Like so much rubble

Our intended destination for our drive to Port Weymss was the ruins of St. Columba's Church on Orsay (or St. Orain's Church, depending on source).  We also wanted to visit the Rinns Lighthouse (built by the Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson in 1825), before returning to Port Weymss.

In total, we anticipated a couple hours excursion at most.

March 23, 2017  Orsay Island, Rinns Lighthouse and St. Columba's Church ruin, center

The small isle of Orsay was near, but we could not find a boat to take us over.  Keep in mind, the channel between Port Weymss and Orsay has a fast race, and requires a helmsman who is knowledgeable of the waters.  This place is the windward side of the North Atlantic.

March 23, 2017  Darla at Port Weymss (Islay) in front of St. Columba's Church (Orsay) 

We were intrigued by the story.   Building the Rhinns (Rinns) lighthouse in 1824 was inseparably linked to the Orsay church ruins.  Once again (not that we need further proof), it reflected an inhuman indifference.

During construction of the lighthouse in 1824, many early medieval grave slabs from the Orsay churchyard were dug up, and then simply disposed of by tossing them into crevices and crannies of the adjacent rock...as if they were so much rubble back fill.

April 2, 2018 Grave slab fragment, Islay Museum

If there is a positive side to the episode, some of the broken grave slab fragments have been recovered, and are now on display in Islay's Museum at Port Charlotte.


The attached photo must serve by way of an example.  The Orsay slab fragments are in the Islay Museum of Life.  However, I do not have a photo of them. 

[We visited Islay again this past Easter (2018).  During our first trip to Islay in 2017, the museum was not open.  In 2018, we landed on Islay from the Feolin ferry at Port Askaig, after a circuitous and more adventurous route from Oban to Tayvallich.  And then a rigid inflatable passenger boat from mainland Scotland over to Jura.]

The two grave slab fragments shown in the photo were relocated for protection from Kilchoman churchyard.  This small museum contains quite a date range of Islay artifacts, including the ignominiously discarded grave slabs from Orsay church.

The earliest of the Orsay slabs was estimated as possibly being from the late 500s...essentially concurrent with St. Columba.  Other Orsay slabs date to the 700s and 800s.

The existing church ruin is considered late medieval.  But it was likely built over an earlier sanctuary.  Put in perspective, the medieval church was built perhaps 500 years after the initial church on Orsay was founded.  The Orsay church is said to have been roofed and furnished by John I (MacDonald), Lord of the Isles, in 1380.  So, this is an ancient church by any measure.


A note is warranted regarding the name of the church ruin on Orsay.  It is confusing, at least to the novice history buffs on this "side of the pond".  Canmore's website (Historic Environment Scotland) refers to the church as "St. Orain's".

The Ordinance Survey map, however, lists it as St. Columba's Church, primarily because locals insist that it was dedicated to St. Columba.  Indeed, records do suggest that.  Exchequer Rolls dating to 1507 refer to it as "St. Columba's Church".

Perhaps both of these could be true.  St. Orain's seems to have been built inside a walled compound.  That may account for the difference.  Canmore does not typically make mistakes with their archeological notes.  But then neither does the Ordnance Survey.  To avoid the difference, most refer to it as "Orsay Church".  That works.





 

Another kind of split

A few comments about driving on the left are perhaps of interest to those who are considering travel to Scotland's Hebrides.  Some trepidation naturally exists for those of us who are newbie "port side" drivers, especially in the context of "real" traffic out on U.K. highways.

While the principal "trunk" roads on Islay are quite good, they do have certain unique features to them.  Lack of a shoulder for one thing; or sheep grazing where the fog line is supposed to be.

March 23, 2017  Scottish blackface sheep on A847; oblivious to traffic

The spectacle of sheep on the A847 highway admittedly is not quite as impressive as that on the country single tracks.  We had to pull over the day before to yield at Kilnave, for example.  Still, the risk seems substantially greater, both to sheep and drivers, at higher speeds on the main trunk roads.

March 22, 2017  Sheep herding on Islay with an ATV (sheep dog was riding the ATV as well)

Single tracks aside, what you have going for you, should you plan to drive on Hebridean highways, are lower resident populations than are found on the Scottish mainland.  Or better said:  lower populations during the tourist off-season.  This merits a note.  Some Hebridean islands swell by three or four times their resident population when the summer season begins in earnest.  For that reason, avoiding the crush is one of the benefits of a tour during Easter.

This is not to say that single tracks don't have...interesting features.

March 23, 2017  Single track near Kilchiaran

It's just that in driving single tracks over back farm lands, a nod and a wave is easy enough.  Figuring out who is doing what on them is usually a mutual understanding.  Maybe it's universal.  In Idaho we have the same thing, on remote tracks like at top of Seven Devils for example.  Speeds are normally low on single tracks, and drivers are naturally being more cautious.  So, your decision space is wider and safety margin is greater...unless you happen to be in front of those pell-mell British "birders" on the Loch Gruinart Nature Reserve.  If so, all bets are off.

Still, an apprehensiveness was unavoidable as we piloted to Port Weymess at higher speeds.  It was not so much the prospect of the two lane road.  Actually, we had the "wrong side" two lane road deal figured out after a harrowing "initiation" drive from Islay airport at late dusk to Port Askaig with ice on the roads, and gravel trucks crowding center line.  We earned our main road confidence.

March 23, 2017  Two lane A847; west shore of Loch Indaal; note standing stone on left

The biggest concern in the drive to Port Weymss/Portnahaven was what would happen when highway A847 reduced down to a single track...which I would style as a "highway single track" having more vehicles running at greater speeds.  Perhaps it is a man thing.  You never want to look like you don't know what you're doing...even if you don't.  The trick gets sketchier whenever trying to figure out what the other guy is doing (or may do) when traveling at speed.

The worry turned out to be a non-issue.  Simply put, there was little traffic of any kind, in either direction.  Our drive took place during a workday, and few were on the road at that time.  We pulled out perhaps three times total. 

Road map; from islayinfo.com

For those Stateside considering Islay as a destination, their heaviest duty road is the A846, a good two lane running north-south from Port Askaig to Port Ellen.  Actually, A846 ends at Ardbeg, chasing the big money just east of Port Ellen.  Which is to say it serves south Islay's "Trinity"--the Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg distilleries.

March 23, 2017  Lagavulin distillery

The bulk of Islay's population lives on the east "half" of the island--principally in Port Ellen and in Bowmore (the administrative center of the island and location of the Bowmore distillery).  That makes A846 Islay's busiest roadway.  In addition, it is the main route between Islay's two ports.

Double lane roads accommodate Islay's economically vital distillery industry.  "Lorry" traffic associated with whisky making can be an issue hauling barley, malt, glassware and of course spirits (most of which are aged on mainland Scotland due to warehouse limitations).  Even so, traffic was a great deal less than here in Idaho County.

March 23, 2017  Laphroaig

Islay's distilleries on the Jura sound--Bunnahabhain, Coal Ila and now Ardnahoe--are linked with strong single tracks to A846 in the north.  At Bridgend (the important junction for Islay), the A846 is met by the A847 from the west, a road network that resembles a caltrops of a sort.

A847 serves the lower populated Rinns "half" of the island.  From Bridgend, it runs along the west shore of Loch Indaal as a two lane highway to Port Charlotte.  Its double lane serves Bruichladdich distillery just north of Port Charlotte.  Kilchoman distillery, as is the case for the north Islay distilleries, is linked to the two lane via a hardened single track connection.

South of Port Charlotte, however, there are no distilleries (not legal ones, at least).  And A847's road class drops to a paved singed track out to the tip of the Rinns at Portnahaven.  It is well paved, and it has actual pull outs, versus the "sort of-maybe" pull out spots found on the lighter duty single tracks.  The A847 pullouts are marked with black and white posts.  Once you know what to look for, these are fairly easy to spot sufficiently in advance.  This assumes, of course, that the black and white posts marking the pullouts (which you can anticipate at the crest of a hill or in a curve) are standing upright.  Not all of them are.

I conclude this segment with the following "Say wha?!" photo taken north east of Ardbeg distillery on a single track.  Ya' never know.

March 23, 2017  A peacock, of all things, on Islay on single track to Kildalton

Split Personalities

After breakfast at Port Askaig Hotel, we aimed our tiny red Volkswagen "car hire" to Port Weymss and Portnahaven on the southern tip of The Rinns, traversing the west side of the island from north to south.

March 23, 2017  Our tiny red rental ride at Port Askaig.

As a general rule, we pencil our transportation for Scotland sojourns well in advance.  Not everything must be worked in meticulous detail.  Still, it is best to prearrange transportation.  Besides, you can normally do that easily enough on the internet in most cases.

Leaving transportation entirely to chance, however, is likely a road to disappointment, and will probably cost more in "stalled" travel time than simply scheduling your transportation links beforehand.   

Fixing transportation provides structure to the allotted  touring time, whether that may be shopping in a small village or walking to an old churchyard. 

It's easier to parcel out tour times, to synchronize.  This is particularly important if you have a busy or complicated itinerary...lots of things to do. With an assurance that transportation exists, and a smart phone with the timetables entered, a type of confidence exists...or at least there's less fret. 

This is not to say that off-the-cuff adventuring has no place.  When "playing it by ear" does work out, those occasions can be rewarding.  Still, a structural transportation plan helps avoid travel chaos...and disappointment.  Our trip to Port Weymss is a case in point...for both outcomes.

Boat Trips to Orsay allegedly available from Port Weymss

Ultimately, we could not do what we had hoped to do at Port Weymss...which was to arrange a tour boat to take us across to Orsay island (just offshore and tantalizingly close to Port Weymss).

March 23, 2017 Port Weymss, Islay

It was not that we did not try to fix the transport in advance online.  We did, and couldn't.  So, we decided to go to Port Weymss "and see" if a boat could be gotten.  Our physical presence was a vastly overestimated exercise.   It did absolutely nothing to make a tour boat across to Orsay manifest.

March 23, 2017  Portnahaven, Islay (Port Weymss' adjacent neighbors)

But the morning was beautiful nonetheless, enjoyable.  We substituted an unknown memorial above Port Weymss in lieu of Orsay.  We had no precise idea as to what the memorial was before hiking up to it.  It turned out to have a somber beauty in its own right; well worth the chance visit.

March 23, 2017  Celtic Cross monument between Port Weymss and Portnaven 

The unknown monument (listed on the Ordnance Survey only as "Meml") is a Celtic Cross, erected in memory of local men killed in service to their nation during World War Two.  This monument likely sees few walking visitors these days.  Sadly.  The view from the Cross is expansive.   

March 23, 2017 Eilean Mhic Coinnich behind the World War Two Celtic Cross

 
As to split personalities, Port Weymss and Portnahaven are tiny coastal villages, literally they are adjacent to each other...but divided.  Taken together collectively, both would only constitute a small community.  Bundling them as a single village, however, is apparently not copacetic.

In times past, these two neighboring villages did not exactly get along.  Too small for each to have its own church, they share one...with a proviso.  The two communities had separate doors.  One door for Portanaven folks  Another door for Port Weymss people. 

And, apparently each had "their" side of the church aisle as well.  Ne'er the twain shall meet. Perhaps not rising to the level of the Hatfields and McCoys spat in Appalachia, but a curiosity nevertheless.  It's odd how people divide.

Yet that Celtic Cross above both villages unifies, even so. 

Orsay Island off Port Weymss (Islay); Memorial above Weymss highlighted

Drovers

After a packed +36 hour day in crammed trans Atlantic fights, and a walking tour through Paisley to "fill in" the six hour layover at Glasgow, and then the commuter hop to Glenegedale on Islay, we left Islay Airport late afternoon in our red VW rental, for our accommodations at Port Askaig Hotel. 

March 22, 2017  The view that greeted us at Port Askaig.  The Paps of Jura in background.

In essence, the hotel IS Port Askaig.  Besides its piers, a RNLI lifeboat station and a new ferry terminal built to look old, Port Askaig basically means--the hotel and bar.

   

March 23, 2017  Port Askaig Hotel and Old Port Pub (our red "hire" VW seen on right)

The hotel proprietors also manage a building across the road which has a few "detached" rooms for the busier tourist season.  Those rooms are above the small general store and Royal Post Office concession.  And, a gas pump exists.  The entire Port Askaig complex sits on a rather narrow flat directly below rock cliffs.

March 23, 2017  Port Askaig Hotel, store and post office from its fishing fleet pier

Port Askaig Hotel is an old "drover inn" dating to the mid-1700s--at least most of it.  It was used to accommodate "Duriach" cattlemen (as natives to Jura refer to themselves) transporting livestock to and from Jura to markets on Islay, which lies immediately across the Jura Sound.

March 23, 2017  Paps of Jura across the Sound from Port Askaig

Part of the hotel (its Old Port Bar) is claimed to be well over a century older.  Evidently in renovations, its masonry was found to be different.  In any case, it is advertised as the oldest continuously licensed "premises" on the island (everyone needs an angle).  Its license is said to date to the late 1500s.


The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) does have a Life Boat Station at Port Askaig, in a new building.  Where these lifeboat men reside is a guess.  On duty, doubtless they are barracked at the RNLI station.  As for their permanent places of residence, perhaps they are from the nearby small community of Keils further inland up on the rough grasslands a few kilometers from the port.

Lifeboats get serious in Scottish waters.  After all, the North Atlantic can be treacherous, especially when pushing its might against the omnipresent skerries, rock shoals and tidal races like Jura Sound.  

March 23, 2017 RNLI Station, Port Askaig

Port Askaig RNLI boasts of a "Severn Class" lifeboat, the largest lifeboat vessel class operating in U.K. waters.  Severn craft are "all sea conditions" capable.  With speed often being a critical element in oceanic rescues, the Severn vessels reach 26 knots under favorable conditions, and protect their propellers and shafts with tunnel housing to ward against damage in shallow rocky littoral waters.

Severn craft are also self righting.  If heavy seas do capsize them, their keels roll back over to bottom, like a kayaker.  A neat trick...but also a crucial technology to save lives in the North Atlantic.

March 23, 2017  On the fishing wharf at Port Askaig

We took dinner (awkwardly quiet) in Port Askaig Hotel's Snug Bar, more or less reserved for hotel guests.  Our "nan Gall" accents clearly pegged us as "not from around here".  The clientele totaled perhaps four working men on business.  Not exactly a talkative lot.

Notwithstanding, one of the culinary highlights of the Hebrides is their seafood.  And in this, Port Askaig's kitchen did not disappoint.  You cannot go there without having the seafood.  Literally caught fresh that day, Hebridean seafood alone is worth the price of the trip...even if you did nothing else on vacation other than eat.  Take that to the bank.

Evening, March 22, 2017 Our seafood at Port Askaig, with Tennent's lager.

After dinner, we struck up a conversation with a hotel guest who said he moved years ago (1970s) from north England to mainland Scotland.  Upon finishing my Tennent's, at his recommendation I switched to a pint of Bellhaven's Best, a classic pub beer with a lower alcohol content.  It is intended for friendly conversation, not for drunkenness per se.  Though it depends on the length of the conversation, I suppose.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura returning to Port Askaig from Feolin, Jura

Before our third pint, Darla excused herself (the politics segment gave her her leave).  In fairness, with our biological clocks set on Pacific Time Zone, we were fully eight hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.  The trans Atlantic fight and then the commuter hop to Islay had eliminated an entire 24 hours (plus) of sleep.  "Jet lag" is not an insignificant factor when visiting the Hebrides.  It takes a couple days to sort it out. 

March 23, 2017  Post Askaig's Royal Mail box

Even so, I stayed on.  The hotel guest was genuinely interested in Idaho.  Keeping up with current times (since President Trump was then only two months in office), he was naturally interested in American political views.  But he was more curious about ordinary things, like driving V8 Fords.  He asked if I drove a V8.  When I told him yes, he replied "I knew it!"  Apparently, large blocks are his quintessential idea of the "American West"...Route 66 and all that. 


As it turned out, the gentleman was waiting at Port Askaig for the morning ferry over to Jura.  He was a service technician for automatic garage doors, which surprisingly enough can be somewhat high tech.  Things break, and need fixing.

Our conversation made an interesting counterpoint in ordinary commerce, beyond those V8 Fords.  Business in the Hebrides and Argyll is laid back more than here in the States.  It has to be.  Everything is controlled by the ferry schedule.  A Hebridean commute has significant "recesses" as it were.

For example, from mainland Scotland, to service the garage/warehouse door was a two day travel proposition.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura at the Post Askaig slip; the Argylle & Bute operated Jura ferry

To get to his job site on Jura with a work van required driving to Kennakraig (which is several hours out of Glasgow over narrow roads).  At Kennacraig vehicles must queue up for the large CalMac ferry (usually the MV Finlaggan) to Islay's Port Ellen.  That adds another couple hours, on the water and in loading/offloading.  And if you do not get to Kennacraig early enough, your wait is several hours more if your place toward the the back of the vehicle queue happens to be beyond the ferry's loading limit.

March 25, 2017 Vehicle queue for MV Finlaggan, CalMac's Port Ellen-Kennacraig ferry

Taken together, this accounts for the better part of a work day...just in one way travel.  From Port Ellen on southwest of Islay, it's another half hour or more drive north to Port Askaig.  Once there, in order to get to Jura, one must wait in yet another vehicle queue for the small Argyll & Bute ferry (MV Eilean Dhiura) to Feolin on Jura.

The wait at Port Askaig "may" encompass only an hour, since the Feolin ferry does its run across the Sound in about a half hour, counting roll on/roll off.  However, as is infamously said...it depends.

It depends on the weather, naturally.  But it also depends on how many vehicles, and their relative size, are queued.  Feolin ferry can take four small cars if stuffed, but fewer larger vehicles, like work vans.  So wait times depend on the number and type of vehicles queued.  And also, importantly, it depends upon their cargo.  

March 23, 2017  View from the breakfast room at Port Askaig; a fuel truck rolls onto the Feolin Ferry

We arose for breakfast at a somewhat leisurely hour, well rested, and made our way down to the hotel breakfast room, which itself was a treat.  Its bay windows (literally) offer views on morning activity at the pier.

It was somewhat surprising that the conversationalist workman, over a few pints of Bellhaven's Best the night before, came to breakfast later than we did.  His "first thing in the morning" did not directly translate into his particular hurry to get on the Jura Ferry.  And for good reason.

He was queued behind a number of vehicles, one of which happened to be a fuel truck.  That "always" holds the Jura line up, he said.  The reason is that, under Council safety regulations, hazardous cargoes (like fuel oil) must make the ferry crossing alone.  Not even walk-on foot passengers are permitted with them.  So, no one was going to Jura very fast this morning.

March 23, 2017  Obsession, a fishing vessel moored at Port Askaig

We bid the service technician an auld lang syne and headed out to explore Islay.  In 2017, we  exchanged Christmas cards with the gentleman.  He had mentioned he was nearing retirement, and had bought a  place in the Canary Islands some years back.  He intended to avoid high taxes in the U.K. during his fixed income retirement.  So, not all offshore finances are exclusively the domain of the rich and famous.  Average Joe's also benefit, it seems.  


Lastly, it should be noted that large CalMac ferries do call at Port Askaig albeit on a limited schedule, bound for Colonsay and Oban.  Port Askaig situated on Jura sound is protected.  Thus it serves as an alternative port whenever rough weather or fog bound visibility preclude the use of Port Ellen, Islay's main commercial terminal.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura 

Stout Boots

Gaining confidence in our "wrong side" driving skills on Islay in March 2017, we nudged our little red Volkswagen rental from Ballygrant on a single track road toward Dun Nosebridge.

The curious name is said to have derived from "knaus-borg" (roughly translated as "fort on the crag" in the Old Norse language of Viking invaders).  An alternative Norse phrase is also offered--"hnaus bog"--which means turf fort.  Both descriptions are apropos.  

Dun Nosebridge's age, however, is many centuries (perhaps two thousand years) older than the Viking era.  It is widely thought to be an Iron Age construction. "Thought" is here in quotes because, like so many ancient sites in west Scotland, Dun Nosebridge has also not been systematically excavated.

March 22, 2017  Dun Nosebridge fortified hilltop; rock construction now turf covered

From its heights, Dun Nosebridge commands the upper reaches of River Laggan on Islay, and most importantly the relatively rich river bottom agricultural grounds. The length of Kintyre Peninsula is visible from the top of the dun, as well as the sea approaches to the south.  [Note:  this Easter we will be on Kintyre, viewing Islay in reverse.] 

March 22, 2017  Straight wall foundation atop Dun Nosebridge scarp overlooking River Laggan.
North (or Irish) Channel and Kintyre Peninsula visible in left background.

Travel guide descriptions notwithstanding, the Dun Nosebridge path head was difficult to spot, assuming one is trying to follow the rules of courtesy regarding parking.  Most accounts say a "parking area" exists at the Mulindry cottages just south of the bridge over River Laggan.  We did not see one, at least not one that looked to be public and more importantly...permissible.  We envisioned "car park" signage, given what we felt was surely a significant historical site.  There was none.   

We drove past the path head at Mulindry Bridge.  It was obvious once we drove up from the River Laggan bottomland woods and onto the rough grasslands above that we missed our mark. That said, in consolation, our errant view of Loch Indaal from the flanks of Druim Buidhe's grasslands was worth the miss.  

Below us to the west by about 180 feet in elevation lay Loch Indaal, the great bay which nearly divides Islay in half.  The view took in Bowmore, Islay's "capital" on the eastern shore of Loch Indaal, and Bridgend at the bay's inland head.

March 22, 2017  Mulindry Bridge; cottages and schoolhouse in background

As luck had it, a sprightly elderly gentleman was out for his walk at the same time we intended to turn around on the single track road and make another pass in search of the supposed "parking area".  In the U.K., unlike here in America, walking is something of a national pass time.  Perhaps more widely practiced than "birding," it is highly doubtful that recreational walking in the U.K. is nearly as ardent...as we discovered while on the single track through the Loch Gruinart Nature Reserve.  Again, for safety's sake, do not get between a "birder's" optics and the birds.

I mention recreational walking by way of an encouragement.  It would profit older American adults immensely to get up out of their recliners, peel their minds out the television set and take a daily walk, even if only a mile.  Good for the body, good for the spirit...and good for a fresh outlook on life.

In any case, violating all known male protocol (as dear Darla emphasized with relish...several times), I actually stopped and asked directions from the gentleman, though I much rather prefer the term "sought clarification".  The gentleman was more than hospitable.  He inquired as to whether we had a map.  While he did not vocalize it, I could see the question turning over in his mind--"How could you possibly miss it?"

In defense of our orienteering, when we originally drove past where the gentleman recommended that we park, we had assumed parking was not permitted there.  An explanation is required.  Single track means "one car wide".  These tracks are more or less paved, or graveled in varying degrees, with occasional pullouts to allow oncoming traffic to pass or for following traffic (tailgaters) to overtake.  This is especially so at approaches to single lane bridges like that found at Mulindry. 

The gentleman whose walk we interrupted said it would be fine to park in what only amounted to a wide spot in the single track road just north of Mulindry Bridge--in other words, the pullout.  So parking as we did, at the gentleman's suggestion, may not have been exactly legal.

Admittedly, hindering traffic was perhaps not a serious concern.  Beyond the jaunty gentleman and ourselves, no one else was out or about.  We took him at his word, and trusted that our little red Volkswagen would not be towed off whilst we walked to the ancient fort.

March 22, 2017  Mulindry cottages center right.
Dun path at base of Leac na Dubharaiche dark flat slope woods, at right

The gentleman then turned his concerns to whether we were properly shod.  "It's boggy.  You will need 'wellies' or stout boots."  We assured the gentleman that we had both an Ordnance Survey and Keene's waterproof boots (US made).   Here, a compliment should be extended to Keene's (an Oregon cobbler).  Keene boots are solid and relatively watertight.  In our two excursions to Scotland and Hadrian's Wall in North England over sopping muddy paths, our Keene's have served us well.

March 22, 2017  Upper Leac na Dubharaiche woods at Dun Nosebridge

The gentleman's concern about our footwear was well-placed.  The path to Dun Nosebridge in the river bottom woods and pastures, qualifies as a "mire" along much of its route.  Slippery and with ankle deep pools of water that are practically unavoidable.  

After some experimentation, we found it preferable to simply resign oneself and ford through the mud and water rather than try to balance on spongy soft, narrow peaty edges to the pools...and inevitably still ending up in the mire.  "Too clever by half" that might called.  So, resign to ford the pools from the start; it will at least grant a form of "controlled entry".  

(As a side note, I picked this day, of all days, to forget my gaiters.  My insignificant oversight has also been mentioned, numerous times, with equal relish by my charming wife ever since.)

Edward Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary (digitized in 2007)

Some words are warranted on these woods.  Because Scots can take umbrage to these woods being called "scrub," I therefore refer to them as oak-hazel woodlands.

The Gaelic term--Leac na Dubharaiche--for the woodland at Mulindry Bridge is something of an etymological puzzle.  

Online translations (of suspect accuracy) say the term means "slab of the debtor"...which does not exactly make sense for a geographic place name of a riparian woodland. Being curious, I consulted Dwelly's Gaelic dictionary (published in 1918).  

Dwelly improved upon the earlier monumental Gaelic pronunciation dictionary by Neil McAlpine in 1831.  (Mentioned in our article on Kilchoman.)  Dwelly illustrated, for example, Scottish wildlife and botanicals...an immense help when trying to determine plants described in Gaelic. 

Here's my stab at a translation.  "Leac" evidently is derived from Old Irish, though it could also be from Norse.  Roughly, it means declivity, in this instance "a flat downward slope".  

The Gaelic mouthful--na Dubharaiche--approximately translates to "shaded" or "darkened" with the understanding that the shade is caused by the woods.  Hence, Leac na Dubharaiche roughly may be interpreted as:  "dark woods on the low flat slope"...which is an apt description. 

For our tale, the important element is--shade.  Hiking wise, shade normally translates into wet...if such a distinction is even made in humid Scotland these days.  

Regardless, the dark and lush green "dwarf woods" were interesting, a curiosity at least.    This is called a "Celtic Rainforest" and with good reason.  Moss, lichens and ferns (some growing from the trees themselves) were abundant throughout.  One can easily see how story tales of haunted woods developed...and how the young would buy into them. 

March 22, 2017  Leac na Dubharaiche (Sessile Oak-Atlantic Hazel woods) at Dun Nosebridge

Atlantic Hazel (Corylus avellana) is widely distributed on the western seaboard of the U.K.  Formerlly, it was even more so.  Pollen analysis (palynology that is called) in some locations in Scotland suggest that hazel dominated in pure stands for thousands of years.  Hazel is a pioneer species, among the first woody plants to colonize the Hebrides and west Scotland following the retreat of the Ice Age some 11,600 years ago. 

March 22, 2017  Leac na Dubharaiche along River Laggan at Dun Nosebridge

As for its age, hazel is a multi-stemmed "shrub".  Thus, its lifespan is not determined by a single stem.  When one stems dies, the plant replaces it with others.  Because of that, the remnant shaded flat lower slope stand with no dominant over story at Dun Nosebridge may in fact be among the oldest woodlands in Scotland...thousands of years in continuous presence.  

Hazel is associated with very early human habitation.  As the climate changed to the wetter conditions found today, peat covered the majority of former hazel woodlands.  On Islay, for example, hazel stumps found beneath the peat have been dated to 7,800 years ago.  

Archeology has dated the earliest human presence on Islay at around 12,000 years ago, from a flint point recovered at a Mesolithic hunting camp at Rubha Port an t-Seilich (north of Dun Nosebridge).  In 2009, at Airigh Ghuaidhre (only two miles northwest of Dun Nosebridge), thousands of scattered stone artifacts, including over 30 stone bladed items, were uncovered along with bone fragments, red deer antler, animal horn and charred hazelnut shells...enough to permit radiocarbon dating of the site (3,350 B.C.)

March 22, 2017  River Laggan from Dun Nosebridge at edge of scarp

Considered a transitional cultural stage between the Late Mesolithic and the Neolithic, Airigh Ghuaidhre is an important site, it has attracted active archeological excavation.  Perhaps Dun Nosebridge will, in time, be formally excavated as well.  

Thus far, it has been determined that early human occupation of this general area was  more extensive than previously thought. Leac na Dubharaiche and the several smaller relict woodlands along the River Laggan were intimately associated with that early human habitation. 

Thus, Dun Nosebridge cannot be separated from the "dark dwarf woods" below it. They are an integral part of it. They represent a permanence in one sense, and yet the temporal as well.

Over the course of human occupation on Islay, the climate began to change, to a wetter oceanic climate.  In response, Scotland's habitats also changed.  In many cases, woods were altogether replaced by rough grasslands.  

Where woods prevailed, the species composition changed.  For example, Scots pine began to dominate in the north Highlands.  Oak predominated in the Lowlands.  And of course the ever onward march of all-engulfing peat everywhere.

By the Late Neolithic, Scotland's forest cover had diminished to perhaps 10%.  Islay, however, was something of the contrarian.  It retained substantially greater wooded tracts.  In the Late Neolithic as much as three-fourths of Islay was in woodland, and much of that hazel.  Further, despite subsequent  exploitation by the metal axe, through the Bronze Age, perhaps as much as a third of Islay remained woodland covered.  This would have been the condition, roughly speaking, when Dun Nosebridge was built. 

March 22, 2017  Beinn Bheigier (491 meters); turf covered wall of Dun Nosebridge lower right

Dun Nosebridge (its Viking derived place name notwithstanding) is by any measure extremely old...long in existence before any Norsemen ever showed up below its ramparts.  

Dun Nosebridge, oversaw the nearby hazel woodlands below it, and protected the approach to the upper River Laggan reaches into what is known by the Illeach (natives of Islay) as "Islay's Great Glen". 

March 22, 2017  View from atop Dun Nosebridge of the upper reaches of River Laggan

As a defensive fortification, Dun Nosebridge is a substantial structure.  It has an unusual employment of tiered ditches for its defense. 

March 22, 2017  Atop Dun Nosebridge, two upper tiered ditch and wall defenses

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Let there be no doubt, the thing is steep.  Called "sub-rectangular" by archeologists, actually laymen would say it is "D" shaped.  

The straight line is abutted to the top of what is a nearly shear scarp.  The concentric stacked tiers of ditches defended the direction from Mulindry Bridge, our approach to the site...the most logical line of attack.

March 22, 2017  Dun Nosebridge upper wall, viewed below the top tier ditch defense

Our ground level photos cannot possibly do the site justice.  Therefore, I borrow a clipped aerial image from Canmore and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Aerial view of Dun Nosebridge; image from Canmore (2006)

Forgotten Old Rugged Cross

The intricacies of the Celtic carved Kilchoman Cross obviously are indicative of wealth.  Indeed, the Beaton "medical kindred" who erected the Kilchoman Cross (c. 1500 A.D.) were physicians to Scottish kings and the local MacDonald Lords.  They were fairly well to do in their time.



But there is another Cross at Kilchoman, one far older and much more humble in its expression.  "Crudely carved" is how the archeological professionals put it, when giving it the name Kilchoman Cross 2.  

March 22, 2017  Kilchoman Cross 2 at a precarious lean in a linear rubble feature

Of the few who visit the ruin of Kilchoman Church, fewer still would notice the Cross 2 stone.  About 3 feet in length, Cross 2 stands, or rather lists precariously, in a low pile of rocks approximately 1/5th mile southwest of the Kilchoman churchyard out in a sheep pasture.

Cross 2 has almost given up standing erect.  Before too much more time passes, under gravity and the elements, Cross 2 will likely lay its burdens down upon the earth.

March 22, 2017  Kilchoman Cross 2; Kilchoman Military Cemetery in background; view north

The rocks in which Cross 2 is found seem to be a linear feature, and perhaps one could fancy out of it a rectangular foundation.  Whether or not this may actually be a foundation of some earlier edifice, we could not tell.

Like so many sites in Scotland, this one has apparently not been excavated by archeologists.  While that may seem odd to Americans given the antiquity of the Cross 2 site, the fact is ancient sites exist everywhere in Argyll...more numerous than are archeological budgets.



No one seems to know exactly when Cross 2 was created.  At best is a guess, with nothing to corroborate it.  "Probably sometime in the 9th century" (c. 800s A.D.), the professionals put it.

Nor does anyone know exactly what Cross 2 was.

Some suggest it is a sanctuary monument, marking holy ground.  Some say it marked the site of a holy well, though no well is known there.  Some claim it was a crude memorial, possibly a grave marker made by an Illeach local for a now unknown inhabitant of Islay. Some think it was a very early High Cross, possibly a relic from the earliest Kilchoman Church.  Again, no one knows.

Ruin of the 1827 Kilchoman Church; collapsed roof timbers can be seen

What is known is that the church ruin visible today at Kilchoman is not, in fact, very old.  It was erected on top of the site of a the former medieval church, known to exist (in clerical records) at Kilchoman in the 1200s.

Over time (roughly 600 years!) that medieval church became too hazardous to use.  So, it was taken down in 1824.
The present church (the ruin visible today) was completed for services in 1827.

After "only" 150 years, this church was "given up" in 1977, and allowed to decay in the elements and time.

That is testament to two things.

First, the general trend in the majority of the Western World is that Christian Churches are dying off.  Parishioners, on average, get older by the day.   The youth have drifted away.  Whether that was by disinterest in matters of faith, or from economic reasons (lack of employment) in rural areas like Islay, is speculative.  Perhaps it is both.

Second, Kilchoman Church is a monument to the extreme social cultural damage by the Highland Clearances.  Medieval Kilchoman Parish had a sizeable population, being the best agricultural ground on Islay.

The Clearances, which peaked bout two decades after the current Kilchoman Church ruin was built, decimated Scottish populations in the Highlands.  Today among Gaelic Scots the term "genocide" is often heard by way of reference.  (And indeed, under most definitions the forced removal and relocation of an ethnic  population is precisely that.)

Kilchoman was among the earliest Churches established on Islay.  A Celtic Church was said to have been established by St. Coman on the Rinns of Islay in the 6th century (c. mid-500 A.D.), as chronicled by St. Admanan in his Life of St Columba.  Coman was referred to by Admanan (March 18, 688 A.D.) by as "Honorablis presbyter". 

Cross 2 is a a "Celtic Ring Cross" albeit a disc head slab...which means it is quite an early work.  Carved from nearby Lewsian amphibolite, the rock itself is amoung the oldest exposed geologic strata in Europe.

I found the Kilchoman Cross 2 , evoked more wonder in its simplicity, and its rugged weathered age than even the exquisite and intricately carved Kilchoman High Cross. The Kilchoman High Cross can be explained and understood...as a monument by a relatively wealthy son for his father in the "medical kindred".  It can be dated to c. 1500 A.D. rather closely.

Not so the distant Kilchoman Cross 2.

Wealth did not carve it.  Faith did. It is "Known unto God".