acan, his two waiters; "Catanus
presbyter ct Ocanus pnesbyter duo hospitalarii sivc hospitum ministri," ibid.
The ' Hook of Lecan,' as cited by O "Donovan, ' Four Masters,' A.t>. 448, has
" Cruimthir Cadan 6 Tamlachtain Ardda, > Cruimthir m Brogan a da fosmesi : "
•Trip. Life.' W. Stokes. Vol. L p. 265; 'Tria. Thaum,' Colgan, p. 167.
(Lovani, 1647.)
* George Newton, Archdeacon of Dunblane, says : " Sanctus Catanus Epts-
copus, ut solitarix riuc impcnsius vacarct."
The Hermits. 137
of the hill which retains his name, and, as one tradition points
out, on the southern side of Kilchattan Bay. No visible
trace of his oratory survives. Here the fair name of Ertha
and the holy fame of the saint were stained by the birth of
Blaan, whose paternity Ertha attributed to the spirit in a
local fountain, as we shall shortly have occasion to mention
again.1 Other narrators tell how King Aidan of Dalriada
was his father.2 This is a manifest anachronism.
From the ' Life of St Molios of Glendalough,' who was the
son of Gemma, daughter of King Aidan, it appears that Blaan
was the uncle of Molios. And it is not very probable that a
son of the sister of a pupil of St Patrick (died 463 or even
493) could have been born so late as to be the son of Aidan
(532-606) ; and yet that pupil, Catan, is said to have educated
Blaan as well.3 There is evidently a confusion of facts. The
Irish honoured Catan on the 1st February ; the Scots on i^th
May. The Irish Cadan may have been the hospitaller of St
Patrick's hospice, whose tomb is still shown outside the
church at Tamlacht Ard, Londonderry. The other, our
local Catan, was probably that Pict whom we find penetrat-
ing northward, planting a church in Gigha, the possession of
the clan Neil, passing on to Colonsay and lona, and at last
settling at Scarinche in Lewis, where tradition says his
remains were preserved. Macleod of Lewis, gratified by the
conduct of Abbot Maurice at Bannockburn, requested him
1 This well, still called St Catan's well, is pointed out on the farm of Little
Kilchattan, and it is most probable it was beside the original church. The well
is carefully built, and is approached by some ten stone steps. It is now covered
but still in use.
2 Colgan, 'Act. Sanct. Hib.,' vol. i. p. 234.
3 " In festilogiis enim nostris S. Cathanus, S. Blani educator appellatur."
1 38 Mute in the Olden Time.
to come to Scarinchc, where Maclcod had erected a church
in honour of St Catan. It was then affiliated with the Abbey
of Inchaffray.
But Dempster, Camcrarius, and others maintain that this
hermit rests in Bute.1 Still another account makes the
mother of Blaan a daughter of King Aidan, which would
make Catan a son of the celebrated conqueror of the isles.1
Catan is also placed with SS. Columba, Comgal), and Cain-
nech at the school of Clonard.
Whatever these discrepancies show, it may be accepted
that one of the earliest of the Celtic missionaries was this
retiring bishop, who, upon his lofty scat, in devotion, drank
in the loveliness that lay on land and sea between him and
his far-off* Dalaradian home, and in his lowly cell schooled
the wonderful boy, whom, in his anger, he cast adrift with his
mother, but who was destined to outrival his fame.
During the last century several families in Bute bore the
honoured name of Mac-gill-chattan — son of the servant of
Catan ; and on account of the frequent occurrence of names
similarly connected with those of saints who had churches
dedicated to them in this vicinity — eg., Mac-gill-munn, Mac-
gill-chiaran, Mac-gill-mhichcll, — and connected with church
offices — €.g.t Mac-gill-espy (bishop), Mac-gill-Christ, &c, — I
am inclined to trace its origin to the bishop rather than to
the chieftain, who is credited with giving his name to the
clan Chattan — the older chiefs of the clan being probably
the "Coarbs" of St Catan, as falls to be afterwards ex-
plained.
1 Brockie MS., p. 8319, quoted in Gordon's ' Keel. Chron. for Scot.,' p. 275.
* Rcerw.'Culdew/p. 46.
The Hermits. 1 39
The reference to that prolific clan, the Mac-gill-chiarans,
brings up the name of a distinguished visitor in Bute. Last
century that ancient family lived in every farm and cot in
the district of the Neils, and had their own burial-ground at
Clachieran (Claodh Chiarain), near Glechnabae. Now they
prefer the common name of Sharp. In the very heart of the
land of the Neils, and not far from the ruined fortalice of
Nigel, the hereditary crowner in Bute, stood an old chapel
bearing the name of Cilkeran. Faint traces of it existed in
the time of Blain (p. 92).
The Ciaran, whose name was esteemed second to none
among the Celts, was the spotless youth, Ciaran Mac an
t-saoir (Macintyre) — the son of the artificer — whom Columba
sang as the "lamp" of Erin, and Alcuin called "the glory of
the Scottish people." He never looked upon a woman nor
told a lie, 'twas said. With Columba and Brendan, probably
Blaan also, he had his place among the Second Order of Saints
— z>., the Columban type. This class consisted mostly of
priests, admitted diverse liturgies, had a British Mass, served
various rules, and excluded women from the monasteries and
service. As his name implies, the dark-complexioned man,
Ciaran, though born in Meath, was of Dalaradian extraction,
and was born about the year 515. At Finnian's great school
at Clonard he was associated with Columba, Brendan the
Voyager, and other celebrated men whose names are house-
hold words. He placed himself under the discipline of
famous abbots, and served their houses with the greatest
humility and sanctity. Shortly before his untimely death
by pestilence, on 9th September 549, he founded the mon-
astery of Clonmacnois, which had a most eventful history.
Scottish tradition makes him seek a temporary retreat or
140 Bute in the Olden Tint*.
"desert" in a cave in the neighbourhood of Campbcltown,
Kintyrc, the Gaelic name of which is Kilkcrran or Cill-
Chiarain.
He is also commemorated in Kilkcrran in Ayrshire, and
other places in the west. In the absence of historical data,
and not underrating the value of tough tradition, I sec no
insuperable difficulty in believing that Ciaran, among the
many pilgrims, sought a short retreat from his abbatial
'labours in Bute, hallowed as it was with the work of St
Ninian. Here then, in honour of him, admirers built the
now forgotten chapel and called themselves by his now
forgotten name. But long after his departure his spirit
remained enshrined in the hearts of his enraptured associates,
and we read of St Columba carrying from his grave, in Erin,
some dust which he cast into the devouring whirlpool of
Corryvrcckan to transform its ragings into peace. Of the
intermittent efforts of such missionaries, unhappily, we have
now no record.
CHAPTER VII.
THE CHRISTIAN ODYSSEY.
" A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the cuckoo bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Amongst the farthest Hebrides."
HEN the rough Kerry shepherds gathered round
"The Wedder's Well" (Tubber na molt) in the
Clachan of Tubbrid near Ardfert, and, in A.D.
484, heard that an infant son had come then
to Finlogha, of the tribe of Hua Alta, of the celebrated stem
of Fergus Mac Roy, it is scarcely probable that they could
perceive the growing halo with which imaginative monks
have invested the life of Brendan. Yet round this well to
this day the peasantry gather on St Brendan's Festival in
honour of him. His birth was according to the horoscope of
St Patrick, by that time resting in the grave. He had pro-
phesied in the rushy swamps of Kerry that the great patriarch
of monks and star of the Western world would arise into
the light in West Munster. Such a reading of the stars was
the best blessing he could leave to the Church of south-west
Ireland, which he and Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, had long and
lovingly fostered. And very timely came this wandering
142 R»tc in t/ic Olden Timt.
star which was to shed the heavenly light when the greater
luminaries were hidden from the darkness resting on the
isles of the Western seas. The story of his life, conceived
from such a miraculous introduction, had the necessary foun-
dation for a superstructure so overloaded with romantic
absurdities as to threaten destruction to the real facts of a
wonderful career. But the tenacious hold of his memory by
the baysmcn and Ulcsmcn, from the sunny south of .Europe
to the ice-cooled shores of the north, and probably to the
New World as well, is a sufficient recognition of the existence
of a hero, who fearlessly ploughed the sea in Christ's name,
and whose adventures could not be adequately illustrated to
rude but pious ages without the aid of the myths which
now obscure the fame of the voyager. His life and travels,
written in many languages, circulated widely in the middle
ages throughout Europe, and nearly every great library
possessed some antique manuscript, in prose or verse, of
the "Acts of S. Brendan." From the siftings of these the
story which follows is pieced together.1
The precise place of Brendan's birth was Alttraighe Caillc,
situated in Ciarraighe Luachra — />., between Ardfert, Fcnit,
and Tralce.1
1 For the lire of St Brendan the following works may be consulted : ' Pertgrinatio
Sancti Brandani abbatis' included with a Latin and three German texts in 'Ada
Sancti Brendani,' by Right Rev. P. K. Moran, D.D. : Dublin, 1872. 'Sanct
Brandan,' by Dr Carl Schroder: Krlangen, 1871. ' St Brandan : A Mediaeval
legend of the Sea, &c.,' by Thomas Wright : Ixmdon, 1844 (Percy Society, vol.
xiv.) ' La Legende latine de S. Brandaincs,' by Achille Jubinal : Paris, 1836.
4 The Hermits,' by Charles Kingslry : London, 1890. ' Notes on Irish Architec-
ture,' by Lord Dunravcn, vol. I : London, 187$. ' Acta Sanctorum Holland,'
Mai iii. 599 ff; cf. Juni ii. p. 229. Adamnan't 'Columba,' by Reeves p. 221,
footnote.
* • Book of Lismore,' fol. 72.
The Christian Odyssey. 143
The parents of Brendan, Finlogha and Cara, committed
their son to the pious charge of his relative, the youthful
virgin Ita (+570). She was a daughter of a princely house
in Munster, and from her infancy was imbued with Christian
principles, so that she was considered the St Brigid of Munster
by the pupils who frequented her nunnery.
Thereafter Brendan came under the tuition of St Ere
( + 512), also a Munster man, probably Bishop of Slane,
with whom he remained till he was ready to study theology
at Cluainfois, under St Jarlath of Tuam. From St Ere he
afterwards received the priesthood. The distinguished mon-
astic school of Clonard was then attracting students north-
ward to the banks of the Boyne, and St Finnian the abbot,
himself a pupil of the great British teachers, was inspiring the
youth of Erin with his own enthusiasm.
St Finnian combined with great learning, especially in the
Scriptures, a touching simplicity of character and a severe
abstinence in the way of living. Mother-earth sufficed him
for a bed and a stone for a pillow. He was content with
bread and herbs with a cup of water for his food, with occa-
sionally the luxury of a fish accompanied by a little whey or
native beer. He died about 552 A.D. Among his 3000
scholars were the twelve apostles of Ireland, of whom Ciaran,
Brendan, and Columba brought greatest fame to this " doctor
of wisdom."
The biographers next convey Brendan to Britain or
Brittany on a pilgrimage undertaken, on the advice of St
Ita, as an atonement for the death of a person by drowning,
of which Brendan accused himself of being partly a cause.
Here he met St Gildas, probably in his monastery of Llan-
carfan in South Wales. In Britain he instituted a school,
144 /?»/? in tht Olden Time.
thereafter returning to his native land, about the year 540 or
550 A.D. How long Rrcndan remained in Britain can only
be conjectured, but it seems to have been on his return that he
founded several churches and the famous monastery of Clonfcrt
in Galway, of which he was abbot1 Three thousand monks
flocked to be under his rule at Clonfcrt and its dependent
houses — for it was said an angel brought him his Rule from
heaven. Nor did he neglect female education, but set up a
nunnery at Enach-duin, now Annadown, Galway, and installed
his sister Briga as the abbess of it
From Adamnan's ' Life of St Columba,' we also find him,
along with other renowned abbots, visiting St Columba in
one of the Western Isles, as before mentioned.2 At last his
pilgrimage ceased, and he found rest within his sister's house
at Annadown, on Sunday, the i6th May 577 A.D., in his
ninety-fourth year. His remains were buried at Clonfert
The feast of St Brendan is marked in all the ancient
martyrologics at the i6th of May. Dav. Camcrarius has :
" Sanctus Brandanus Abbas, Apostolus Orcadum et Scoti-
c.irum insularum." St /Kngus, in his Fcstology under that
day, says : —
" The summons of Brendan of Clu.tin
Into the victorious eternal kingdom."
The gloss explains — " />., the calling of Brendan of Clonfcrt
to the kingdom of God." Marianus O'Gorman styles him,
" Brendan without a particle of pride ; " Sclbhach refers to
1 "557, Brendinus ccclcsiam in Ouain fcrtha fundavit." — 'Ann. Ulster.'
Ware dates foundation 558 ; ' Four Masters,' 553 ; 'Annals of InnUfallcn,' 562.
* In a poem attributed to Columha his old friend sings (Adamnan's 'Columha,
Reeves, p. 287}—
" It it in the We«t tweet Brendan K"
The Christian Odyssey. 145
his "penitential countenance;" and the poet St Cuimin of
Connor, in his eulogy of the Hibernian saints, recounts
how —
" Brendan loved perpetual mortification,
According to his Synod and his flock ;
Seven years he spent on the great whale's back :
It was a distressing mode of mortification."
The Latin Life of St Brendan ( Vita S. Brendani), edited
by Dr Moran from the Liber Kilkenniensis, treats of his life
in twenty-nine chapters, thus : —
" i. Birth of St Brendan. 2. The sanctity of St Brendan fore-
told by Becc Mac De. 3. Baptism of St Brendan ; he is placed
under the care of St Ita. 4. St Brendan educated by St Ere. 5.
St Brendan accompanies St Ere in his missionary visitations. 6. St
Brendan by a miracle saves the life of a fellow-traveller. 7. A
fountain of water issues forth at the prayer of St Brendan. 8.
Through the prayers of St Ita and the exhortation of St Brendan,
St Colman embraces a life of perfection. 9. St Brendan visits St
Jarlathe of Tuam. 10. St Brendan writes his Religious Rule. u.
St Brendan restores a dead youth to life ; is ordained priest by St
Ere; founds monasteries in his native district. 12. Three thousand
religious serve God under the rule of St Brendan ; he visits St Ita,
and founds the monasteries of Inishdadromm and Clonfert. 13.
St Brendan miraculously frees the town of Bri-uys, in Munster, from
a plague of insects. 14. One of St Brendan's religious, through
obedience, exposes himself to death. 15. St Brendan, by the
counsel of St Ita, sets out on a penitential pilgrimage to Britain ;
his visit to the monastery of St Gildas. 1 6. Miracles performed by
St Brendan at the monastery of St Gildas. 17. St Brendan com-
mends the patronage of St Brigid, whose soul was at all times
absorbed in God. 18. St Brendan erects a cell in Inis-meic-
ichiund ; the King of Connaught makes a gift of the island to
St Brendan. 19. St Brendan restores to life one of the religious
of Inisadromm. 20. St Brendan restores to liberty a man sorely
distressed in captivity. 21. St Brendan, in his seventy-seventh year,
VOL. I. K
146 Bute in the Olden Timt.
founds the monastery or Clonfcrt ; one of its religious restored to
life. 22. St Ita, on Christmas night, receives the Holy Communion
from St Brendan. 23. Miracle of the Holy Virgin St Chiar. 24.
St Brendan visits the holy saints of Mcath. 25. St Brendan ex-
plains to his religious how intolerable arc the pains of hell. 26. St
Brendan exhorts his religious to confide in the providence of God.
27. St Brendan saves the province of Connaught from an invasion.
28. St Brendan visits his sister, St Bryga, and makes arrangements
for his interment in Clonfcrt. 29. Death of St Brendan in his
ninety-fourth year."
In the same work Dr Moran publishes " Oratio Sancti
Brendan!" (from two MSS., one in St Gall, the other in
Bibliotheca Sessoriana, Rome), "Vita Mctrica Sancti Bren-
dan!" (Cotton MSS., Brit Mus.), and the "Navigatio Sancti
Brendan! " (Colbert MSS., Paris), all three in Latin.
The halo of romance lingers round the name of St Bren-
dan in connection with the marvellous sea voyages he was
credited with making in search of the land of promise. Any
reputation he may have gained by his adventurous spirit in
the carrying of the Gospel to little frequented shores, where
he reared his wattled or beehive churches, was lost in
admiration of the impossible phantasies revealed by his life.
The hard and bitter facts of his brave mission experience
have been refined away into the misty visions of sickly
souls, so that in the " Legends of the Saint " we have only a
ghost of one of the greatest missionaries of the West. Fired
with a like enthusiasm, his fellows betook themselves over
land ; Brendan, like Torannan and Columba, sought his
destiny in the sea. No doubt, long before his day, the talc
of many an Odysseus, pagan and Christian, had reached the
mount of Brendan, from whose top the pilgrim looked over
his Kerry home into the silver sea. It is said that before he
The Christian Odyssey. 147
undertook his great voyage of discovery he made a short run
to visit St Enda, in the isles of Aran.
His pilgrimage was a young man's dream rather than an
old man's hope. So I would date the beginning of his adven-
tures before he crossed over to Brittany, and I would circum-
scribe their locality to the Western Archipelago of Ireland
and Scotland. If his pilgrimage occurred after his adventures
in Brittany, he would have learned good ship-craft from the
bold Bretons. He is made in " The Acts " the hero of his
own enterprise, and easily found in adventurous comrades.
" He put so much of soul into his act,
That his example had a magnet's force,
And all were prompt to follow where he led."
The vision of St Mernoc's land filled his soul (see above,
chap, vi.) ; and imagination set the light of Paradise over the
prow of his boat. His fourteen monks and he had framed
its well-ribbed sides, and covered them with oxen hides, well
tanned in oaken bark, and smeared at every crevice with
good Irish butter. With "a wet sheet and a flowing sea,"
a keg of butter to tan fresh skins, and food for forty days,
the mission-ship took the water, " in the name of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit." Away they ploughed with curving sail
for fifteen days into the north-west, when the master called
them to the irksome oars, for lack of wind. The provisions
ran out just as they approached an almost inaccessible isle,
very precipitous, like Ailsa or St Kilda. A dog gave them
welcome to a town wherein was a luxurious home richly
prepared for the voyagers' comfort. This the saint soon
discovered to be a temptation of the devil, and under his
spell one of the monks died there.
148 Bute in the Olden Time.
After other incidents, with favouring breeze they set out
again, and reached an island whose many fountains swarmed
with fish, and whose fields were white with sheep as great as
oxen. It was the eve of Easter. A man they encountered
told them no man milked the ewes, and winter never pinched
them, hence their size. It is well to recollect that there is a
Sheep Isle near Pladda, and that one of the Orkneys is called
Shapinsha, or the Sheep Isle. The Northmen also called the
Faroes "Sheep-isles" (Faer-eyiar).
This man also told the visitors where they were to spend
Easter, on an isle beside the " Paradise of Birds." To it they
came — a queer stony land, without port or beach or turf.
The saint kept to the anchored boat, while his messmates
sang Masses and began their cookery ashore. As the fire
kindled and the pot boiled over, the island rustled and
moved and took to flight in the ocean, with the flaming
lighthouse on his back. To his terrified friends, saved by
the skin of their teeth, the master explained how that was
the greatest of oceanic monsters — Jascon by name — and his
life-work was to try to grasp his tail in his mouth, — a feat of
marine dexterity which the grossness of his body prevented
him always accomplishing.1
1 In BUin's ' History* (pp. 437-443) are preserved the remarkable depositions
of Captain Robert Jamieson regarding the appearance in the Western seas of an
island a mile and half long and 30 feet high, and also of another between Bute
and Arran. Of the latter he said : " I have heard people mention a like appear-
ance in the same place, but do not know whether this was at the same time.
Had I key been able to flat e fire nfon it, tkey say it womU kave remained akovt
Ike -t-attr." Blain also refers to a similar mirage seen between Ardlamont and
Skipness : " Tkt country people gn* it tke name of tke Green liland" These
coincidences, taken in connection with the story of Mcrnoc and Brendan, arc very
striking. According to Dr Healy (' Insula Sanctorum,' p. 214): "To this day
The Christian Odyssey. 149
At a later stage of their peregrinations they came back
and kept Easter on Jascon's back, — " a difficult mode of
piety," as an Irish writer of old said, — and the leviathan gaily
carried the mission over to the Paradise of Birds.
Thereafter they visited an isle — grassy, full of flowers and
trees. A snow-white bird flew with tinkling wings to meet
the saint, and tell him how the snowy birds they saw were
spirits of the dead. And there they sat and sang and praised
the Deity with the sweet rhapsody of their wings. The vocal
bird also foretold how Brendan had to wander seven years
in his quest o'er the main. After many romantic adventures
they reach the " Isle of the family of Ailbe," where Christ-
mas was spent among the Silent Monks, who had been there
since the time of St Patrick and St Ailbe. It was a weird
company. For these monks never grew older, never changed,
never spoke, never cooked earthly food, for God cherished
and nourished them.
The story proceeds and evidently relates to adventures
among the crystal icebergs of the ocean and the volcanic
appearances of Iceland. These may have been additions
from the " Lives " of other saints who penetrated into the far
north long after the time of St Brendan.
One of his discoveries was the infamous Judas, whom he
discovered sitting on a craggy rock, in mid-ocean, with a veil
flapping him on the face as the waves beat on or around him.
Matthew Arnold, in his beautiful poem of " Saint Brandan,"
thus describes the scene : —
the existence of O'Brazil, an enchanted land of joy and beauty, which is seen
sometimes on the blue rim of the ocean, is very confidentially believed in by
the fishermen of our Western coasts. It is seen from Aran once every seven
years."
1 50 Rule in tht Oldtn Tim*.
" Saint Brandan sails the northern main ;
The brotherhood of saints are glad.
He greets them once, he sails again ;
So late ! such storms ! The saint is mad !
At last (it was a Christmas night;
Stars shone after a day of storm)
He sees float past an iceberg white.
And on it — Christ !— a living form.
That furtive mien, that scowling eye,
Of hair that red and tufted fell-
It is — oh where shall Brandan fly? —
The traitor Judas, out of hell !
Palsied with terror, Brandan sate ;
The moon was bright, the iceberg near.
He hears a voice sigh humbly. ' Wait !
By high permission I am here."
He cried anon, "I am miscrablcst Judas, of bargainers the
worst ; " and he went on to acknowledge how that flapping rag
was a special mercy of Christ sent as a luxury amid his fiery
torments, which were spared him on the great festival days.
At other times, with Herod, Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas, he
agonised in hell. The demons who come to take Judas back
to his torments were cursed and rebuked by the saint, and
then the story leaps away to tell of an old graved igger of St
Patrick's monastery, who lived on an isle in a cave upon
water, and was found by the voyagers.
After being piloted to the Isle of Birds by their old friend
Jascon, they are guided south by a resident of that isle, after
a voyage of forty days, to the Promised Land. Darkness in-
vested it But a light soon illuminated its shore. They wan-
dered in its fragrant orchards in the luscious tide of autumn.
Forty days without a night passed by. They admired the
The Christian Odyssey. 151
mighty river in the land. Its fruits and gems they gathered
to show their wondering friends at home. So setting sail
once more they reached " The Isle of Delights," and the stout
company disbanded to less romantic toils — which ofttimes, no
doubt, were lightened by the memories of the perils of the
deep.
The romance of Brendan was long accepted as a truthful
narrative, in so far, at least, as the Land of the Promise of the
Saints was concerned. The Isle of Brendan became the quest
of navigators. The King of Portugal looked upon it as one
of his possessions, and down to 1721 expeditions were sent
out specially to seek it.
Since this chapter was written, the Marquess of Bute de-
livered a lecture to the Scottish Society of Literature and
Art in Glasgow on ipth January 1893, upon " The Fabulous
Voyage of Brendan," in which he suggested that Brendan was
of a hypnotic temperament, highly sensitised, restless, and
impelling him to migratory efforts on behalf of the Church.
The founding of Clonfert Monastery was the chief act of his
life. This learned paper has been published in ' The Scottish
Review' (vol. xxi., No. xlii.) It concludes with the following
passage : —
" I look upon Brendan's wanderings in the Western Isles soon
after his ordination, in search of a place wherein to found a monas-
tery, as the only scrap of historical basis, at any rate as far as he
was concerned, which the romance possesses. The Life says that
he reached many islands, but instances only two, one of these being
the so-called Land of Promise as above, and the incidents are not
of a very startling character. No one on the other hand will deny
that the Voyage narrates a series of incidents of a very startling
character indeed, and it seems to me beyond possibility that some of
them, such as the Judas episode, can have even a legendary basis,
152 Bute in the OUU* Time.
or be anything but pure, unmitigated, intentional, avowed, undis-
guised fiction, like the incidents of any novel of the present day.
It seems to me that there is in the romance more resemblance to
Lucian's ' Traveller's True Tale ' than is likely to be accidental, and
the Land of Promise indeed occupies a position somewhat similar
to that held by the Islands of the Blest in that remarkable skit.
Again, I think that the Burning Island with its forges, and its
monstrous inhabitants hurling rocks into the sea after the voyagers,
and the great black volcano piercing the clouds, is very suggestive
of Etna and the Cyclopes at described in the Odyssey. It must be
remembered that Greek scholarship was a good deal cultivated in
ancient Ireland. My own impression is that the author, whoever
he was, was a very pious man, who had read Homer and Lucian,
and to whom it occurred that it would be a nice thing to write an
imaginary voyage which might unite similar elements of interest and
excitement with the inculcation of Christian, religious, and moral
sentiments. For his own purposes he plagiarised them a little, and
I am very far from wishing to contend that it is impossible that he
may also have worked in some vague accounts of the wonders of
the Western and Northern seas, and possibly of America, which
had reached his ears from the adventurous voyages of the Norse-
men, if indeed his date were late enough, possibly of even earlier
navigators, now to us unknown. But as an whole, I look upon the
' Fabulous Voyage' as a composition which is really only differentiated
by the elements due to the time and place of its birth from religious
novels such as those which enrich the pages of the ' Leisure Hour '
or the 4 Sunday at Home,' "
Many churches and places retained the name of the saint,
as in Kilbrannan Sound ; churches in Mull, St Kilda, Seil,
Isle of Man (Kirk Braddon), Birnic, where his bell was ; and
numerous fairs at Banff, Kirkcaldy, Kilbirnie (with its Brin-
nan's Well), and other places kept up his memory. His cell
is still preserved on Inisglora — island of purity.1
1 Dunrmvcn'i ' Notes on Irish Architecture, ' vol. i. p. 43.
The Christian Odyssey. 153
If the 'Martyrology' of Aberdeen is to be credited, Bute was
par excellence the scene of his cult ; and here " the natal day
of St Brendan, abbot at the royal isle of Bute, and the abun-
dant acts and stupendous miracles of his life, and pilgrimage
by sea and land," were celebrated on the i6th day of May.1
From time immemorial the natives of Bute have called
themselves " Brandanes," apparently after the saint. Fordun
declares that the serfs of the Steward took their name from
Brendan, and the isle its title from the voyager's booth or cell
— " Brandani scilicet de Botha." 2 No trace nor tradition of
the booth now survives. Aidan, the King of Dalriada, had a
heroic nephew and general named Brendinus, who fought in
Mannan in 582, also a son named Bran ; but while his fol-
lowers might have assumed his patronymic, there is, on the
whole, a fitting connection between the islesmen of Bute and
the saintly sailor Brendan. The MS. Annals of MacFirbis
state that, up to the year 700 A.D., " the clergy of Ireland
went to their Synods with weapons and fought pitched battles,
and slew many persons therein." The "Brandanes" may thus
have been the Hibernian colonists and seculars of Bute who
followed King Aidan in his heroic campaigns in Alban, under
the leadership of the " Coarb," or ecclesiastical successor of St
Brendan (or St Blaan), an office probably conferred on " The
Steward," whom the Brandanes followed at a later date.
1 " In Scocia natalis Sancti Brandani Abbatis apud regulam insulam de Bute
cuius vite et peregrinationis marisque et terrarum copiosa jesta et stupenda mira-
cula enarrare nemo mortalium de facili possit que non sermonibus explicanda sed
gloriosis signis quibus indies claret comprobandis." — ' Martyr. Aberd.,' xvii. Kl.
Junii.
2 Fordun, 'Scot.,' xiii. cap. 32 ; Goodall, vol. ii. p. 315.
CHAPTER VIII.
BELTED KING AND ROYAL ABBOT.
" Darts shall boand front the edges of shields
With him shall go forth his grey men,
The rider of the swift horse, no lie,
Shall traverse Erin in one day.
He was a sage, be was a prophet, he was a poet,
1 le was a wise one of the Son of the God of heaven,
He was a hero, he was a cleric, pure, austere,
He was a son of virginity, he was a priest." 1
— ST BEKCMAN.
| N this strain, some sixty years before the events,
did St Berchan, according to the credulous
monks of the eleventh century, prophesy the
advent of the two most remarkable heroes who
appeared in the West in the sixth century — Aidan, the first
King of Alban, and Columba, the royal Abbot of lona. St
Berchan, in his ecstasy, declared of Columba that " Heaven
and earth were full of him." The subsequent fame of the
missionary vies with this striking prophecy throughout the
page of history. An admirable biography, compiled from
contemporary sources by Adamnan, a successor in the abbacy
1 'Chroo. Rets and Scots,' pp. 83 and 79.
Belted King and Royal A bbot. 1 5 5
in lona (679-704), keeps green the laurels nobly earned by
the dauntless pioneer for Christ. But, as I have before in-
dicated, Columba was far from being "the first who ever
burst into that silent sea." The white sail of Gospel-voyager
as well as of Ulidian buccaneer was well known in every bay
and shelter on the Western coast, generations before his time.
Almost as nebulous as the Orion of the heavens is the
Nimrod of Leven — Saint Kessog — who is depicted with bow
and arrow ready for the chase. This patron saint of Cumbrae,
and formerly of the warriors of Leven, peregrinated from
Munster to the Moray Firth. Faolan the leper retreated into
the wilds of Perthshire, around Dundurn, to teach the Picts
of the Earn. Others, such as Modwenna the Virgin, recounted
the wondrous works of St Patrick throughout Galloway and
the Lothians. Nor were the isles left unvisited by Hybar
and Maccaile, and probably even by St Brigid herself. The
British Church had also left a trail of glory to guide Columba
in the pagan darkness.
The age, however, had fast ripened into readiness for the
reception of Christian morality and truth, and as part of the
great movements then occurring is noticed the fusing of the
incoherent colonies of Hibernian invaders in maritime Cale-
donia into a union of petty states under a powerful king.
These Dalriadans, from the northern districts of Ireland,
having, after two centuries of foray, firmly established them-
selves in Kintyre, Argyleshire, and in the adjacent isles —
Inchegal — were, like true Celts, too restless and pugnacious
to settle down to the gentle art of fishing, when they had
neighbours to spoil. They penetrated northward, menacing
the kingdom of the northern Picts, then ruled by Bruide Mac
Maelcon. These incensed Cruithne, in turn, fell upon the
1 56 ttttte in the Olden Tim*.
foreigners and killed their king, Gabrain, son of Domangart,
in 560 A.D. Emboldened by their success, they further
repelled the marauders within the confines of Kintyrc and
Cowal to that stretch of territory between the fort of Dunadd
or Dunmonaigh, near Ardrishaig, on the west, and the hill of
Dunoon on the east. Gabrain was meantime succeeded by
his nephew Conall, son of Comgall, who, as king of the New
Dalriada, ruled over the united lands of Gabrain and Comgall,
now Kintyrc, and " Cowal with its islands " — Bute, doubtless,
among the number.
It was three years after this reverse, 563, that Columba,
"with twelve disciples, his fellow-soldiers, sailed across to
Britain." It was the night of Pentecost he landed — happy
omen for pagan Caledonia ! His interest there was direct and
potent — for royal blood as much as Gospel grace gave the
new-comer his overmastering influence among his Dalriadic
kinsmen. The blood of " Conn of a hundred battles " was in
him. The litheness of forty-two years, and the well-trained
acuteness of a mind, royal in faculty as in origin, made
Columba a masterful personage. He was of the reigning
house of Ireland — the Nialls — and within a measurable dis-
tance of the throne itself. When he was born, on the 7th
day of December 520 A.D., at Gartan, in County Donegal,
they called him Crimthan — a wolf. Christianity was to
tame him. The two renowned Finnians, of Movillc and
Clonard, taught him ; a native bard, Gcmman, poured melody
into his soul, whose echoes he afterward consecrated to the
Church ; Etchen, Bishop of Clonfad, ordained him priest,
the simple office he retained as Abbot of lona. Moved with
the missionary spirit then prevalent, he resolved " to seek a
foreign country for the love of Christ," and left the churches
Belted King and Royal A bbot. 1 5 7
and seminaries he had reared in his native land. He made
his way to King Conall's camp, and when among his kinsmen
there, described a battle in Erin, which in his vision he saw
there and then proceeding. This incident shows the inter-
esting relationship still subsisting between colony and father-
land, and Columba made this bond the basis of his mission-
ary enterprise. According to Adamnan, he received the grant
of lona from his relative, King Conall ; according to Bede,
from the Pictish King Bruide. Probably both claimed suzer-
ainty over its debatable land.
The faint remembrance and association of the name of
Columba in place-names and in fairs, at Caolisport, in Arran,
Cumbrae, Largs, Rothesay, may be the memorials of his resi-
dence in Dalriada. Adamnan gives no reference to the
saint's visits to Cowal nor Bute, and, what is very remark-
able, makes no mention of local contemporaries like Catan,
Blaan, and Molaise. Nor is there any dedication of a church
in the immediate vicinity to any of the twelve followers of
Columba. "In 1516 King James V. granted to Sir Patrick
Makbard the chaplainry of Saint Columba in the Isle of Bute,
with liberty to discharge the due burdens and services either
personally or by substitute."1 Monro, in 1549, refers to a
chapel "under the castle of Kames," which doubtless was
that at St Colmac in North Bute, where formerly stood the
church of that name, not far distant from Kildavannan, which
might be associated with Adamnan, since these two dedica-
tions are often found together.2 Otherwise the site of St
Columba's church has not hitherto been identified.
1 'Orig. Paroch.,' vol. ii. p. 224, quoting ' Reg. Sig.,' vol. v. fol. 57.
2 See Appendix.
*> "$?*!
158 flute m the Olden Time.
Hlain records (p. 82) that a chapel formerly stood in Glen.
callum, having been erected as a mark of gratitude by a pious
mariner saved from shipwreck. The district of Columshill,
near St Hrigid's Chapel, Rothcsay, may have some connection
with the honoured missionary's visit
It is not to be assumed that Columba exercised no local
influence nor displayed his spiritual powers in the southern
parts of Dalriada. Being more intensely occupied in spread-
ing the light in more benighted heathendom, he was not
required to plant churches in a region favoured by the visita-
tions of British teachers, and, as we see, ministered to by the
relatives of King Aidan himself. That the field was occupied
is somewhat corroborated by the absence of any reference to
the church in Bute in the Annals recording the work of the
monks of lona, until fifty years after the death of King
Aidan, when, in 660, the family of Loarn sat on the throne
of Alban.
About 505 A.D., Columba advanced boldly through Pict-
land as far as the scat of Bruide's sovereignty at Inverness,
where he converted that monarch. The Gospel had early
fruition. War upon the Christian Scots lulled. The slogan
was exchanged into the melody of the mission bell ; the clash
of blades into the music of the Mass. But Celt and Pict
would not be tamed, though converted rti bloc by order of
their kings.
In 574 King Conall died, and the same year his hosts, led
by Duncan his son, were destroyed at the battle of Delgen in
Kintyre. It is said the king perished there as well. This
opened the throne to Aidan, Edan, or Edom. Where he and
his four brothers had been awaiting this turn of affairs is not
known. It was likely among the Britons in his mother's
Belted King and Royal Abbot. 159
country. Columba, who was called in to consecrate Aidan as
king, refused, " because he loved Jogenan his brother more,"
until, after some salutary inflictions by an angel, he was soon
brought to a better state of mind. This was, perhaps, only a
euphemistic way of declaring that the man of peace feared
" the little firebrand" — as Aidan's name implied — a name his
after-career did not belie. The Cymric bards even went the
length of calling him "Vradog," or the false one. With the
aid of this angel's " glassy book of the ordination of kings,"
Columba ordained Aidan king in lona, this being the first
consecration of a Christian king in Britain.
The evolution of political events in Britain, Alban, and Erin,
had opened up a brilliant destiny for the proper man. Aidan
was the man of destiny. His lineage was right royal. On
his father's side he had the blood of the Nialls in his veins ;
on his mother's that of " Old King Coyl." Through Lleian,
daughter of King Brychan, who gave his name to Brecknock
in South Wales, he was connected with one of the three holy
families of Britain, and also with many powerful reigning
families among the Cymry and Gael who had married out of
Brychan's house. These " Men of the North," — "Gwyr y Gog-
led," as the Cymric bards styled these chieftains, — afterwards
became the allies of Aidan when he combined Dalriads and
Brythons against the Picts in the north, and the pagan Angles
in the south of Strathclyde.1 At this epoch the Brythons in
Alban were divided into small independent states ruled by
their own petty kings, who, with Aidan, claimed descent from
Maxim Guletic, or the Emperor Maximus, who obtained
1 The country between the Ribble and the Clyde, except Pictish Galloway, was
called by the early Welsh writers "Y Gogled." Sometimes it referred only to
the Brythonic country north of the Solway.
160 Bute in the Olden Time.
command of the Roman forces in Britain, and was proclaimed
Emperor in 383 A.D. After the departure of the Roman
soldiery the office of leader of the British forces, " Dux Bri-
tanniarum," was retained by a powerful general, styling him-
self the Gwlcdig or over- king. This office Aidan seems to
have inherited or assumed, and to have exercised in the great
struggle between the Roman or Christian party, and the
Anglic or pagan party, which culminated in the victory of
Ardderyd, near Carlisle, in 573, when the former prevailed.
The result of the battle was that Ryddcrch was established
as King of Cumbria or Strathclyde, over the consolidated
states of the Cymry, with his scat of government at Alclud or
Dunbrcatan, now Dumbarton. Where Aidan held sway is not
certain, but Dr Skenc thinks that Aidan was a petty king
before this for five years, " among the nations south of the
Friths of Forth and Clyde, and seems to have had claims
upon the district of Manan or Manann, peopled by the Picts."
His policy illustrates the spirit of a Crusader rather than that
of an adventurer. His blood made him cosmopolitan, his
faith statesmanlike. Of purpose, or unwillingly, he fulfilled
the so-called prophecy of St Bcrchan : —
" He is the first man who shall possess in the East
After the vexation to the Cruithnigh.
He was a red flame, he awakened battle.
The anxious traveller." l
As soon as he had inaugurated his government he crossed to
Erin, accompanied by his Anmcara, soul-friend, Columba, \o
make terms as to paying tribute to the mother country. At
the Convention of Drumceatt, in Londonderry, in 575, the
1 'Chron. Pict* and Scots,' p. 82.
Belted King and Royal Abbot. 1 6 1
eloquence of the royal monk settled the independence of
colonial Dalriada, and Alban was turned from a tributary to
an ally, to be united with Erin only in hostings and reciproca-
tion of hospitality.
The "anxious traveller" returned to carry his "red flame"
in every direction. He ranged from the Orkneys to the Bor-
ders, now assisted by Ulster auxiliaries against the Picts on
the banks of the Forth, now chasing the Angles back into
Bernicia, anon campaigning in the Isle of Man. For twenty
years victory followed the soldiers of the Cross. But in 596
a woful disaster befell the king. Aneurin and Taliessin, who
were Cymric bards coeval with Aidan, tell the harrowing tale
in the " Gododin Poems." Their hero is known as "Mynyd-
dawg," or the mountaineer. The poet depicts the gay host
circling the bivouac, listening to the minstrel's song, and
drinking the enervating wine, before the battle of Catraeth : —
" Together they drank the clear mead
By the light of the rushes :
Though pleasant to the taste, its banefulness lasted long." 1
They had drawn their blades, " white as lime," in defence of
the faith — " blades full of vigour in defence of baptism," and
wearing their golden torques, had rushed into the unequal
fray.
Overcome in their wassail, " their life was the price of their
banquet of mead."
"Though they went to church to do penance,
The inevitable strife of death was to pierce them."
The poem describes how the body-guard of three hundred
1 ' Four Anc. Books of Wales,' vol. i. p. 374 et seq.
VOL. I. L
1 62 Bute in thf Olden Time.
heroes, — the armed muster of the Clan Gabran numbered
three hundred,1 — were all slain, Aidan alone escaping : —
" Of the retinue of Mynyddawg there escaped none
Except one frail weapon, tottering every way."
This battle of Catracth was apparently the same as that of
Chirchind, fought in 596, in Gododin, a district near the Forth,
held by the Monti, at which Aidan's four sons, Bran, Domhan-
gart, Eochaidh, and Arthur fell. " Ring the bell," said Columba
in far lona, and as the monks ran to prayers, he cried, " Now
let us pray the Lord earnestly for this people and Aidan the
king, for at this hour they go into battle." So they prayed.
Thereafter the visionary looked into the sky, and exclaimed,
" Now the barbarians are put to flight, and to Aidan the
victory has been given, but it is a sad one."*
But the aged hero was not daunted. He hated the pagans
heartily. Again we see him, in 603, leading an allied force of
Scots, Picts, Brythons, and mercenaries or clansmen from
Ulster, down to the Borders, to humble the ambitious king
of the Northumbrians, Ethclfrid. Bcdc thus refers to it :
" Hereupon, /Edan, king of the Scots that inhabit Britain,
being concerned at his success, came against him with an im-
mense and mighty army, but was beaten by an inferior force,
and put to flight ; for almost all his army was slain at a famous
place called Dcgsastan, that is Dcgsastone." * Later writers
made this break his brave heart
1 " Th« armed roaster of the Cinel Gabran, three hundred men."— 'Chron. Picts
and Scots,' p. 312. "The Cinel Gabran, five hundred and three score houses in
Kintyrc, the district of Cowall with the islands. Twice seven benches to each
twenty houses, their sea muster." — P. 314.
• Reeves' Adamnan, ' Life of Columba,' pp. 33, 36.
* Bede, • Eccl. Hist.,' bk. i. c. 34.
Belted King and Royal A bbot. 163
That was the last of his valiant enterprises. His success
had been the security of the Western Church, and in his reign
flourished Brendan, Columba, Catan, Blaan, Molaise, and
Kentigern. He was the founder of the Scottish monarchy.
He survived by three years his old ally Rhydderch, and by
nine the saintly abbot who placed the crown on his head. In
606, at the ripe age of seventy-four, the sceptre fell from his
hands, after he had reigned thirty-eight warring years, of
which he was for thirty-two years King of Alban.1 Of his ten
children — Arthur, Eochaidh Fionn, Domhangart, Eochaidh
Buidhe, Tuathal, Bran, Baiothin, Conang, Gartnait, Maith-
gemm — four were slain in battle in 596 — viz., Arthur, Eochaidh
Fionn, Domhangart, and Bran ; and Conang was drowned in
622. Eochaidh Buidhe succeeded to the crown, and died in
629 A.D.
The place of his death is not mentioned by the Irish annal-
ists, but John of Fordun records that he died in Kintyre, and
is buried at Kilkerran, where none of his predecessors had
been interred.2 According to Father Hay, " Convall, a pupil
of Kentigern, lived att Inchinnan, some 7 miles from Glasgow,
and made the funerall discourse att King Aidanus Buriall."3
But Bishop Leslie, in his History, mentions, without citing
an authority, that King Aidan was buried in lona. I suggest
Bute as his resting-place on the following grounds. Above
Ardbeg Point there lies a little farm, now designated Ruli-
cheddan, but a century ago noted in Dr Maclea's Visiting-
Book as Reiligeadhain, which signifies the burial-place of
Eadan — reilig being the Gaelic form of the Latin reliquia or
1 ' Chron. Picts and Scots,' p. 68. ' Ann. Tigh.'
2 'Chron.,' lib. iii. cap. xxxi. vol. i. p. 117. Skene's ed. Edinburgh, 1871.
3 Hay, ' Scotia Sacra,' MS. Adv. Lib., p. 30.
164 Bute in the Olden Time.
rcliqnium. On part of the farm, close to the highway where
Eilyer Cottage now stands, on a mound beside the Point
House Burn, there existed till about twenty-five years ago
an immense cairn, some twenty feet high, which was only
a portion of a larger cairn which was used as a convenient
quarry. In ' The Statistical Account of Buteshire,' published
in 1841, the following footnote is found : "A tumulus on the
side of a small stream near the Point House has been par-
tially opened, and is found to contain many human bones
mixed with the stones. It is said to have been the scene of
a bloody battle between the Bannatyncs of Kames and the
Spenccs of North Kamcs."1 In 1858, when the stones were
being removed, it was discovered to be a place of prehis-
toric burial, and eighteen cists, each about 30 inches square,
containing in some cases black dust, in others sepulchral
urns, were laid bare round the circumference of the cairn.*
Again, at the final removal to obtain material to build
the dykes round Kames Bay, a cist — now built into the
wall at Kames Castle Gate — was found in the centre of
the cairn. The cist was about thirty inches square, and
contained dark, apparently burnt, ashes, together with a
rudely ornamented urn, which on being handled broke into
fragments.
The form of burial was evidently that of the pagan or early
Christian era. To add to the historic interest of the spot is
the Gaelic tradition lingering there.8 Wilson, in his ' Guide
1 • Stat Ace.,' p. 103.
* My informant is Mr Duncan Keith, Kothesay, an eyewitness who assisted at
the work.
' My informant is Mr Malcolm MacKinnon, Kames Castle Lodge, who opened
the cist.
Belted King and Royal A bbot. 1 65
to Rothesay,' * gives a different version of the tradition, in
which Spens, a young laird of Wester Kames, was the luckless
hero, but this is not in keeping with the age of the cists found
in the cairn.
" The cairn covered the remains of a great hero. He was
wont to wear a belt of gold, which, being charmed, protected
him on the field of battle. One day, however, as he rode a-
hunting accompanied by his sister, the maid, coveting the
golden talisman, prevailed upon him to lend it to her. While
thus unprotected he was killed, — whether by enemies or mis-
chance the attenuated tradition does not clearly indicate ;
and this cairn marked the warrior's grave."
This allusion to a belted hero has a great significance when
it is recollected that a gold belt was the insignia of office of
each of the " Duces Britanniarum " — the three military com-
manders of Roman Britain. This badge or girdle was assumed
by the native successor of this duke, who took the name of
Gwledig, and with it the authority of an over-king among
the Kymry.2
Birth, as well as martial prowess, seems to have been King
Aidan's right to wear this belt, as has been previously pointed
out ; one account making him a descendant of Maxim Guletic,
another of Ceretic Guletic, whom Dr Skene identifies with the
very Coroticus who held the Christians in subjection in the
time of St Patrick.3
This place-name — Reilig-Aedhain — may thus be our last
memorial of the tomb of this brave and noble Christian king,
who may have rested from his labours there when Bute —
1 P. 60. Rothesay, 1848. 2 Rhys, ' Early Britain, ' p. 119.
3 'The Four Anc. Books of Wales,' W. F. Skene. Edinburgh, 1868. Vol. ii.
p. 455. C. S. Vol. i. pp. 158, 160.
1 66 fiute in the Olden Timt.
part of the realm of Kintyrc — was the brightest emerald in
the diadem of Dalriada, and here —
" Thy mourners were the plaided Gael ;
Thy dirge the clamorous pibroch sung."
With the enterprise and phenomenal success of Aidan's
royal contemporary, Abbot Columba, among Scots and Picts,
this history is not designed to deal. Suffice it to say that the
best proof of the rapidity and thoroughness of the propaga-
tion of Christianity at this epoch is found in the numerous
dedications of churches bearing Columba's name — there
being thirty-two among the Scots and twenty-six among the
Picts. His personal influence and the influence of the Church
which owned his special rule and polity arc appraised in
the fulfilment of the saint's own prophecy regarding lona:
" Small and mean though this place is, yet it shall be held in
great and unusual honour, not only by Scotic kings and
people, but also by the rulers of foreign and barbarous
nations, and by their subjects ; the saints also, even of other
Churches, shall regard it with no common reverence."
THE ABBEY
or
SAINT BLANE
167
CHAPTER IX.
"BLAAN THE MILD OF CENNGARAD."
' ' At eve, within yon studious nook,
I ope my brass-embossed book,
Portray'd with many a holy deed
Of Martyrs crown'd with heavenly meed ;
Then, as my taper waxes dim,
Chant, ere I sleep, my measured hymn."
— WARTON.
'UBRICIUS, Kentigern, and Blaan of Kingarth
were sons of virgins.1 Mystery hung over their
cradles — if they had such luxury at their romantic
births. Ertha or Bertha — a maid from Erin — was
residing with her holy brother, Catan, in the vicinity of the
tawny shore of Kilchattan, when the misfortune of Blaan's
birth occurred. It was a rude age, and she laid the blame of
her sin upon an unknown Apollo ; it was a heroic age, and
some attributed his fatherhood to Aidan the king; it was a
superstitious age, and the neighbours were afterwards pleased
to believe that the potent spirit who haunted the holy well of
St Catan was the sire of the boy who brought renown to their
isle.
1 The Gaelic-speaking natives pronounced Blane's name Blawn.
1 68 Bute in the Olden Time.
It was the Celtic custom then to expose frail maids and
their offspring in a skiff made of a single hide to the mercy
of the sea. To this fate the irate priest cast the babe and his
mother. However, a counteracting Providence gently guided
the coracle to her native land, where, warned by some pre-
monition of the advent of a great personage, at a place called
Beuthornc in north Ireland, the two renowned Pictish bishops,
Comgall and Cainncch, were waiting to receive the child.1
In other words, the friends of Catan, Comgall, founder of the
monastic school of Bangor, and Cainncch, founder of Aghaboe,
with whom it is said Catan and Columba were at the school
of Clonard, were intrusted with the education of Blaan for
seven years. He returned to Bute with his mother in his
youth, in a boat without oars or sails, of course, and was then
honourably received by his uncle. Catan brought him up to
the service of the Church. Soon he displayed miraculous
1 This Comgall, one of the fathers of the Irish Church, was of distinguished
family in Dalaradia, and was born about the year 517.' After completing his
studies in Britain, he founded the monastery of Bcnchor, in the now insignificant
village of Bangor, near the Bay of Carrickfcrgus, in 558. He composed a Rule for
his house which was rery strict and exacting. The devotion of his community
attracted so many pupils that it was necessary for their superior to build addi-
tional houses and cells for their accommodation. It was said three thousand
lived under his rule, and these were divided into seven alternate choirs, of three
hundred singers each, who adored in song the Deity, night and day. This school
was a university devoted to varied studies, as may be proved by the refined
scholarship of the great Columbanus of Bobbio, who shed such lustre on this
monastery, where he was educated. St Comgall, like his pupil St Columbanus,
followed the liturgy used by St Patrick, called the " Cursus Scottorum." He died
in 601. Cainncch, the friend of Comgall, Brendan, and Columba, also a Pict,
born about the same time as Comgall, was educated in Britain under Docus, and
returned to Ireland to found Aghaboe, at least before 577. He died in 599.
Both of these holy men came to help Columba in his Pictish mission in the
Western Isles, Comgall founding a church in Terra llttk or Tircc.
1 Mooulembert, ' Monki of the Wat,' voL ili. p. 94.
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 169
propensities. One day while they were busy psalm-singing,
the fires, which were left in charge of Blaan, all went out. He,
wishing no one to incur the blame of the saint, offered up
prayer, whereupon fire sparkled from his finger-tips like
flashes from a flint when it is struck. Catan realised his
superior grace, prophesied his fame, and ordained him to the
priesthood. He proceeded next to exercise priestly functions
among his nearest neighbours, presumably at Kilblaan.
His biographers, as well as local tradition, transport him to
Rome, there to receive a richer grace, and a securer badge of
his episcopal office at the hands of the Pope.
" From his native hills
He wandered far; much did he see of men,
Their manners, their enjoyments, and pursuits,
Their passions and their feelings ; chiefly those
Essential and eternal in the heart,
That 'mid the simpler forms of rural life,
Exist more simple in their elements,
And speak a plainer language."
Nor is there anything improbable in such an enterprise of
faith. It was as safe and easy to go to Rome then as now, —
the well-paved highway leading from Strathclyde direct to
the Eternal City. And intercommunication was frequent.
As mentioned previously, southern ecclesiastics had been
attracted to Ireland by the fame of St Patrick and his schools
long before the successive colonies of Irish monks began to
seek their homes in the warmer climes of middle Europe.
The mission-ship as well as the trading vessels crossed the
ocean, and in the latter were stowed away the pale-faced cap-
tives who soon won the heart of Gregory the Great, as these
Angles stood like " angels " in the slave-mart of Rome.
1 70 ttutc in the Olden Time.
Columbanus, for example, who was a contemporary of St
Hlaan in the end of the sixth century, circa 589, left Bangor,
the same school at which St Hlaan was taught, and sowed the
seed of the Gospel between the Vosges and the Alps, and be-
tween the banks of the Loire and the Danube, successively
preaching to Franks, Burgundians, and Lombards, till the
Scottish order of monks achieved a fame second only to the
Benedictines. Columbanus finally settled at Bobbio in Lorn-
bardy, not fifty miles from the Gulf of Genoa. His white
marble sarcophagus, with its historical bas-reliefs, his horn-
handled iron knife, and wooden drinking-cup presented to
him by Pope Gregory the Great, on the consecration of the
monastery in 612, and his little bell, as well as the tombs of
his fellow-missionaries, are still preserved at Bobbio.
A visit to Rome was an education which Blaan could not
fail to profit by. In his epoch Christianity, rcinspired with
new vigour, was sanctifying the decayed grandeur of pagan
civilisation, till the times, rapid of change, were ripening for
the masterly policy of Pope Gregory the Great, the friend of
Columbanus, patron of learning, promoter of monasticism,
and the astute leader of the Church, who founded the tem-
poral, and established firmly the ecclesiastical, power of the
Papacy.
At this very time the hapless Benedictines had been driven
by the Lombards from their embattled hill of Monte Cassino
to seek a home in Rome. And one of the latest and most
important accessions to their Order was this rich prator of the
city, Gregory, who devoted his wealth and life to Christ, and
raised the monastery of St Andrew on the Ccelian Hill in 575,
the same year Aidan's kingdom of Alban was declared inde-
pendent Every one knows the beautiful story of this Italian
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 1 7 1
monk seeing the Anglo-Saxon slaves from Deira in the
market-place, and never rinding peace till, as Pope, he sent
from his own monastery the famous St Augustine and his
forty companions to undertake the conversion of England,
about 590 A.D. These great movements were transpiring in
the reign of Scottish Aidan, and St Blaan felt their impetus.
No Christian pilgrim could leave such scenes without being
fired in imagination, and carrying in his memory impressions
from great functions, the models and practique of architecture,
patterns of learning, and examples of living, of a kind far in
advance of anything known or dreamt of in his native Alban.
Indeed, tradition here avers that the enthusiastic monk
brought with him consecrated earth to found his monastery
upon, to which it is necessary to refer more fully afterwards,
when dealing with the women's cemetery at Kilblaan.1
He returned on foot. When passing through Northumbria,
he heard two royal parents mourning for their dead blind son.
Touched with pity, the pilgrim raised him to life, at the sign
of the cross, and presented him safe, sound, and seeing to his
parents. His name was Columba. Out of gratitude they
presented Blaan with lands there, and on that account the
church of Dunblane continued to possess, down to 1296, the
manors of Appilby, Congere, Troclyngham, and Malemath.
He seems to have founded a church too at Kilblain, near
Dumfries, and impressed his name by the way home at
Strathblane, Sutheblan, and Auchenblain, near Crossraguel,
in Ayrshire.
Travel and varied experiences, such as these, refined Blaan's
1 St Molaise of Daimhinis went to Rome, about 570, to bring back relics and
consecrated clay. MS. Irish Life.
172 Bute in the Olden Time.
nature conspicuously above that common " when wild in wood
the noble savage ran." Before distinguished as " fortis in
bcllo," he became known as " Blaan the mild of Ccnngarad,"
as the Martyrology of Acngus notes with the gloss — »'./.,
" Bishop of Cenn-garad — />., Dunblane is his chief city, and
he is of Ccnn-garad in the Gall-Gacdcla " (/>., the Scottish
islands).1
In connection with these facts it may be stated here that
the Litany of Dunkcld enumerates Blaan among the abbots,
and Camcrarius designates him "Blanus Episcopus Sodo
rcnsis" — />., Blane, Bishop of Sodor, a title out of keeping
with these times.*
Other writers make Blaan a Culdee abbot or bishop, about
the year 1000, in Dunblane.8 Of Blaan's life in Bute we know
absolutely nothing. His life by George Newton, archdeacon
of Dunblane, is lost. Tradition maintains he lived and died
at the church which bears his name, and overshadows his
existing tomb. And Fordun has formed the tradition into
history when he wrote : " Columba in Dumblan et Blanus in
Botha tumulantur" — Columba is entombed in Dumblan and
Blaan in Bute.4
There is a striking probability that St Blaan may have
left Bute to visit his uncle's churches, or, on a mission, to
follow on the old track of the early Pictish missionaries who
had penetrated up the Earn and settled among the Cale-
donians. In Kintyre, the parish of Southend is made up of the
1 ' Martyr. Christ Church,' Dublin, Uviii.
3 "iiij Idas August!. — In Insula de Boit Sancti Blani cpiscopi ct Confcssoru."
— ' Mart. Abcrd.' " Augustus 10 Die. Sanctus Blanus Episcopus Sodorensis." —
Camcrarius.
1 " Aug. 10. In Scotia Blaani EpUcopi et Confessoris, qui circa annum mil-
Icsimnm vivebat K.B.T."— ' Menol. Scot'
4 'Scotichron.,' xi. at, — Goodall, vol. u. p. 160.
' ' Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad. " 173
original parish of Kilblane, Kirkblane, or Kilblaan, in which
Pont and Blaeu mark the sites of churches dedicated to Blaan
and to Cathan. The monks of Whithorn also held lands in
Kilblaan in connection with the chapel of Ninian.
Blaan's own teacher, Cainnech, had crossed the wild back
of Alban before him. Hence we find a Kilblain in Greenock,
the Strath of Blane, a church in Strathearn, and finally the
Dun of Blane, all in the direction he was likely to take. On
the south-west shore of Loch Earn, about a mile from Loch
Earn Head, and near the pelasgic remains of Craggan, there
exist the ruins of a little building, called St Blaan's chapel.
Its foundations are of rough boulders. It is duly oriented.
It measures 45 feet by 18 ; and to the east end what seems
to have been an apse or a chancel, 6 feet long, also remains.
The traces of a cashel, or surrounding wall, are also visible.
It has the characteristics of one of the primitive churches of
the time of Blaan, and may have been reared by himself
when on his mission to the Ivernians. Now all its history
is in its name — vox et pr&terea nihil.
Dr Reeves inclines to the opinion that Blaan personally
exercised the function of abbot and bishop over a small
fraternity at his church at Dunblane, which afforded both a
name and a cathedral to the diocese, which was erected either
by King David or Gilbert Earl of Stratherne, the latter of
whom endowed it with a third of his earldom, before 1210.
This diocese was coterminous with the earldom. Accord-
ing to a note annexed to Henry of Silgrave's Chronicle
(1272), the Keledei, or secular priests, were the religious
society of the Church, who were thus raised in diocesan
importance.1
1 Reeves, ' Culdees,' pp. 32, 46, 47.
1 74 Bute in the Olden Timt.
On Blaan's return to Bute he fixed upon a nook among
the southern hills wherein to found the church that bears his
name, and to rear the monastic establishment over which he
presided. The site is cunningly disposed to bask in sunshine,
while it has a prominent outlook over hill, dale, and sea.
Behind is Suidhc Chatain (516 feet), before uprcars the
grassy Suidhc Bhlain (400 feet), the favourite scat of the
abbot, and near which, on the north slope, the country people
pointed out a hollow in a stone, which they said was the
impression of his foot (Blain, p. 82). Around it arc the
rolling fields, once covered with flocks and fruit-trees. A
lovelier or serener site could scarce be found in any land.
The monastery itself was embowered beneath the wind-
shelter of a rocky ridge which looks down on the vitrified
fort of Dunagoil. Its extensiveness may be inferred from
the structural remains still in evidence. These may be
classified as defensive, domiciliary, and ecclesiastical works,
and I treat of them in this order.
The existence of the Drcamin* Tree edifice and other cy-
clopean walls, described in chap, ii., suggests the idea that
Blaan sought protection for his church in the district fort.
The earliest Celtic churches were built within the fortified
enclosures of the chieftains who were converted to Christ, and
who thereafter patronised, endowed, and protected the church.
There are many recorded instances of this custom, which
came to modify the external surroundings of the church. If,
as is supposed, the castle of Rothcsay was first a Celtic
" caisel " or " rath " — a circular fortified enclosure, — the
chapel of St Michael, within the court, is an illustration of
this custom, rendered necessary by the disrespect shown to
the struggling Church.
-
«.
f ^
.
^•<r'-i,:
'yrrfS
- ' '• •
^f^VjV'
^.^^ .
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 175
After the necessity passed away, the combination, however,
long survived, till the plan of enclosing the ecclesiastical
edifices within a substantial rath or cashel became general
in Ireland and Scotland. Remains of these are visible at
St Ninian's, Kilmory, and St Blaan's. There were three
concentric walls at St Blaan's — one confining the primitive
buildings beneath the ridge, another including these and the
present church, and a third bounding the abbey land from
sea to sea. This latter is referred to in the charter by which
Alan the Steward, in 1204, disponed of St Blaan's Church to
Paisley Priory : —
" Besides, I myself, for the soul of King David, also for the soul
of King Malcolm, and for the soul of my father, Walter, together
with that of my mother, Eschene, and for the salvation of our Lord
the King, William of Scotland and his heirs, and for the salvation of
myself and my heirs, give, dispone, and by this my charter confirm
to the same superior of Passelet, and to the monks serving God, at
the same place, the church of Kengaif [Kengarf?] in the isle of
Bote, with all the chapels and with the whole jurisdiction [parish]
of the same isle, and with the whole land which St Blaan, it is
said, formerly girded across country [or, by a syke\ from sea even
to sea, by boundaries secure and visible^ so that freely and quietly
as any church in the whole kingdom of Scotland it shall be held
more free and peaceable." 1
This disposition of Kilblaan does not appear to have
been acted upon. At least, in 1224, when the monastery of
Paisley was taken under the protection of the Pope, all the
lands connected with it are mentioned in the bull, and Kin-
garth is not among them.2 Nor is it mentioned in the
1 'Reg. Mon. de Passelet,' p. 15. See Appendix.
- Theiner's ' Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum,' p. 23. 1864.
1 76 Bute in the Olden Time.
general confirmatory charters granted to the abbey by the
kings of Scotland, nor in the ecclesiastical deeds relating to
the right of the abbey in its dependent churches. This
Walter died in 1177, a monk of Mclrosc, to which house he
had been a liberal benefactor.1
From this charter it appears that the abbey land of Kil-
blaan was an extensive possession in the saint's lifetime, and
clearly designed from sea to sea, while all the other chapels
in the isle were dependants (dalta) upon his parent church
(annoit). The shortest distance between sea and sea in that
district — between Kilchattan and Lubas — measures one mile
and one-sixth. That encloses the twenty -pound land of
Kingarth, part of which still has the significant name of
Margnaheglish, or the Kirk Glebe. Within it formerly
resided most of the population. On the hill overlooking the
church to the north, the cattle-markets were held till last
century. A few years ago the Marquess of Bute had the
socket of the market cross exposed to view :—
" For the cross o'er the moss of the pointed summit stood."
A strong wall runs down to Glcncallum Bay from the
church, seemingly beginning at the northern end of the
ridge, and I have partly made out its course in the opposite
direction towards Dunstrone.
So large a property must have been a substantial grant to
Catan or Blaan by a chieftain, probably their reputed rela-
tive King Aidan. Chieftains often gave large gifts of land
for Christian service ; and these, designated " termon-lands,"
were exempted from taxation, marked out for a "right of
1 ' Reg. If 00. de Paaclet ,' p. XT, note.
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 177
sanctuary," and were bequeathed by the possessing abbot
to his personal heirs, " according to the ecclesiastical law of
succession."
"The coarb — that is to say, the ecclesiastical successor of
the original founder in the headship of the religious society,
whether bishop or abbot — was the inheritor of his official in-
fluence, while the descendants in blood, or founder's kin, were
inheritors of the temporal rights of property and chieftain-
ship." ! A lay family thus succeeded to abbey lands on be-
coming the hereditary possessors of the first abbot's pastoral
staff or crosier. The Duke of Argyll possesses the staff
(bachul more — a veritable blackthorn) of St Moluag of Lis-
more. The parent monastery from which pupils emerged
to plant new churches always retained spiritual jurisdiction
over its clerical progeny and the community these served.
Columba in lona thus ruled his own churches in Ireland ;
and the monastery of Bangor supervised Kilblaan. Hence
in ecclesiastical phraseology a parochia, or parish, at this
time, was the jurisdiction of a Superior (Abbot, Father,
Senior) over the churches and monasteries of the same Rule
sprung from his House. The " parish " of Blaan appears to
have extended through Northumbria as far as Lindisfarne,
and northward as far as Dunblane.
As regards the walls, the foundations of these defensive
walls, composed of huge boulders without any cementing
medium, are 6 feet broad, and run some distance nearly
parallel with the ridge, then stretch away southward. It is
not clear now. however, how much space they enclosed, as
the continuity of the lines is lost.
1 Anderson, ' Scot, in Early Christian Times,' p. 233. Edinburgh, 1881.
VOL. I. M
1 78 Bute in the Olden Time.
With regard to the Domiciliary Remains, the stances and
foundations of edifices are distinctly visible, although now
it is impossible to fix the character and use of these. Some
were of stone, others of wood. They, without doubt, included
the full complement of a Celtic monastic establishment or
mutHttr, " the great house," ! kitchen,1 pilgrims' house,* refec-
tory,4 dormitories for the scolocs or pupils, the school, the
workshops, barn, cattle-sheds, mill, hermitage,4 &c. The
church,6 chapels,7 and graveyard8 also were within the outer
wall. If these buildings were of the usual Scotic construc-
tion, wattle-woven or wooden, or even built of small stones
available for subsequent wall-building, their total disappear-
ance is easily explained. In the course of the excavation
here two small granite quern- tops were disinterred: the
upper millstone was uncovered in the women's cemetery,
where it was converted into a socket for a cross ; the font
was also found in the rubbish of the church.*
In the ground between the ridge and the church, locally
called M the orchard," now shaded by magnificent ashes, at the
base of the ridge is found " St Blaan's Well," also known as
44 The Holy Well," and " The Wishing Well." It is dry-stone
built, is 3 feet broad and deep, and has been partly covered.
It was suitable for well-baptism as practised in the Celtic
Church. Popular tradition asserts it to be the local habita-
» T€(k-mor. « Cult or cuuenn. * Tctk-H-tiguL * PraitutUtk.
• Diurt. • CfU, «Uust Umjml. r NemtJ, dattrtetk. • Rtfo, mam.
• Broken grey granite quern-top, pierced— diameter, 10 inches; thick, 3#;
diameter of hole, 2 inches. Grey granite quern-top, crested, not pierced —
diameter, l6# inches; thick, 2%. Red sandstone font, pierced — external
diameter, 28 inches; thick, 7%; diameter of basin, 17 inches; deep, 4;
diameter of hole, 3 inches. These relics are preserved at Mountstuart. The
upper millstone is 33 inches in diameter and 12 inches thick.
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad"
179
Foot-font at Kilblaan.
tion of a slth or spirit, who, when propitiated by the offering
of a coin, is wont to give the faithful drinkers of its limpid
spring a blessing, which cures sterility. Within the last
decade believers in this extra-
ordinary superstition have been
known to visit the well with the
requisite propitiatory oblations.
A few yards distant from the
well lies the stone lavatory
wherein the pilgrims' feet were
bathed, an irregular, hollow,
sandstone block, over whose
rim a runnel is cut.1 Or the
stone may have been the font used for the washing of the
feet of the newly baptised.
The ceremonial washing of the feet or "pedilavium," not
found in the Roman office, was common to the early Gallican
ritual of baptism, arid is thus referred to in the ' Stowe
Missal ' : —
" Tune laiiantur pedes eius, accepto linteo accepto.
Alleluia. Lucerna pedibus meis uerbum tuum, domine."
South of the welt a small recess is pointed out as "the
priest's house." To this Blain apparently refers (' Hist.,' p. 73) :
"The minister's house stood in a sequestered spot particu-
larly well calculated for contemplation and to excite devo-
tion. One end was close to the precipice, and here a hermit
might find a most eligible situation for his abode."
As I have before indicated, " The Deil's Cauldron " was
1 Oval lavatory, 28 inches and 31 inches diameter; basin, 18 inches, and 19
inches diameter ; depth of basin, 7J^ inches; thickness, n inches.
i So Bute in the Olden Time.
originally a " broch " or place of refuge, but it is possible that
it was in the Christian ages found suitable for a hermitage
in connection with the monastery. Tradition characterises
it as a place of penance. It might thus be enumerated
among those primitive structures called Chchans or Carcairs,
which formed part of the Celtic monastic settlements, and
were set apart for cells for undisturbed devotions, or for the
suffering of punishment enjoined in terms of the monastic
rule.1 It was a desert or solitude within the abbacy. Some
eremites, as cited p. 125, preferred internment till death
within " a carcair of hard stone " to the regular life. Of
Enda of Aran the poet wrote : —
" Enda of the high piety loved,
In Ara, victory with sweetness,
A carcair of hard narrow stone,
To bring all unto heaven."
Some of these cells were of the beehive type, others open
to the sky, like the circular - shaped enclosures, called
prosfucJur, or places of prayer, of the Jews.* The hermitage
of St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, was, according to
Bedc, of the latter type. This primitive monastery, built on
Fame in A.D. 685 by St Cuthbert, was enclosed by a circular
wall, 4 or 5 perches in diameter, constructed of earth and
stones, some of the stones being large. The wall was high,
so as to limit a prospect to the heavens overhead. Within
this enclosure or " cashcl " were formed, partly by scooping,
partly by building, a little oratory and a house, both of which
were roofed with rough planks and hay. Outside this cashcl
1 Skene, TO), ii. p. 245.
• See Acts of Apostles, xri. 13 ; Farm's ' Life of Si Paul,' ch.
K jBiytnec'S
' ' Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 1 8 1
was a house of rest for pilgrims (hospitium), and not far off
sparkled a well.
This, then, was the type of the Celtic monastery — a circu-
lar wall, originally for defence, enclosing a house of prayer
and a dormitory, with a guest-house for visitors or pupils,
beside an unfailing spring outside the wall. From this type
arose the extensive monastic settlements such as those of
lona and Kingarth. Here at Kilblaan are illustrated all the
stages of this growth in the surviving edifices, though ruined,
and the transition from one phase of ecclesiastical life to
another, until now the holy fane has become a retreat for
those who enjoy an al fresco holiday.
The picturesque ruins of the church of St Blaan rise over
a verdant mound, whose peculiar situation between two
rough ridges leads me to think the mound is a natural
tumulus, arrested and left hanging on the brink of the
declivity, over which the waters roared to the sea, on either
side, from the sweet little valley behind. It may afterwards
have needed trimming by monkish hands, as God's acre be-
came more populated round the consecrated walls.
Did St Blaan first enclose it and place his primitive church
there ? is a natural inquiry. Good reasons exist for believing
that he did. The architectural features of the building
produce them. At first sight, the appearance of the Norman
masonry, with its regular and unbroken courses, and the
precise and workman-like fitting of the vertical and horizontal
joints, together with as lovely a Romanesque chancel arch
as our country can boast, would lead a visitor to conclude
that he had stumbled upon one of those early Norman
churches which King David, "the sair sanct for the Crown,"
planted, as the chronicler said, as thick as lichens over the
1 82 Bute in the Olden Time.
land. Then when, through neglect or destruction, it came
to need repair in the thirteenth century, the eastern gable
was pierced with the two neat First Pointed windows, and
two similar lancet -windows were inserted in the chancel
walls, which give that part of the building an Early Gothic
character. Later, when more light was required, in the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, a double-light window was
inserted in the south chancel wall, over the sill and part
of the rybats of the earlier window, which are still quite
visible. The original building apparently was Norman.
North wall.
El
Ground-plan of St Blaatis Chunk.
But a minute inspection determines that this is a wrong
conclusion. This has been clearly pointed out by Mr
William Galloway, architect, in a " Notice of the Chapel
dedicated to St Blane at Kingarth in Bute," printed in the
' Archaeologica Scotica,' ! wherein he dissents, with reason,
from the common views of architects on the subject While
unaware of this paper, I came to similar conclusions as to
the prior antiquity of the eastern part of the chancel. Under-
neath its various reparations, and behind the Norman facing,
1 Vol. v., Part ii. Edio., 1880.
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 183
•
is the nucleus of the church — the small square basilica of
St Blaan.
The whole church as it stands consists of a nave and a
chancel, which has been extended either eastward or west-
ward. Its total exterior length is 85 feet 8 inches ; interior,
80 feet 2 inches. The nave, of Norman masonry, measures
56 feet 8 inches without and 51 feet 2 inches within in
length, and 22 feet 31^ inches without and 16 feet 7^ inches
within in breadth. The west gable is 3 feet 2 inches thick ;
the nave walls, 2 feet 10 inches thick. The gable dividing
the nave from the chancel stands about 26 feet high, and is
pierced by the lovely chancel arch. Mr Galloway thus
describes it1: —
" It is in two orders, the first carried on jamb-columns having
each of the arch-stones decorated with a simple form of the beak-
head. In the second, carried on detached columns, the shafts of
which are gone, each arch-stone is carved both on the soffit and
exterior face, with a division of the double-rolled zigzag or chevron
meeting at the apices, and so forming a very rich example of this
characteristic ornament. In section the label is semi-hexagonal.
In the centre there is a small Greek cross inscribed in a circle
about four inches in diameter, the rest of the stone on either side
being striated rather than moulded, with lines following the curve
of the arch and terminating abruptly without any reference to the
adjoining decoration. The ornament on the remaining part of the
label forms a peculiar and by no means common variety of that
well-known feature in Norman work — the lozenge, the pattern in
this case being brought out by a series of alternate sinkings of a
triangular form. . . . The capitals of the columns present con-
siderable variety in their modes of decoration, each one being
different from the others. The abaci are continued as a string
round the interior of the nave ; this string, together with that on
1 'Arch. Scot.,' vol. v., Part ii., pp. 329-331.
1 84 Rutc in the Olden Time.
the outside or the chancel, being carved on its principal face. The
abaci over the jamb-columns arc notched vertically on each side for
a rood-screen, and the sockets still remain at the base of the columns
into which the uprights were fixed. In the chancel, the atari of
the columns arc also continued as a string along the centre gable,
dropping on the north and south sides of the chancel nearly two
feet"
There was also a plain external string. Mere traces of the
positions of the Norman windows exist, and the mullion of
probably the east gable window is built into the south chancel
wall. The chancel doorway measures 9 feet 6 inches in
height ; the arch is 4 feet 6^ inches in diameter.
As to the chancel — the Norman masonry is continued
half-way into the chancel — />., about 1 3 feet, when it is met
by an older form of building, which is overlaid with Norman
and later masonry. The whole chancel in length measures
29 feet without, and 26 feet I inch within ; in breadth, within,
at the west end, 13 feet 6 inches, at the cast end, 13 feet \o%
inches; at the west end of the older part, 14 feet 2]£ inches.
The lower part of the wall — i.e., of the older portion — is
2 feet 5 inches thick, being a few inches less than the Nor-
man work. The older part has thus been probably a badly
set off building of a little more than 14 feet square, and with
walls 8 feet high, which have been broken for the aumbry
in the gable, the piscina in the south wall, and the lancet
windows in the walls. It was extended westward into the
Romanesque building. Its cast gable was heightened, and
now stands pierced by two lancet-windows.
Mr Galloway thus refers to this primitive portion of the
church : " In the under part of the east wall, and consider-
ably more than the under half of the side walls, we have a
rubble masonry, in the great body of which, with exception
yss&iiii
'-..»••.. A V
»- /fl/v
<'r>X
KL* ii
7T1
rp^>
"^rM'--^H^^C
' "j- ':'»*• •' '. ' . \\
pF^ «•_- --vsifev/sF; ^ ^?p'"~^] **^H~' ?}'••; ;*!?''"''
L4' _'.!.., j; i^^%j.:/-^-'^k-JM^^
rr^pr .y ^-^A .^r y...* - ^rr~-qf;vr^gr^:^^ t » ^ % t , "
; '"':"/\r' -'' s '"•''" - " --''iL' *- :-.*" •" -r •' " : r'''v- '»• i \s' :' . •
^&M^->k--r^-- .^
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 1 85
of the splayed base course, and one or two fragments which
may be accidental or otherwise, the only materials employed
are the natural undressed trap abundantly supplied in the
immediate neighbourhood." x Then he proceeds to show that
over this rises a few courses of masonry identical with that
of the nave, while on the outside of the gable the older
portion is actually faced with the same kind of work. Then
over both of these is superimposed the freestone masonry of
a later day, and of a much inferior style of workmanship.
The trap-rubble masonry, he insists, is the primitive building;
and he further maintains that it is not likely that if the
original building had been Norman, it would have been
placed, as we find it, with the nave overhanging a precipitous
bank, while there was abundance of room on the eastern side
of the mound. With these views I entirely concur. Mr
Galloway also points out that this primitive building, like
that of St Catan's in Colonsay, has been bound together
with lime with somewhat of a vitrified character about it.
And these facts open up the question as to the real
antiquity of the primitive building. Could it be contem-
poraneous with St Blaan? I think so.
The first Celtic churches were very modest structures,
built of moist earth or wood, and devoid of decoration.
The Britons during the Roman occupation were not builders
in stone. St Ninian built the first stone church in Alban
with the aid of two masons he procured in Gaul. The
oratory of Gallarus appears to be older than the time of
St Patrick, but to St Patrick himself is attributed the first
use of stone in the erection of the Irish churches. It is
1 'Arch. Scot.,' ibid., p. 321.
1 86 Rule in the Olden Time.
stated in Tircchan's annotations on the ' Life of St Patrick '
that " when Patrick went to the place which is called
Foirrgea of the sons of Awlcy, to divide it among the
sons of Awlcy, he built there a quadrangular church of
earth, because wood was not near at hand."1 The earth
churches were called Cabbals in the Isle of Man ; were
erected on an artificial mound surrounded by a circular wall
of earth (in some cases with three concentric walls) ; and
were diminutive, measuring about 12 feet long, 9 feet broad,
and 5 feet high. The Scots preferred, for centuries, build-
ings of wood, called Duirtcaclts, Dertluachs, which signified
14 houses of oak." These oratories were formed of rods of
wood wattled together, or of sawn planks, roofed with moss,
rushes, or heather. St Columba, both in Erin and lona, built
with timber and wattling. So did Finan in Lindisfarne in
A.D. 651, "after the Scotic fashion;" also St Kentigern at
St Asaph.
But these were gradually superseded by stone edifices,
called Datnliliags in St Patrick's day, who seems to have
laid down uniform plans for his churches. They were built
of stones and earth, or without a cementing medium, or with
lime like St Kicnan's, according to circumstances. Each was,
as a rule, a small oblong building, rarely exceeding 18 feet
in length by 13 feet 6 inches in breadth — a breadth identical
with that found at Kilmory, St Kruiskland, and St Ninian's.
Some were larger, having a second storey, like St Michael's
Chapel in Rothesay Castle. There was a low doorway in
the centre of the west wall, and a single window in the centre
of the east wall over the altar. Those of the beehive type,
1 ' Book of Armagh,' foL 14, b. 2. Pctric's ' Round Towers,' mult. Uc.
,^.-«-.;1rt--1 *'i? -*«^ -^V
• ) - • "i1 ' ^*V
/^ .'•• \\ (,'»^ • " '•'" \>''' V»!'"'fc^I|i ''./VS.
<: .;-.<M. *:&%• •i--X^:'^i^i^M.iA , /v
• *!*['• 1 ••'••*W; VT':^ii?r^ •.;^.'«' :-*-'y' s?
•^jj>i^ •^•?-Ji'^>^k.^>^
;i ;'••:* n . v;^; .*t-71^*l%A'.i
I r,3- f.TwT^rT •-]?•. '--11 'T'r^T
J, .-JiJ^ii -•^Kp.;-i-.a£L.A-Ul-i. - ; A .at f • -Jt .. A .. A -^4
^.'-;.. J/JT. .>'•' A^~ _<fe"' <^t: *"*V ?"^^'_ V , V "i- - ~ ~-7T-r^ ~ iT.._ . „:.£: =*---- ^*i? rri £-ST^? . !^ """M!t -
bf- ^7^wt^^^y4^fct,T^C^S^^ :
p>-, _«".<_.. .^TU...^: _>^ •^••--=*_ri ^c"^^ >^^ ^t^^5S.b^>^-^^^i^^s^^^aK
.^4% ^/fe^V^^ ^ Tt^fe -^t^5::^^^^^^i
^ll^^li^i^^^^^^l^^^i^^^
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 187
as seen in the Western Isles, were finished with dome-shaped
roofs constructed by laying flat slabs on each other. There
were, of course, modifications. The introduction of a quad-
rangular building, called a Basilica, either as a chapel or as
an addition to an existing church to form a chancel, was
an innovation betokening Roman influences after the sixth
century.
Stone building, however, was not common in the Celtic
Church till the ninth century. From facts like these it may
be inferred that there is no antecedent impossibility of St
Blaan personally erecting the primitive church whose ruins
we still possess. Dr Petrie confidently states, and learnedly
illustrates, the fact that there was a Romanesque form of
architecture, of Gaulish origin, prevailing in Ireland long
before the Norman Conquest.1 He instances the case of
Templepatrick, where the church had a nave, chancel arch,
and small square chancel, and this is supposed to have been
built by pious Gauls who came to be missionaries under St
Patrick. Mr Fergusson also alludes to Ireland possessing
" what may properly be called a Celtic style of architecture,"
and inclines to the theory that " her early Christianity and
religious forms were derived from Greece by some of the
more southerly commercial routes." 2 It would be an extra-
ordinary conclusion if it could be proved, in the absence of
historical record, that also those beautiful portions of St
Blaan's Church assigned to the Scoto-Norman period were
actual monuments of native Celtic skill and art. Mr Gal-
loway does not consider such a possibility. He elaborates
1 ' Round Towers,' p. 284.
2 Fergusson, J., 'Illust. Handbook of Architecture. ' London, 1855. Vol. ii.
P- 915.
1 88 Bute in the Olden Time.
with considerable cogency the theory that this Norman work
arose in the peaceable reign of Olave the Red, King of Man
and the Isles, 1103-1153, who was a contemporary of Alex-
ander I. and David I. of Scotland, and a munificent patron
of the English Church. In another section this idea will be
dealt with ; meantime I may suggest that the English Fitz-
Alans, who became the Stewarts, were also contemporary
with this period of benefactions to the Church, and had
arrived in Scotland.
Before leaving the site of the church, the two cemeteries
on its south side are worthy of notice. They are rich in
primitive monuments, some of them elaborately sculptured,
others being neat little Celtic crosses, while others arc huge
slabs filling hog-backed tombs. The graves in the upper, or
0 Men's," burial-place are cists formed of stones set on edge
and covered with slabs, like the graves at Inchmarnock.
Lying close to the south chancel outer wall at the doorway
is the reputed boat-shaped sarcophagus of St Blaan, now
preserved in a bronze casing since the Marquess of Bute in
1874 had this romantic spot judiciously trimmed and en-
closed. This stone coffin measures 6 feet 4 inches in length,
with the coped lid 2 feet $% inches in depth, and from
1 foot 7 inches to 2 feet 2 inches in breadth. Its hollow
cavity would contain a body 5 feet II inches in stature.
When opened it was found to contain only a layer of dust,
and two pierced pieces of bronze, which may have been part
of a pectoral cross (" cross cruan moithni" cross of red bronze,
' Life of St Patrick ') or other ornament
There is nothing improbable in the tradition — its antiquity
I have not traced — that St Blaan was buried in a stone coffin
l~^y :V^iL| .-»,] r-'-.^l- HI
;?, Y;<M;1^y*S^ ;
AVi .if. r.fAi '(I. • * r* * A HTiXir«
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 1 89
of this description. St Cuthbert ( + 687), during his life, re-
ceived a gift of a stone coffin (sarcophagus) from Abbot
Cudda ; and, by his own direction, was wrapped in fine linen,
and buried in it, " at the south side of my oratory, opposite
the east side of the holy cross which I have erected there " —
in the cell. Afterwards St Cuthbert's remains were placed in
a shrine above the pavement.
By means of a flight of steps, between two walls, access
from an upper graveyard to a lower, called the " Women's
Burial-Place" or "Nunnery," is obtained. This lower grave-
yard is 6 feet beneath the level of the higher or " Men's Burial-
Place." The original stone steps are in situ. Within this
lower precinct are found the stone foundations of a small
building, rectangular, earth-bound, and oriented, 23 feet in
length and 17 feet in breadth. A doorway pierces the south
wall. The floor is occupied with eight slabs, two of which
are sculptured.
The reputed curse of Blaan ordained that women were only
to receive burial in this disjoined cemetery.1 But these divi-
sions were not uncommon in the early Celtic Church. The
second class of Irish saints, including Columba. and the dis-
ciples of Bangor, did not encourage the near proximity of
female establishments to their celibate settlements. Bede
narrates how in 676 A.D., when a pestilence fell upon the
monastery of Barking, and the sisters of the adjoining monas-
tery, " in which God's female servants were divided from the
men, were concerned where they who fell of the pestilence
should be buried, a resplendent light from heaven appeared,
and, like a sheet, spread itself over a spot to the south side of
1 See before, p. 27.
190 Bute in the Olden Time.
the monastery, that is, to the westward of the oratory," and
this indicated the female burial-ground.1 In county Sligo, on
the island of Innismurray, is the monastery founded by St
Molios of Lamlash, where, outside the Men's Cashcl, is found
a women's cemetery enclosing a little chapel. A similar
arrangement appears at Inniscleraun, in Lough Ree. Inch-
marnock also had a "women's graveyard."
So here at Kilblaan, the survival of the name M Nunnery "
and the custom of separate burial may suggest the existence
of a separate female monastery in the olden time. The
second order of the saints — Catholic Presbyters, A.D. 534-572
— " refused the services of women, separating them from the
monasteries." Or, at least, down these steps came the priest
to the tiny oratory where women were permitted to pay their
adorations, and to say prayers for the dead.
The people of Bute superstitiously believed that if they
broke the injunction of St Blaan by burying a woman in the
upper graveyard, her body could not rest overnight there,
but would be found next day contumeliously cast out of and
beyond the ground consecrated for men alone — doubtless by
the agency of the offended saint !
When the Presbytery of Dunoon made their customary
visitation to the parish of Kingarth, on 9th August 1661, they
found this primitive custom of separate burial still in vogue.
The ciders were duly questioned as to the behaviour of the
parish pastor, the Rev. Alexander M'Lean, and satisfied the
inquisition, while he, in turn, was invited to report upon the
clderate. The minute of the Presbytery runs thus : —
" The elders having rcmovit, and he being enquired anent their
1 Bedc, book iv. chap rii.
" Blaan the Mild of Cenngarad" 1 9 1
behaviour in their charge, declared their concurrence with him, onlie
wishit them to be admonishit in these things —
" ' i. Slackness in censures of some vices which would require
greater sharpnes, which they declin to exercise.
" ' 2. Neglect of familie worship in some of themselfs.
" ' 3. Carelessnes to persuad the people of their severall quarters
to attend weeklie sermons.
" ' 4. Ther tollerating the people in a superstitious custome,
viz., of burying their men and women in two diverse churchyards,
the first rise quhereof wes superstitione, and contineweth to be so in
many of the people's mind hitherto.'
"Parties having been recalled, the Presbytery intimated the fol-
lowing injunction : —
" ' Wheras ther hath bin a custome of burying men and women
in two diverse kirkyards, the people refusing to
Act against the *
superstitious cus- bury promiscouslie in anie one of them, and that
tome of burieing in ......
the kirkyard of Kin- this is done superstitiouslie, therefor it is ordained
that men and women shall be promiscouslie buryed
in the Vpper Kirkyard, and for the Laigh Kirkyard where onlie
women were befor buried that none such shall be now, but men
may bury there if they please, and if want of roome in the other
yard be required, and to rnak this Act effectuall the minister is care-
fullie to attend burials for a seasone and if anie shall offer to bury
contrar to this act, he is to put to his hand for the resistance of
them, and they are to be sumound to the Presbytery as Scandalous
persons to be censured, and this act to be publishit on Saboth, to-
gedder with ane act of the sessione declaring the penaltie that shall
be exacted from every transgressor of this Act.' " x
The enforcement of this Act ultimately stopped the antique
custom. The church of Blaan was used as the parish church
of Kingarth down to the eighteenth century. The last burial
in the upper graveyard took place in 1892.
1 Presbytery Record, vol. i. pp. 266, 267.
192
CHAPTER X.
THE CONSECRATED COLONY.
" Ha<l thou and I been, who knows but we ourselves had taken refuge from an
Evil Time, and fled to dwell here, and meditate on Eternity, in such fashion as we
could ? "— CARLYLE.
N this tender strain Carlyle wrote concerning St
Edmundsbury, whose old walls were not peopled
with fantasms, he said, but with painful living
men working out their life-wrestle — "looked at
by Earth, by Heaven and HeH. Bells tolled to prayers ; and
men, of many humours, various thoughts, chanted vespers,
matins ; — and round the little islet of their life rolled for ever
the illimitable ocean, tinting all things with its eternal hues
and reflexes, making strange prophetic music." l
The pilgrim to Kilblaan found a similar assiduity as soon
as he passed the cross which stood, as its socket now proves,
at the eastern abbey gate. "The strict, holy, laborious"
Rule of Bangor permitted no droning there. Adamnan's
1 Life of Columba' illustrates how restless, intense, and devoted
the life of a Celtic missionary and abbot was in executing
1 ' Past and Present,' bk. ii. chap, it
x^| - ff; ®?yz
w3*sm • *&•
i *J* i^/^Vc'X.v* -Au.iS^y i
The Consecrated Colony. 193
"the hard and laborious monasterial rule" of obedience,
self-denial, and fasting.
The name of the farm of Plan, on which St Blaan's Church
now stands, is evidently an ecclesiastical survival — cf. Latin
Socket of Cross at Kilblaan.
planum, a cultivated spot (according to Ducange = cazmiterium),
transformed into Celtic llan, a church — the earlier meaning of
which is a fertile spot.
The mission implied labour. Instead of a holy hush
brooding, there was a lively hum sweeping over the religious
colony (congbhal). The presbyter-abbot superintended all
within the walls, and only gave place to the resident or
visiting bishop when the latter celebrated the Eucharist and
conferred ordination. The church, cells, barns, and other
edifices were to erect, add to, and repair, and busy were the
monks carrying stones or bustling in from the woodlands
with the wattles and planks on their backs. The fields were
to plough and the shares to be made ; the grain was to be
gathered and beat, and the little kilns, like that at Kelspoke,
were to be reared and fired till provision was made for man
and beast. Here a monk was hammering a granite boulder
into a quern (bro\ or driving it while he sang ; there a brother
VOL. I. N
194 Rut* ** *fo Olden Time.
was busy clinking a little iron bell, smelted on the hills of
Cowall, or other metal-work for the house and the church.
Another had to fabricate the fishing-boat and tackle, or the
mission-ship. Honoured of all the family was the learned
scribe (scribhnidh or scribhneoir) in his quiet cell, carefully
handling his painted pen, and producing those copies of the
Scriptures and missals which were the glory of the Celtic
Church, and still arc marvels of art. The leathern cases,
polaires, in which they were carried, were deftly embossed
by his or other cunning hand. The Celts were ingenious
artificers in the precious metals, in stone, and wood. Their
art may have travelled from the East In this connection
it may be noted that a piece of polished and wrought
syenite, now lost, was found among the debris of St Blaan's
Church.
Livelier the school where the shaggy scolocs or pupils, for
whose maintenance the lands of Scoulag in Bute may have
been dedicated, were poring over their religious tasks under
one of the seniors (Rector, magistcr scolantnt, Feirleginn),
who also devoted their own time to reading and writing.
There was no lack of service for genius of every kind.
Heforc the abbot had seen the great kitchen smoke, and
the brewer draw the Pictish ale, and the board of the
dining-house spread for the pilgrims, or his weary family
(filiolf) returning each night from the brown or yellow fields
of Bransar and of Garachty, he had no little care — never to
consider the weightier offices of his abbatial ministry, which
lay closest to his heart. It is to be regretted that St Blaan
inspired no Boswell, as Columba inspired Cuimenc and
Adamnan, to record his work. In Bishop Mochta's mon-
astery of Lughmagh —
The Consecrated Colony. 195
" Three score psalm-singing seniors
Were his household, royal the number,
Without tillage, reaping, or kiln-drying,
Without work except reading."
But we can only surmise the importance of Kingarth from
its being mentioned among other great monasteries of the
seventh century, and from the fact that St Molios, the grand-
son of King Aidan, was sent to his uncle, St Blaan, to be
educated there.
This famous abbot, Laisren or Molios, who left his name
imprinted in Lamlash, " Eilean Molaise " — probably also in
Ardmoleis — and his cave and well cut out of Holy Isle, was
of royal extraction, being the son of Caireall, an Irish noble,
and Mathgemm, daughter of Aidan.
^Engus the Culdee thus celebrates this melodious monk : —
" Molaise, a flame of fire,
With his comely choristers ;
Abbot of Rathkill and king of fire,
Son of Mathgemm of Monadh."
He went twice to Rome. Pope Gregory the Great ordained
him priest. He was made abbot of old Leighlin on his
return. On his second visit to Rome Honorius I. consecrated
him bishop. He strenuously helped the Roman party, as
against the Celtic party, to effect the computation of Easter
after the Roman mode. He died i8th April 639, and was
buried at Leighlin. There were other Laisres too. A
reputed effigy of Molios long lay in Cesken churchyard,
Arran, but was in 1889 transferred to St Molios' Church.
It is a medieval monument, however.
While the monastery was primarily a place for self-
instruction and worship, it was also a centre (annoif) from
1 96 Bute in the Olden Time.
which emerged those qualified to preach the Gospel at those
dependent chapels (deltas) referred to in Alan's Charter.
Kingarth appears to have been one of those chief houses
among the Scots which Bcdc says were independent of the
jurisdiction of lona. Bangor was the parent house.1
There is no evidence that there was daily celebration of
the Communion there, but it was celebrated every Sunday,
on saints' days, and on such occasions as the abbot decreed,
usually very early in the morning, and after fasting. There
was sometimes a second Eucharist Vigils and vespers were
observed, when beautiful hymns were sung. At lona
Wednesday and Friday were partially set apart for fasting,
and there were other special fasts before Easter, the Feast
of Ascension, and the consecration of churches. Christmas
was observed as well.
Here is a specimen of an early Celtic Calendar : —
1 Feb. Fcl [festival] Brige.
2 H Fel Muire.
6 Mar. Fel Ciarain Saigre.
9 M Fel Senain.
17 ii Fel Padruig.
15 Mai Fel Brenaind.
9 Jnn. Fel Colaim Cille.
20 Jul. Fel San Mairgreg.
15 Aug. Fel Muire.
8 Sept Fel Muire Mor.
12 ii Fel Molaise.
29 .1 Fel Michil.
12 Dec. Fcl Finden.
A tiny little hand-bell (doc) called the colony to worship.
Public worship was conducted in Latin, not in the vulgar
tongue, although the Lessons may have been taken from a
Celtic translation of the Scriptures.* The services were
1 Bede, bk. iii. chap. Hi. " St Columba had no more jurisdiction in Lismore
than in Applecrost or Kingarth."— Adamnan's 'Coluraba,' Reeves, p. xliii,
Note u.
* ' The -Scots Magazine/ vol. iv. No. 22, p. 285 ; Warren, p. 94.
The Consecrated Colony.
197
entirely choral. From fragments of, and references to, the
early liturgies, one can infer that the order of worship was, in
the main, according to the following arrangement : Call to
Prayer ; Litany ; Prayer ;
Hymn ; Collect ; Lesson
from Prophets ; Collect ;
Epistle (St Paul to the
Corinthians); Canticle with
Antiphons — " The Song of
the Three Children ;" Col-
lect; Gospel; Collect; Ser-
mon ; Anthem ; entrance
of celebrating priest and
deacon, with elements ;
Offertory of the People ;
Intercessions, with com-
memoration of dead, whose
names are sung out ; Eu-
charistic Prayer and Act
of Consecration ; Fraction of bread ; Benediction ; Immission
of consecrated particle into the chalice ; Creed ; Lord's
Prayer; Communion of Clergy — Anthem; The Kiss of
Peace; Communion of People (in both kinds) — Anthem;
Thanksgiving Hymn — " Gloria in Excelsis " ; Thanksgiving
Prayer.1
1 'The Stowe Missal,' which partly dates from the ninth century, and incor-
porates in an early Celtic liturgy additions from the Roman, has the following
order of the Mass : Litany of the apostles, holy martyrs, and virgins ; Prayer of
Augustine (prayer of celebrant ascending altar) ; "Gloria in Excelsis ; " Collect ;
Prayer of Peter ; Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians ; Collect ; Litany of St
Martin ; Collect ; Preparation of chalice ; Lesson from St John's Gospel ;
Prayer ; Nicene Creed ; Full uncovering of chalice ; Collect of oblation of paten
The Bell of St Fillan.
198 Rule in the Olden Time.
The Communion-table, or altar, formed of wood or stone,
and covered with a purple pall, stood under the window in
the eastern gable of the church. The white-robed deacon
brought in the bread and wine, and also the water for the
mixed chalice, from the sacristy.1 The celebrating presbyter
or bishop accompanied him, and stood facing the altar. He
wore an embroidered alb, or white under vestment, and over
it a chasuble, or roomy mantle of purple, or other rich colour,
with appropriate embroideries, and probably fastened at the
neck with a Celtic brooch. A little breastplate, like Aaron's,
glittered on his breast. A crown of gold, instead of a mitre,
gave Blaan a regal aspect The modest church was bright
with the white vestments of the choristers, monks, and
students, which were a contrast to the black veils of the
female communicants, who were, by the first order of
Catholic saints, permitted to join in the worship.1 From
the fragments of the Celtic Liturgy, we can gather it was a
most solemn and beautiful service which first sounded in
Kilblaan, and was not by any means identical with that in
use in the Church under Roman rule.
The points of difference between the Celtic Church and
and chalice ; (Offertory ; ) Intercessions for departed and living ; Sursum Corda ;
Preface ; Gelasian Canon ; Recitation of names of living ; Consecration ; Inter-
cession of Saints, &c ; Prayer of Ambrose ; Oblation lifted over chalice, and half
of bread into chalice ; Fraction of bread and blessing of chalice ; Confession of
Faith ; Lord's Prayer; Collect ; Kiss of Peace ; The Commixture ; The "Agnus
Dei"; (Communion of Clergy;) Communion Hymns; Formula of ad ministra-
tion in both kinds to j>coplc ; (Communion ; ) Communion Anthems ; Formula
of Thanksgiving ; Post Communion ; Prayer and Thanksgiving.
1 The bread was unleavened ; the chalice was formed of glass, bronze, silver,
gold, wood, or stone.
1 M.S. 'Catal. Sanctorum HibernU-,' &c. ; Warren, ' Liturgy of Celtic Church,
p. 8a
The Consecrated Colony. 1 99
that of Rome have been summed up by Mr Warren under the
following heads : I. The Calculation of Easter ; 2. Baptism ;
3. The Tonsure ; 4. The Ordinal ; 5. Peculiar Mode of Con-
secrating Churches and Monasteries ; 6. The Liturgy and the
Ritual of the Mass.1
In the calculation of the day Easter was to be celebrated
on, the Celts, abiding by the ancient method, long preferred
the tradition of their own Church to the " decrees of the
Apostolic See." 2 As to baptism, they practised single, not
trine, immersion, omitted the unction, and practised the
Pedilavium, or ceremonial washing of the feet after baptism.
The Roman tonsure was coronal; the Celtic, of Druidic
origin, was effected by shaving the forefront of the head
from ear to ear. There were striking divergences, too, in
the ordination of bishops, deacons, and priests. In the
Celtic Church, a single bishop sufficed to ordain a bishop.
The readings selected for the ordination services did not
coincide with those found in the Roman Ordinal. The
hands of deacons and priests were anointed, and other minor
rites observed, by the Celtic bishops. They also dedicated
their churches to their living founders, and consecrated them
after prayer and long fasting.
The Liturgy used in the Scottish Church was of the family
of liturgies called Ephesine, rather than of that called the
Petrine, the former being traditionally ascribed to St John
the apostle. It was represented by at least three branches —
the Mozarabic or Spanish Liturgy, the Gallican, and the
Celtic. According to the Marquess of Bute, " The Celtic
1 Warren, 'The Liturgy,' &c., p. 63 et seq.
2 Bede, bk. iii. c. xxv.
2OO ftutc in the Olden Time.
Liturgy as imported by Patrick into Ireland and by Columba
into Scotland was undoubtedly Galilean in form." '
Amid these surroundings, during the secure reign of fiery
Aidan, his father or friend, the mild brave abbot, governed
his consecrated home until its stately shrine was famed
throughout the land and became the " Glory of the West,"
" Where once came monk and nun with gentle stir,
Blessings to give, news ask, or suit prefer."
Happy was he to see the sanctuary enlarged with grateful
gifts, full of rapture to join in the melodious litanies that
refreshed the drooping life-blood of his fellow -labourers,
piously joyful that every task was fruitful of good ; but he
soon felt the soul fretting itself through the brittle clay.
At last it broke the darkness of that hermitage, and burst
into the Eternal Light — a new-born saint. His natal day
was, it is said, the loth of August They laid him on the
sunny side of the chancel wall, and sang his requiem there —
if tradition is correct. More likely he was laid to rest near
the altar itself, as St Cuthbert was.
1 Art. " Liturgy," Chambers 's ' Encyclopaedia.'
2OI
CHAPTER XI.
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS.
' ' Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ;
Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre."
—GRAY.
j|N the shadow of the eastern gable of St Blaan's
Church, under a flourishing thorn which almost
symbolically pierces the ruined wall of the silent
fane, and where the altar formerly stood, lie side
by side seven grey sepulchral slabs.1 They are similar in
every respect to those found in the oldest Celtic cemeteries.
They are dressed, but not carved nor engraved. Conse-
quently they are dumb relics of a pious past, found, where
undisturbed they lie, after the clearance out of the church
of its accumulation of debris in 1874.
1 There is a small slab forming an eighth stone in the row — is it Teimnen, the
clerk's ?
2O2 Bute in the Olden Tint*.
Who arc the seven sleepers who repose in such place of
honour? we would inquire. Without a doubt, men great
and good — higher than their fellows i For such alone was
the altar's quietude disturbed in reverent days. And on that
very spot St Blaan, probably also his uncle St Catan, and his
nephew St Molios, may have dispensed the bread of life to
the keen Dalriadic soldiers of King Aidan, who had sheathed
those " lime - white blades " they had so often drawn in
defence of the faith. If these grey memorials betoken such
high antiquity, may they not cover the seven fathers of the
Church, who reared, and by their holy lives defended, the
banner of the Lord in Bute ?
History divulges the names of seven only, strange to say —
Catan, Blaan, Daniel, Johann or lolan, Ronan, Maelmanach,
and Noe. (The obit of Tcimnen, a clerk of Cillcgarad, is
also chronicled.) And such a number is quite sufficient to
fill up the years between the first bishop — A.D. 570 say — and
the last abbot — A.D. 790.
Some authorities arc definite in recording, at least, that
Saints Catan and Blaan are both interred in Bute, and there
is nothing improbable in supposing that the remaining five
were buried beside them. Unfortunately, the Irish annalists,
to whom we arc indebted for the mere preservation of their
names, leave these five abbots and bishops sleeping in as much
obscurity as these graves afford. The notices of their deaths
thus appear in the ' Annals of Tighernac ' (MLXXXVIII.) :—
"660 K. Obitus Finain Mac Rimeda Eptscopi 7 Daniel Episcopi
Cindgaradh.
689 Kl. Johann Episcopus Cindgal.irnth obit.
737 Kl. Bass [death] Konain Abbatis Cindgaradh."
TABLE SHOWING CONTEMI'ORAK
A.D.
AUOT OR Bi«Nor or'
KlM.ABTII.
ABBOT or IOWA.
KING or DALBIAOA.
501-J
Loam Mor-f 501
Frrgas Mor
Domhanput -» 508
563
B. Ca tan + 600?
Columha (563 + 597)
Comghall + 538
Gabhran •>- 560
Conall + 574
630
A. Blaan + 630?
I).
Baithene + 600
Aedan •«• 606
.
Laisren + 605
Eochaidh Buidhe -f 629
Fergna 8111 + 623
Cooadh Cerr 4 630
(Molaise?)
Seghine + 652
Fcrchar + 637
Domhnall Breac-f 642
Conall Crandhama + 660
660
B. Daniel + 660
Cuiminc Ailbe + 669
Failbhe -t- 679
Domhnall Donn, exp. 680
689
B. Johann or Iolan + 689
Adamnan, born 624 + 704
Maeldnin -t- 689
737
A. Ronan-f737
(Adamnan)
Conamhail + 710
Dunchadh + 717
Faclcu + 724
Cillene Fada + 726
Cillcnc Droictcach -t- 752
Ferchar Fada of Lx>rn + 697
Eochaidh Rimeaval
Ainbhellach, exp. 698 + 719
Selbach + 730
Eochaidh
Muiredhach Uaigneach + 733
Domhnall
776
A. Maelmanach + 776
Slebhine + 767
Suibhnc + 772
Aedh Finn Mac Ecdach + 778
790
A. Noe + 790
Breaial + 8oi
Fergus + 781
Donncorci + 792
HE ABBOTS AND BISHOPS OF KINGARTH.
)F PlCTS.
KING IN STRATHCLYDE AND NORTHUMBRIA.
CONTEMPORARIES.
Maelcon + 505
Patrick + 493
Brigit + 523
Kessog ? 520
Enda + 540
Roderic, King of Strathclyde + 6oi
Ciaran + 544
Maelcon + 584
yEthelfrith, King of Northumbria + 6i7
Brendan of Birr + 573
Brendan of Clonfert + 577
9
Finnian + 579
Augustine + 589
Moluoc + 592
Solon, King of Britons + 613
Fintan Munnu + 592
Columba + 597
Cainnech + 600
!i
Eadwine, King of Northumbria + 633
Kentigern + 6oi
Comgall + 602
Adamnan, born 624
Columbanus + 618
5
Oswald of Northumbria + 642
Molaise of Lamlash
Oan, King of Britons
1
>57
Gureit, King of Britons + 658
Finan : Colman : Maelrubha of Applecross
>3
Osuiu of Northumbria + 670
Aldfrid
Egfrid of Northumbria + 685
Cuthbert + 687
Domhnall MacAuin of Alclyde + 694
3ile + 693
Caedmon
97
Aldfrid + 705
Servanus of Fife
Osred + 7i6
4)
Kenred + 7i8
Dunchadh, King of Kintyre, 721
Osric + 731
Bile Mac Elfrine of Alclyde + 722
Ceolnuf + 738
Teimnen + 732
[
Ven. Bede + 735
Ethelbald + 765
775
Alcred + 774
Ethelred, 778
Alfwold + 789
+ 782
Osred + 792
Vikings, 794
The Seven Sleepers. 203
In the 'Annals of Senait Mac Manus,' commonly called the
'Annals of Ulster' (MCCCXCVIII.), they stand:—
"660. Kal Ian. 4. f. 1. 13. Anno Domini Dclg. Obitus Finnani
Episcopi filii Rimedo et Daniel Episcopus Cinngarad.
689. Kal Ian. Anno Domini Dclxxxviij. lolan Episcopus Cinn-
garat obiit.
(732. Kal. Ian. Anno Domini Dccxxxiii. Teimnen Cillegarad re-
ligiosus clericus quievit.)
737. Kal. Ian. Anno Domini Dccxxxvj. Mors Ronain Abbatis
Cinngaraid.
790. Kal Ian. Anno Domini Dcclxxxix. Mors Noe Abbatis Cinn-
garadh, vel hie Bellum Conaill 7 Constantin secundum alios
libros."
Dr Reeves gives in his ' Chronicon Hyense ' : —
" 776. Mors Maelemanach, Abbatis Cinngaradh (An. 660)."
The silence after 790 is ominous. At this date we begin to
read of the sea-robbers of the western seas — e.g., " 794. The
devastation of all the isles of Britain by the Gentiles ; " " 795.
Devastation of lona of Colum-cille ; " " Burning of Rech-
rainne, and its shrines violated and spoiled." Doubtless
Bute shared the same misery. In absence of local details,
we can only make a general survey of the stirring events
which were also taking place in the other adjoining princi-
palities and kingdoms, the influence of which must have
been felt in Dalriada. The subjoined table will help in
the retrospect.
I have thus suggested that only seven clerics ministered
in Kingarth from the foundation of the church to the hapless
time when it suffered temporary eclipse on the appearance
of the Northmen, and disappeared for four centuries from the
page of history ; also that Blaan survived through the first
quarter of the seventh century. And these are not violent
2O4 Bute in the Olden Titnc.
stretches of imagination, when it is known that since the
Reformation seven ministers of the parish of Rothesay —
omitting one only in the succession — held office for 235
years.
Moth saints and sinners kept the people lively in the
seventh century. Racial differences made the maintenance
of peace impossible. The wild Picts swooped out of their
Highland fastnesses upon the warriors of Kintyrc ; and the
Northumbrian Angles, after their great victory over Aidan
and the Northern Britons at Da.-gsa.stan in 603, threatened
with their keen bronze blades the western kingdoms of
Strathclydc and Cumbria — 1>., from the Clyde to the Dee.
These fierce foreigners still worshipped Woden and Thunder
with bloody rites. Then the Britons quarrelled with their
old allies of the west, and humbled in war the Scots of
Dalriada. In turn both of them were completely over-
mastered by the Northumbrians under King Osuiu, so that
during this whole century the sword never seemed to lie in
its scabbard, and blood ran like water.
Presuming that St Blaan lived a quarter of a century after
his reputed father, King Aidan, we see him contemporary
with those epoch-making kings in England, yEthelfrith, who
consolidated Northumbria, and Eadwinc, who succeeded him
on the throne in 617. The victories of the latter over Saxon,
Briton, and Pict made him ruler of all England, save Kent
and Cumbria ; while so completely was his throne established
from Eadwine's burgh on the Forth to the English Channel,
that, as was the boast, " a woman with her babe might walk
scatheless from sea to sea in Eadwine's day." It was in his
court the picturesque figure of Paulinus, one of the followers
The Seven Sleepers. 205
of Augustine, appeared in 628, with the happy result that
Eadwine and his kingdom were converted to Christ. In
633 Eadwine fell before the heathen Penda and the Briton
Caedwalla, and there ensued a reaction in favour of the
pagan creeds. Meantime noble Northumbrian exiles fre-
quented the religious schools of Dalriada, but their faith was
fickle.
Though Eanfrid, the eldest son of ^thelfrith, forgot the
faith, his brother Oswald, who, in his exiled youth, had also
found shelter and comfort with the monks of lona, called in
the moral power of the Gospel, when he mounted the throne,
to uphold his government in Northumbria, 634-42. He in-
vited the Irish monks to his assistance. Seghine was then
lona's abbot. Daniel the bishop was ministering in Kin-
garth in room of Blaan.
Both Picts and Britons round Dalriada had their chronic
bouts of fighting in this period ; and, as if to maintain some
kind of harmony with them, the ecclesiastics expended their
pugnacity in the controversy which tried to settle the true
date of keeping the Feast of Easter. In a word, the Roman
Church had changed the method of computing the date of
the Feast of the Resurrection ; the Celtic Church retained the
old Jewish and Christian custom. To obtain conformity was
the task in which the Roman party ultimately succeeded.
The first monk who came from lona to Northumbria had
no success in his mission. St Aidan, however, who super-
seded him, took up the discredited work, and fixing his seat
at Lindisfarne, soon made the Church a power in the realm
of saintly Oswald. Both Church and State began again to
extend their borders. The Church was monastic in its gov-
ernment, like that of lona, and soon smaller scholastic settle-
206 Bute in the Olden Time.
mcnts and churches were opened everywhere, with teachers
faithful to the Celtic model at their head. Oswald died in
642, and was succeeded by Osuiu ; Aidan also departed, and
Finan sat in the bishop's scat in 65 1 — a year before Seghinc
of lona died. King Osuiu, restless and ambitious, although
a professing Christian, succeeded in overcoming the Picts of
Galloway, the Britons of Strathclyde, and the Scots of Dal-
riada — a political circumstance which had no bearing on the
government of the Church in Bute. Finan, indeed, had been
sent by the Scots to Northumbria, and when he died in 660,
the annalist notes that Daniel, the Bishop of Kingarth, died
in the same year. His day in the Calendar is the i8th of
February.
Finan's successor was Colman, who seems to have been
sent direct out of Scotia — />., Ireland — to his see. In 661
Cuimine, the Abbot of lona, goes on some errand to Ireland,
the nature of which is not particularised.
Dr Skene thinks that, " as Bede says of Finan that he was
ordained and sent by the Scots, while, in the case of Colman,
he uses the expression that he was sent out of Scotia, or
Ireland, this rather confirms our suspicion that the bishops
called in to consecrate these Northumbrian missionaries were
the bishops of Kingarth, and that the death of Bishop Daniel
in the same year rendered an appeal to Ireland necessary." *
There is no proof, as Dr Skene states,2 that Kingarth was
subject to lona, and it is probable, since Blaan was honoured
in Cumbria and Northumbria for his alleged miracles there,
that missionaries issued direct from Bute. When the Kingarth
bishop was dead, Bangor, the mother house, would assume
1 'Celtic Scot.,' roL il p. 163. « Ibid., voL ii. p. 157.
The Seven Sleepers. 207
jurisdiction, and its head would consecrate the bishops of
Lindisfarne and of other Northumbrian houses.
Daniel's crosier fell to Johann or lolan, of whom we know
nothing, save that he was a bishop, and held office till 689,
being contemporary with Abbot Adamnan of lona. In his
time also Cuthbert preached, and Caedmon sang the Gospel
to the Angles.
Colman the Celt found his task in a foreign land no easy
one. The Southern British Church, owning allegiance to
Rome, was at variance with the Celtic Church in regard to
the date of Easter, the circular tonsure, and the supremacy in
the Church. The two parties, Roman and Celtic, wrangled
the matter out. Abbot Wilfrid of York, an indefatigable
schemer, brought the dispute to an issue by persuading King
Osuiu, who held a council at Whitby in 664, where Colman
and he pleaded their causes, that the Roman party had the
best authority for their views.
The sturdy Celt fled the scene. He preferred the traditions
of the Church, the opinion of Columba, and his own inter-
pretation of Scripture to the doctrine of Rome. Quitting
Northumbria with his compatriots, bearing the relics of Aidan
and other saints, he repaired to lona. By what route did he
come ? Would he not likely visit Bute by the way, in order
to inform lolan and his family of the disaster which had
fallen on their Order ? It might even be possible that the
old church of Colmac bore his honoured name in memory of
his visit. In time his opponent Wilfrid extended his diocese
of York as far as the territory of Dalriada during Osuiu's
reign.
Before lolan died, in 689, he and the Celtic party at least
had one satisfaction in seeing the Anglic yoke over Dalriada
208 Bute in tlu Oldtn Time.
broken at the battle of Dunnichcn in 685, and the restoration
of this part of Alban to independency.
Before this the renowned Adamnan had been elevated to
the abbacy of lona, which he ruled till 704. Unless we asso-
ciate his name with the church of Kildavannan, there is no
evidence of his connection with Bute, although he played a
most important part in the history of the Columban Church.
He was of the royal blood of Tirconnell, and a relative of St
Columba. Little is known of him. Bode says he was "a
man good and wise, and pre-eminently versed in the know-
ledge of Scripture." In his forty-eighth year he was raised
to the abbatial chair, in 672 A.D. Both in Ireland and in
Northumbria his influence was great — Aldfrid of Northum-
bria, who in his exile in Ireland became a friend of Adam-
nan's, being known as his foster-son. He visited this king
at Bamborough to obtain release of some Irish captives, and,
according to Bcde, was so impressed with the canonical rites
of the church there, that he acknowledged that both the
Paschal observance and the circular tonsure which obtained
in the Roman Church were right On his return to lona he
in vain sought to induce his family to depart from the Col-
umban usage. Not till twelve years after his death did they
harmonise with Rome. His success in Ireland with this new
propaganda was more speedily effected. There in political
crises his opinion more than once carried great weight In
his retirement in lona this abbot composed, about 692, the
magnificent biography of St Columba, ' Vita Sancti Columbae,'
without which we would have but a meagre view of the rise
of the Church in Scotland, and also the ' DC Locis Sanctis,' or
an Account of Holy Places given to him by a pilgrim named
Bishop Arculf, who had visited the East He died in 704.
77ie Seven Sleepers. 209
Several churches in Ireland and Scotland were dedicated to
him, and the names Tennant and Maclennan are survivals of
his name.
Kilddvannan chapel is little more than a name. The
faintest traces of the foundations of a building remain on
Cnocdavannan Hill, 300 yards above the farm of Kilda-
vannan. They measure over all 19 feet long and 15 feet
broad. It is interesting to note, however, that these founda-
tions are oriented a little north of east. According to some
curious observations communicated to the Anthropological
Institute by Mr T. W. Shore, several of the oldest churches in
Hampshire are oriented 20° north of east, a fact he attributes
to Celtic influences. This orientation is thus on the line of
the old May-day sunrise, a position reverenced by the Celts.
The origin of the name Kildavannan is still left in ob-
scurity, but I would suggest an association of it with Adam-
nan, Abbot of lona. His name, Adam-nan — little Adam —
through time assumed many and curious forms, such as
Aunan, Eunan, Onan, and Ounan, as well as Theunan^
Skeulan, Teunan, and Fidamnan. The hill above the old
chapel is known as Eenan Hill. Since Kingarth was within
the sphere of Adamnan's influence, it is not a hazardous con-
jecture to assign this chapel as a memorial of his important
work in the seventh century.
Abbot Ronan of Kingarth had succeeded to the chair
vacated by lolan, and held office fifteen years before Adam-
nan died. But it is a most remarkable fact that Adamnan
never refers, in the Life of Columba, to the sister monastery in
Bute. It may still have remained conservative and Celtic
until this very Ronan brought it into harmony with the
Roman Church. This Ronan is generally associated with
VOL. I. o
aio Bute in the Olden Time.
another restless individual named Modan, since both their
names arc found in churches situated near each other, and in
proximity in the Calendar, early in the month of February.
There is no memorial of Modan in Bute, unless it is found
in the name of a remote spot in the wilds of North Bute,
Glcnvodian, which might have been a fitting retreat for so
pronounced an abstainer and vegetarian as Modan was. But
across the Kyle in Glcndarucl he had his church at the
clachan of Kilmodan, and found his resting-place at
Rosneath.
They belonged to the new party, and seemed to have pere-
grinated freely in the west — Ronan especially impressing his
name and memory at many places in the Western Isles. On
North Rona certain scratching* on the rocks were pointed
out as the marks of the devil's claws, when this puissant saint
was expelling him thence. >Engus places Ronan's name at
the 9th of February, and commemorates him as " Espuc
Ronain rigda" (Bishop Ronan the kingly), upon which is the
note " i. Lissmor Mochuda ata" (In Lismor Mochuda he is).
Adam King, in his Calendar, makes him a bishop and con-
fessor under King Malduin, which is quite possible, that king
dying in 689.
During Ronan's term of office very important events
occurred, and doubtless the ministers of religion were much
perplexed at the uncertain state of affairs prevailing in the
west The crown of Dalriada had passed for a time to the
Loarn family, although it returned again to the Gabran
family, but not without the spilling of blood, both on sea and
land. The Picts had expelled the Columban monks from
their territory, and their king, Nectan, following the example
of Selbach, King of Dalriada, himself became a cleric of the
The Seven Sleepers. 2 1 1
new order. The ancient grudge between Picts and Dalriads
again broke out, and in 736 CEngus Mac Fergus, King of the
Picts, laid waste the Dalriadic kingdom — following that with
another " percussion " a few years later. This CEngus was
the Aidan of the Picts, who carried fire and sword every-
where against Briton and Angle, as well as against Scot.
Bede calls him "a sanguinary tyrant." He placed his heel
on Dalriada, and Bute with it came under Pictish domination
for a time.
Abbot Maelmanach, who died in A.D. 776, and Abbot Noe,
who died in 790, were the abbots who presided over the
destinies of Kingarth in this unhappy epoch, when the native
Scots had to forsake their burning hearths and seek other
homes. Then the very relics of the founders of the colony,
the three sons of Ere, were removed from lona to Ireland.
The sceptre of Dalriada was broken. Of the personal history
of those two last abbots we have not a vestige left. All we
might venture to say of them is —
" Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray ;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."
Noe just lived to the verge of that miserable age which
Abbot Breasal of lona saw, when the western seas began to
be troubled, and the Church to be terrified, by the blood-
thirsty Vikings. Their descent was like a deserved judgment
on these unhappy peoples, who would not accept the peace
proffered to them on the acceptance of Christ.
In what condition Kingarth and its dependent chapels were
found by the piratical Northmen in search of the spoils of the
altar is unknown. It is evident from Alan the Steward's
2 1 2 Bute in tlie Olden Time.
charter to Paisley, that the parent house had several depend-
ent chapels in the island. Some of these have been particu-
larised. There are vestiges of others which may have been
founded even so early as this date, and also the remains of
CTOMCt, which, however, may be referred to the period under
Norse influences. These form the subject of the succeeding
chapter.
213
CHAPTER XII.
MOSS-GROWN RELICS OF THE CELTIC CHURCH.
" I do love these ancient ruins ;
We never tread upon them, but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history.
And questionless, here in this open court,
Which now lies naked to the injuries
Of stormy weather, some who lie interred
Loved the Church so well, and gave so largely to't,
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till Doomsday."
— WEBSTER.
HE moss-grown relics of the Celtic Church are
numerous, and are interesting in the highest
degree. They are discoverable in every quarter
of the isle, often, too, in places where one least
expects to find traces of primitive churches or memorials of
an early piety. In some instances nothing but the surviving
place-name is a proof that among these grey and lichen-
covered ruins in the dim past holy rites were observed, and
the lamp of Christian truth and love kept burning.
By far the most remarkable survival is the chapel of St
Michael, in North Bute, already described, where the rude
masonry, formed of gathered stones, weather and water
2 1 4 Bute in the Olden Time.
worn on face and edge, recalls the simple art of the first
missionaries
It is fortunate that, despite the ruthless hands of ignorant
and careless visitors, there is just enough of the gables re-
maining to show that they sloped in curves towards the roof,
or at least to the tops of the gables. The remanent walls arc
too perpendicular to admit of the conclusion that they like-
wise sloped and converged to the roof, like the well-known
oratory of Gallarus,1 but the arrangement of the stones in the
west gable indicates that the plan was some modification of
this primitive form.
The preservation of the rude altar-stone resting upon its
two equally rude stone supports, on its original site in the
eastern end of the sanctuary, as illustrated here, is, I believe,
unique in Scotland.
There are, strange to say, no sculptured grave-slabs of an
early period here, although the graveyard has long been held
in favour by the inhabitants of the opposite coasts, whose
frequent interments would have laid bare any memorials of
eld had they existed. The oldest monuments are rude slate-
slabs not touched by the chisel.
It is quite different when one enters the sacred precincts
of St Blaan, within which there remain many interesting
relics of Celtic monumental art. The strangest survival is
the graves themselves. In the Upper burial-ground many
if not all of the graves are cists about 2 feet deep, formed of
long slate or other flags, set on edge, and each covered with
a long slab, narrower at one end than the other.1 On these
1 See « Early Christ. Art in Ireland,' by M. Stokes, p. 39.
' A cist -burial took place here in 1892.
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 2 1 5
covering-lids are engraved curious signs, different in size and
form, but all bearing some resemblance to the letter H turned
the wrong way.
Marks on Grave-slabs in Kilblaan Churchyard.
No. I. Length of stem, 10 inches ; head and base, 7 inches.
No. 2. „ „ „ 7^£ inches ; base (semicircular),
8 inches.
No. 3. „ ,, „ 8 inches ; head, 8 inches ; base,
8 inches.
No. 4. „ „ „ 5 inches ; head, 7 inches ; base,
8 inches (incised ^ inch).
Had these marks not been incised so prominently on the
faces of unhewn grave-slabs, one might recognise in them only
the marks of operative masons.
2 1 6 Bute in ttu Oldtn Tim*.
Carving on stones, from simple up to complex forms, is a
characteristic of all nations, who seem constitutionally im-
Afarts on Gravt-tlabt at KilMaan.
pcllcd everywhere to produce signs and symbols similar in
character.
Just as the Red Indian has his totem or mark of his race
and personal mark, the South Sea Islander his tattoo- pattern,
the Arab his tribe-sign for setting on the places he has
visited or on the property he owns, so our own farmers have
their own keel-mark for their flocks. Among the northern
nations as well, cup-shaped indentations, rings, crosses, and
variations of these in combinations, were the sacred signs in
their pagan worship of nature — the sun, moon, and other
powers of nature.
Were these H-shaped signs a survival of pagan worship,
or only clan-marks to differentiate the graves? Up till the
present date the inhabitants of Rothesay bury according to
their families in distinct portions of the graveyard, but no
similar marks are noticeable on the oldest monuments yet
found in Rothesay.
It is quite possible that these slabs are the most ancient,
and bear a trace of the moon-symbol in the semicircular
limb on the sign, or have survived from the Scandinavian
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 2 1 7
invaders, on whose antiquities sun and moon symbols are of
frequent occurrence.
Among the debris cleared out of St Blaan's Church were
two small pieces of red sandstone, on which curious incised
figures of similar pattern
appear. The stone here
represented is 10^ inches
long, 6^ inches broad, and
i yz inch thick.
There are several head-
stones in St Blaan's church-
yard distinguished by cup-
shaped cuttings. All the
stones are of soft yellow
Cumbrae sandstone. The
simplest is a small circular
head, of 10 inches diameter,
rising from a small pedestal
placed in the ground. The
four cups are found at the
points of a square, but the
stone is too much weathered to allow any inference as to
whether a cross also occupied the face of the stone, as is
seen in some forms of the sun-marks originating in the ring-
cross.1
A similar simple example with a longer pedestal is
seen.
A development from this form by the introduction of oval
cups, so as to bring out the symbol of the cross, is observable
Gravestone found at Kilblaan.
1 See ' Industrial Arts of Old Denmark,' by Worsase, p. 1 14.
218
Bute in the Olden Time.
on several stones. In some cases both sides of the stone are
similarly carved.
Gravestcmes at
The placing of the oval cup-cuttings on the edge of the
circle produced the beautiful forms of the cross illus-
Gravtttotus at A'i/Maan.
trated above. The cross appears on both sides of the
stone illustrated by the smaller woodcut. (Height of
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 219
pedestal, 23 inches ; thickness, 4 ; height of head, 10 ;
breadth, 9^.)
A small fragment of the head of a cross, probably a high
cross, indicates the use of the oval
form cutting into the inner edge of
a circle.
The fragment of the head of
another cross found in Kilblaan,
and long preserved at Plan, indi-
cates a cross of the simple lona
type. The stone is a red sand-
stone. The circular head has been
17^ inches in diameter and 6j^
inches thick. A fragment of a
Head of Cross found in
Kilblaan Churchyard.
small Latin cross-head is also preserved in the churchyard.
A pretty little headstone, 16 inches high, 12 broad at the
base, with a circular head n inches in diameter, gives an
Gravestone at
Kilblaan.
Ornament inscribed on
Grave-slab at Kilblaan.
example of a cross formed like the sun-wheel by the four
spokes radiating from a round centre. This cross is in bas-
relief.
In the Women's Cemetery at Kilblaan there exist two
slabs with examples of the interlaced ribbon.
The one has the cross intersecting two concentric circles.
Bute in the Olden Time.
The other, lying in the area of the ruined building, though
somewhat effaced, has been an exquisite specimen of geo-
metric interlaced work in relief. Five flat circular bosses
form the sign of the cross within the cross.
Ornament inscribtd on Grave-slab at fCilblaan.
•
One of the foot-worn clay-slate slabs lying at Kilblaan is,
from its appearance, the shaft of a cross, one side of which
only has been sculptured. The upper portion of the shaft
has been occupied by interlaced work now entirely defaced.
At the distance of 1 5 inches from the base there rises a small
representation of a grotesque animal browsing under what
appear to be two trees. But the sculpture is very much
detrited, and one of the trees might represent a bird. The
slab measures 6 feet 3 inches in length, 19 inches in breadth
at the base, 16 inches at the top, and 4 inches thick.
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 221
The most unique stone at Kilblaan is a small sandstone
slab 30 inches high, 10 broad, and 2^ inches thick, one side
Grave-slab in Kilblaan Churchyard.
only of which is sculptured. It lies broken in three pieces.
In its original state it had been divided into panels. The
upper panel contains a rider on horseback.
A helmet covers his head : a spear rests
on his foot : a strange figure, not now
intact, but probably a bird in flight, is
carved in front of his face : a club-shaped
thing rises between the fore-legs. The
whole representation is cut in bas-relief.
The under panel is filled with diagonal
cheques, and in the centre of each cheque
there has been a cup-shaped indentation ;
but these with many of the cheques are
Grave-slab at Kilblaan.
nearly defaced.
It is quite possible that on this stone' there lingers a trace
222
Bute in the Olden Time.
of the mythology of the Scandinavians, and that the horse-
man is none other than the All-Father Odin. He is usually
depicted with a helmet, as he sits mounted on his famous
horse Slcipncr, carrying in his hand the terrible spear Gung-
ner, and preceded by his two Ravens. He fought his last
battle on the Last Day (Ragnarok) with the Fenris- wolf and
the Worm of Midgarth, deep down in the Underworld. The
club-shaped ornament might thus fitly
represent the Worm attacking Sleipncr.
If this interpretation be accurate, the
sculpture is an interesting reminiscence
of that period when the doctrine of Odin,
after coming to its highest development,
became a basis on which Christianity set
itself firmly to overcome the myths of the
pagan North, and to show that in the
Gospel of the Nazarene the mythical
struggle between darkness and light, win-
ter and summer, evil and good, had the
only happy solution in the revelation of
the will of a God of love.
We are indebted to Mr Charles M'Fie,
Mid park, for preserving a few very inter-
esting remnants of monuments found in
the neighbourhood of the burial-ground of St Marnock's
Church. Some of the uncut slate slabs are engraved with
rude examples of the Roman cross, T, cut by a primitive
instrument
One of these, as here figured, was found by Mr M'Fie in
1891, in the ground still called the " Women's Burial- Place,"
adjoining the site of the church, and consists of a blue slate
(jiav€tto*t found in
Intkmarnotk.
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 22,
223^ inches long, 6y2 broad at the broadest part, and about
2 inches thick. The cross has been incised in the natural
face of the stone.
On the opposite side of the road, close to where this stone
was found, a row of ancient cists are quite visible, the tops
of the small thin stones forming their sides appearing a few
inches above ground. They measure about 3 feet 6 inches
long and 2 feet broad.
Another fragment of what seems to have been the shaft
of a cross composed of slate, is still preserved in the wall
adjoining this churchyard. It measures 26^
inches long, n inches broad, and 3 inches
thick. Three crosses of the Saint Andrew
pattern are carved neatly on one face, and in
bas-relief. Two of them are within an incised
panel 6 inches broad. On the other side of
the cross what may have been the shaft of a
cross, or the blade of a sword, runs the length
of the stone in relief, but the head or handle is
broken off.
The most interesting of Mr M'Fie's " finds " Gravestone found
is the fragment of the head of a Rune-inscribed
cross-slab which he turned up in 1889 on the west side of the
road, 50 yards north of the graveyard, and just beside where
the cists are still visible.
This fragment measures 7^ inches in its greatest length
and 8J/2 in its greatest breadth, and is the terminal of a small
cross formed out of a flake of schistose slate. The cross is
engraved in relief over an incised circle. On the transom of
the cross are clearly inscribed in later Scandinavian runes
the following letters :". . . KRUS-THINE-TIL-GUTHLE . . ."
224 Bute in the Olden Time.
The termination of the name GUTiiLE is awanting, but the
full name was cither Guthlcif or Guthlcik, which were com-
mon names among the Northmen, as we find in their Sagas.
The subject of the monument, however, is unknown. It is
an interesting link between the Celtic Church and the pious
Northmen, who in a later age succeeded the piratic spoilers
of her fanes. (See illustration, p. 135.)
It is fully described by Mr G. F. Black in the Proceedings
of the Antiquarian Society, and conjoined with a notice of
the famous Marnock, whose name I have good grounds for
not associating with " The Inch," as chapter vi. narrates.
Mr C. M'Fic also found a piece of the shaft of a cross
formed out of yellow sandstone beside the Runic cross. It
measures 17^ inches long, 12 broad, and 2% thick. The
ornament seems to spring out of a series of small concentric
rings, and runs away either in ornamental geometric figures
or in intertwined figures of animals, to meet other similar
rings, — the stone, being too friable to stand the weather,
leaves the ornament very uncertain. It is, however, not
unlike some of the ornaments found on fibula of the earlier
iron age of Scandinavia.
The hardness and the hugeness of a whinstonc boulder,
which probably frustrated the execrable dcsccrators who
extinguished St Colmoc's antique church and graveyard, have
preserved for us an example of a lovely cross.
In the centre of the cross a wheel is cut in relief, and
within it appears the " Swastika " or so-called sacred sign for
Thor, the God of Thunder.1 (See illustrations, pp. 1 16, 117.)
1 Tbb symbol, "La Creix Gammtt ou TJtrturtlt" (Anglo-Saxon, Fylfot; to the
Hindus and Buddhists Svajfita), is found in nearly all lands with few exceptions.
'LaMigrationdesSymbolc*,' par Lc Com pte Goblet D'Alviclla, p. 41. Paris, 1891.
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 225
" Within the field where this cross stands, five stone coffins
were dug up about thirty-five years ago [1805 ?] by the present
tenant, Mr Hunter." J
CELTIC CROSS-SHAFT IN ROTHESAY CHURCHYARD.—
For many years there lay almost unnoticed, except by those
who had a patrimonial interest in it, covering a grave in the
parish churchyard of Rothesay, a rudely carved tombstone.
Up till the present time an interesting vestige of the clan
system lingers in the custom which old native families of
Bute retain in having their relatives buried in sections of the
churchyard allocated to their names, such as the Neills (Mac-
neils), Stewarts, MacAlisters, Mackurdys, MacGilchiarans,
MacConachys, Bannatynes, M'Gilchatans, M'Gilmuns, and
other families whose antique interesting names have unfor-
tunately been Anglicised; and even incomers bearing any
of these names have maintained some traditional right of
sepulture with their clans there.
On the clan (or family) grave of the MacAlisters the slab
was lying, and amid the profusion of grass the now worn
traces of its beautiful interlaced ornamentation were scarcely
visible. It appeared to be only a rough, crooked, silver-grey
stone split from the finely grained mica-schist in which the
northern part of the Isle of Bute abounds. So far, fortu-
nately, it was the reverse, or less carved side of the slab which
lay exposed to the weather, and thus left it unnoticed ; but
when I had it cleaned and turned over, its elaborately sculp-
tured face indicated that it was none other than the shaft of
a cross.
1 Wilson's ' Guide to Rothesay,' p. 65. Rothesay, 1848.
VOL. I, P
226
Bute in the Oldtn Time.
Lengthwise the stone measures 5 feet 7 inches ; in breadth,
tapering from io# inches at the base to 13 inches at the top ;
Crvts i* Rtthttay Churchyard.
and in thickness, varying from 3}^ inches to 3^ inches. It
also retains the slight natural curve of the bed from which it
has been split.
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 227
The most remarkable, if not unique, feature of the cross-
shaft, however, is the existence of a tenon at its upper and
broader extremity, indicating that the capital had been a sep-
arate piece, fixed by means of a mortice-joint, so as to form —
along with two quadrants below let into carefully bevelled
sockets, still visible in the sides of the shaft — a high cross,
somewhat like that of Tuam (M. Stokes, ' Early Christian Art
in Ireland,' p. 138). This tenon measures 8 inches long, i^
inch high, and i ^ inch thick. The socket on each side is cut
jYz inches from the base or neck on which the cross-head
rested. Each socket measures 3^ inches long, i^ inch broad,
and is cut with a bevel 2 inches deep.
The obverse of the shaft is divided into three compartments
— the traces of a plain, flat moulding, about i inch broad
round each panel, being still visible. There may have been
formerly a fourth compartment, where the base is now fixed
into a built foundation, but no trace of carving existed on the
lowest part when examined by me. Each of these three
panels contains a subject carefully carved in relief, despite the
hardness of the quartz and mica field. The lowest panel ap-
pears filled with a Latin cross, rising out of a cushion or base,
and is surmounted by two well-shaped crested birds, which
resemble doves. The finials of this cross terminate in oval
bosses.
The middle panel displays a grotesquely shaped, cat-headed
quadruped in the impossible attitude of walking in a forward
direction with the club-hoofed fore-legs of an animal, and in
the opposite direction with the legs of a man. Vestiges of
eye-sockets remain. Three upright ears (unless they form a
crown) complete the head, and match the three prongs of a
tail which flourishes over its rounded back.
228 Bute in tht Olden Time.
The uppermost panel, which is much wasted by lamination
caused by the weather, contains the figure of a horse, or more
likely an ass, walking, and ridden by a man. When first ex-
posed, the delineation seemed to be that of a rider in the act
of falling from or leaning upon the haunches of an ass. Since
exposure the figures have become less distinct
The reverse of the shaft is considerably weathered and worn
by passing feet It has been divided into three panels, the
upper and under being filled with interleaved ornamentation
of a simple character. The middle panel displays, cut in
relief, a well-shaped horse, with a rider evidently carrying a
spear.
No inscription, in any characters, is visible on the stone.
When I had the cross turned over, it was found to be
broken into two pieces. After receiving the consent of the
family who have a patrimonial interest in it, I had it securely
reunited, set firmly into a substantial socket, and re-erected
on the spot where it was uncovered in November 1886.
I have since had some difficulty in tracing its history out of
conflicting traditions. It is apparently a pilgrim. The most
trustworthy account of its migration is that " a Mac Alistcr of
Ascog brought it from ' t/ie other side ' to Ascog Farm, and
desired it to be laid on his grave after his death."
Varying versions associated its stance with Crossmore, a
prominent cross -site about one mile south of Rothesay
Church ; with Kildavannan, the site of a Celtic church in North
Bute ; and with Meiklc Kilmory farm, which for generations
has been partly tenanted by MacAlisters. No traces of a
connection of this family with the two sites first mentioned
are discoverable by me.
The Rev. William Lytteil, when prosecuting his philological
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 229
studies in Bute for his ' Landmarks of Scottish Life and Lan-
guage' (Edinburgh, 1877), noted in his Journal, at date April
3, 1873 : "Cross-shaft from Ascog farm. ... It is about two
hundred years since it was found on Ascog. It lay at Ascog
farmhouse for about one hundred and fifty years." This
author kindly appended to the extract this note : " The
Journal makes mention of the figure of 'a man on horse-
back,'— 'of a sword,' — '2 birds, I think,' — 'something like a
mythical animal or dragon/ — ' something like a deer at the
foot.'"
This form of the tradition does not coincide with the other
that it was brought from " the other side," meaning the west
side of Bute, which was well supplied with Celtic chapels and
cemeteries.
The clearest tradition asserts that it was transported to
Ascog. I know of no traces of oratories or cemeteries near
that farm. And there appear to have been flittings from
Meikle Kilmory farm to Mid Ascog, and vice versd, in past
times, by tenantry named MacAlister. Last century there
was a family of that name in Crioslagmhoire, another at
Stewarthall, another at Kilchattan, &c. On Meikle Kilmory
Brae (Blain, p. 92) " a small circular spot formerly enclosed
[was] known by the name of Cil-keran, inducing a belief that
it had been used as a place of sepulture." This was probably
the little church of Ciaran, whose name was last century pre-
served by over forty large families (especially in this quarter
of the isle} — viz., the Mac-Gill-Chiarans, now Sharps. Kil-
mory is in the Kerryfern quarter, formerly the possession of
an ancient family, the Neills, or Nigels, of Bute. On an ad-
joining farm is the ruin of Kilmory Chapel, on another the
site of Kilwhinleck Chapel.
230 />'«/«• /'/* the OUm Time.
Every place-name near savours of early Irish history. Over
this whole district towers Barone Hill. According to Blain
(p. 86):-
" Near the roadside (going towards Kilmory), at the foot of
Barone Hill, is shown a spot where a pillar, 9 feet high, [was]
ended several ages ago as a monument of a barbarous murder
committed there on a laird of Kilwhinlcck, by one Ntcol Mackeown,
commonly known by the name of Willie Nicrbal, who took the
laird's widow to wife, expecting by that means to secure to himself
the estate also." Nicrbal himself met a foul end ; and a posthumous
son was born to the murdered laird, so that " the estate descended
by that circumstance in the right line." We are told Nierhal's body
was buried after his death at the place where he murdered Kilwhin-
leck. The monumental stone was removed by the late James
Stewart,1 proprietor of that place, and laid by way of a bridge over
a brook at Rothesay. There had been some rude carving on one
side ; the figure of a griffin was visible, but it is not known whether
there was ever any inscription.*
The indcfiniteness of the above narration leads me to sus-
pect that Blain had neither seen the monument, nor knew its
1 The James Stewart mentioned here was the eccentric minister of Kingarth
from 1740 to 1755, for whose convenience that parish was kept vacant for sixteen
years. He was laird of Kilwhinlcck, and died about 1780. His manse for the
new kirk at Mountstuart was situated on an eminence over half a mile beyond
Ascog, and in proximity to the farm of Mid Ascog, in Kingarth parish, the resi-
lience of the MacAlistcn. After being deprived of his charge, James Stewart
came to reside at Kilwhinlcck, in the new mansion he erected there in 1760,
called Stewarthall.
* Reid, in his ' History of Bute,' p. 32, adds to this account a sentence, appa-
rently taken from a MS. of Blain's History, that the Kilwhinleck stone was
" afterwards put to a similar use as part of the covering of a sewer going off from
near the well in the High Street, opposite the entry to the New Vennel, where it
may possibly still remain." But, as if doubtful of this, he proceeds to show some
similarity between this stone and the cross-shaft now in Rothesay Castle. The
latter, however, was brought from the Chapel of St Mary when repaired in 1816,
according to Dr Stuart in his ' Sculptured Stones.'
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 231
resting-place. There is a small brook crossing the road to
the parish church, which is covered over with schistose flag-
stones, which is the only likely place for its being utilised.
Had it been accessible, Blain would have inspected it. So I
would assume that it had been removed before Blain came to
Bute in 1760, and that he only narrates the hearsay on the
subject.
From the Rev. Dr Maclea's Parochial Visitation Books for
1 774- 1 776, it appears that at or near Kilwhinleck resided
Robert McAlester, his wife, and a family of four girls, de-
signated as from " Kingarth." A John M'Alister, who is
credited with being born at Ascog, before this had a brother
Robert, who latterly resided at Kilchattan Bay. Now it is
very improbable that any M'Alister would remove a large
monument from a farm he was vacating, say Meikle Kil-
mory, far, in Bute especially. As instances prove, there was
a superstitious dread of molesting such memorials, and such
an act would not only have been deemed sacrilegious, but, as
in the case of the spoliation of St Marnock's Chapel in 1718,
would have subjected the offender to the discipline of the
kirk-session. On the other hand, if a similar stone was re-
moved from his estate at the instance of the reverend and
ambitious laird of Kilwhinleck, who had long been a source
of irritation and trouble to the kirk-session and presbytery of
the bounds, and who, anxious to found a great house, neither
relished being childless, as he was, nor yet the romance, likely
mythical, connected with that monolith, — then who would be
so likely to be asked to remove it as this Robert McAlester,
who, to his own credit be it said, with rare good sense, con-
served this antique relic ? Through him it might reach
Ascog. Speculation aside, the Kilwhinleck monolith has
232 Bute in tlu Olden Timt.
not been traced since it was removed a hundred years ago.
Yet there is nothing incompatible between the connection of
this relic of the Celtic Church in Bute with its subsequent
monumental usefulness in relation to the murdered laird, be
he a subject real or mythical.
Being a cross, and with a circle connecting the arms, it
must be enumerated among the High Crosses ; and its Celtic
art and symbolism would, from their execution, lead us to
date the work, not too early, say the eleventh century. But
it might be earlier still, since the position of Bute, between
Dalriada and Northumbria, made it susceptible of all new
influences. The dedications in the island, such as to Ninian,
Brioc, Catan, Marnoc, Blaan, and many others, illustrative of
the influence of British and Irish Churches, prove the favoured
situation of Bute.
The church of Kihvhinlcck, now obliterated, may indicate
the influence of the famous Irish Finnian of Moville, teacher
of Columba, but who, as a pupil of Nennio at Whithorn, was
better known to the Cymric Britons, who preserved his name
in Kilwinning, in its Cymric form, Wynnin.
In the "Grant by James IV. to the landholders in the
Island of Bute, dated i6th August 15060 Reg. Mag. Sig.,' xiv.
300), we find mentioned, 'Johanni Makgylquhynnych, terras
de Cawnoch.' " This family name, Mac-Gill- Whinnich, like
Mac-Gill-Chatan, Mac-Gill Chiaran, Mac-Gill-Mun, Mac-Gill-
Mhichcll, and others in use here till the beginning of this
century, prove the connection of Butemcn with the early
Celtic Church.
But in the absence of historical records, our survivals, like
this interesting cross, can only be the subject of happy and
reasonable speculation.
CROSS IN ROTHESAY CASTLE
Moss-grown Relics of t 'he Celtic Church. 233
CROSS IN ROTHESAY CASTLE. — Two fragments of a white
sandstone slab, beautifully sculptured on one face and the
two edges, are now preserved in Rothesay Castle. According
to Dr Stuart, who has illustrated them in the ' Sculptured
Stones of Scotland ' : " The stone here figured was found
about the year 1816 in clearing out the rubbish from St
Brieuc's Chapei. It has lain in the courtyard of the castle
since that time." x This is a reference to the repairing of St
Mary's Chapel in 1817 by the Marquess of Bute. The lower
•half measures 3 feet 4 inches long, 19 inches broad at the base,
and 20 inches broad where the slab is broken : the upper part
measures 2 feet 9 inches long and 20 inches broad. The slab
is 5 inches thick — the edges being engraved with interlaced
ornamentation. It has the appearance of having been a
memorial slab rather than a cross. It may have covered one
of the bishops laid to rest in St Mary's Church early in the
fourteenth century, but in all probability is a relic of a still
earlier epoch.
Kilmorie (Church of Mary) is built upon the rocky face of
the hill, 220 yards south of Little Kilmory farm, a short
distance above the highway, and is a ruin still well defined
since the Marquess of Bute had the hidden site excavated. It
is a rectangular building, composed of small stones split from
the surrounding rocks, and bound with clay. It is oriented,
but not exactly. Its external measurements are 35 feet by 17
feet 9 inches at the west gable, and 17 feet 6 inches at the
east; its internal, 30 feet by 13 feet 6 inches and 13 feet 9
inches. The gables are 2 feet 6 inches thick ; the side walls
1 Vol. ii. p. 36, plate Ixxii. Spalding Club, 1867.
234 Bute in the Olden Time.
2 feet thick and about 2 feet 6 inches high. The north wall
is broken at 18 feet 6 inches from cast gable, probably for a
door. Directly opposite is a similar break. The north gable
is pierced to form a runnel for the water gathering on the
floor — the bare rock. At a distance of 30 feet from the
church are the remains of the circular stone "cashcl," or
wall of circumvallation. About half a century ago, while the
road here was being repaired, a lead coffin and cists were
exposed, and an iron or bronze hammer-head found. The
latter was lost The Exchequer Rolls in 1440 refer to
Kytmor.
Cranslagvourachy, Crioslagi'ourathy (circle of Vourathy),
from its name, may have been an oratory dedicated to an
Argylc Culdcc Saint, Murcdach,1 but there is no tradition
regarding this supposition.
Cranslaginoric, Crioslagwory in former times had a chapel
dedicated probably to the Virgin Mary. The site of it was
in what is now known as " the Chapel-field " on the farm of
Acholtcr (field of the altar, achadlt, altair\ where occasionally
yet the plough exposes the foundations of a building.
Cruiskland Chapel (Blain's 'Hist.,' p. 398) is a strongly
built edifice of a rectangular shape, picturesquely situated
under a high rock on Nether Ardroscadalc farm, on the level
ground stretching down to the shore, about a mile north of
St Ninian's Chapel. The north wall measures externally 36
feet 6 inches; the south, 35 feet 6 inches; the gable walls
each 21 feet 6 inches broad; internally respectively 31 feet,
i " Oct. v. In Argadia Murdoch! Culdci, cognomcnto Bardi." — ' Menologium
Scottcum.'
Moss-grown Relics of the Celtic Church. 235
30 feet 6 inches, and 14 feet 6 inches. The walls remain
from 3 to 4 feet high, and from 3 to 3 feet 6 inches thick.
Clay is the cementing medium of the stones. The door was
in the middle of the south wall. The church is oriented a
little north of east. Blain narrates that a century ago the
hallowed ground was then marked out ; to-day the huge
stones of a former enclosing wall are still visible. Two aged
ashes growing in the ruins mark the time which has elapsed
since the fane was deserted. A well bubbles up above the
chapel. To whom it was dedicated is not known. From
the composition of the name of the district — Ard-rosca-dale
— we might expect some connection between rose or drosc
and Kruisk-llan, or Kruisk-church.
Baileachaibil, or Chapeltown, was a cluster of houses on
the west bank of Loch Fad, the ruins of which are still visible
under the shade of old plane-trees. Its name associates it
with some chapel, which must have existed prior to the
parish church in the immediate vicinity, if we are to account
for its necessity, or which was a memorial chapel that fell
into desuetude. There is a substantially built well at the
spot. Two ranges of edifices seem to have existed, and this
fact corresponds with the notes in Dr Maclea's Visiting-
Book, that two families of sixteen persons lived here in
1774; in 1814, one family of two persons. A circular well-
built wall encloses an empty space on the south side, over-
shadowed by ash-trees, where the chapel may have stood.
North of these foundations is seen a small grass-grown circle
1 8 feet in external diameter, 8 feet in internal diameter, 2
feet in height, evidently the foundations of a round stone
edifice, the nature of which I have not discovered.
St Mary's Chapel and St Bride's will be described in vol. ii.
236
CHAPTER XIII.
THE NORTHMEN AND VIKINGS.
" Sir Ralph the Rover tailed away,
He scoured the seas for many a day
And now, grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland's shore."
— SOUTHKY.
HE northern nations of Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden, having felt the impulse given to cul-
ture by the restless conquering nations of the
South, began themselves to ferment and de-
velop, so that it became imperative for them to find outlets
for their energies. These were got in two directions : inter-
nally, by the development of personal and national faculties
in trade, art, science, and literature ; and externally, by the
overflowing of the population into the channels of martial
colonisation. The time usually assigned to these movements
lies between 700 A.D. and 1000 A.D. With both movements
Scotland, with Bute, has a concern. Driven from home, as
well by the lack of food as probably by the tyranny of
masters and rulers, the Northman was not without the genius
to turn his fearless and adventurous spirit to the best account.
From infancy familiar with the sea, he soon learned the art
The Northmen and Vikings. 237
of boat-building, and became expert in facing the deep with
seaworthy ships, manned by daring crews. The coasting ex-
peditions of the Danes were soon changed into bold descents
upon England, France, and the sunny shores of the Medi-
terranean. The men of Norway (" the Noregs - Vaelde ")
seemed to have tended in a westerly direction, and found
their way to the Shetlands, Orkneys, and other isles, from which
they ultimately swept out into the Hebrides and southern
isles, which they called the " Sudreyjar," and therein met
the fleets of Danish sea-rovers arriving by the southern
channels.
What at first was only the adventurous voyage of a " Sir
Ralph the Rover," became soon an organised expedition of
fleets of fierce-looking craft, which arrived in the summer and
harvest-time, in search of spoil as well as glory. Out of
Sumarlidi, or Summer- Wanderers, they developed into con-
quering settlers.
The likeness to their native land of the western seaboard
of Scotland, with its fertile isles, sheltered lochs, and creeks,
where their ships could ride secure, and safe and tempting
friths and kyles, through which they could skim like sea-
birds, so charmed the Northmen, that each successive visit
excited the desires of their countrymen to see this happy
hunting-field ; and in consequence the descents of the north-
ern baysmen, " Vikingr," became of such national importance
as to necessitate the control of them under law. The visitors
soon became colonists, and mixing with the dispossessed
inhabitants, formed new settlements of their own in their
adopted land.
To the Christian Celts of the west they bore the distinctive
name of "Gentiles" — the Norwegians being called "azure
238 Bute in tlte Olden Time.
Gentiles," and the Danes "black Gentiles." In the Irish
Annals and the Welsh Chronicles the date of the first ap-
pearance of these Gentiles is the year 794 A.D. :—
"794 Kal. Ian. Anno Domini Dccxciij. Vastatio omnium insolarum
Britannic a gcntibus." '
The next year we find them infesting the Hebrides, spoiling
lona, spying out the coasts of Ireland, and in 798 wasting
by fire and sword St Patrick's Isle off the coast of County
Dublin, and the other isles between Erin and Alban. Prob-
ably then the light of St Blaan's altar at Kingarth suffered
extinction, as that of Columba in lona did four years later.
In 802 the Danes burnt the sacred edifices of lona to the
ground, and rendered that monastic retreat so insecure that the
monks, for the most part, fled with the relics of the founder to
Ireland. The absence of these treasures may have been the
reason why, in 806, the ruthless Danes murdered the whole re-
maining community of sixty-eight persons. Not merely the
greed of plunder, but a deeply imbued spirit of revenge for the
cruelties perpetrated upon the subjects of King Siegfried by
Charlemagne, was the motive of the pagans for this wicked
conduct. They wrecked the churches everywhere, slew the
men, enslaved the women, and, until their own conversion
to Christianity, became the insolent tyrants of Alban and
Erin. At last they turned their swords upon themselves,
and also upon their native land, which they revisited to
foray.
Space does not permit of the narration of the events by
which, early in the ninth century, the Northmen had ob-
» 'Ann. UUtei.'
The Northmen and Vikings. 239
tained a secure settlement on the mainland of Ireland, and
how, later, King Olave the White established the Danish
kingdom of Dublin. From that centre he issued on many a
bloody expedition to the Western Isles, and as far as Dum-
barton, which he utterly destroyed. In the train of his
triumph were borne away much spoil and crowds of captives
from Strathclyde, Pictland, and the Isles, notwithstanding the
close alliance of Olave with the Pictish king, Kenneth, whose
daughter he had married. Olave's successors were also given
to similar filibustering in the West.
In 883, Harald Harfagr, or The Fairhair, then in his
thirtieth year, and a petty king in Norway, established him-
self as ruler of a united kingdom. As a result of this, his
vanquished opponents fled into the Orkneys and Shetlands,
from which they issued on piratical raids of retaliation upon
the mother country. Unable to tolerate these irritating ex-
peditions, Harald, at the head of a well - equipped fleet,
pounced down on the Orkneys and Sudreys, and, wiping
out the Vikings, established his monarchy as far as the Isle
of Man at the close of the ninth century. He left behind
him Jarls, or petty kings, to secure his conquests and levy the
tribute which he exacted.
After his death, in 936, there developed a complication of
movements of a political character, involving the various
nationalities in Alban, Erin, and Britain in bloody conflicts,
all of which made for the ultimate consolidation of these
kingdoms under single kings of native birth. The Isles
assumed a king of their own, who ruled the Inchegall, or
islands of the Strangers, and their mixed population of Gall-
gaidhel. It would be difficult to say whether Bute at this
particular period was included in the possession of the Nor-
240 Bute in the Oldtn Time.
wegian King of Man, the King of the Isles, or of the King of
the Scots. At any rate, it was harried frequently by the
Northmen out of Man and Dublin, as well as by the no less
ruthless fleets of the Gallgaidhcl, with both of whom the Scots
as yet were not able to cope in marine warfare.
The men of Cowal — the Lagmanns — in the end of the
tenth century, with their fleet scoured the seas as far as
South Ireland. They again, under Godred, King of Man,
have to reckon with Sigurd, the brave Earl of Orkney, who
swept all before him in the west, and there collected tribute,
both for himself and his superior, King Haco.
While Malcolm, the son of Kenneth, sat on the throne of
Scotia (1005-1034), and Brian Boru held the sceptre in
Ireland, the question of a foreign occupation had ripened,
and the time had arrived when the Goidels were ready to
cast out the Northmen. The two parties, Irish and Danish,
armed and gathered for a final struggle. The men of Alban
joined Brian, the Islesmen under Sigurd swelled the foreign
host, and we reckon Bute sent its quota of warriors. They
met on Clontarfs bloody field on Good Friday, 1014. The
Danes were completely overthrown, and Erin recovered her
freedom. Sigurd was among the slain, and thereafter his
father-in-law, King Malcolm, appears to have obtained
allegiance from some of the chiefs of the Western Isles.
According to the 'Chronicle of Man,' Godred Crowan of
Man, in 1068, " humbled the Scots to such a degree that no
shipbuilder dare insert more than three bolts in a ship or
boat."
The ' Originates Parochiales,' quoting " Memoir prefixed
to Bute Inventory," informs us that " Walter the first, Steward
of Scotland, who died in 1093, is said to have obtained Bute
The Northmen and Vikings. 241
from King Malcolm II." l There is room for gravely doubt-
ing this statement, since, in the charter conferring the office of
Seneschal of Scotland upon Walter, the son of Alan Dapifer,
granted by Malcolm IV. in 1158, he is infefted in the lands
disponed to him by King David I., and Bute is not mentioned
among the number. This Fitzalan of Shropshire probably
entered the service of Malcolm III., or, still more likely,
joined the retinue of David, who had been so long resident
in England, as will be more fully elucidated in a succeeding
chapter.
The Irish annalists paint the Vikings with a broad brush
and the darkest colours. They were a fierce and impetuous
race, who showed their worst characteristics in the marauding
expeditions led by restless warriors. But at home, and in
times of peace, they enjoyed the fruits of a high state of
civilisation. Their works of art, especially metal-work, with
its very artistic ornamentation, their seaworthy ships built
with much skill, their precious codes of laws, their customs
and their literature, show that the Northmen were naturally
a clever people, who were, according to the times, in an ad-
vanced condition of civilisation. In Sir George Dasent's
preface to 'The Story of Burnt Njal ; or, Life in Iceland at
the end of the Tenth Century,' is to be found a vivid and
interesting description of the Northmen at home, which can-
not fail to impress the reader with a better opinion of the
Northmen than we can form from the acts of selfish and
cruel Vikings on the war-path. In their home dealings they
were honest and affable, kind to their friends and considerate
to their inferiors. They were bluff and blunt, but had a
1 Vol. ii. Part i. p. 224.
VOL. I, Q
242 Bute in t/te Olden Tinu.
special horror of truce-break crs and talc-bearers. In war
they were as resistless as the storm.
Their civilisation had been influenced by that of Rome.
Consequently they were in the enjoyment of arts and trades
which were unknown in the countries they overran. Their
embossed coinage, founded in the Western Isles, was in use
long before Scotch kings had a royal mint. They were law-
abiding citizens in their own realm ; and to the system of
government which the Northmen set up in their colonies we
arc not a little indebted to the popular form of our own.
In every colony there was set apart either a natural or
artificial Thingmote, judgment-hill, on which the judges and
leaders of the people were seated, above the surrounding
meeting-place where the freemen determined measures of
peace and war, which were proclaimed from the top of
the hill.
In the Isle of Man till this day no enactment of the Parlia-
ment (the House of Keys) becomes law until it is duly pro-
claimed from the Tynwald Hill. A similarity to many other
motes throughout the country has suggested to me the pos-
sibility that the hill on which the Museum of Rothesay
stands was used for such a purpose.
During all these troublous times the Northmen practised
their own pagan rites, apparently unaffected by the religion
of the monasteries they plundered. However, in 995 Olaf
Tryggvason, King of Norway, who had been baptised in the
Scilly Isles, converted the whole of his countrymen by a
coup dc main, a change which had little or no effect upon the
sea-rovers in their hunger for the relics of the Christian
Church. The Colonial Danes in Dublin had about the tenth
century abandoned the pagan rites in favour of the Christian
The Northmen and Vikings. 243
religion, and this may have been the case in other districts
where the Northmen had really settled themselves in prox-
imity to the ancient churches.1
The Northmen also had an elaborate system of religion,
which permitted of every householder or head of a family
being his own priest as well as the absolute master of his
own household. Their religion was somewhat similar to
those of Greece and Rome. Odin was the all-powerful
Father and God of War. There were under him yEsir or
lesser gods ; and over all was Fate. There were also the
customary spirits or wraiths, flitting about especially over
grave-mounds, whose ministry seemed indispensable in pagan
religions. When describing their temple (Hof) Dr Dasent
says : —
" These buildings consisted of two parts, a nave and a shrine,
which last is expressly compared to the choir or chancel of Christian
churches. It was built round and arched. In it, in a half-circle,
stood the images of the gods, and before them in the middle of
the half-circle was the altar (stallt). On it lay the holy ring (baugr),
on which all solemn oaths were sworn ; and there, too, was the
blood-bowl (hlaut-bolli) in which the blood of the slaughtered
victims was caught, and the blood-twig (hlauttvein)^ with which
the worshippers were sprinkled to hallow them in the presence of
the almighty gods. On the altar burned the holy fire, which was
never suffered to be quenched. The worship of the gods consisted
in offerings or sacrifices (blot-form) of all living things, sometimes
even of men. These for the most part were criminals or slaves,
and therefore, in the first case, these human sacrifices stood in the
same position as our executions.
" Near every Thing-field, a spot closely connected with the
temples, stood the stone of sacrifice, on which the backs of those
1 ' Orkney inga Saga,' Preface, xxi ; Stokes, 'Hist.,' Lee. xiii.
244 /?«/<• in the Olden Time.
victims were crushed and broken, and the holy pool in which
another kind of human sacrifices were solemnly sunk." '
Captives taken in war, called " thralls," were also immolated.
On momentous occasions, when fortune was supposed to have
forsaken the king or people, a special human sacrifice was
demanded, and for this purpose the people rose and burned
King Olaf, offering him to Odin ; King Ann sacrificed
seven sons to prolong his life, and Hakon Jarl gave up his
seven-year-old son, Erling, to turn the luck in battle.
" On Thorsncss there was a very holy place (htlgi-stad) ; and
there still stands Thor's stone, on which they broke [i>., the
backs of] those men whom they sacrificed, and near by is that
dom-ring where they were sentenced to be sacrificed." J
The rcintroduction of these hateful bloody ceremonies
came like a blight upon the Celtic Church, and in many
places the Christian altar became the centre of pagan satur-
nalia, and the site of human sacrifices. But wicked as these
Northmen were at first, they too had to succumb to the soft-
ening influences of the Gospel truth, and, by the tenth century,
to illustrate again how " Thou hast conquered, O Galilean ! "
The Northmen in the Viking period frequently buried their
dead with great solemnities, including the sacrifices of human
beings and animals, all of which were burned to ashes on a
pyre, before being deposited in an urn under a mound or in a
simple grave. The ashes of those of ordinary rank were de-
posited in a clay urn, and sometimes in the stone cooking-
kettle belonging to the departed. Frequently their favourite
weapons were laid beside their dust.
4 Burnt Njal,' Preface, xxxvii, \c.
* ' Viking Age,' vol. i. p. 369, quoting ' Landnama,' voL ii. c. 12.
The Northmen and Vikings. 245
It was customary also to bury the dead unburned under a
mound. Warriors were entombed in boats or ships, in which
their weapons, utensils, treasures, and even followers, were
placed at their side, so that they might have pleasing asso-
ciates in the unseen world ; then all were covered with a
mound of earth and stones.
Weirder still were the obsequies when a dead or dying
hero, laid upon a pyre on his own deck — loaded with weapons
and his dead or dying mates — was launched back into the
deep, and the burning ship v/as cast adrift in all her bravery
of full-set sail.1
There have been no discoveries in Bute which can clearly
be associated with the occupation of the Northmen except
the rune-marked cross already mentioned,2 and consequently
there is no necessity for fuller illustration of the manners,
customs, and products of the Northern settlers.
The daring enterprise of Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway
(1093-1103), in the Sudreys, brought Bute into greater promi-
nence on account of its strategic position in the Scottish realm.
Godred Crowan (1070-1095) had seated himself on the
thrones of Dublin, Man, and the Isles, in the reign of Malcolm
Canmore, and the sovereignty of Norway was in abeyance.
Magnus, however, in 1093, made a triumphal expedition, with
an irresistible fleet, from Orkney to Anglesea, and by fire and
sword again made good his claim to empire in the west. As
Snorro relates, an arrangement was made with the King of
Scots that all the isles of Scotland towards the setting of the
sun, round which a ship might be steered, were to be ceded
to Norway. Kintyre, almost an isle, was cut out by this cun-
1 ' Viking Age,' vol. i. p. 333. 2 Chaps, vi. and xii.
246 Bute in the Olden Time.
ning provision. The Vikings, not in love with the stormy
Mull of Kintyre, had been accustomed to drag their galleys
over the neck of land at Tarbcrt to facilitate their bloody
raids on the Clyde. Magnus adopted the same expedient,
and seating himself at the helm, with the tiller in his hand,
he steered his bark, which his crew dragged over the
isthmus, and Kintyre was declared an isle of Norway.1 No
incident could better occupy a canvas. Snorro describes this
mighty king going into battle, in which he fell in Ulster a few
years later. His head was helmet-clad. His blood-red shield
bore a lion in inlaid gold ; over his glittering armour a silken
cloak of scarlet, blazoned with another lion, floated around
his shoulders. Ry his side hung his trusty weapon, a terrible
tool of death, by name Leggbitr, or leg-biter, whose ivory
handle and interlaced golden hilt belied its ugly purpose.
Withal as comely a hero as the azure eye of Gentile might
look upon was whilom Lord of Bute.
Godred Crowan was succeeded by his sons Lagman and
Olaf. Olaf, surnamed T/u Bitting^ died in the same year as
King David I. of Scotland, in 1 153, after a long reign, seem-
ingly independent of Norway. King David is said to have
seized Bute and the Clyde islands during Olaf's reign, but
there is no evidence of it. although it is exactly what one
would expect from a king who had returned from England
imbued by feudal ideas, and accompanied by Norman swords-
men ready for any enterprise demanding prowess. Though
David was Prince of Cumbria, " he did not rule over the
whole of the Cumbrian region," according to the ' Chartulary
1 ' Antiq. Cdto-Scandicx,' p. 236.
The Northmen and Vikings. 247
of Glasgow,' and doubtless his anxiety would be to secure the
debatable lands on the insular borders, which were " coigns
of vantage " to his kingdom.1 Whether as allies or subjects,
the " Insulani," or Islesmen, formed a portion of the ill-fated
Scots army, which, under David, entered England, and were
defeated at the battle of The Standard in 1138.
In this period arose into distinction and power the family
of Somerled of the Innsi Gall, or the isles west of Argyle, the
stem of the Lords of the Isles in after-days, who traced their
line back into the mists of the heroic past of the Scoto-Celts.
Their native right to possession and rule in the west cannot
now be shown. Somerled, or Sumarlid, the masterful ruler
of Argyle, however, had strengthened his position by mar-
riage with Ragnhild, a daughter of Olaf Bitling, King of
Man. Both Somerled and his family play a very important
part in regard to the history of Bute, after the consummation
of this alliance.
Olaf the White, like David, was a patron of the Church,
and had endowed a Cistercian monastery at Russin, over
which an engaging monk called Wimund was set. The fas-
cinating manners and looks of this Skyeman so captivated
the Manxmen that they clamoured for his enthronement as
bishop. That elevation scarce proved high enough for him.
Throwing aside his disguise, or his veracity, he announced
himself as Malcolm Mac Heth, Earl of Moray, and rightful
King of Scots, then made espousals with a daughter of Somer-
led. The alliance was fruitful of war, and with mailed hands
they clutched at the crown. Somerled and he, with fleets and
1 'Chart. Glas.,'p. 4.
243 Bute in the Olden Time.
soldiery, harried the Scottish lands. But at last David cap-
tured Wimund, and cast him into prison. His cowl alone
preserved his head. Ultimately he was brought back to his
proper monastic cell. David died, leaving Somcrlcd to pur-
sue his ruthless animosity towards the Scottish monarchy,
under Malcolm, and his aggrandising policy against Godrcd
of Man, whom Somerlcd drove into exile in Norway. Bute
and the Sudrcys then fell into the hands of Somcrlcd (1156-
58), who did not rest till, with a fleet of 160 galleys, he gaily
sailed up the Clyde as far as Renfrew in 1164, in order to
subdue Scotland. There, in defeat, his troublous life was
taken, in all likelihood, by the followers of Fitzalan, the
Steward of Scotland, who surprised the " band of roystcrers,"
as an old historian called them. At this juncture, as a grate-
ful reward, Walter the Steward may have received a grant of
Bute from King Malcolm IV.
The death of Somerled occasioned the partition of his
lordship among his sons, the securer part in the north falling
to the eldest living son, Dugall (founder of the Macdugall
house of Argyle and Lorn) ; Isla, Kintyrc, and probably half
of Arran, to Reginald (founder of the house of Isla, through
Donald his son) ; and Bute, with the other half of Arran, to
Angus. Reginald and Angus soon quarrelled ; and Angus
and his three sons were killed in 1210, thus permitting Dugall
and Reginald to apportion their lands again, the Isles being
held from the King of Norway, the mainland from the King
of Scotland.
In this way Bute was granted by Reginald to his son
Roderick, Rory, or Ruari, without regard to the fact that
Angus had left a granddaughter, Jane, who was to marry
The Northmen and Vikings. 249
Alexander (Fitzalan) son of the High Steward of Scotland,
then in possession of Bute.
Somerled + 1 164 = Ragnhild, dr. of Olaf Billing.
Gillecolum.
Duj
ofMul
aid
, &c.
Regi
of Isli
nald
I, &C.
An
of Bu
+ i
gus
te, &c.
2IO.
Olaf
of Lewis.
Uspak-Hacon
+ 1230.
Rory 01
Ruari.
Jai
+ 1
Jai
nes
210.
ic = Alexander
(Fitzalan).
Dugald Alan.
+ 1268.
This triple disputed claim wrought much woe to the fair isle
itself, the only part of which was free from bloodshed being
the churches, whose sanctity all parties observed. In King
William the Lion's reign Alan the Steward maintained his
precarious possession of Bute, and very probably erected the
circular part of the present castle of Rothesay for the garrison
who defended it for the Scottish king.
The pretensions of the Somerledian princes kept the
Western Isles so unsettled that both the kings of Norway and
of Scotland determined to obtain their definite and secure
allegiance, while the King of Norway tried to supersede his
vassals by a governor who would show respect to the Crown.
Uspak, the grandson of Somerled, a man of years, was chosen
to reduce the Sudreys to Norway, and in order to dignify his
power was promoted to the status of a king, with the com-
plimentary title of Uspak-Hacon, in 1230. His fleet was not
long in reaching the west, and in scattering the forces of his
warlike relatives. When the expedition rounded the Mull of
Kintyre on the way to Bute, Uspak was in command of
eighty galleys.
250 Bute in the Olden Time.
In Bute they found a castle (kast'dlutn) commanded by the
Steward (stivarir). In all likelihood it was Rothcsay rather
than the equally strong fortress of Castle Crec.
" The Norwegians sat down before the fortress, and gave a hard
assault Hut the Scots fought well, and threw down upon them
boiling pitch and lead. Many of the Norwegians fell, many also
were wounded. They therefore erected over themselves a covering
of boards, and then hewed down the walls, for the stone was soft,
and the rampart fell with them ; they cut it up from the foundations.
That Master of Lights, called Skagi Skitradi, shot the Steward dead
while he was leaping upon the ramparts. Three days did they fight
with the garrison before they won it There took they much wealth
and a Scots knight, who ransomed himself for three hundred merks
of fine silver. Of the Norwegians there fell Sweinung the Swarthy,
and in all about three hundred men, some of whom were l>clonging
to the South Isles. They here met a great storm, and lost three
ships with the men and all that was on board." !
Uspak-Hacon himself was mortally wounded by a stone,
but survived till he reached Kintyrc, whence his body was
borne to lona.
Olave the Black was King of Man and the Isles till 1237,
and was succeeded by Harold, Reginald, and Magnus, his
sons, who respectively died in 1248, 1249, and 1265. Alex-
ander II. of Scotland, bent on obtaining the Western Isles,
sent envoys to the King of Norway, first asking their cession
on the ground that they were wrongfully acquired by con-
quest, and afterwards offering to purchase them. I laco the
king, in reply, reminded Alexander that it was not from
Scotland that King Magnus Barefoot had won the Sudreys,
while his own lawful possession was guaranteed by a treaty
1 Johnstonc'* ' Anecdotes of Olave the Black,' p. 37.
The Northmen and Vikings. 251
with the Scots king. Nor was he so needy of money as to
sell his heritage.1 Alexander, fired like his greater name-
sake, vowed he would seize them and plant the Scots Lion
on Haco's farthest isle, and indeed set out to accomplish
his vain boast. The fever of war was soon turned into a
mortal one, and he expired in the Sound of Kerrera in 1249,
leaving his sword to a minor. The vexed question of the
sovereignty of the Isles slumbered for fourteen years, till
Alexander III. reached his majority, and determined to fulfil
his father's vow.
Magnus was now on the throne of Man : Eogan, or John,
his father-in-law, had held Argyle ; but Dugald, the son of
Ruari, the second cousin of John, was acknowledged sole
King of the Sudreys, and a vassal of King Haco, and his
father Ruari laid claim to Bute, which he, after the battle of
Largs, obtained from King Haco.
In 1262, while King Haco was enjoying the peaceful
government of his own realm, and with his cultured Court
was encouraging trade, art, and literature, news reached him
that the Sudreys were again in a warlike ferment. His mind
was harrowed with details of brutal outrages perpetrated by
the mainland Scots on his vassals, whose helpless children
were being used as playthings cast from Highland spear to
spear, and whose churches blazed as beacons of war. It was
rumoured that Alexander was secretly preparing to subdue
the west, and the Scots Lion was about to spring on its
unoffending prey. The exiled Butemen, with ruthless Ruari
at their head — now an accepted subject at Haco's Court, and
a revengeful villain to boot — and the other resident dis-
1 ' Chronicon Mannioe, ' Munch, p. 20.
252 Bute in the Oldtn Tintt.
possessed Celtic chiefs, did not minimise the impending
danger. Haco's council declared for open war, and military
and marines were summoned to meet the king at Bergen
early in the summer of 1263.
In forge and shipbuilding-yard the noisiest preparation
was heard all winter, as the hammers clinked together the
" sea-borne wooden coursers of Gcstils," and riveted the grey-
steel cuirasses and helmets of bronze. A man-of-war was
specially built for the king. " It was constructed entirely
of oak, and contained twenty-seven banks of oars. It was
ornamented with heads and necks of dragons, beautifully
overlaid with gold." The bulwarks hung with burnished
shields. Although he had been six-and-forty years their
king, Haco roused the national enthusiasm by announcing
he would himself sit upon " the stern of his snorting steed
adorned with ruddy gold." He boasted he knew the Western
Isles and Kyles full well as any of his admirals. Fair and
ruddy of countenance, he sat above his gallant men.
The Abbot of Holm, four royal chaplains, the officers of
state, scions of noble houses, and hostages from Western
chiefs — in all, two hundred men — formed the gay retinue and
crew of the royal galley. With the sunshine and breeze of a
July day falling on the fleet of one hundred vessels, no wonder
the poet described the scene as like the flight of " the sky-
blue doves with their expanded wings," as the ill-fated arma-
ment ploughed out of the haven of Hcrlovcr into the glory of
the setting sun.
A similar activity prevailed in Scotland, especially on the
threatened seaboard, and every stronghold from the Mull of
Galloway to Inverness was rcfortificd and stored with muni-
tions. The Steward no doubt saw that the breaches on
The Northmen and Vikings. 253
Rothesay caused by Uspak-Hacon were securely repaired, and
that the stores of pitch and lead and stones were available for
the battlements, but he himself was with the army of the Scots
now concentrating in Ayrshire. The castellan, being either a
traitor or a coward, soon capitulated, as is afterwards related.
Early in August, Magnus King of Man met Haco in Skye,
and a little later Dugal and the clans of the Hebrides proved
their allegiance at Kerrera. These local fleets swelled the
Armada to 160 sail. Then Kintyre fell into the invader's
hand ; but the king endeavoured to restrain the indiscriminate
ravages of his greedy troops on its often harassed lands.
From Kerrera " he also ordered five ships for Bute : these
were under the command of Erlend Red, Andrew Nicolson,
Simon Stutt, Ivar Ungi Eyfari, and Gutthorm, the Hebrid-
ean, each in his own ship." This squadron he afterwards
reinforced from Gigha.
" King Haco, however, made Andrew Pott go before him south
to Bute, with some small vessels, to join those he had already sent
thither. News was soon received that they had won a fortress, the
garrison of which had capitulated, and accepted terms of the Nor-
wegians. There was with the Norwegians a sea-officer called Rudri.
He considered Bute as his birthright ; and because he had not re-
ceived the Island of the Scotch he committed many ravages, and
killed many people ; and for that he was outlawed by the Scottish
king. He came to King Haco and took the oaths to him ; and with
two of his brothers became his subjects. As soon as the garrison,
after having delivered up the stronghold, were gone away from the
Norwegians, Rudri killed nine of them, because he thought that he
owed them no goodwill. Afterwards King Haco reduced the island
as is here said (by Sturla in the Raven-Ode) : —
' The wide-extended Bute was won from the forlorn wearers of rings
By the renowned and invincible troops of the promoter of conquest ;
They wielded the two-edged sword ; the foes of our Ruler dropt ;
And the Raven from his field of slaughter winged his flight for the Hebrides.'
254 /?»/* in the Oldtn Time.
" The Norwegians who had been in Bute went to Scotland, where
they burned many houses and several towns. Rudri, proceeding a
great way, did all the mischief that he could, as is here described : —
' The habitation! of men, the dwelling* of the wretched flamed.
Fire, the devourer of halls, glowed in their granaries.
The haplets thrower* of the dart fell near the Swan-frequented plain,
While KNith from oar floating pines marched ft host of warrior*.' *
A little later we find Allan, this bloodthirsty ruffian's son, in
an expedition of sixty ships, under King Magnus, and, along
with his brother Dugal, scouring Loch Long. Near Tar-
bet they drew their light galleys over to Loch Lomond,
burning, desolating, and murdering as they went still further
inland. Allan was the marauder, and drove before him
" many hundred head of cattle." The saga idolises him
thus:-
*' Our veterans fierce of soul, feeders of wolves.
Hastened their wasteful course through the spacious districts of the
mountains.
Allan, the bravest of mortals at the fell interview of battle,
Often wreaked his fatal vengeance on the expiring foe."
In ' The Dean of Lismore's Book ' there is an old Gaelic
poem, with the title " A houdir so ym bard roygh finlay " —
The author of this is Finlay, the red-haired bard.1 It begins
thus :—
" The one demon of the Gael is dead,
A tale 'tis well to remember,
Fierce ravager of church and cross,
The bald-head, heavy, worthless boar."
It proceeds to refer to Allan Mac Ruaric from the ocean far,
of whom the poet says, " first of all from hell he came," then
* ravaged I (lona) and Relig Oran." Dr M'Lauchlan was of
1 Dr M'Lauchhn's edition, pp. no, 143. Edinburgh, i86a.
The Northmen and Vikings. 255
opinion that Allan Mac Ruari lived in the fifteenth century.
The poem would equally well describe the ruthless work of
Haco's ally.
Early in October raged wild tempests of hail and rain,
wrecking many a brave galley, so that the Northmen thought
the troubled floods bewitched and the deep horridly en-
chanted. The masses said by Haco's priests could not exor-
cise them. They saved Scotland in her extremity. Mean-
time fruitless negotiations as to an amicable settlement of the
dispute proceeded between the two kings. Each would have
or keep the isles — Alexander insisting especially upon pos-
sessing Bute, Arran, and the two Cumbraes. Haco then gaily
sailed past the Cumbraes and found anchorage in Rothesay
Bay, where he awaited the turn of events. The storm inter-
fered with Haco's plan of an orderly assault on his foe. The
Scots army was massed above the town of Largs, under Alex-
ander of Dundonald, the Steward of Scotland. On Monday,
October I, they had exciting skirmishes with the men of
some of the ships which had been wrecked. Next day the
Northmen stood in to Largs with reinforcements in small
boats, and hand-to-hand bouts, desperate charges and rallies
were made. Both sides boasted of their victory, but, after all,
the battle was a small affair, in which few of the more distin-
guished invaders fell. The tempest raged the while. The
storm-stayed and battered squadron of Magnus, probably filled
with spoil and with Highland neat, returned from Loch Long.
They carried with them Ivar Holm, who had died of disease.
On Wednesday the Northmen returned to land, and gave
their fallen comrades Christian burial in a neighbouring
church — whether at Largs, Cumbrae, or Bute is not men-
tioned. Still King Haco hung around two days, till on
256 Bute in the Olden Time.
Friday night, accompanied by Magnus and the Somcrlcd
princes, he set sail and anchored in the bay of Lamlash.
" The king then ordered the body of Ivar Holm to be carried
to Bute, where it was interred." This honour to his brave
captain, without doubt, would be paid at St Hlaan's. As the
funeral-galleon returned to the retreating fleet, the Scots saw
the last sail of the terrible Northmen in the waters of Bute.
The allied vassals then sought their various homes confirmed
in their honours. Rudri was invested in Bute, Margad in
Arran, Dugal in Kintyrc. The attenuated fleet steered for
Orkney, where unfavourable winds kept it. In Kirkwall
Haco sickened, and on the i$th December died. His atten-
tion to religion, his consideration to his brave followers, and
his tenderness to the grieving attendants of his death-cham-
ber, show that Haco was worthy of the love his subjects gave
him. In spring of 1264 his body was conveyed to Bergen,
and round his tomb a nation wept
The Scots, overjoyed at their good fortune, attributed their
victory and deliverance to a special Providence in the storm.
They followed up their advantage by launching out expedi-
tions against the Isles, which, from Caithness to Man, King
Alexander speedily reduced to allegiance to his crown.
Negotiations were begun anew between Magnus IV., the
successor of Haco, and Alexander for the settlement of their
dispute. These ultimately ended in the making of a treaty
in 1266. Its terms were to this e fleet : The Scottish Isles,
with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, were to be ceded
to the King of Scots, without prejudice to, however, or inter-
ference with, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and metropolitan
rights of the Norwegian Archbishop of Nidaros ; Alexander
agreeing that in return the Crown of Scotland would pay to
The Northmen and Vikings. 257
the Crown of Norway, for all time, annually 100 merks ster-
ling, not later than July i, in the cathedral of Kirkwall, —
also 4000 merks in four annual instalments ; it being also
mutually agreed that the violator of the treaty should pay
10,000 merks sterling, upon the order of the Apostolic See,
their mutual referee.
Thereafter the former Norwegian vassals made peace with
Alexander, and the descendants of Somerled, including
Allan, were granted lands in the north-west, far from their
much-loved Bute. And in the Parliament of Scone, in 1284,
before
" Alexander the king wes deid,
That Scotland haid to steyr and leid,"
we find bloody Ruari's son — Alanus films Roderici — one of
the Scots barons who solemnly bound themselves to acknow-
ledge King Alexander's granddaughter — the infant Maid of
Norway — as their sovereign, should the king die without
another heir.
Thus the Northmen ceased from troubling ; and no more
of the Celtic maids, of the rich spiral rings of gold, and of the
lovely webs for which the Sudreys were famous, were borne
over the seas to whet the envy of the dreaded Vikings. Bute
at least rested till " our auld enemy " appeared from England.
[GENEALOGICAL TABLES.
VOL. I, R
Bute in the Olden Time.
! I
ca
°
«
ii
* s
«• i
u
5 1
o S
< £
w
2
W
--
t
OLAF BITI.ING,
King of Man and the Isle
Wives— i. Afreca of Gall
3. Concubines.
1
-2-g
£2
il
23"
is£
— c « -—
P.
BLACK,
he Isles,
of Kent
K
d
o
1
•> ^ —
I -§r.
HI" tf1?!^!?
;Ia lifiiif
OI.A
ing of Man
Wives_ I.
:t
i ^ / ^ - — »^
i^liKf
•jci-sjl
-J^^ 3~
LI>
of
K
N
. — 2t-
I
-
I
-
I
= ?-
- P
^1
!
The Northmen and Vikings.
259
w
l—\ *O <U
U S
Q
W
H-J
W
o
CO
W
X
H
_
J
o
o
,_r <
fe z
•a S
"3 o
Q
5RIGDE.
%fr
C^3
l-s
H
Q
1 *$
S
Ss
ri o
o
i
MO
3rf ,
< o 5f»
• O PH S
S
§
D
H
H
8
H
1
O
in
fill!
."•.•
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BISHOPS OF SODOR AND MAN.
" The great of old, —the meteors of an age —
The sceptred monarch ami the mitred *age ;
What are they now ? The victims of decay—
The very worm hath left its noisome prey ! "
IARGE dioceses were of earlier formation in
England than in Alban, or as it long after-
wards came to be called, Scotland. The unique
system of the Celtic Church permitted a bishop
to have his jurisdiction practically anywhere he was favoured
with a charge, and in consequence his diocese might be
movable, enlarging or decreasing, there being no fixed see.
Generally speaking, however, the bishopric was the scene
of the activity of the bishop, who stationed himself among
a sept or tribe, in a clachan, or in a town-land.
The head of an abbacy or monastery — presbyter or bishop
— exercised authority in various dioceses, wherever the
churches or houses originating from, dependent on, or
affiliated to that monastery were situated. Thus Columba
ruled in lona, Alban, and Erin ; the Abbot of Bangor in
Kingarth ; the head of Kingarth probably in Dunblane and
in Northumbria.
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 261
All this incohesion and overlapping of influences was
changed by the growth of the organised episcopal system
with a metropolitan at its head, which was gradually effected
by ecclesiastical movements from the south. The extension
of the kingdom of Northumbria into the heart of Scotland,
and the ultimate subjection of its Celtic Church to the
English Church, were the foundation for the claim of the
Archbishop of York to be considered Primate of the Church
in North Britain. During the time of Bede there were four
Saxon bishoprics in Northumbria — viz., York, Lindisfarne,
Hexham, and Whitherne — and York was the archbishopric
(734).
Pope Gregory at this time proposed that twelve suffragans
in the north should acknowledge the archiepiscopal dignity
of York.
The Northumbrian Church almost disappeared during the
distressing anarchy resulting from the Scandinavian invasions ;
but again reviving, only to backslide again, it was in danger
of serious decadence when King William and his resolute
Norman warriors appeared in 1066.
William made short work of the native bishops, and en-
throned in the vacant sees Norman nominees of his own,
who would homologate the regal will — notably Lanfranc,
Archbishop of Canterbury, an Italian ; and Thomas of
Bayeux, Archbishop of York. The patriotic English nobles
fled in great numbers into Scotland, and settled in the
southern counties, where they were a menace to England.
William came himself to smite the Scots and their English
refugee allies with his rod of iron in 1072. Thomas con-
sidered himself their Primate.
The Isle of Man had never been incorporated in any of
262 Bute in the Olden Time.
the Anglo-Saxon dominions, but retained its Celtic character
until it was subdued along with the Western Isles by the
Northmen. Its Church organisation was of the simple type
prevalent in Erin and Alban, out of which from the earliest
times its ministry had been drawn — St Patrick himself, ac-
cording to tradition, having preached there. Among the
missionaries credited with having exercised episcopal func-
tions in Man are Amphibalus (360), Germanus (447), Conin-
dicus, Romulus, Machutus (Machilla) (498), Conan (648),
Content us, Hindus, Malchus, Ceode (712), Torkinus (889),
Finghin (966). It is not in the least likely they ex-
tended their labours beyond that isle, in times when the
seas were scoured by ruthless sea-robbers who had not yet
been mollified by Christian virtues.
It is open to grave doubt what Worsaae, the distinguished
Danish archaeologist, states in ' An Account of the Danes
and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland,' * that
a distinct bishopric of the Sudreyar was founded in 838.
Until a regular government of the Western Isles, under the
Jarl or petty king whom King Harald Harfagr (p. 239) ap-
pointed after his conquests in the Sudreys, had been firmly
established, it is most improbable that a Bishop of Sodor
either existed or exercised authority over the Churches. A
Bishop of Man may have existed. The times were scarcely
ripe for the domination of the Roman Church over the whole
Celtic Church in the Isles under Bishop Torkinus, who is
mentioned as " Episcopus Sodorensis " in the year 889.
The Danes of Dublin were not converted to Christianity
till the tenth century, and until the twelfth century in Ireland
1 P. 288. London, 1852.
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 263
the dioceses were generally tribal.1 In Norway till the be-
ginning of the twelfth century bishops had no fixed dioceses.
The bishopric was probably founded before Man was governed
by its own independent kings, and no likelier epoch could
be suggested than that when Olaf of Dublin, the rebel Danish
King of Northumbria, was formally acknowledged by King
Eadmund of England on condition that he became a baptised
Christian. King Olafs reign ended in 943. His successors
were somewhat pagan in their character, and their visits to
the shrines were oftener for than with gold and silver. Con-
sequently we find that ' The Chronicle of Man ' only places
two bishops in the see before the settled times of King
GodredCrowan (+ 1095) — namely, Roolwer (Hrolfr), evidently
a Northman from his name, and William. On the other
hand, the Icelandic Annals do not recognise any Bishop of
Man before Ragnald, who died in 1170, a fact explained by
reference to the bull of Pope Anastasius IV. in 1 1 54, which
transferred ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Sudreys from the
Metropolitan See of York to that of Nidaros in Norway.
These Annals further assert that after Ragnald's death a
vacancy of forty years occurred, during which the Bishop
of Nidaros did not consecrate a successor. Then Koli, the
Nicolaus of the Chronicle, assumed the mitre. Meantime,
however, a complication of a most peculiar character seems
to have originated, by which either rival titular bishops
were appointed, or the diocese was divided into Man and
Sodor.
The Chapter of York, the Monastery of Savigny, and
afterwards its daughter -house of Furness, and the king,
1 Stokes, ' Ireland and the Celtic Church,' p. 275.
264 Mute in the Oldtn Time.
* and people of Man, all claimed the right of appoint-
ing the bishop.
A pretty little intrusion scandal arose, no doubt, when two
or three bishops found themselves with a single episcopal
seat — Wimund, John, and Nicholas being bishops at the
same time as William and Gamaliel. Information regarding
them is very scanty*, but from the places of their nativity, the
houses out of which they arc elected, and their burial-places,
we can conclude there were three parties — the native Celtic
party, the Norse party, and the English or York party — all
patronising the Manx diocese about the same time.
Thomas, the energetic Primate of York, before his death in
1114, had consecrated to the See of Man the Skye priest,
Wimund, who, as we have seen, aspired to royal honours in
Scotland, and falling into the hands of King David, was
submitted to such indignities as to prevent any other
impostor of his blood rising to claim the throne.1 After
his captivity in Roxburgh Castle, he was liberated and
sought a retreat in Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire, where, with
evident delight, he used to recount his adventures to his
fellow-monks, jocosely boasting that " God alone had been
able, through the faith of a simple bishop, to vanquish him,"
but had he been left his eyesight, his enemies would have
had less to boast of.* William of Newbury, in Yorkshire
(1136), probably a contemporary writer, gives a circum-
stantial account of this unscrupulous character, and he is
referred to by Matthew of Paris and by Fordun as Malcolm
Mac Heth.
1 Stubbs, 'Act* Pontiff Eboracens* (Twysdcn, p. 1217); Matt Paris.
* ' GoL Ncubrig. Hist,' &c., voL i. William says Wimund was " obscurrissimo
in Anglia loco natus."
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 265
According to Matthew of Paris, the successor of Wimund
was John, a monk from the Cistercian Monastery of Savigny.
About 1130, Nicholas, a monk of the Abbey of Furness, was
elected bishop, but his elevation does not seem to have been
agreeable to the Primate of York, for in the ' Chronicle of
Man,' Gamaliel, an Englishman, is mentioned as if the former
had been set aside. Depositions at the point of the sword
were not infrequent then, and arguments in favour of Ultra-
montanism were answered with cold steel.
About a year after the Nidrosian metropolitan see was
erected (1152), whereby the jurisdiction of York was set
aside, we find Ragnald or Reginald, a Norwegian, entering
into the See of Man, and, probably supported by King
Godred, who had just returned from Norway with confirmed
regal authority, obtaining valuable concessions of the fruits
of the benefices. Godred and his episcopal confessor had
soon to reckon with Somerled of the Isles, who drove them
both into exile.
There was not lacking a religious spirit in that masterful
Gael, however thin the veneer of his piety was, which afforded
itself some satisfaction by having or seeing another Argyle-
shire man, Christian, placed in the bishop's chair. His place
of sepulture in Bangor, Ireland, probably indicates the
seminary where Christian was educated, as well as the
tendency in Somerled to have the Church governed after
the time-honoured Celtic model. Somerled himself, however,
soon fell, and under the changed regime a Manxman, named
Michael, was appointed bishop ; but he is not mentioned by
the Islandic writers, proving that English influences were at
work, or that irregularities of consecration, which the Arch-
bishop of Nidarb's complained of to the Pope about 1204,
266 Rule in the Olden Time.
then existed. The diocese at this time was called Episctyatus
Suderticnsis, alias Mantnsis, and later, Insnlanns.
Nicholas, another Argylcshirc man, seems to have been
regularly consecrated, and is mentioned under the name of
Koli. He was buried in Bangor in 1217. His immediate
successors, Reginald and John, apparently owed their con-
secration to York, and accordingly were not recognised by
the chapter at Trondhcim. Reginald, a scion of the royal
house of Man, was buried in Russin. John perished by fire,
and was laid to rest at Jarrow-on-Tyne.
In Bishop Simon, consecrated in 1226 by Peter, the Arch-
bishop of Nidaros, was found an able ecclesiastic, who
strengthened the episcopal position by building the Church
of St German as the Cathedral of Man and the Isles, and
appointing a chapter in connection with it. The synodal
statutes promulgated by him are extant, but of little value.
He died in 1247.*
On Simon's death the chapter appointed the Archdeacon
Lawrence in his room, but this step gave rise to popular
dissatisfaction, and before Lawrence had received conse-
cration, he was drowned in the voyage to Norway in
1248. To him succeeded Richard, an Englishman, who
was consecrated in Rome by Sorli, the Archbishop of
Nidaros, in 1253, and ruled the diocese till his death in
1274.
It was during Richard's tenancy of office that the fateful
battle of Largs was fought, and subsequently, in 1266,
" Magnus IV. of Norway, King of Man and the Islands,"
ceded the Sudrcys to Alexander III. of Scotland, "together
1 ' Manx Soc Publications,' voL ix.
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 267
with the right of patronage of the Bishopric of Man," the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Nidaros being retained.
In the Treasury of Durham Cathedral is preserved an
Indulgence from Richard, Bishop of the Isles, to pilgrims
visiting the Feretory of St Cuthbert and the Galilee (Misc.
Chart, No. 814). It is dated at Durham, Nativity of St
John the Baptist, the first year of his episcopate (1253).
The seals of the bishop are attached. An oval seal, 2 inches
by i%, shows the bishop in the attitude of benediction, hold-
ing the crosier in his left hand, with title —
". . . DI • EPI • SODOR EN MANEN . & IN. . . ."
[Ricardi Episcopi Sodorensis Mannensis et Insulani.]
The counter-seal, a rounded oval, seven-eighths of an inch
by six-eighths, bears a chimaera with the motto —
" + ASCENDE CALVE AS[CENDE SJALVE."
The Columban Church throughout Scotland did not at
once, and universally, accept and practise the usages of the
Roman Church, which were recognised by the Celtic Church
in Northumbria immediately after the great disputation at
Whitby. The country was too unsettled for any conjoint
action which could have uprooted the stubborn regard of
the northern races for their first Church, with its rites and
doctrines. One result, however, of the defeat of the Celtic
by the Augustinian ecclesiastics was the assumption, at a
late date, by the Archbishop of York of jurisdiction over the
bishops of Scottish Northumbria.
The See of Galloway alone submitted itself to this new
jurisdiction, and its bishop, down to the fourteenth century,
was consecrated by the Archbishop of York.
268 Bute in tlie Olden Time.
The Scots Church was monastic rather than episcopal in
its form of government until the twelfth century, King
David finding only three bishoprics in Scotland on his
accession to the throne — namely, Dunkcld, St Andrews, and
Glasgow.
In the Western Islands, many of them remote from the
centres of Roman and English influences, there was a greater
likelihood that the characteristics of the early Church would
be long retained. But from the eighth century till the
twelfth, two great influences which were brought to bear
upon the Church in Bute must be noted, the one external
and the other internal, which could not fail to make a
deep impression on its life and work. The one was for a
time subversive and destructive, the other partly destruc-
tive, but on the whole reformative.
The one was the deformation by the Northmen, the other
was the transformation by the Church of Rome — an influence
at work from within the Church, changing still more the
character of its organisation, so that, thereby weakened, it
had to succumb to the more powerful Church of the south.
When the abbots had to flee the monasteries, carrying with
them the shrines of their patrons, the abbey lands were seized
and retained by laymen. The peculiar law by which the
succession of abbots in the early Church fell into the hands
of the heir of the founder of the Church, or of the tribe who
had granted the land, led to the usurpation of the possessions
of the Church by lay-chieftains.
The lay-abbot did not take orders, but employed a regular
ecclesiastic to perform his functions. The church frequently
vanished except in the title borne by the lay appropriator.
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 269
While these changes were developing, the Roman Church
was extending its influence more and more throughout
Scotland by subordinating the Church under a hierarchy
of secular clergy, as those who do not live under monastic
rule are at present. Meantime the Columban monks were
becoming more and more attached to Roman usages.
Sometimes they joined together to form a small society,
like that on St Serfs Island, which was suppressed by
King David I., by being placed under the canonical rule
of St Regulus. Ultimately all the " Culdee " communities
were suppressed.
By the changes of dynasty and the forfeiture of the lands
of the defeated, the Church lands also were sometimes left
without owners. These were granted to the favourites of the
king. However, in 1204, Alan, the son of Walter, was some-
how able to dispose of the Abbacy of Kingarth, with all
its lands and dependent chapels, to the Cluniac Monastery
of Paisley. In this gift is to be noticed the two great
movements operating in the Scottish Church from with-
out and from within — viz., the Church lands falling into
the hands of lay -abbots who retained their patronage, and
the gradual disintegration of the Columban Church, with
its subsequent amalgamation with the monastic Church of
Rome.
The Cluniac order of monks settled in Paisley and St
Blane's were a reformed order of the Benedictines, founded in
912 at Cluny, in Burgundy, by Berno, Abbot of Gigny. They
were strictly monastic, having no bishop within their walls,
wherein they laboured in silence, saying the Psalter at work,
and attending two masses daily. They were a strict and
270 Bute in the Olden Time.
studious order. It was not until the monasteries became
corrupt that the satirist had cause for declaring that
" The Friars or Fail drank berry-brown ale.
The best that ever was tasted ;
The Monks of Melrose made gude kail,
On Fridays, when they fasted."
The Cluniacs were under the jurisdiction of an abbot and
prior, and the mother-house of Wenlock in Shropshire, out of
which the priory of Paisley was supplied, owned the jurisdic-
tion of the Abbot of Cluny. Their monastic habit was a
black frock over a white, sleeved tunic, and a black cowl to
cover the head. What form the monastic establishment at
Kingarth now took does not appear, and when it developed
into one of the simple parish churches, which were for the
first time recognised in David's reign, is not known.
During the same century Reginald, son of Somerled, King
of the Isles, Lord of Argyle and Kintyre, founded at Saddell
a Cistercian monastery of reformed Benedictines, whose
mother -house was Citeaux, founded in 1098. They had
eleven abbeys in Scotland (including Deer, Dundrcnnan,
Glenluce, Melrose, Sweetheart). These monasteries were
placed in retired spots, and were dedicated to the Virgin
Mary. To Saddell Reginald gave the twenty-merk lands of
Ccsken.1
Hut simultaneously with this foreign movement there was
a reaction of native origin which had a considerable effect in
retaining some of the characteristics of the early Church.
Some of the Scottish chiefs who were not educated in Eng-
land, or still retained a patriotic regard for national " use and
1 ' Reg. Mag. Sig.,' lit xiv., No. 408 ; Spottiswood's ' Religious House*.'
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 271
wont," resented the revolutionary measures affecting the
Church. Chief among these was Malise, the Earl of Strath-
erne — the only county palatine in Scotland. He was of the
ancient Scottish blood, and, becoming leader of a Celtic
party, began to resist the innovations of the English and
Norman colonists, whom David I. patronised. His family
has the sole honour of having endowed a bishopric on an
old Columban foundation — viz., that of Dunblane, whose
church dates back to the seventh century, and seems to
have been an offshoot from Kingarth.1
All the efforts of this Celtic party, however, could not re-
suscitate the Celtic Church, whose last remnant in the Cul-
dees eventually disappears before the irresistible forces of the
powerful orders of the South. When King David gave Loch-
leven to the Augustine monks, in the Culdee library were
found a few books, sixteen in number, three of which were
the Pastoral, the Gradual, and the Missal in use in the
Celtic Church. Before David died he saw the Irish Church
accept the full Roman service ; and in Scotland the Liturgy
used in Salisbury Cathedral, which was called Osmund's
' Ordinal,' or ' The Sarum Service,' was being used in Glas-
gow Cathedral by Herbert, 1 1^7-6^? Although this Celtic
movement was not able to counteract the Anglicanisation of
the Church, it had one good result in causing the resuscita-
tion of dedications to old Celtic saints, whose names had
been omitted from the Calendars since the time Queen Mar-
garet tried to reform " tJte barbarous rite " of the Columban
Church. The restoration of the anniversary festivals of these
1 ' Liber Insule Missarum,' Pref. iii. ; Skene, vol. ii. p. 402.
2 'Aberd. Brev.,' Laing's Pref.
272 Bute in the Olden Time.
saints found greater favour when the wars of succession
began. In that period it was not uncommon to satisfy both
clerical parties by a double dedication, where a famous
Roman saint was associated with a local one, with claims
to popular regard. In the ' Register of the Priory of St
Andrews,' p. 346, instances of this kind arc given, in the
association of St Lawrence with St Coman at Rossieclerah,
and of St Stephen with St Moanus at Portmoak.1
We have another illustration of no little interest to us in
the double dedication of Rothesay Church to St Mary and
to St Brioc, which perhaps helps us to limit the period within
which this church was erected.
As has been already pointed out, the churches and Church
lands in Bute had, in 1204, been attached to the Monastery
of Paisley by Alan, son of Walter the Steward. As no
Antitjna Taxatio, or ecclesiastical rent-roll of the Isles, is
now extant, it cannot be stated what the fruits of the bene-
fices were, or to whom they were paid. Paisley docs not
seem to have drawn the rents at any time.1
While Scottish influences prevailed, five Scots priests in
succession received the episcopal dignity, and ruled over
the churches of Sodor and Man.
A native of Galloway, by name Mark, after the customary
disputings, in 1275 occupied the bishop's chair, and proved
himself not only to be a practical man but a patriotic Scot.
He rose to be Lord Chancellor of Scotland, suffered much
for his loyalty to the Scottish Crown, and was taken prisoner
to London by Edward I.8 He died blind in 1299, after being
1 a. Forbes't 'Cdeodan,' Prcf. xxil
* ' Reg. de Putlet,' pp. 67, 68. * Gordon's ' Ion*.' p. 99.
The Bishops of So dor and Man. 273
for twenty-four years in office, and was buried in St German's.
The synodal statutes he promulgated are also preserved, and
one of them is thoughtfully practical in its injunction upon
married persons not to sleep with their children lest they
should smother them. His seal is also preserved in a docu-
ment in the Chapter-house, Westminster. Under a Gothic
niche is the figure of a bishop vested, and in the act of
benediction. The inscription runs : " S. Marci Dei Gratia
Sodoren Episcopi."
The Scots bishops apparently selected St Brioc's Church,
Rothesay, for their cathedral ; St Mary's Chapel, which was
probably rebuilt in this epoch, served as their place of
sepulture.
< The Chronicle of Man ' states that after Mark, " Alan, a
native of Galloway, ruled the Sodorian church honourably,
died on the I5th of February 1320, and is buried in the
church of the blessed Mary of Rothersay in Buth." This
Allan or Onachus was consecrated by lorund at Drontheim.
The Chronicle further informs us : " To whom succeeded
Gilbert Mac Lelan, a native of Galloway. He was the
bishop of Sodor for two years and a half, and is buried
in the said church of Both."
Gilbert, like his predecessors, was a man of figures, and
appears in 1326 auditing the books of the constable of Tar-
bart Castle. He seems to have been a favourite of King
Robert Bruce, and in constant attendance upon him in differ-
ent parts in Scotland, as we gather from the Exchequer
Rolls.1 The same year his lordship pays a tax in barley
to the king, and saw that his clergy did the same, for
1 Vol. i,
VOL. I. S
274 Bute in the Olden Time.
after his death in 1327 the ^ penny of Man is not being
paid.
In the accounts for 1329 an entry stands, from which we
can infer that Gilbert was a staunch supporter of the Bruce's
throne:1 " Et Cudbcrto, frater domini Gilbert!, quondam
Episcopi in pattern cxpcnsarum factarum circa sepulturam
cjusdcm, iiii lib." — To Cuthbert, brother of Lord Gilbert,
formerly bishop, towards the expenses incurred in his burial,
£4. It is a pity that this monument, partly erected by
King Robert to his faithful bishop, is no longer distin-
guishable.
The next bishop was the Chancellor of Scotland under
Robert the Bruce, Bernard de Linton, who had been appointed
Abbot of Aberbrothoc in 1211, an office he held till the
spring of 1 328, when he was elected to Sodor. Bernard was
a patriotic Scot, an esteemed adviser of his sovereign, and an
able administrator.2
In the 'Book of St Thomas of Aberbrothoc' is found a
deed of gift assigning to Bernard a pension out of the bene-
fice, and in laudatory terms declaring how he had "lived
well, laudably, and honestly," prudently and circumspectly
ruled the house, and had expended the fees of his chancellor-
ship in repairing and maintaining the abbey.'
In 1328 King Robert grants him ,£100 "for his expenses
about the business of his election," probably incurred in going,
like his predecessors, to Trondheim for consecration. The
following year he also receives a small gift of £6, 133. 4d.
So well did the Bruce love his bishops.
1 Exchequer Rolls, vol. L p. 152. * Ibid., pp. 59, 114.
3 ' Liber S. Thome,' &c, n>L i., No. 358. Bann. Club.
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 275
Bishop Bernard, after four years' service, was laid to rest in
Kilwinning. His successor, Thomas, another Scot, according
to the Chronicle was eighteen years bishop, died on the 2oth
September 1348, and was buried in Scone. But he could only
have been fifteen years in the office, since we find his succes-
sor, William Russell, in the summer of 1349, returning from
Avignon, where he had been consecrated bishop by Bernard,
Bishop of Ostia. Pope Clement VI., in confirming this appoint-
ment, directed letters, among others, " to his beloved son, the
noble man, Robert, called Stuvard, the Senescall of Scotland,
Lord of the Isle of Bute, in the Diocese of Sodor." l William
was a Manxman, and had been Abbot of Russin for eighteen
years. After an episcopate of twenty-six years he died, and
was buried in Furness.
The same year, 1374, the clergy of Man elect another
native to the vacant see — John Donkan. He had previously
been the Archdeacon of Down, and held the responsible posi-
tion of papal Nuncio and collector of the papal revenues.2
His commercial methods had not given satisfaction to his
superiors, and the Chronicle notes how he was cast into prison
at Boulogne until he was redeemed for 500 merks. Simon
de Langham, formerly Archbishop of Canterbury, invested
him with episcopal authority in 1374 at Avignon. Pope
Gregory XI. confirmed the appointment, and wrote, among
others, to King Robert III., and to the Metropolitan of
Nidaros, informing them of his choice. He died in 1380.
The ' Chronicle of Man ' breaks off without acquainting us
of his end.
1 Munch, 'The Chronicle of Man,' p. 166 ; ' Diplomatorium Norwegicum,' vol.
vii. pp. 218-221.
2 Ibid., p.>82,
276 Bute in the Olden Time.
In 1380 the Bishop of Man voluntarily separated his
diocese from the other Sudrcys, but subsequent bishops have
assumed the ancient title of Sodor and Man. In the line
of episcopal succession came Bishops Robert Waldby, John,
Michael, Angus, John (1442), Angus, Robert (1492), John,
George Hepburn, John (Roderike Maccalistcr), Fcrquhard
Maclaghlan, Roderick Maclean, Alexander Gordon, John
Campbell, John Carsewell (Andrew Knox, Protestant prelate).
In 1542 the diocese of Man was legally annexed to York
by Act of Parliament (33 Henry VIII., cap. 3i> The Scot-
tish Church, however, continued the succession of bishops
until the abolition of Episcopacy at the Revolution, and in
Rothesay churchyard is to be seen the tombstone of Robert
Wallace, who died in 1675, the inscription on it beginning:
" Hie Jacet Reverendus Robertus Wallas, Episcopus Sodo-
rcnsis," &c.
The following is a translation of the part of the Latin
' Chronicle of Man ' relating to its bishops : ! —
"These were the bishops who filled the episcopal see of Man
from the time of Godred Crouan and some time before.
"The first existing before Godred Crouan began to reign was
Bishop Roolwer, who lies in the Church of Saint Machutus. Many
bishops indeed existed from the time of the blessed Patrick, who it
is said first preached to the Manxmen ; but from that period it
suffices to begin a retrospect of the bishops. It is sufficient, we
say, because who or what bishops existed formerly we know not,
since we neither find written materials nor have we learned from
the accurate accounts of the Fathers.
" After Roolwer existed Bishop William.
" After William, in the days of Godred Crouan, Hamond the son
of lole, of Manx extraction, undertook the episcopal office.
1 Edited by P. A. Munch. Pp. 28-31. Christiana, i86a
The Bishops of S odor and Man. 277
"To him succeeded in the diocese Gamaliel, an Englishman,
who is interred at Peterborough in England.
"After this bishop, Ragnald, a Norwegian, undertook the
ecclesiastical government. To him the Thirds of the churches of
Man were first conceded by the clergy, so that thereafter they might
be freed from episcopal exactions.
"Cristin [Christian], an Argyle man, succeeded him in the
bishopric, and is interred in the monastery of Bangor.
"After him Michael, a Manxman, revered in life as a monk
honourable and gentle in act and inclination, undertook the sacred
office ; he, after ending his life in a ripe old age, was honourably
buried at Fountains [Abbey.]
"Nicolaus, an Argyle man, succeeded him. He lies in the
monastery of Bangor.
"After him Reginald, a noble man, of royal extraction, was con-
secrated bishop, and with vigour ruled the church. He was daily
exhausted by weakness, although he was not always lacking in spirit.
In the act of praise to God, in a good confession, he breathed his
last, and is buried in the Abbey of Saint Mary of Russin.
" His successor in the bishopric was John the son of Hefare
[John M'lvar], who, through some miserable accident, and the
carelessness of his servants, met his death by fire. He lies at
Jerewos [Jarrow?] in England.
" After him Simon, an Argyle man, highly discreet, and erudite in
Scripture, ruled the church of Sodor. He departed life in a good
old age at St Michael's Church, and is interred in the Church of
Saint German, which he had begun to build. After his demise the
see was vacant for nearly six years.
" After Simon, truly the venerable Bishop of Sodor, Richard, an
Englishman, who had been consecrated at Rome by the Archbishop
of Nidaros, ruled the church for twenty-three years. While he was
coming from a General Council, A.D. 1274, he died at Langalyver
in Copland, and is buried in St Mary's Monastery at Furness.
" After him Mark, a Gallovidian, ruled the church of Sodor for
twenty-four years most excellently. He was exiled by the Manxmen,
for which reason the island was under interdict for three years.
Afterwards, however, having been recalled, he returned, and for the
278 Bute in the Olden Time.
relaxation of the aforesaid sentence they [the people] gave a penny
from every smoking hearth, which donation through ancient practice
is paid to each successive prelate on returning from the visitation of
the Isles.
"This Mark, liberal and urbane, died blind in a good old age,
and is buried in the Church of Saint German in the Isle of Holm.
"After him Alan, a Gallovidian, ruled the church of Sodor
honourably. He died on the 1 5th day of the month of February,
A.D. 1320, and is interred in the church of the blessed Mary of
Rothersay in Buth [Bute].
" Gillebert Mac 1 .clan, a Gallovidian, succeeded him. He was
Bishop of Sodor for two years and a half, and is buried in the afore-
said church of Both [Bute].
"Afterwards succeeded Bernard, a Scotsman, and is buried in
the monastery of Kilwynyn in Scotland. He lived in the diocese
four years.
"To him succeeded Thomas, a Scotsman. He lived in the
diocese eighteen years, and is buried in Scone in Scotland. He
died, however, on the aoth day of September, A.D. 1348. He was
the first to exact twenty soldos from the churches of Man under the
name of charges, as well as the tithes from all the foreigners engaged
in fishing, from the rectors of the island, taxed for first-fruits.
"In A.I). 1348, William Russell, by nation a Manxman, Abbot of
St Mary's Monastery at Russin, was elected by the clergy of the
Isle of Man to the pastorate of the church of Sodor in the Cathedral
Church of Saint German in Man in Holm, and was consecrated at
Avignon by Pope Clement VI., and was the first bishop-elect of the
church of Sodor who was consecrated and confirmed by the Apostolic
See, for all his predecessors had been customarily confirmed and
consecrated by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Nidaros. He also
died on the 2ist day of the month of April 1374, at Ramsheved
[Ramsey (?)], and is buried in the monastery of Saint Mary, at
Furness. Indeed he was Ablxjt of Russin eighteen years, and lived
twenty-six as Bishop of Sodor.
"On the day before the month of June, a Thursday, and the
festival of Corpus Christi, A.D. 1374, John Donkan, a Manxman,
was elected to the church and bishopric of Sodor by the clergy ; and
The Bishops of Sodor and Man. 279
on the following festival of St Leonard was confirmed at Avignon by
Pope Gregory XI., while on the following festival of St Catharine
at the Friars Preachers [monastery there] was, along with other eight
bishops, solemnly consecrated by the Cardinal of Praeneste, formerly
Archbishop of Canterbury. On the festival of the Conversion of
St Paul, A.D. 1376, and in the third year of his consecration, he was
solemnly installed in his own cathedral church aforesaid, and on
that day, at his first pontifical mass, was presented with the hand-
somest offerings, for meantime he had been taken at Boulogne in
Picardy, cast into prison and into shackles, but afterwards redeemed
for 500 merks. . . ."
APPENDIX.
I.— THE ISLES OF CUMBRAE.
A DETAILED account of the Cumbraes, Great and Little, does not
lie within the scope of this work, although through their very close
proximity to Bute they were associated with the latter isle in nearly
all events of historical importance. As has already been alluded to
(p. 31), the name Cumbrae reveals a connection with the Brythonic
family of Cumbri, fellow-countrymen, who were in prehistoric times
located in Strathclyde.
The Rev. W.> Lytteil, in a very interesting ' Guide-Book to the
Cumbraes,' 1 says : " It may here, however, be stated that the name
of Cumbrae, or 'The Cimbraes' [Kim'raes], has evidently its true
origin in the Kimmora or Keil-Maura, a compound name which
signifies the Church of Maura." I prefer the reference to the
Cumbri.
There remain but few memorials of the important part these isles
played in the heroic past. There are a few prehistoric graves, the
remains of forts and of a vitrified edifice, the traces of early ecclesi-
astical buildings, and the fragments of several antique crosses and
grave-slabs. Attenuated traditions regarding the Norse invasion of
Haco flit around the supposed graves of the heroes of Largs, at
Toumantenn.
1 Carlisle, 1886, p. 8.
282 Appendix.
FORTS.
/M-fraijf is situated on the west side of the (ircal Cutnbrac
(Lytteil, p. 25).
" Kenitara Brougk, or Tht Lornc" (Lyttcil, pp. 5, 16, 33, 121),
now removed, was situated on the most southerly point of the Great
Cumbrac.
DouHtraig, situated " Inrhind the ferry house opposite to the west
end of Largs, has been a vitrified structure." See 'Transactions of
the Glasgow Archaeological Society,' Part I., pp. 236-238 (Glasgow,
1 868), for article " On the Remains of a Vitrified Fort, or site, in the
Island of Cumbrae, &c.," by \Vm. Keddie, Esq.
On Little Cumbrae: Millar-fort (Lytteil, p. 131), irregular en-
closure. Tfu Castle (Lytteil, p. 132).
MONOLITHS.
The Leaddy, near Toumantenn.
Gouklan standing stone, 7 feet high (Lytteil, p. 106).
Braighagh (removed).
The Bel Stane on Little Cumbrae, with cup cut on face (Lytteil,
p. 128).
PREHISTORIC GRAVES, ETC
Tumulus at Portry (" Nouyorrach," Lytteil, pp. 22, 23), opened
24th September 1869, covered four cists formed of red sandstone
slabs. No. i contained small urn and burned bones ; No. 2 con-
tained large urn and burned bones; No. 3 contained unburned
bones ; No. 4 contained small piece of urn. See ' Transactions of
the (ilasgow Archaeological Society,' vol. ii., pan ii., pp. 1 14-120, for
paper read by John MacGown, Esq., M.I)., Millport, on "Ancient
Sepulture in Cumbrae."
Fintry Bay, tumulus, opened August 1873, covered three cists,
with no urns nor fragments of bones (//'/</., p. 1 1 5).
Toumantenn, two cairns, opened izth September 1878. No. i
contained cist, urn, burned bones ; No. 2 contained cist and urn,
also five large urns, flint arrowhead, burned bones. This latter
grave is locally supposed to contain the remains of Haco's men.
Santa / >v, two cists, rifled
Afagga-tlagh or Sheannawally, cairns, opened 1813 (Lytteil,
The Isles of Cumbrae. 283
p. 131) Contained two swords, hauberk of scale armour, iron
helm ; below these a cist, with urn, dust, and six teeth.
The Garrison, cairns with cists, removed before 1807 (Lytteil,
P- 57).
Trahoun, stone coffin and cross (Lytteil, pp. 41, 77).
ECCLESIASTICAL REMAINS.
Kilranny, near Ringan's Port, supposed site of church dedicated
to St Ninian.
Kirktoun, site of church dedicated to St Columba.
Santa Vey, on Little Cumbrae, a chapel said to be dedicated to
St Bey, has been a rectangular building 42 feet long by 20 feet
broad externally. The foundations alone are visible. (Lytteil,
p. 124.) Near this building are the foundations of a small circular
building, enclosing a space 6 feet in diameter. The wall is 3 feet
9 inches thick.
MEMORIAL CROSSES AND GRAVESTONES.
1. Trahoun Cross, found on Trahoun in 1823, was apparently
a high cross (Lytteil, pp. 41, 74). The head of the cross, com-
posed of white sandstone, is now appreciatively preserved within
the Cathedral Church in Millport. There are some indications of
its surface having been carved with a checkered or interlaced
pattern. It measures 17^ inches long and 19 inches broad.
2. In the Cathedral is also preserved a very prettily executed
memorial-stone or cross, with a circular head n inches diameter,
shaft 14 inches long, 8^£ broad, and 3^2 thick (Lytteil, p. 81).
Both sides are incised. The obverse of the circular head contains
a star (or cross) of six points ; the reverse a star (or cross) of four
points. On the obverse of the shaft a cross of an elaborate type
is incised, while on the opposite side circles have been cut.
3. In the same place a small oval water-worn stone, composed
of trap, with a cross potent incised on its face, is preserved. It
measures about 15 inches by 12 inches diameter (Lytteil, p. 82).
4. On a narrow slab of white sandstone, 18 inches long, 7^
broad, and 3 ^ thick — also preserved here — are traces of interlaced
or checkered ornamentation.
At Millburn House, the residence of the Rev. A. Walker, are
a ; Appctt,
carefully preserved several memorial-stones formerly removed from
the ancient gutejaid of Columba's Church, Cumbrae (Lyttcil.
P. 84).
5. On the face of a white sandstone, 20 inches in height and
13 inches broad, within a circular head 9 inches by 8 "4, a Greek
cross with four oval holes Ixrtwecn the arms is cut
6. The circular head of a memorial-stone 1 1 % inches high and
9?4 broad, bears in relief on the white sandstone a well-executed
1 '
7. A pear-shaped whinstonc, 1 7 inches high, and 1 1 broad over
the top, has a Greek cross incised upon it.
8. What seems to have been the shaft of a cross or a support
of a table, 30 inches high, 13 inches broad, and 8 inches thick, is
cut on one face with a parallel bar pattern and a row of beads.
9. On a freestone slab, 3 feet 6 inches long and 14)^ inches
broad, is engraved a sword, or St James's cross, resting upon an
intertwined ornament.
10. On a similar slab, 2 feet 9 inches long and n inches broad,
is engraved a sword resting on a pentagonal ornament.
II.-CHARTER DISPONING THE CHURCH OF
KINGARTH TO PAISLEY. See p. 175.
Confirmatio de Fultonc et Donatio Efdesitt et Capellantm de BoU
Cartam A/ani Filii W'altcri Fundatoris*
Sciant presentcs et futuri, quod ego Alanus Filius Walteri, dapifcr
Regis Scotiae, concedo et hac mea carta confirmo domui mci dc
I'asselet et monachis ibidem Deo scrvientibus ct in perpetuum
servituris, donationcm illam quam Hcnricus de Sancto Martino eis
fecit per concilium meum ct voluntatcm, ct consensu Gilberti filii
sui ct heredis, de tola terra suae inter Kert et Grif, in liberam et
pcrpctuam elemosinam eis semper habenda, ita plene et integre,
sicut idem Hcnricus dictam terrain plcnius et integrius tenuit vel
1 ' Registrant Monasterii de Pauelet,' p. 15. Kdin.. 1832. Malt. Club.
Western Isles of Scotland, called Hy brides. 285
tenere debuit ex dono Walter! filii Alani patris mei. Preterea ego
ipse pro anima regis David et pro anima regis Macolmi et pro
anima patris mei Walteri et matris mei Eschene, et pro salute
domini nostri Wilelmi regis Scotiae et heredum suorum, et pro
salute meiipsius et heredum meorum, dono, concedo et hac mea
carta confirmo eidem domui de Passelet, et monachis ibidem Deo
servientibus, ecclesiam de Kengaif in insula de Bote, cum omnibus
capellis et tota parochia ejusdem insulae, et cum tota terra quam
Sanctus Blanissicum dicitur [Sanctus Blanus per sicum, ut dicitur ?]
olim cinxit a mare usque ad mare, per metas certas et apparentes,
ita libere et quiete sicut aliqua ecclesia in toto regno Scotia? tenetur
liberius et quietius. Hiis testibus, Waltero de Costentin, Nigello
fratre ejusdem, Roberto filio Fulberti, Petro fratre ejusdem, Galfrido
de Costentin, Roberto Croc, Rolando de Mernis, Rogero de Nes,
Macolmo Lockart, et multis aliis.
III. — EXTRACTS FROM THE 'DESCRIPTION OF THE
WESTERN ISLES OF SCOTLAND, CALLED HYBRIDES.
BY MR DONALD MUNRO, HIGH DEAN OF THE ISLES,
WHO TRAVELLED THROUGH THE MOST OF THEM IN
THE YEAR 1594-' 'Miscellanea Scotica,' vol. ii. p. 115.
Glasgow, 1818.
ARRAN. — Be north or northeist fra this ile (viz., Ailsa) twenty-
four myles of sea, lies Arran, ane grate ile, full of grate montains and
forrests, good for hunting, with pairt of woods, extending in lengthe
from the Kyle of Arran to Castle Dounan, southwart to twenty-four
myles, and from the Kyle of Drumdouin to the ness of Kilbride,
sixteen myles of breadthe, inhabit onlie at the sea coasts. Herein
are thre castils : ane callit Braizay, pertening to the Earle of Arran ;
ane uther auld house callit the castil at the heid of Lochrenasay,
pertyning likeways to the said Earle ; and the third callit castle
Dounan, pertaining to ane of the Stuarts of Butes blood, callit Mr
James ; he and his bluid are the best men in that countrey. In
Arran is a loche callit Lochrenasay, with three or four small waters ;
286 Apfxndix.
two paroch kirks ; the ane callit Kilbridc, the uthcr call it Kylcmurc.
Foment this ile byes the coste of Kyle, in the cast and sou t heist, be
ten or twelve myles of sea in the north, Bute ; be eight mylcs of
MA in the west, Skibncss, pertaining to the Earlc of Argylc.
FijUM-MoLA.ss. — Uponc the shore of this iylc lyes Klada, ane
little iyle full of cunnigs, with ane uthcr little ilc callit the ylc of
Molft««. quhcrin there was foundit by Johne, Lord of the lies, ane
monastry of friars, which is dccayit.
BUITT. — The yle of Buitt lyes, as we have said before, eight myles
of sea to the northeist of Arran, ane mayne iylc, eight mylc langc
from the north to southe, and four mylc braid fra the west to the
cist, very fcrtyle ground, namelic for aitts, with twa strengthes ; the
ane is the round castle of Buitt, callit Rosay of the auld, and Bor-
rowstonc about it callit Buitt. Before the town and castle is ane
bay of sea, quhilk is a gude heavin for ships to ly upon ankers.
That uther castle is callit the castle of Kames, quhilk Kames in
Erishe is, alsmciklc as to say, in English the hay castle. In this ile
thcr is twa paroche kirks, that ane southe callit the Kirk of Bride,
the uther northe in the Borrowstone of Buitt, with twa chappells,
ane of them above the town of Buitt, the uther under the forsaid
castle of Kames. On the north and northwest of this ile, be half
mylc of sea, lyes the coast of Ergyle ; on the cast sydc of it the coast
of Cuninghame, lie six myle of sea.
INCHE MEKNOCHE. — On the west southwest of it lyes ane little
iyle callit Inch Mcrnockc, twa mylc fra sea, low mayne ground, weill
inhabit and manurit, ane mylc langc and half mylc breadthe.
CUMBRA. — On the eist and southeast lyes ane yle callit Cumbray,
inhabit and manurit, three mylc in length, and ane myle in breadthe,
with ane kirk callit Sanct Colmis Kirke.
CUMBRA DAIS.— Besides this lyes ane iyle callit Cumbray of the
Dais, because there is many Dayis intill it.
Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, 287
IV. — EXTRACTS FROM 'A DESCRIPTION OF THE
WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND. BY M. MARTIN,
GENT.' London, 1703, pp. 214-216.
BOOT. — The isle of Boot, being ten miles in length, lies on the
west side of Cozval, from which it is separated by a narrow channel,
in several parts not a mile broad. The north end of this isle is
mountainous and heathy, being more designed for pasturage than
cultivation ; the mold is brown or black, and in some parts clayie ;
the ground yields a good produce of oats, barley, and pease ; there
is but little wood growing there, yet there is a coppice at the side of
Loch Fad. The ground is arable from the middle to the southward,
the Hectic stone is to be had in many parts of this isle ; and there is
a quarry of red stone near the town of Rosa, by which the fort there
and the chappel on its north side have been built. Rothsay, the
head town of the shire of Boot and Aran, lies on the east coast of
Boote, and is one of the titles of the Prince of Scotland. King
Robert the Third created his son Duke of Rothesay, and Steward
of Scotland ; and afterwards Queen Mary created the Lord Darnley
Duke of Rothesay, before her marriage with him. This town is a
very ancient royal burgh, but thinly peopled, there not being above
a hundred families in it, and they have no foreign trade. On the
north side of Rothsay there is a very ancient ruinous fort, round in
form, having a thick wall, and about three stories high, and passages
round within the wall ; it is surrounded with a wet ditch ; it has a
gate on the south, and a double gate on the east, and a bastion on
each side the gate, and without these there's a drawbridge, and the
sea flows within forty yards of it. The fort is large enough for
exercising a battallion of men ; it has a chappel, and several little
houses within ; and a large house of four stories high, fronting the
eastern gate. The people here have a tradition, that this fort was
built by King Rosa, who is said to have come to this isle before
King Fergus the First. The other forts are Down-Owle and Down-
Allin, both on the west side.
The churches here are as follow : — Kilmichel, Kilblain, and Kil-
chattan, in the South Parish ; and Lady Kirk, in Rothesay, is the
most northerly parish. All the inhabitants are Protestants.
288 Appendix.
The natives here arc not troubled with any epidemical rl incur
The small pox visits them commonly once every sixth or seventh
year. The oldest man now living in this isle is one Homing, a
weaver in Rothsay — his neighbours told me that he could never
case nature at sea — who is 90 years of age. The inhabitants gen-
erally speak the English and Irish tongue, and wear the same habit
with those of the other islands. They arc very industrious fishers,
especially for herring, for which use they arc furnished with alxnit
80 large boats. The tenants pay their rents with the profit of
herrings. They are to be had anywhere on the western coast.
The principal heritors here are the Stuart of Hoot, who is heredi-
tary Sheriff of this shire, and hath his seat in Rosa ; Hallantinc of
Reams, whose seat is at the head of the bay of that name, and has
an orchard by it : Stuart of Rscoick, whose seat has a park and
orchard, and about a mile to the south of Rothsay. Next lies two
isles called CUMBRAY, the greater and the lesser ; the former is
within a league of Root. This island has a chappcl and a well,
which the natives esteem a catholicon for all diseases. This isle is
a mile in length, but the other isle is much less in compass. Both
isles are the property of Montgomery of Skclmorly.
V.— PLACE-NAMES IN BUTE.
ACHAMORE. — Dr Maclea, " Achamor^ The great field." Gael.,
(uhadh-mor, large field.1
ACHOLTER. — Dr M., " Achacholtoir, The ploughshare field." 1670,
Auchiltir. Gael., achadh, a field ; a/tair, affair, an altar. See
p. 234.
AIRIDHNANGKATH. — Shelling of geese, Gael., airidh, shelling;
giadh, goose.
AMBRISBEG. — Dr M., "The little trough." 1440, Amriesbcg ;
1 l)r Maclea's derivations of place-Dames are taken from an appendix supplied
to Mr Blain for his ' History of Bute,' and now found in the printed work. To
them are here added names omitted, corrections, and the etymon* as far as
these are di»COW»Mt.
Place- Names in Bute. 289
1506, Almorusbeg. Gael., amar, channel, trough; beag,
little.
AMBRISMORE. — Dr M., "The great trough." 1506, Almorusmore.
ARDBEG. — Dr M., "Ard-Bheag, Little height or rising ground."
Gael., aird, ard, a height, head, promontory.
ARDMALEISH. — Dr M., " Ard-Ma-Ghil-Iosa, The point of Jesus'
servant's son." 1400, Ardmaleish ; 1561, Ardmoleis. The
height of Moleis, Molios (mo lios, my flame). See p. 195.
ARDNAGAVE. — The height of danger. Gael., gabhudh, danger.
ARDNAHOE. — Dr M., " Ardnahuath, The height above the cow
[cave?]." 1440, Ardnahow ; 1506, Ardnehow. Gael., Aird,
a height or promontory ; uamh, cave.
ARDNLOT. — Dr M., " The fail shillin houses." Gael, lot, a wound.
The height of the wound.
ARDROSCADALE. — Dr M., " Ardroscadale, Rich or fertile height of
the point." 1475, Ardrossigelle. This strange compound
may be made up of words from the Goidelic, Brythonic, and
Norse languages. Ard, Gael., height ; ros, Gael., promontory,
or Rosca, Norse proper name ; dale, Norse, a little dale, or dal,
Brythonic, a meeting-place ; or gelle, corrupt form of Norse
gill, a defile or glen. On the ridge of Ardroscadale a circular
fort is to be seen. See p. 46.
ARDSCALPSIE. — Dr M., " Ardscalasatg, Height or promontory of the
bason." See Scalpsie.
ASCOG. — Dr M., "The cuckoo's retreat." 1503, Ascok. Norse,
askr, a boat ; haugr, a mound. The boat-mound.
AUCHANTIRIE. — Dr M., " Achaindireadh, The field of the rising
ground." In 1440 written Achanherve ; 1449, Achynhervy;
1506, Auchintarve — i.e., the bull's field (Gael., tarbh, bull).
Gael., achadh-na-t\re : achadh, field; fir, land.
AUCHAWILLIG. — Dr M., " Ach-a-Bhuilg, The field of the belly or
ridge." 1449, Awchywilk; 1506, Auchawolik, field of the
womb, blister, or quiver. Might have connection with Bolg —
the Firbolg, see p. 26.
AULTMORE. — "The big burn." Gael,, allt, a brook; mor, great.
BAIDLAND. — The towers. Gael., baideal, a tower or pillar.
BAILEAMHUILIN. — The mill-town. Gael., bail, baile, hamlet, village ;
muileann, mill,
VOL. I, T
290 Appendix.
BALANLAV.— Dr M., " Baile-Fhionlaidh, Finlay's town." Gad, bail,
fault, hamlet, village, house.
BAI.ELONE. — Dr M., " Bailtanfoint, Town or hamlet of the
meadow." Gael., /<>*, meadow.
BAUCHAIBIL. — Dr M., " Chapcltown, Baile-a-<haibil, The town of
the chapel."
BALICURICH. — The champion's homestead. Gael., built, cvraidh.
BALIOCHDRACH. — The lower homestead. Gael., iothdarath, lower.
BALIUACHDRACH. — The upper homestead. Gael, ttaehdraeh,
upper.
BALLACH NA MUICK. — Dr M., " The sea-pigs' slap." Gael, btalath,
pass ; muif, a pig.
BALLACROIT. — The town of the eminence. Gael., croit, a hump,
eminence, croft.
BALLENTUA. — The town of the peasantry. Gael., tooth, tenantry,
peasantry. This place is near the common lands of Burgh.
See p. 34.
BALLYCAUL. — Dr M., " Balecatil, Strengthening ground."
BALLYCURRY. — Dr M., " Baile-Churaidh, The champion's town."
BALNAKELLY. — Dr M., " Baile-na-Choillt, The town of the wood."
Gael, coillt, wood.
BARDARACH. — Dr M., " Bar-Darach, The oak top or point." Gael.,
barr, height ; darach, oak.
BARLIA. — The grey top. Gael., bar, a top ; Hath, grey.
BARMORE. — Dr M., " Barmor, The great top or headland."
BARNAULD. — Dr M., " Barnal, The apple top." 1440, Bernavil ;
1449, Bcrnaull. Gael, btarn-avil, the gap of Avil, or barr-an-
uilt, height of the glen, or bcarn-an-abhail, gap of the apple-
tree. There is a deep wooded dell behind the farm of
Barnauld.
R A RONE. — Dr M., " Meikle Barone, Ban-roin-mhoir, The woman's
great share or division." 1419, Barrone; 1498, Laurone ;
1513, Berroun. Gael, barr sroine, height with a nose ; or a
form of the Brythonic word bryn, brow, hill ; or Barron, the
hill of Barinthus. See p. 52.
BEALLACH DERG. — The red pass, or Deargfs (an Ossianic hero) pass.
Gael, bealath, a defile ; dtarg, red.
BIRCIDALE-CRIEFF. — 1440, Brethadale; 1449, Brigadilknok and
Brigadillowin ; 1534, Birgadillovyn. Teut., borg or burg, a'
Place- Names in Bute. 291
fortified place ; dalr, a dale ; dael, a little dale. Gael., crubha,
shoulder of a hill. Cf. DUNBURGIDALE.
BIRGIDALE-KNOCK. — Dr M., " The hill covered with brushwood."
BLARDIVE. — 1449, Blardyve. Gael., blar, a plain, battle.-field,
battle.
BLARMEIN. — Gael., blar, field ; mein, ore, vein of metal.
BOGANY. — Dr M., " Both-an-Ach, The hut or cottage field." Gael.,
both, house ; gaothanach, windy. The windy house.
BRANSARE. — Dr M., " Branser, The farm with brittle ground."
1440, Bransare; 1506, Bransier. Perhaps related to brean,
stinking. Old Erse, bren ; Erse, br'ean ; Gael., breun, stinking,
foul, is applied to marshy places. Cf. Breansha, near Tipperary
(i.e., breansach, a stinking place). Cf. Maxwell's 'Studies in
the Topography of Galloway,' p. 95, under Branyea.
BRECKOCH. — Dr M., " Tigha-Breachdaich, The house of the speckled
field." Gael., breacach, speckled, brindled, broken.
BRONOCH. — The sorrow-field. Gael., brbn, sorrow : achadh, field.
BRUACHNACAORACH. — The sheep-ascent. Gael., bruach, a bank,
short ascent ; caora, caorach, a sheep.
BRUCHOG. — Dr M., " Bruchait, A pleasant precipice." 1440,
Bruchag ; 1509, Brothog. Gael., bruach, a brink or hill;
brothog is a diminutive of old Gael, broth, a ditch. There
was a tumulus here, and the word might be compounded of
Teut. borg, burg, or brugh, and Teut. haugr, a mound. One
of the old names of this district was Cuningburgh.
BULL LOCH. — The hill loch. Ger., buhil, hill.
BULOCHREG. — Dr M., " Buaile-chreig, The fold of the rock."
Gael., buaile, a fold ; creag, rock.
BUTEANLEANAIN. — The meadow-butt. Gael., lean, a meadow.
BUTTANLOIN. — The marsh-butt. Gael., Ion, loin, marsh, meadow.
BUTT-BLAIR. — Dr M., " The plain butt." Med. Anglo-Latin, butta,
division, measure of land ; Gael., blar, blair, a plain, a green.
BUTT-CURRY. — Dr M., " The Champion's butt."
BUTTDUBH. — The black butt. Gael, dubh, black.
BUTTINLUCK. — The mouse-butt. Gael., luck, a mouse.
BUTTNACOILLE. — The butt of the wood. Gael., coille, wood.
BUTTNACREIG. — The butt of the crag. Gael., creag, rock, crag.
BUTTNAFLORIN, — The butt of the flowerets. Gael., flulrein,
floweret.
292
BUTT-NA-MADDA. — Or M., " The dog's butt" Gael, madadh, dog.
BUTT-NA-MENNA. — Dr M., " The mess butt." The kid's butt.
Gael., mtann, kid.
BUTT-N'-TUILK. — Dr M., "The wet butt" Gael., /w/, tuilich,
flood, deluge.
CAOCHAG. — Dr M., "The windy farm." Gael., caochag, a
mushroom.
CLACHANUISAGE. — Gael., clack, a stone, or dachan, a village ; *istag,
a lark. The village of the lark. Or probably Visage is a
proper name.
CLACHCARNIE. — Gael., clack, stone, or e/ndh, mound ; carnack, adj.,
rocky. See p. 48.
CLACHIERAN. — The burial-place of Ciaran. Gael., clndk, a mound.
The Macllhcrans of Kilmorie were buried at this place.
See p. 139.
COILEVAN. — Dr M., "The delightful hollow." See CULEVIN.
COLMAC, — See p. 1 16.
CORLAICH. — The corrie of mud. Gael., coire, a cauldron, dell ;
salaick, dirt.
COVIN HILL. — Covin's Hill. Or Gael., gobkainn, the Smith's Hill.
See QUIEN.
CNOC-AN-COIGREAICH. — This is the name of a dismantled fort on
the farm of Auchantirie. The word may signify The hill of
the strangers. Gael., cnoc, a hill ; coigrcack, stranger.
CNOCNABUCHAILLE. — The hill of the shepherd. Gael., buachaille,
a cattle-herd.
CNOC NA FEARN. — The alder-tree hill. Gael, fearna, alder-tree.
CRAIGAGOUL. — The Crag of Goll. See p. 87.
CRAIGBIORACH. — Dr M., " Craig Bhlorach, The pointed rock."
CRAIGBUIDSICH. — The witch's crag. Gael., buidsich, a witch.
CRAIGMADDIE. — The wolfs crag. Gael., madadh, dog, wolf.
CRAIGMORE. — Dr M., " Creag-Mhor, The great rock."
CRAIG NA FEARN. — Dr M., "The shallow marsh." Rather, Crag
with the alders. Gael., fcarna, an alder.
CRAIGUAIL. — Dr M., " Creag-a-Ghuail, The rock of the shoulder."
Gael., i/rt/7/, pride, fame. The rock of fame.
CRANSLAGLOAN. — See KNESLAGLOAN.
CRANSLAGMORIE, CRIOSLAGMORY. — See KNESLAGVORY.
Place -Names in Bute. 293
CRANSLAGVOURACHTY, CRIOSLAGVOURATHY. — See KNESLAGVOUR-
ARTY.
CREAG A CHLAIDH. — The rock of the sword. Gael., daidheamh,
sword.
CREAG AN LEA. — Dr M., " The grey rock." Gael., Hath, grey.
CREATRIACH. — A wilderness. Gael, creatrach, a wilderness;
criadhadaireach, clayey.
CROSSBEG. — The little cross. Gael., crois, cross.
CROSSMORE. — The great cross.
CUAGACH or CULLACH. — Dr M., " Coalachadh, Lean or narrow
field." 1506, Cogach. Gael., cuagach, curved.
CULDONAIS. — Dr M., " Cuil-Donais, The mischief corner." See
luck corner. Gael., a'til, corner ; donas, mischief, bad luck,
the devil.
CULEVIN. — The joyful corner. Gael., cuil, corner : aoibhinn, joyful,
pleasant. 1506, Cowleing or Culavin.
CULLAIVE. — Dr M., " The back of the hand." At the back of the
water. Gael., cut, back ; abh, water.
CULNASHAMBREG. — Dr M., " Cuil-na-Seamrog, The circular clover
hollow." 1440, Cloynsamrag; 1506, Clonschamerag. Gael.,
cluain, meadow ; seamrag, clover. The clover mead or plain.
CUNINGBURGH. — 1478, probably a name of Scoulog.
DORNACH. See PORT AN DORNAICH.
DRUMACHLOY. — Dr M., " Drum-a-Chlaidh, The ridge of the church-
yard." Gael., druim, back ; cladh, a mound, grave, trench.
DRUMCHONEY. — Dr M., " Drum-a-Chaoineadh, The lamentation
ridges." Gael., caoineadh, pres. part, of v. caoin, to weep.
DRUMMOR. — The great ridge.
DRUMTRODDEN. — Dr M., " The quarrelsome height." Gael., druim,
ridge ; trod, strife. The ridge of fights.
DUBH LOCH. — Dr M., " Dubh-loch, The black loch."
DUNAGOIL. — Dr M., "The foreigner's fort." 1440, Dunvilze;
1449, Dungule ; 1506, Dunguild ; 1533, Dwngull. Gael.,
dun, a fort; gall, a foreigner. "This word was first applied
by the Irish Annalists to the Danes or Scandinavians from
their first arrival in the eighth century to the twelfth, when it
was transferred to the English." — ' O'Don. Suppl.' . Or it might
signify, The fort of Goll. See pp. 55, 87.
294 Af>f>e*di.\ .
DUMALUNT. — Dr M.f " DunaAn'Mii, The beautiful fort or hillock."
1440, Dunanlunt; 1449, Downanlont ; 1498, Dunanland-
Makgelmichaul ; 1 500, Dunallerd. Gad., dun, a fort ;
a/utnn, fair. See p. 45.
DUNBURGIDALE. — This may IK a word composed of three words,
each signifying a fort. Gael., dun ; Norse, bttrg ; Brythonic,
ddl (a folk-mote). See p. 53.
DUNSTRONE. — The dun of the headland. Gael., sron, a nose,
headland. See p. 48.
EDEKBEG. — Dr M., " An-Eadain-beag, The little face or front"
Gael., fadan, face.
EDENMOR. — Dr M., " An Eadain mtor, The large face or front."
EENAN HILL. — Ecnan might l>e proper name; corruption of Adam-
nan. See p. 209.
ESKECHRAGGAN. — Dr M., " Easfothragat'n, The frog wet ditch."
1440, Ascragan ; 1449, Askachragan ; 1506, Escragane.
Gael., eas-a-trtagain, waterfall from the little crag ; fas, water-
fall ; erf again, little crag.
ETTRICK. — Dr M., " A trig, The shallow water." Gael., talhar,
boat; Norse, vlk, a little bay.
FAD, LOCH. — Also called "Ix>ng Ix>iche." Gael.,/d</a, long.
GALLACHAN. — Dr M., "Where tussilage grows." 1440, Dalachane.
Gael. gall, stranger ; achadh, field.
GARACHTY. — Dr M., " Garbh-thidh, The rough or rocky end." 1 440,
Garach ; 1 498, " Le Gariteis " ; 1 506, Garachach ; 1510, Gar-
ochty. Gael., garadh, a copse or den ; gdrradA, garden ; garth
afh ttgh, house of the rough field. See p. 8.
GARTNAKELLY. — Dr M., " Gart-na-Coi/lt, Field or enclosure of the
wood"
( 1 1. AST ROM. — The grey ridge. Gael., g/as, grey ; druimt ridge.
GLLANBUIDHE. — Dr M., " Gleann-buidht, The yellow glen."
GLF.CHNABAY. — Dr M., •' Gltuf-na-Bdthe, The birch hollow or glen."
1449, Glacknabechy. Clath-na-tKath^ rock of birches. Gael.,
heath, Mth, birch-tree.
GLKNCALLUM. — Dr M., " Malcolm's glen."
GLENCHROMAG. — Dr M., " Glcanthromaig> Glen of the little crook
P lace-Names in Bute. 295
''•**.
or hook." Gael, crbm, a circle ; aig or ag, a diminutive ; or
aig, Gael, for Teut. vik, a bay ; hence, Glen of the round bay.
GLENDUIN. — Dr M., " The steep glen "—Glen of the forts. Gael.,
dun (pi. duin), fort.
GLENMORE. — Dr M., " Glean Mhor, The large glen."
GLENVODIAN. — Modan's glen, or The glen of vows. Gael., bold, pi.
boldean, vow, vows. See p. 210.
GORTANS. — Ur M., " Goirteain, The small patches of land." Gael.,
goirtein, a little corn-field.
GRENACH. — Dr M., " Greanach, Shaggy." Gael., grianach, adj.,
sunny, from grian, the sun. Cf. Ir. grianog, sunny little hill.
GRINAN MILL. — Dr M., " Muilean-Ghrianan, The mill of the sunny
place." 1400, Grenan. Gael., grianan, a sunny spot.
KAMES. — Gael., camus, a bay. 1475, Camys.
KELLIELUPE. — 1440, Kellielupe ; 1445, Kellislowpe; 1449, Kel-
loup. Gael., caol, caoile, narrow; luib, creek, little glen.
KELSPOKE. — Dr M., " Kelspag, The burying point of land." 1506,
Kellspokis. Might be Cill-espuic, The church of the bishop.
It is near St Blaan's church.
KERRYCROY. — Dr M., " The hard quarter." Gael., ceithramh,
quarter, division ; cruaidh, hard. Cf. cruaidh, a stone used
for an anchor.
KERRYCRUSACH. — Dr M., "The gaping quarter." 1440, Kerbcreach ;
1 449, Kervecresach ; later, Kerrycroisic. Gael., crosag, streaked ;
croiseag, a little cross. Kerrycrusach might thus mean " The
district of the little crosses," referring to Crossbeg and Cross-
more, places in the immediate vicinity.
KERRYFEARN. — Dr M., " Ceathramhfern, The alder-tree quarter."
Gael., fearna, alder-tree. See p. 30.
KERRYLAMONT. — Dr M., "Lament's quarter." See p. 33.
KERRYMENOCH. — Dr M., "The middle quarter." 1506, Keryman-
ach, The monks' quarter. Gael., manach, a monk ; mead-
honach, intermediate.
KERRYMORANE. — Moran's quarter, or populous quarter. 1527,
Keremorane. Gael., mbran, multitude.
KERRYNEVEN. — 1527, Kerenevin, Neven's quarter.
KERRYTONLIA. — Dr M., " The low grey quarter." Gael., ceithramh
Donulll, Donald's quarter.
296 Appendix.
KIANAGHARHAIN. — Dr M., " Arabic spoU among rocks." Gael,
ftitnH abkninit, source of two streams.
KILBLAAN, KILBLAIN. — Blaan's church.
KILBRIDE— Dr M., " Cill-a-BhriKMe, St Bride's cell."
KILCHATTAN. — The church of Catan. Sec p. 137.
KILOAV ANNAN. — I>r M., " Cill-4a-Mkanam% St Manan's cell." 1 466,
Kilmavananc. Probably Adamnan's church. See p. 209.
KILKERAN. — The church of Ciaran. See p. 139.
KILMACHALMAIG.— Dr M., " CUl-math-Chalmaig, The Chapel of St
Calmaig." 1475, Kyi macolmoc. Seep. 116.
KILMICHEL.— Dr M., " Cill-a-Mhicheall, Michael's Church." Sec
p. 113.
Kn.MokiK. — Dr M., " Cilmhoire Chaibil, The Virgin Mary's burying-
ground, with a chapel." 1449, Kylmorc and Killemorc. See
p. 233.
KILWHINLICK. — Dr M., " Ci/khumhangltag, Cell of the narrow flag
or stone." 1449, Kilconlick. Gael., all cumhain Ittu, or all
chutnn (Conn) bat, cell of the memorial-stone of Conn, or
cell of the memorial-stone of Winnin or Finan. There was
a Conlaoch, son of Cuchullin, an Ossianic hero. See p.
102.
KNESLAGLOAN. — Dr M., " Crioslachtanlaint, Border of the bog or
meadow."
KNESLAGVORY. — Dr M., " Crioslachmhoire^ Virgin Mary's limit or
border." 1670, Kncslag.
KNESLAGVOURARTY. — Dr M., " Crioslach-Mhuwhaidh, Murdoch's
border or limit" 1449, Knersa ; 1506, Knaslagwerardy.
KNOCANTIALT. — The burn of the fairy knoll. Gael., cnof-an-sith-
allt — si/A, a fair)- ; a///, a brook.
KNOCKANRIOCH. — Dr M., " Cnocan-Riach, The grey eminence."
Gael., riiil'hach, brindled.
KNOCK-NA-ICANNUB. — Dr M., " The hemp-hill." Gael., cnoc-Ha-fainb,
hill on which hemp grows.
KXOCNALULAIUHE. — The treasure-hill. Gael., ulaidh, treasure.
LANGILU — Norse, ft'/, a narrow glen watered by a stream. The
lang-gill of Kingarth seems to have l>ccn the glen beside
Stravannan. The Langill lands were divided into six portions
as under: —
Place- Names in Bute. 297
LANGILBUINOCH. — Dr M., " Lanbhiiinidh, The profitable field."
1554, Langilwinox in Langilwunnan ; 1555, Langilbunnage.
LANGILCHORAD. — Dr M., "A plain fauld." 1664, Langlelorid.
LANGILLCULCATHLA. — Perhaps for Langil - Kilchattan. 1498,
Langmyllculcathlane ; 1506, Langilculr(c)athla.
LANGILLCULCREITH. — 1525, Langilculcluth.
LANGILLMILGAY.
LANGILLQUOCHAG. See QUOCHAG.
LARGIVRECHTAN. — Dr M., " Largivrechtan, The rocky declivity."
1440, Largabrachtan. Gael., learg-a-bhreachdain, the slope
covered with wheat, or Nechtan's slope.
LARGIZEAN. — Dr M., " Largihean, The Daisy field." 1506, Largil-
yane; 1533, Largayan.
LEANENTESKEN. — Dr M., " Leanantshrasfona, Meadow or plain of
the barren land." Gael., leana-na-f easgan, marsh with eels.
LEANY. — Dr M., "The wet field." Gael., leana, always implies a
marshy field.
LECHTAN. — Dr M., " Leachdunn, Rocky steep or hanging ground."
Gael., leac, leachd, declivity ; dun, mount.
LEINHALL. — Dr M., " Lean-a-Choill, The field of the wood."
LENIHULINE. — Dr M., " Lean-a-Chuillean, The field or plain of the
holly. Gael., cuilionn, holly.
LENIMOLACH. — Dr M., " Leana-mholach, The rough field." Gael.,
leana molach, mead of rough grass — i.e., abundant.
LEPINQUHILLIN. — Bed of hollies. 1449, Lapennycale. Gael.,
leaba, bed ; cuilionn, holly.
LOCH NA LEICHE. — Leitch's loch — the physician's loch.
LUBAS. — Dr M., "A small bay." 1440, Lubas; 1449, Lowpas,
Gael., tub, a bend ; eas, a waterfall. The bend or winding of
the cascade.
MARG-NA-HEGLISH. — The church's portion of land. Gael., marg,
portion ; eaglais, church.
MEADOWCAP. — The meadow freehold land. Ang. -Sax., mtzdu,
meadow ; Scand., kaup, land, freehold land.
MECKNOCH. — Dr M., " Beachd-chnoc, The view-hill or hillock."
MUCLICH. — The pig's stone. Gael., muic, pig ; leac, a flat stone.
NAHOIRAN.— Dr M., " The sandy field." See TIGHNAHOIRIN.
298
PENMAUCHRIE (Cumbrae). — Head of the plain. Cym.-Ccl., /v«,
hill-top; Gael., magh, machairt, plain.
PENYCAHIL. — The l»ld summit. Cym.-CcL, fen, penni, hill-top;
('•erm., kaM, bald.
PORT AN DoRNAicH. — The boxer's port Or Gael, dorntag, stone.
PORT LEITHNE. — The broad port. Gael., leithnt, broad.
PORT LUCHDACH. — The loading port, Gael., luchd, a burden, load.
PORT NA CAILUCH. — The old woman's port. Gael, (aillcath, an
old woman.
PORT NA H'AILLE. — Port of beauty; rocky port Gael., <////<%
beauty ; a/7/, rock.
PRASACK. — Abounding in bushes. Gael., preasafk, furrowed,
abounding in bushes.
QUIEN. — Dr M., " Cuithcan, A little trench or mound." 1449,
Cuven, later Cowane, Cowan, (iacl., cuitht, a trench or pit
QUOCHAC. See CAOCHAC.
REILIGEADHAIN. — Now Kulichcddan. Gael., rii/ig, a grave;
Eadhain, of Aidan. See p. 163.
REILIGNERCET.— Gael., rtilig-Ncrgct, Nerget's grave.
REILJGVOURKIK. — Gael., rtiJig-Mhurca, Murdoch's grave.
RILLEUOIL. — Tim. Font's map, 1657. Gael., rtiligi a grave ; mhaoil^
of the promontory.
ROINN CLUMHACH. — The rough headland. Gael., roinn^ a point ;
diimhath, rough.
ROSLAND. — Dr M., "The land of the point." Rosland is beside
the parish church. Cornish, ros, moor, meadow ; Bryth., //a«,
church — The church of the meadow. A common phrase in
Rothesay is to go up the meadow to church. See p. 31.
RUDHABODACH.— Dr M., " Row, Rudh, or Rudh-Mhoda<h, The
Bute point"
RUDHA N AM.MK. — The promontory of the channel (amar).
SAI.I.AN PORT. — Salt port. Gael., saJann, salt.
SCALPSIE. — Dr M., "SfaJasaig, Small bason or bay." Norse, scdlpr^
a small boat or shallop ; the termination it or ay here is
probably a corruption of bhai& aig, or ag, the Gaelic equivalent
for Norse r/4, a creek or bay. Scalpsay would thus mean the
Place- Names in Bute. 299
shallop-bay — the shallow bay of sand being only suited for
small craft.
SCARREL. — Dr M., " Scetr-Gheal, The white shelvy rock." 1440,
Scarale, The Skarellis ; 1506, Starraell.
SCULOG. — Dr M., " Sculaig, The natural harbour." This name may
have some connection with the Scoloc lands (sgbl, Goidelic,
a school), in connection with the Celtic Church. See p. 194.
SHALUNT. — Dr M., "The beautiful wood," or the woodland. 1449,
Schenlont; 1506, Schawland (Tim. Pont, Shalma?). Perhaps
Old Eng., schaw, scaga, Icel., skogr, wood ; lont, corruption of
land.
SHANTALLON. — The old hall. Gael., scan, old ; talla, a hall.
SKEOCH WOOD. — The hawthorn wood. Gael., sgitheach, Erse,
sceithwg, a hawthorn bush.
STRAAD. — Tigh-na-sraide, The street house. Gael., sraid, Ang.-Sax.,
strad, Scand., strade, street.
STRAY ANNAN. — Dr M., "The smooth -running, white -bottomed
rivulet." 1440, Stramanane. Gael., srath, a valley. Manan's
or Magnus's strath.
STUCK. — Dr M., " Stuick, The jut out." Gael, stic, a little hill
jutting out from another, a peak.
TAWNIE. — 1440, Cawnoch (Tawnoch?).
TEYNABENNY. — Dr M., " Tey-na-Beinne, House of the hill or
common." Gael., beinn, mountain.
TEYNFLUICK. — Gael., tigh-an-phluic, house of hill ; ploc, any round
mass, or large turf.
TEYNTUDOR. — Dr M., " Tigh-an-Dudoir, The trumpeter's house."
Gael., dudair, trumpeter.
TEYROW. — Dr M., " Tigh-an-Rudh, Point-house."
TIGHACHNOC. — The house of the knoll. Gael., tigh, house; cnoc,
hill.
TIGHAGHAVIL. — Dr M., " Tigk-a-Ghctvil, The stranger's house."
Gael., gabhal, a fork. The house at the fork.
TIGHANLUINN. — The ale-house. Gael., leann, ale.
TIGHGHAOILL. — The house of the foreigner, or of Goll. See
DUNAGOIL, CRAIGAGOUL.
TIGHNACRAOIBH. — The house of the tree. Gael., craobh,
tree.
3<x> Appendix.
TIGHNACOITH. — The windy house. Gael., gaolh^ wind.
TIGHNAHOIRIN. — The hero's house. Gael., furniJh, hero.
TIGHNAUEINE. — I >r M., " TtgAan/famtn, The house on the plain."
Gael, /fan, a meadow or swampy plain ; leann, ale. Hence
ale-houtt.
TOM NA CRICHE. — The knoll of the march. Gael., lorn, a knoll ;
eriofh (cr'tftu, gen.), a boundary.
TORACHREW. — Torr a Chrutk. Gael., tbrr, hill ; cruiht a form,
figure.
TORANTURACH. — The towcry hillock. Gael., /i>rr, a hill ; titrtuh^
having towers.
UAMH CAPUILE. — The chapel cave. Gael., uamh, cave ; caibeal,
chapel.
UAMH PHADRAICH. — Patrick's cave.
UCHDIES. — The steep place. Gael, uchdath^ ascent
ERRATA.
73. line 5, for " all," read " each of."
•i » it 6, it " cover," read " covers."
H 78, H 10, ii " implies." rtad " imagines."
•i 134, •• 16, H "M'Phee."r^a</"M'Fie."
•i 158, ii 1 8, .• " 505," read" 565."
INDEX OF SUBJECTS, NAMES,
AND PLACES.
Abbots and Bishops of Kingarth, 201-212
— table of contemporaries of, 203.
Adamnan, St, Abbot of lona, use of pre-
served historical materials, 91 — life of,
208 — literary works, 208 — chapel at
Kildavannan, 209.
y£ngus or CEngus, the Felire of, 129.
^Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, 204.
Agricola, as a scout in the Western Isles,
89.
Aidan, King, parentage of, 159 — life of,
160 — battles of, 161 — death of, 163 —
burial-place of, 165 — connection with
Columba, 160 — the Cymric Gwledig, |
1 60 — Aidan's sons, killed at battle of
Catraeth, 161 — other sons, 163. See
Reiligeadhain.
Aidan, St, of Northumbria, 205.
Ailbe, St, no.
Aitrick, Fort, description of; Mr Lytteil,
reference to, 46.
Alan, Bishop of Sodor and Man, 100.
Alan the Steward, 12 — charter disponing
of Kingarth to Paisley, 1 75, 284.
Alban, old name of Caledonia, 26.
Alexander II., King of Scotland, asks
cession of Scotland from King Haco,
invades Western Isles, 250, 251.
Alexander III., King of Scotland, 251.
Allan, son of Ruari, pillages Loch Lo-
mond-side, 254, 257.
Aneurin, the poet, 161.
' Annals of MacFirbis,' 153.
' Annals of Tighernac,' 5.
' Annals of Ulster,' 203.
Ardderyd, victory of King Aidan at battle
of, 1 60.
Ardmaleish, Fort, 52.
Ardnahoe, Fort, 47.
Arnold, Matthew, poem on Brandan, 149.
Arran, ancient name of, 132.
Aryan, the race, 24.
Aultmore, Fort, 50.
Bagmen, the, a race in Erin, 26.
Baileachaibil, supposed site of chapel,
235-
Baile' Mhoid or Bhoid, Gaelic name of
Rothesay, n, 16.
Balilone Fort, 54.
Baliol, included Bute in sheriffdom of
Kin tyre, 12.
Bangor, Rule of, at Kilblaan, 192.
Barone, Fort, 52.
Barrows, 38.
Basilicas, Roman quadrangular churches,
187.
Beacons, the Norse, 13, 14.
Bede, materials of his history carefully
selected, 91 — refers to St Ninian, 92.
Berchan, St, prophecy of, regarding King
Aidan and Columba, 154, 160.
Bicker's Houses, Fort, description of, 50
— dolmen, 65.
Bishops of Sodor and Man, 100, 260-279.
Blaan (Blane), St, transports holy earth
from Rome to Bute, 27 — birth-place,
167 — teachers, 168 — pilgrimage to
Rome, 169 — miracles, 169, 171 — mis-
sion to Picts, 172 — at Dunblane, 173 —
churches in Alban, 173 — settlement
at Kilblaan in Bute, 174 — stone sarco-
phagus of, 1 88 — curse of, 190 — vest-
ments, 198— death and burial of, 200.
3O2 Index of Subjects, Names, and Places.
Blaaa, the parish of, 177 — primitive
church of, 177— ground-plan of, 182—
measurement* of, 1 83.
Blaan's Church, Kilbuin or Kilblaan.
See Kilblaan.
Blackpark. See Stone circle.
Blaeu, Atlas of, reference to Boot, I J.
Brandanes, the, origin of, old name for
Butemen, 153.
Brendan, St. Bute called after his booth,
9 — birth-place, 142 — authorities for life
of, 142, footnote — life, 143— voyages
146— death, 144— churches of, 152.
Brian Bora, King of Ireland, 240.
Bride, St. See Brigid.
Briga, Abbess, 144.
Brigid, Si, veiled by Si Machilla, Ill-
native of Fochard, founded community
at Kildare, spread of her cult in Alban,
115 — churches in Bute, 114, 115 —
chapel of, 235.
Brioc, St (Brieuc, Bruoc, Broke), parish
of Rothesay, called after him, lo — isle
of, 17— church in Bute, 99— churches
i ut -Brui* Day, too.
Brochs, 22.
Bronze age, the, 68.
Bruide, King of Picts, 155, 157.
Bruix Day. See Brioc.
Brythons or Britons, the, 23, 29— language
of, 29, 31.
Buchanan, (leorge, reference to Boot and
Rothsey, 13.
Burgs the, 37.
Burnt Islands. See Eilean Buidhe.
Bute, ancient names of isle of, 4 —
(Bothe), 9, 10, ii— (Bot, Botar), n,
12— {Bole), 12— (Bute), 13, 16— abo-
rigines, 3, 20-31 — meaning of name, 13
—geographical portion, 3— acreage and
size, 3— place-names in, 28-35, *88-
300 — seixed by Northmen, 238 — by j
Magnus Barefoot, 245— by King David, j
246— by Somerled, 247— given to the
Steward, 248 —by Uspak-IIacon, 250
— by King I laco granted to Reginald,
to Angus, to Kuari, 248.
Bute, Marquess of, letter on Mount&tuart
cist, 68— on Si Brendan. 151.
Buthania, old name for Bute, to, 13.
Cabbals, earth churches in Isle of Man,
185.
Cairbre Cinnchait, or Caitchenn, the cat-
headed monster on cross in Rothesay
churchyard, 86.
Cairns, 38.
Camden, opinion regarding Ebudx, 10.
Camerariu*. mention of Mat hi I la, ill.
Capital of Ddriada in Alban, 156.
Carnahooston, Fort, 47.
Carnbaan, Cairnbaan; the white cairn at
Ix-nihuline, 27, 73-78.
CastleCree, 49.
Castles, the. 38.
Catan, Si, 27— a I'ictuh missionary, 29,
136-138 — church in Colonsay, 185.
Catraelh, defeat of King Aidan at battle
of, 162.
Celtic Church, type of monastery, 181—
difference from Roman. 199 LllMg|t
199— orientation of churches in, 209.
Celtic churches, first were modest struc-
tures, 185— in Ireland, Alban, and lUe
of Man, 186.
Celts, 23. 24, 29. See Goidcls.
Chapeltoun. See Bailechaibil.
Christianity, introduction of, into Scot-
land, 8S--by merchants or invalided
Roman soldiers, 89.
' Chronicle of Scots,' o.
Church, the British, 85-106— during Ro-
man occupation of Britain, 90.
Ciaran, St, supposed connection with Bute
in Cilkeran chapel, 139.
Cilkeran, 139.
Cindgaradh, Cindgalaralh (Kingarth), 5,
6.
Cists, 38, 63, 68, 72.
Clachcarnic, Fort, 48.
Clontarf, battle of, 240.
Cnoc-an-Coigrcaich, Fort, 51— cists at,
7*
Cnoc-an-rath, Fort, 45.
Coarb, the, meaning of term, 1 77.
Col mac. See Kilmachalmaig.
Col man, St, 29, 206, 207.
Columba, life, 156— place-names derived
from, 157— chaplaincy of, in Bute, 157
— influence of, 158, 1 66 -death, 163.
Columbanus, St, 170.
Comgall, St, 168.
Conall, King of Cowall with its islands
156.
Cowall, ruled by Dalriadic kings, 156.
Coyl, King. iw.
Craig, Rev. Robert, parish minister of
Rothesay, reference to St Brioc, 101.
Crannoges, meaning of word, 37 — de-
scription of, by Herodotus, 41 — remain-
ing in Bute, 42-45.
Crioslagmory, chapel dedicated to Mary
•«, 234-
Crioslagvourathy, Muredach's oratory at,
234-
CruiskUnd Chapel, measurements of mins
Index of Subjects, Names, and Places.
30;
Cruithnigh, the, a primitive people in
Erin and Alban, 26, 155, 160.
Cromlechs, 65-68.
Crosses, Christian, preserved in Bute, 39
— at Inchmarnock, 135, 222 — at Kil-
blaan, 176, 219 — in Rothesay church-
yard, 225 — in Rothesay Castle, 233.
Culdees, origin of the order of, 126, 127.
Cumbrae, isles of, 31, 281-284.
Cuthbert, St, hermitage, 180 — sarco-
phagus of, 189.
Dalriadans, Hibernian colonists in Alban,
I55-.
Damhliags, stone churches in Ireland,
185.
Danes, the. See Northmen.
Daniel, Bishop of Kingarth, 202, 203,
206.
Degsastan, defeat of King Aidan at battle
of, in Liddesdale, 162.
"Deil's Cauldron," the, at St Blaan's
church, the work of a prehistoric race,
20 — size, 21 — probable purpose as a
broch, 22 — latterly place of penance,
126 — tree-worship at, 23 — Celtic name,
23, 174, 179-
Dempster, no, in.
Deserts, cells or hermitages, 125.
Dhu Loch, Crannog in, 42.
Districts in Bute, Celtic, 33.
Divisions of land, Celtic, 33.
Dolmens, at Bicker's Houses, 65 — at
Michael's grave, 66.
"Dreamin' Tree Ruin." See "Deil's
Cauldron."
Druidism, similar to worship of aborigines
in Alban, 25.
Druids, 84 — priests and wizards with
pretended powers, 85 — creed, white
vestments, 85.
Drumceatt, Convention of, 160.
Drumgirvan, Fort. 52.
Dugall, son of Ruari, King of Sudreys,
248, 253.
Duirteachs, wooden churches in Scotland,
185.
Dunagoil, Fort, 6, 14 — description of, 55-
59-
Dunallunt, Fort, 45.
Dunblane, church of, connected with St
Blaan, 171 — bishopric founded by Earl
of Stratherne, 173, 271 — St Columba
buried here, 172 — English churches be-
longing to, 171.
Dunbreatan (Dunbritton, Dumbarton),
108.
Dunburgidale, Fort, 53.
Dunmonaigh, or Dunadd, site of, 156.
Dunoon, castle-hill of, 156 — Presbytery
of, enactment forbidding superstitious
burial at Kilblaan, 190.
Duns, the, 37.
Dun Scalpsie, Fort, 47.
" Dux Britanniarum," a Roman military
office assumed by British over-king,
165.
Eadwine, King of Northumbria, 204.
Earth forts, the, 37.
Edward I., documents referring to Bute
in time of, II, 12.
Eilean Buidhe, Fort, description of, 59-
61.
Engaricenna, Engaritena, supposed name
of Kingarth in time of Ptolemy, 4, 5.
Ere, St, 143.
Ernan (Marnan, Marnock), St, 127, 130.
Ertha, mother of St Blaan, 27, 136, 167.
Ethelfrid, King of the Northumbrians,
162.
Faolan, St, a Pictish missionary, 29.
Ferchardo de Buit, witness to charter, 12.
Ferguson, James, on brochs, 22 — on Celtic
architecture, 187.
Feys, invisible spirits carried off Malcolm
Mackay in Glencallum, 86.
Finan, Finnian, St (Wynnin), Pictish
missionary, 29 — life of, 102, 106 — pil-
grimages to Alban, 105.
Finan, St, 203, 206.
Finds, 39, 81.
Finn, the heroic band of, not traced in
Bute, 87.
Firbolg, an early migratory race in Erin,
26.
Fitzalan. See Alan the Steward.
Foreign ecclesiastics in Erin attending
schools, 109.
Forts. See Earth forts, Stone forts,
Castles; also Dunallunt, Aitrick, Nether
Ardroscadale, Dun Scalpsie, Ardnahoe,
Carnahouston, Clachcarnie, Mecknoch,
Castle Cree, Bicker's Houses, Ault-
more, Cnoc-an-Coigreaich, Ardmaleish,
Drumgirvan, Barone, Balilone, Dunbur-
gidale, Dunagoil, Eilean Buidhe.
Frigidianus, St, of Lucca, mistaken for
St Finan, 105. See Finan.
Gaels, Gaelic. See Goidel.
Gallants, oratory of, 214.
Galloway, Mr William, architect, descrip-
tion of St Blaan's church, 183, Pref-
ace.
Garth (Kingarth), isle of, 7.
Gildas, St, 143.
304 Index of Subjects, Names, and Places.
Glattonbury, church of, 90, footnote.
(.Icncmllum, ciiajxrl in, 158. 176.
"Gododin Poems." the. 161.
Oodud Crowan. King of Man, 245, 246.
Godred, King of Man ( + 989), 240.
CoMlh (Goflebc), the race of, 25. 26. 29
—language of, 29,
Graveyards, old, in Bate, 38.
Ciuyij, Pope, tee* Angle* in market-
puce in Rome, 170— tends St Augustine
to Britain, 171.
Ilaco, King of Norway, Saga of, 12—
reply to King Alexander, 2$O— prepares
to invade Scotland, 252 — hi* arma-
ment. 252— in Rotbesay Bay, 255—
defeat at Largs, 255— return to the
Orkney*, death there, 256.
Ilaco'i Expedition, 12, 15— laws of bea-
cons, 13.
Haralti llarfagr, King of Norway, wipes
out Vikings, 239.
Hermits, the Irish, 122-140.
Herodotus, 23. 41.
" Hibernici Grassatores," the Dalriadic
pirates and colonists of Allan, 109.
II) bar, or I boms Bishop of the Isles,
112. *
Ihre, John, Suio-Gothic Glossary of, 14.
Implements, 39.
Inchegall, name of the Western Isles, 7.
Inchgarth, supposed to be Inchmarnock,
7-
Inchmarnock, isle of, 3, 7,9, 128 — monks
of, 130 — chapel at, 133— sculptured
cross and stones at, 133, 222.
Irish Church, polity, liturgy, iiS-ui
creed, 1 19. See Celtic Church.
I»le of Man, 4. 161, 240, 242, 258.
Ivcmia, Ivernians (Erin), 25.
Jogenan, brother of King Aidan, preferred
as King of Dalriada by St Columba,
•59-
Johann or Jolan, Bishop of Kingarth, 202,
203, 207.
John of Fordun, mention of Isles of
Albion, including Kothesay and Bothe,
8,9-
Kames Cattle, 157, 164.
Kentigcrn, St, labours in Strathclyde, 98.
Kerry lament, district of, probably de-
signated after the Lawman, 18.
Ke&sog, St, 1 1 8. ISC
Kilblaan, Kilhlain, St Blaan's Church, 20,
174— defensive walls, 175- domiciliary
remain*, 178 — relics found at, 178—
foot • font, 179 — holy well, 179 —
" Nunnery," 189 — superstitious burial
forbidden at, 190— Rule of Bangor ob-
served, 192 — description of mission-
work at, 193— seminary, 195— public
worship, 196— excavations at, 201 —
monuments preserved at, 214— incited
symbols, 215, 216, 217— gravestones
with croasfi, 218, 219— crosses, 219—
interlaced ornamentation sockets for
crosses, 176, 178, 193 — sculptured
gravestones, 217, 219-221. See Blaan
and Kingarth.
Kildavannan Chapel, 157, 209.
Kilmachalmaig Church (Colmac), 8l,
157— Circle, 8 1— Cross, 81, 224.
Kilmichcl, situation of church, 113 —
dedication to St Michael, 1 12 — reference
by Martin, 113— description of, 114 —
ruins of, 213 — altar, 214.
Kilmorie, or Kilmory, measurements of
ruins at, 233.
Kilwhinleck, chapel at, probably con-
nected with St Finan, 102— murder
"f laird of, monument, 230 — James
Stewart of, 230, footnote.
Kilwinning Abbey, connection with
church in Bute, 103.
Kingarth, ancient names of, 4, C 7 —
church, 12, 175 — sue of parish, 3—
charter disponing church of, to Paisley,
284. See also Kilblaan.
Kintyre, seat of Dalriadic kingdom, 155.
Kistvaens. See Cists.
Kymry, Cumbras, or Cumbri, a Brythonic
people who overran the Cumbraes and
left place-names in Bute, 97.
Kynctes, a tribe mentioned by Herodotus,
23, 28.
Lagmanns, the, tribe of Norsemen in
Western Isles, 1 8, 240.
Lake-dwellings. See Crannoges.
Laments, the, 18 — { Lawmomkon), 19.
Languages in Bute, 28.
Ijuguean, standing stones at, 80.
I jwinan, the, chairman of the Thing or
judicial assembly, 18, 19.
Ixrnihulinc cairn. See Carnbaan.
Leslie, Bishop, 163.
Lubas, bronze swords found at, 8a
Lytteil, Rev. William, 46, 228, 281.
Macccus, St (Mahew, Mochoe), priest
in Bute, no — Mochoe the Pict, ill —
Maccaws of Garrachty, family of, in
Bute, lit.
Macgilichattan, a family in Bute, probably
called after St Catan, 138.
Index of Subjects, Names, and Places.
505
Macgillchiarans, a family in Bute, prob-
ably deriving their name from St
Ciaran, 1 39.
Mac-gill-mhichells, 112.
Machilla, St, festival in Bute, in.
Mackinlay, John, history of Rothesay
Castle, 1 6 — description of crannoges,
42 — description of Carnbaan, 74.
Maclea, Rev. Dr, parish minister of
Rothesay, 101, 163, 231.
M'Lelan, Gilbert, Bishop of Sodor and
Man, 100.
Mac Maelcon, king, 155.
Macpherson, Dr, thinks Epidium was
Bute, 10.
Maelmanach, Abbot of Kingarth, 202,
203, 211.
Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, occu-
pies Bute, makes Kintyre an island,
death, 245, 246 — laws of, regarding
the Fire- watch, 13.
Magnus IV., King of Norway, treaty with
Scotland in 1266, 256, 257.
Magnus, King of Man, meets Haco in
Skye, 253.
Major, John, 'Greater Britain,' 10.
Malcolm II., King of Scotland, 240.
Malcolm III., King of Scotland, 241.
Man. See Isle of Man.
Manan, a district south of the Forth, 160.
Margaret, Queen, 100.
Marnock, St. See Ernan.
Martin, reference to Rosa, 15 — mention
of Kilmichel, 113 — extract of ' Descrip-
tion of Western Islands,' 287.
Martyrology of Aberdeen, 13, 153.
Mary, St, Chapel of, 99, 235.
Mecknoch, Fort, 48.
Memorial stones, stances of, 65.
Merchertach, cell of, in Ratisbon, 125.
' Metrical Chronicle ' (Stewart's), 9.
Michael, St, Chapel in Rothesay Castle,
1 86.
Michael's Grave, dolmen called, 66, 112.
Modan, St, 210.
Molaise, St, grandson of King Aidan,
nephew of St Blaan, 137, 195.
Molios. See Molaise.
Monoliths, still standing, 38.
Monro (or Munro), Dean, reference to
Butt, Buitt, Rosay, 13, 15 — extracts
from ' Description of Western Isles, '
285.
Monuments of unrecorded times in Bute,
36.
Mountstuart, cist with trepanned skull
found at, 68, 72.
Munro, Dr, on Mountstuart trepanned
skull, 71.
VOL. I.
Names connected with Celtic saints, 138.
Neills, the, of Kilmorie, 103.
Neolithic age, the, 63.
Nether Ardroscadale Fort, 46.
Nigil de Buyt, witness to charter, 12.
Ninian, St, 92 — life of by Ailred, 93 —
sketch of life, 92-98 — death, 97 — chapel
of, in Bute, 95.
Noe, Abbot of Kingarth, 202, 203, 211.
Northmen, n — in Western Isles, Cowall,
&c., 18 — language of, in Bute, 34 —
migrations of, 236 — two kinds of, 237
— first appearance of, 238 — settlements
in Isles, 239 — subdue Scots, 240 —
civilisation, 241 — religion, 243 — cus-
toms, 244. Vikings, piratical baysmen,
come to Scottish Isles, 237 — character,
241. Danes, the, establish kingdom
of Dublin, 239 — become Christians,
242.
Nunnery at Kilblaan, 189.
Odyssey, the Christian, 139-153.
Olaf the White (or Red), King of Man,
188, 247.
Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway, 242.
Olave the Black, King of Man, 250.
Orders of Irish Saints, the three, 123,
124.
Osuiu, King of Northumbria, 204.
Oswald, King of Northumbria, invites
Celtic monks to Northumbria, 205.
Patrick, St, 102 — life of, 107, 109 — mis-
sionary efforts in Erin, 109 — influence
in Alban, no — church at Foirrgea,
1 86.
Paul, St, in the West, reference by
Clement of Rome, 88.
Petrie, Dr, on Romanesque architecture
in Ireland, 187.
Picts, the, 23, 24, 26, 29 — missionaries,
29.
" Piper's Cave," the, 27.
Pit-dwellings remaining in Bute, 37.
Place-names in Bute, 28-35, 288-300.
Plan, finds at farm of, 81.
Pont, Timothy, 99.
Prehistoric inhabitants of Bute, 20-31.
Ptolemy the geographer, mention of
Eboudai, probably including Bute,
3, 4-
Querns, 39, 178, footnote.
Quien Loch, crannog in, 44.
Raths, the, 37.
Ratisbon, Merchertach's cell in, 125.
Reeves, Dr, on St Blaan, 173.
U
306 Index of Subjects, Names, and Plates.
Kc.l.geadbain. See Aidan, burial-place
of.
Rhubodach, point •-(. in Bute, II.
Roaani. the. in Wr%t Alban, the Islet,
and Ireland. 90.
Rooan, Abbot of Kingarth, 302, 303.
309, »l*
Rothcsay, ancient name* of: (RothUajr).
8— (Rothay), 9, to— (Rothemy, Roth-
in*), 15 — (Row, Rotay), 15. 16 —
meaning of name. 14-19— < mote), 17,
38.
Rot hen y Castle, mentioned by None
nga.. writer*. 15— called after Rothir,
38— taken t>v Uspak-llacon, 250— by
•otsadron of Haco « fleet, 2<v
Rot hesay Cross, in churchyard, 86 —cros*-
•haft, stance, measurement, history,
225-232. See Cairbre Cinnchait.
Kothoay, MMI of Notafilu*, IO.
Rothir (Rether, Rothiir), 1C, 28.
Rothismen. the, assessors of Norse court*
of justice, 19.
Kuan. Roderick, or Raff, too of Reginald,
obtains Bute, 248, 256— at Court of
Norway, 251 — accompanies Haco, 253,
devastates Bute, 254.
Rudri, claims Bute as birthright, 17, 253.
Saddell, monastery of, 134.
Scots, the, race of, 3. 87.
Sigurd, Karl of Orkney, 240.
Skene, Dr, reference to Kboudai, 4 —
(iurth, 7— refers to Kingarth, 206.
Skeoch, the wood of, probable allusion
to St Skay, tot.
Sn .rro, description of Magf*"« Barefoot,
246.
Somerled. Lord of Argyle, rise of family,
247— alliance with Bishop Wimund,
247 ; seizes Bute, defeat and death at
Renfrew, partition of his domains
among his sons, 248 — genealogical table
of family, 249.
'Statistical Account of Scotland,' 16,
too.
Steward, the, shot on Rothesay Castle,
250.
Stewarts, or Stewards, royal of Scotland,
Sloans of Bute, origin of, 188, 240.
Stokes, I>r Whitley. editor of ' Tripartite
Life of St Patrick.' 108.
Stooe circle at Blackpark, 78-at Kil-
- :
Stone forts, the, 37, 38.
Sttabo, reference to Krin, 3.
Sirathclyde, 98.
Stuart, I>r, reference to ' Sculptured
Stones," 333.
Sturla, Norse saga-writer, mention* Bute,
12, 15— the Raven Ode, in oraise of
King Ilaco's expedition in 1263, 253.
Table, showing contemporaries of Abbots
of Kingarth, 202 — genealogical, of
King% of Man, 258— of Soroerledian
line, 259.
Taliessin, the poet, 161.
Teimncn, Cleric of Kingarth, 202, 211.
'Tighemac, Annals of, 5, I3a
Turanian, the race, 23.
Uladh (Ulster), 2$, 26. Uiidians, 104.
Usher, Archbishop, 105.
Uspak-llicon, King of Sudreys, takes
Bute, 250.
Verelius, Olaus, ' History of Gotric and
Hrolf,' 13.
Vikings, their name for Bute, II. See
Northmen.
Vitrified structures, 38, 55-63.
Waller the Steward, 175— monk of Mel-
rose, 176. 284— the first Steward, 240.
Watchhill, the, at Ardroscadale, 68.
Weapons, 39.
Whithcrnc (\\Tiilhorn), St Ninian's great
monastery at, 93. See NinUn.
Wilson'* 'Guide to Rothesay,' reference
to tradition about the Laird of Western
Kames, 164.
Witches, 86— at Ambrismore, 88. See
Feys.
\N omen's burial-places, at Kilblaan, 189;
Barking, Inchmarnock, 190.
Wynnin. See Finan.
"V Gogled," or Cumbria, 159, foot-
note.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
CRITICISMS
UPON
NINIAN WINZET'S WORKS
(Scottteb £eit Society),
EDITED BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
"It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the thorough and
erudite introduction which the Rev. Mr James King Hewison has pre-
fixed to the texts. . . . Mr Hewison deserves the gratitude of every
student of the Reformation in Scotland for the painstaking diligence
with which he has brought his scholarship to throw light upon this
chapter of its history." — Scotsman.
"The result does high credit to his learning." — Scotsman.
"The memoir, introduction, notes, and glossarial index . . . are,
each in their own way, a credit to Scottish scholarship." — Glasgow
Herald.
" Gau's ' Catechism ' and this edition of Winzet are solid contributions
to the national literature and history." — Athen&um.
" One cannot fail to be struck with the vast amount of research the
Editor has given." — Tablet.
"The Editor's introduction, appendix, notes, and glossary are all
models of editing." — Dr C. G. M'CRIE, in The Public Worship of Pres-
byterian Scotland.
"Alle friiheren Geschichtsforscher, die mit Winzet beschaftigt iiber-
ragt Hewison aber durch die vorziigliche Einleitung, welche er den
Werken seines Helden voraussendet." — Dr BELLESHEIM, in Historisch-
Politische Blatter.
WILLIAM ULACKWOOD AMD MM
j , msm : ! m
: "...-.- •;••-,:"
5 - HI : -
,
,
,
I
•V.
-• . a
m
mm --'•
••:;/.-•. • :
•
• ; ' - Wf
m ' : 2 i -
mim I 1 - •
m ' i
.V\ •••
. ' m •
..'•••
-' P :; i
|
1
S ."v. •
•; asfi
/'^••,': | i i
m*. ^- . '
" •
mm KM
^t- :'--;
m m mism .
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
r
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
DA
880
B9H6
v.l
Hewison, James King ,
The Isle of Bute in the
olden time
•
I
I
••.
DI
• ...
•
Open Library
