Ancient Councils

From Port Askaig on north Islay, we made our first sortie into the Hebridean hinterlands.  Our destination--Finlaggan.  Now a ruin; but in its day, Finlaggan was a considerable seat of power, of the MacDonald clan--Lords of the Isles.

March 22, 2017  Ruins of the Great Hall at Finlaggan

Finlaggan Castle--more a fortified settlement than not--was built inland and literally in Loch Finlaggan, a fresh water lake on north Islay.  In itself that is different.  Prevailing practice was to establish fortified castles, duns and principal settlements on coastal promontories at the rims of Hebridean islands...as a "stand off" display of power against amphibious landings.  

March 22, 2017  Finlaggan ruins; approximate view south from Cnoc Seannda

Finlaggan possessed a different kind of "power projection" perhaps ...productive capacity.  Not always is power derived from walls.  

Finlaggan (primarily defended by a timber palisade within a lake) enjoyed access to relatively good "inbye" agricultural land... adjacent to the settlement.  Even today, agriculture is the largest single economic activity on Islay...primarily grazing sheep and cattle; but arable cultivation is also done.  And so, not for nothing, Islay is called the Queen of the Hebrides.

Finlagggan was built upon two islands in Loch Finlaggan...Eilean Mòr (The Large Island) and Eilean na Comharirie--Gaelic for The Island of Council. 

March 22, 2017  Modern timber causeway lead out to Finlaggan ruins on Eilean Mòr

The majority of the fortified settlement of Finlaggan (with a timber palisade) occupied Eilean Mòr.  Perhaps not considered "muscular," but timber fortresses, especially those with access limited by water, were effective at least until the advent of gunpowder...and well beyond.  After all, here in America timber palisades were a common defense by pioneers and even up to the closing of the American frontier.   

South of Eilean Mòr, further out in Loch Finlaggan, is Eilean na Comharirie.  Here, stone works were built that might better fit how most people envision a "castle".

March 22, 2017  Eilean na Comhairie viewed from Eilean Mòr in Loch Finlaggan

Eilean na Comharirie was the center for the what became the feudal government by the Lords of the Isles.   We found it intriguing; a somewhat mysterious structure.  And it is a "structure," in the sense that the island was built by man.  

Today, Eilean na Comharirie is just out of reach, about 50 yards from Finlaggan's ruined main settlement on Eilean Mòr.  Formerly,  a causeway connected "Council Island" to Finlaggan.  It is now submerged.   

Archeological surveys (1978) view Eilean na Comharirie as largely an artificially made island.  Its date is extremely ancient.  Evidence (a polished stone axe was recovered in the lowest layer) probably indicates Eilean na Comharirie was first laid down by Stone Age people.   Polished stone tools likely indicate it is Neolithic in age (8,000 BC to 3,000 BC).  So, the Council site is old.

The general sequence of construction at Eilean na Comharirie is complicated.  Council Island has seen a number of successive buildings and dismantling.  The bulk of Eilean na Comharirie is set on top of the remains of a collapsed Iron Age (800 B.C. - 100 A.D) dun and an Iron Age "broch" (a circular stone tower).  These remains more or less serve as circular retaining walls for Medieval rubble that forms the base for most of Eilean na Comharirie seen today.  The island is indeed circular.

March 22, 2017  Finlaggan Church; frames Isle of Jura's "Paps" 

Resting at the bottom of the loch, the lowest layer is an artificial platform built from a sequence of stone, midden (refuse) and wood deposits.  Considering its age, this material remarkably remained more or less intact.  Above this base layer, is a layer primarily made of wood and apparently mats, which employed birch stakes to hold them in place.   On top of this mat "platform" a Medieval stone layer begins.     

Upon this was built a hall house "castle" (c.1200s A.D.) with large masonry blocks held together by lime mortar.   This structure was dismantled, apparently in the 1300s and was associated with MacDonald support for Robert the Bruce...in the wars of Scottish independence. 

On top of those dismantled foundations, a new structure was built on medieval rubble (called "midden")--stones, pottery shards, bones.  This structure was occupied (c. 1400s) until sometime at the end of the 1590s...when the MacDonalds were finally broken and the Lords of the Isles was absorbed by the Crown. 

Artifacts help date these successive layers...two short cross pennies from the 1200s and a pilgrim's religious badge dating to the 1300s recovered in archeological work.  

March 22, 2017  View of food preparation area within Finlaggan ruin; Paps of Jura in background

Eilean na Comharirie (Counsel Island") has existed with various structures built successively upon predecessors over an extensive period.  Loch Finlaggan has been a center of ancient governments (if they merit being styled "governments") for uncounted ages...by way of example a bronze brooch was discovered there--roughly dating to 400B.C.

And then there's that tantalizing find of the polished stone axe that connects Eilean na Comharirie to even more ancient beginnings...as mentioned, probably Neolithic Period.  But the site of Finlaggan...is older still.

March 22, 2017 Darla peers from behind Finlaggan standing stone

Overlooking Finlaggan is Cnoc Seannda (first photo), a mound that covers at least two stone burial chambers, discovered in a 1994 exploratory archeological dig...seeking to locate the elusive "footprint stone" used for inaugurating the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. 

At Cnoc Seannda one burial chamber, a cairn, is Bronze Age (3,300 BC - 1,200 BC).  The other, a linear chamber cut into limestone rock, is Mesolithic Period (10,000 BC to 5,000 BC).

This Mesolithic chamber apparently was robbed in antiquity, likely during the Iron Age (~800 B.C.- 100 A.D.).  The archeological work identified the chamber's Mesolithic flints and microliths.  These presumably were taken out of the chamber and discarded when the chamber was robbed, and subsequently reburied.

In the Mesolithic Age, humans began the first known use of pottery, and agriculture first began its development.

At Finlaggan and Cnoc Seannda is found a standing stone.  It formerly was one of a pair of standings stones.  One was removed at some point in or about the year 1716 A.D.  At mid-winder, the constellation Orion is said to rise over the Finlaggan Standing Stone. Whatever significance this may have had to the Mesolithic people at Finlaggan is unknown.  

Humans have met at Finlaggan, have held council there since time immemorial.  Primitive parliament, admittedly.  But a coming together, nevertheless, to tend to the collective business of all.  Such is government.  

A lesser known neighbor

It is a lonesome place.  To say Loch Gruinart, Islay is "windswept" does not do justice to the north Atlantic's winds.  Here, they pile extensive sand dunes on Ardnave Point and then set about rearranging them...an ageless dance of the veil, covering and uncovering.

March 22, 2017  Loch Gruinart (Ardnave Dunes left in background; line of breakers at Loch's mouth is view north into Atlantic)

On the west shore of Loch Gruinart is Kilnave...Cill Naoimh in Gaelic...Church of the Saint.  Kilnave is an enigma in its own right.  Nobody's quite sure.   

March 22, 2017  Kilnave chapel ruins on Loch Gruinart, Islay

When we visited late March 2017, the wind met us head on...a spiritual guardian of the place.  It removed every trace of body heat that might otherwise accumulate under an insulated parka after walking several hundred yards.  There was none of that.  The wind found its openings, and claimed from them all warmth.   It exposed.

But in a strange way it accentuated a sense of pilgrimage...a suffering by the body to witness that which is holy.

Kilnave is well off Islay's busier tracks, like those that lead to the more famous Kildalton Church.  On the of east Islay, Kildalton is near enough to "The Trinity"--Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig distilleries--to enjoy "spillover" tourist traffic.  Kildalton is near enough to Port Ellen, to hotels and B & Bs, self catering cottages and near enough to the CalMac ferry terminal with its hubbub.  It is within reach of the curious who come (as we did) to marvel at its astonishing Celtic Ring Cross.

Not so is Kilnave.  One must want to go there, must determine to seek it...to make a pilgrimage. 

March 22, 2017  Kilnave High Cross (overlooks Loch Gruinart; Paps of Jura visible in distance 

There is something about the spiritual fabric of the place.  There is that Kilnave High Cross...that enigma.  Impossibly thin, fragile, weathered yet the Cross still stands--a spiritual testament, a monument about which no one is really sure.

A mere couple inches in thickness, Kilnave Cross is at least as old as c.700 A.D.

And many claim that is is older, much older...dating Kilnave's High Cross to as early as the late 400s.  There is evidence either way.  The uncertainty of its date continues.

Carved from a thin slab of greenish Torridonian flagstone, the Kilnave Cross is said to match rocks found locally on the shore of Loch Gruinart just east of the chapel.  The presumption is that the Cross would have been created nearby, given the weight of quarried stone and the transportation system in its day.

March 22, 2017  Kilnave Cross view from its side

Of course, Torridonian flagstone exists over wide range of Scotland. So, where the Kilnave Cross was created is not exactly known.  If it was carved near Kilnave, perhaps at some distant point in time archeological evidence of its shards and waste rock await discovery.  

In its style, though heavily weathered, its central panel is said  to resemble the cross shaft found at Keills Chapel, in mid- Argyll (near the village of Tayvallich).  Keills' high cross is dated to the late 700s.  So, whichever influenced the other is not known either.   

Ardnave geographically, with its dunes, is much like another more or less contemporary chapel--the "Church of the Dunes" at Forvie, Aberdeenshire, just below Peterhead on the opposite side of Scotland.

These two places do have a common link--Adomnán of Iona (called Eunan), about whom an account will be given later.   Saint Adomnán (c. 624-704 A.D.) referred to a Celtic ecclesiastical community at Loch Gruinart in his seminal work on the Life of St. Columba, written in 697 A.D., likely as a centennial commemoration of Columba's death.     

March 22, 2017  Kilnave chapel ruins--the "new" building dating to late Medieval

March 22, 2017  Masonry inside Kilnave Chapel

More certain in its date are the standing ruins of Kilnave Chapel, at least those that still exist.  Though roofless, it is otherwise mostly intact.

Consensus by historians is that Kilnave Chapel's ruins date to the "late Medieval"...a guesstimate that spans several hundreds of years.  But, we'll take it.

In its plan, Kilnave closely resembles St. Oran's chapel (c. 1150 A.D.), on the Holy Isle of Iona.  Iona is the "Mother Church" of Celtic Christianity.  Iona, historically, has been under the dominion of MacLean lairds.

March 22, 2017  Loch Gruinart from inside Kilnave

Architecturally, historians claim that Kilnave's existing masonry work is similar to that found at Dunollie and Dunstaffnage in Argyll at near Oban, Scotland--former strongholds of  the MacDougall clan.


One of the issues--given the number of centuries that passed while these strongholds were occupied and used as military defensive installations, fought over and besieged, held and taken--is that many additions, structural rebuilds and renovations took place to these strongholds over those centuries.  


Dunollie stands above the entrance to Oban Bay.  Evidently, Dunollie is older than Dunstaffnage.  Or, better said, it appears in the historical records at a very early date. 

A fortress existed at Dunollie in 698 A.D. when it was captured by Irish raiders fighting against the Kingdom of Dalriada--the Lords of the Isles. So in other words, Dunollie was contemporary with the later assumed date of the Kilnave Cross...c. 700 A.D.

However, recent radiocarbon dating (in 2016) of a metalworker's hearth at  Dunollie place the date of the Dunollie fortification even earlier...with artifacts dated to the late 400s A.D.  So, Dunollie, at lest its first manifestation, was also contemporary with the earlier assumed date of the Kilnave Cross...c. late 400s A.D. 

March 29, 2018  Dunollie at Oban

The radiocarbon dated layer at Dunollie was overbuilt around 1000 A.D.  And then that was also subsequently built over.  The majority of Dunollie ruins seen today date to the late 1400s...when the MacDougalls began extensive modifications.

March 30, 2018 Masonry at Dunstaffnage (compare to Kilnave Chapel

The building sequence at Dunstaffnage is perhaps simpler.  Built upon a native rock outcrop, its fortification began in earnest around 1250 A.D.

Dunstaffnage was at full power in 1321 A.D. (which is to say "late Medieval") when it was captured by Robert the Bruce and given to the Campbell family.

Presumably, after this date, the Campbell lairds were not benefactors for lands or ecclesiastical communities that were in the orbit of the Lords of the Isles. Thus, if Kilnave Chapel's masonry is in fact similar to that at Dunstaffnage, it would imply that the existing ruins at  Kilnave date to about mid-13th century...c. 1250 A.D.

Having visited Dunstaffnage this Easter, we noted that its masonry was indeed very similar to that at Kilnave Chapel, which we visited the previous year.

Commenting as we took photos, we assumed that the masonry at Dunstaffnage must be a regional style used in West Scotland and its Hebrides.

But what of Kilnave? Nobody's sure. It too has had its renovations over the centuries.

The rock wall surrounding its burial ground, for example, dates to the Victorian period...late 1800s.  Its present burial ground, which has been expanded several times, has received graves of modern date--many of those veterans of the World Wars.

March 22, 2017  Medieval grave slabs at Kilnave Burial Ground

It also contains Medieval grave slabs.  And it has stone marked graves so weathered in age that they defy dating...having been there apparently since the earliest times of the Celtic ecclesiastical community at Loch Gruinart...which Adomnán of Iona noted in his seminal work on the Life of St. Columba.

On the east side of Loch Gruinart lies a burial ground possibly associated with this early Celtic ecclesiastical community at Loch Gruinart.  It is Cill an Ailein.  Early map records (c. 1500s) indicate a church was also at this place; but no trace of it currently is known.  Its burial ground date is "unassigned"...which means a lot older than some presume.     

Kilnave...Cill Naoimh in Gaelic...Church of the Saint.

Which saint, is not known.  What date, is uncertain.  But Kilnave's enigmatic Celtic High Cross is ancient beyond doubt. 

March 22, 2017  Kilnave Cross, view from inside the chapel ruin

 

First Contact--Hebrides

Returning to Glasgow International from a quick walk through Paisley, we boarded the late afternoon FlyBe commuter flight out to Islay...Queen of the Hebrides.  [Note for those considering it:  after our Easter trip, several Hebridean air routes were put to competitive bid; LoganAir now operates the Islay route.]

March 21, 2017  Glenegedale Airport, Islay

Islay is a relatively large island, almost 240 square miles, with a population of perhaps as many as 3,500 residents.  Of Scotland's nearly 800 islands, Islay is one of their largest...fifth largest.  Now having two years of experience visiting the Inner and Lower Hebrides, it is fair to say that Islay is also one of the more productive islands...definitely pretty.

However large, still, it is an island.  And extensive infrastructure--like that for runways and roads--comes at a premium.  Glenegedale's landing strips run nearly out to the high tide line at Laggan Bay on The Strand.  Laggan Bay boasts of what is possibly the largest sand beach in the Hebrides...not that March is swimming weather in the North Atlantic.  It's an interesting airfield, in any case.

Our accommodations for our first couple nights on Islay were at Port Askaig, on the north side of Islay.  Islay Airport at Glenegedale is on the south side, approximately midway between Islay's two principal towns--Bowmore (Islay's administrative center) and Port Ellen (its heavy commercial ferry terminal).

Even if arriving as we did with the Spring Equinox (March 20, 2017), at over 55° North Latitude, travelers to Islay can run out of daylight fairly quickly.  A word to the wise.  

It turns out that this is particularly true in steep sided wooded corridors that have extremely tight (non-existent) shoulders, with no real fog lines and the pavement essentially abutting against field stack stone  walls, like those found around Bridgend.  

And that can, especially given the time of year, mean ice in shaded timbered drainages...which it did.  It can also mean heavy road maintenance trucks--sand and salt--and it did as well.  

Not only can one run out of daylight at 55° North latitude, one can run out of road fairly quickly too.  The things are narrow, even at their best...with an added bonus of tourist excitement at being off balance, driving from the starboard side while trying to fiddle with the dash in an unfamiliar car to find the wipers, headlights..and perhaps even a Rosary.

We arrived at Port Askaig intact; but our first motorized foray in Scotland was certainly not without its excitement.  Anyhow, to prove we made it, this photo was taken the following day at Port Askaig, our first destination after landing on Islay and having survived the "goofy footed" drive.   

March 22, 2017  Port Askaig  the Paps of the Isle of Jura in background

It should be said for those considering a visit to Islay that, for most tourist excursions, Islay's bus schedules are quite sufficient.  Our plans, however, called for visits to relatively remote sites (e.g. Dun Nosebridge, Kilkiaran, Kilnave, American Monument...).  These are not well served by public transportation.  In order to visit them, relying upon the bus would require appending several extra miles to each walk.  

It is not so much the additional walking distance.  Our Easter trips actually enjoy those "extra" steps which in many respects are an added bonus.  The place is pretty.  And presumably one goes there to do things, to experience and embrace them.  But we are pragmatic as well.  We have to be.  

With somewhat limited time on Islay in 2017, to see it, we opted to "car hire" at Islay Airport (doubtlessly placing every Islay resident a grave risk...or at least giving them something to talk about.)
  

March 22, 2017  Our brave little red Volkswagen "hire" at Kilchoman Church ruin, Islay

Again, the Islay buses are probably adequate for most tourist visits.  And actually they are for us, with an Idaho perspective, part of the fun.  Point in case, on Islay this Easter (2018) for a one day excursion--coming over to Islay from Jura--we only used bus transportation.  (And on Jura as well.)  We found them sufficient and frequent enough for our limited purpose in 2018 (visit Islay Museum in Port Charlotte and our friends in Port Ellen).


One final word regarding "car hires".  Some advance thought should be given about where you plan to "station" your rental (at a trailhead of a walking route, for example).  At times, given congestion in towns (parallel parking from the opposite side is...interesting), visitors might be better severed not having the encumbrance of an auto.

For outdoors excursions, normally, many of the better known sites (like the American Monument on the Oa) have what are called "Car Parks".  When provided, use them!  But there are also sites which have very few areas suitable for parking (Dun Nosebridge, for example.) 

March 22, 2017  View from the Iron Age fort of Dun Nosebridge above River Laggan 

Our ground level photo does not do Dun Nosebridge justice.  This aerial view is by www.islayblog.

Keep in mind, roadways in the Isles are narrow...and that shoulder over there may not be what American drivers take for granted.  That green shoulder often turns out to be peat...and this is particularly true in the Glenegedale area.   As the Scottish red road signs infamously put it--"Warning! Very soft verges".   

Squishy, spongy, wet...and often rather deep.  Peat is an interesting substance..  It certainly works well in the malting process; for vehicular traction...not so much.  Cars, however small, are still rather heavy.  They tend to sink when put to the test.

It bears mentioning that some folks have gotten lost in peat bogs, only to be found a few thousand years later and put on museum display.  Do not be one of those.  

Lastly, do not block agricultural gates with your "car hire"...unless you've got a penchant for museum displays.  



 






  

"My sanctuary"--Kildalton Cross

In 1921, a shepherd on Ardtalla Estate on northeast Islay challenged a man walking its grounds.  It turned out the man was a former Imperial German U-Boat commander, there on a nostalgic visit to "his sanctuary". 

Ordinance Survey map  Glas Uig relative to Kildalton Chapel; Port an Cille highlighted.

Glas Uig is an almost imperceptible cove, hidden in the rock cliffs and offshore rock "skerries" in a remote part of northeast Islay, a place that is almost exclusively inhabited by sheep.  In a coast of rocks, Glas Uig itself has a sandy bottom--ideal for bedding down a U-Boat in protected shallows.

Seaward, passing shipping would need to be dangerously close to the skerries and...at a perpendicular angle to its mouth...in order to peer into Glas Uig.  A very limited aperture indeed.

Landward, its two headlands are steep, rocky.  To look down into Glas Uig would require a deliberate climb...an ideal spot to post sentries.  Its beach approach inland between the heads is a boggy bottom...normally avoided by those afoot.  In short, Glas Uig worked well as a hideout.

(An aside:  Generally, all hideouts have certain commonalities.  In Idaho Territory, for example, the old term for a gang's hideout was "shebang".  A few miles south of our place is Shebang Creek...a somewhat elevated drainage which overlooks the Camas Prairie and yet is protected by steeper ground behind it (Cottonwood Butte) and the breaks above the Snake River.  Notorious highwaymen (e.g. Plummer's gang) would lay in wait for gold shipments transported out of the Florence goldfields on mule or horseback bound for Lewiston/Walla Walla.)

Shebang Creek (dark blue); 21 miles in length; running from 4,226 to 2,959 feet in elevation at confluence with Cottonwood Creek

So for its purposes, to hide his U-Boat in a protected slip while its batteries recharged, to collect fresh water and rest, Glas Uig worked well for the German captain.  During the First World War, his submariners even rustled sheep from Ardtalla Estate to provision their U-Boat larders with fresh meat.  Thus, the German U-Boat commander who was challenged at Ardtalla in 1921 after the War was familiar with the surrounding northeast Islay terrain. 

Ardtalla Estate (view north); the Paps of Jura in background; Aros Bay just visible to right

The U-Boat commander's story was relayed by Sir John MacTaggart of Ardtalla Estate, and reported 1970s by Rosemary Hamilton ("Hidden Harbour," Scottish Field magazine)...otherwise it would have been lost to history.  Of interest in the account is the German captain's use of his "sanctuary" to describe the terrain over which he walked.

Kildalton Church, long a ruin, is little more than a mile from the Glas Uig U-Boat hideout, and the current boundary of Ardtalla Estate.

At Kildalton, precious beyond measure, stands what is probably the finest early Christian Celtic Ring Crosses in all of Britain...and therefore in the world.  21 feet in height, over 4 feet in span and adorned with elaborate carved reliefs of mythic animals and various scenes taken from the Bible...such as the story of Cain and Able.  [Most were illiterate in this day; thus the people would best respond to imagery rather than text.]

March 24, 2017  Kildalton Cross, Islay

A matter of good fortune perhaps, the Kildalton Cross is carved from a feldspar rich epidiorite, locally matched to that found at Port na Cille (south of Glas Uig; see map) about a mile east of Kildalton.  Epidiorite is a metamorphic igneous rock...hard, heavier the granite and weather resistant.

Kildalton's Cross is related to the "complex" of Isle of Iona High Crosses.  Indeed, St. Martin's Cross at Iona, which has stood on Iona in its same location for nearly 1,300 years, is also carved from epidiorite.  In its style however, Kildalton's Cross closely resembles St. John's Cross also at Iona.  So closely, the general consensus is that the Kildalton Cross and St. John's Cross on Iona were created by the same sculptor.  St. John's Cross is broken and incomplete; and now housed out of the elements in Iona Museum (formerly the monastery's old infirmary.)

Kildalton Chapel was dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, and this perhaps strengthens a link between it and St. John's Cross at Iona.  From their similarities, the Kildalton Cross is estimated to date from 750-790 A.D.

March 24, 2017 Interior of Kildalton Chapel ruin.

Kildalton Chapel was renovated successively over the centuries.  It is now a ruin, open to the sky.

Medieval grave slab, Kildalton Chapel

The existing ruins are principally Medieval (albeit with extensive repairs). The remains of the existing chapel date to about 1150-1250 A.D.

The burial ground, however, is estimated to date to 800 A.D.--which implies an earlier structure at the site prior to the Medieval building.  Further, given the Kildalton Cross, in its time, the chapel at Kildalton would likely have been of some prominence.

An effigy slab of a Medieval knight in full armor is placed upright inside the chapel's interior wall.  This slab, originally designed to be a recumbent grave stone, is typical for West Highland designs, dating from the 1200s to the 1400s. 

Over the knight's left shoulder ("heart side") can be seen a hovering figure.  This is thought to imply that knight's wife is buried alongside.

Kildalton Chapel is thought to have been used until the 1730s, when a new parish church replaced it.  At the time of the German U-Boat story, Kildalton would have been a ruin.

Shortly after the German U-Boat commander's nostalgic visit after World War One, Kildalton Chapel ruin was extensively repaired in 1925.

And the ruins were again repaired as late as the mid 1970s.

March 24, 2017  The Thief's Cross

One final note, immediately north of Kildalton Chapel stands a cross locally known as the "Thief's Cross".  Lore has it that this cross was placed for a thief, and that explains why it is set at a distance from the Kildalton burial ground...which was consecrated.

But the tale has its detractors who point out that it is not likely anyone would incur the expense to erect such a cross (c.1200 A.D.) for a thief.

Two alternative suggestions have been proffered.  (1) the Thief's Cross was erected by a local lord for a commemoration, or (2) the Thief's Cross marked the original boundary of the chapel's hallowed ground...in other words the official sanctuary.

If the later is true, and many are inclined to accept that view, it would be altogether fitting that the German U-Boat commander and sheep poacher considered this "his sanctuary".

The identity of the German U-Boat captain is unknown.  And now, it is perhaps forever unknowable.  A last note, speculative in its nature.

After the Great War ended, the American Red Cross constructed the American Monument on the Mull of Oa, Islay to honor Americans lost when the S.S. Tuscania was torpedoed and sunk by German UB-77, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Meyer on February 5, 1918.

A Red Cross publication, dated October 1920, mentions they were in the process of building the American Monument on Islay...but it was not completed at the time of publication In October.  The American Monument was therefore likely completed in early 1921...which was same year the unknown German U-Boat commander was challenged at Ardtalla, walking near "his sanctuary" and the U-Boat hideout at Glas Uig...with an obvious heavy heart.