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.