Anatomy at the water's edge

Connected to Cultoon stone circle along the "minor" road on west Rinns is Kilchiaran Bay, where the single track bends east back to Port Charlotte and the Loch Indaal.

March 23, 2017 Kilkiaran Bay at the water's edge

Generally, we were always within sight of the ocean during our 2017 tour of Islay. Even so, among Darla's few adamant requests in our 2017 itinerary (another being a shopping visit to Islay Woolen Mill) was a walk along the sea coast, to spend meditative time at the water's edge.

"To touch the ocean," as she called it.

March 23, 2017 Kilkiaran Bay

During the winter months in Idaho leading up to our Easter 2017 trip, we armed ourselves with Ordnance Survey maps, a calendar and a list of sites to see. We considered walks on the shore at Sanaigmore, Saligo, Lossit Bay and even at Machir Bay. They each had merits.

March 23, 2017 Kilkiaran Bay; road cut visible just above bay at utility line

We settled on Kilchiaran. Logistically, it was the easiest to access, lying directly on the single track from Portnahaven just north of Cultoon stone circle.

March 23, 2017 Kilkiaran chapel on Abhainn na Braghad

As an inducement, we were also intrigued by Kilchiaran chapel ruin; it is locally alleged that St. Columba first set foot on Islay here in ~650 A.D. The chapel ruin stands at the head of Kilkiaran Bay on Abhainn na Braghad, a stone's throw below the single track.

To decipher the Gaelic place name again requires consulting Dwelly's Gaelic dictionary. Not being a linguist (and certainly not conversant in Gaelic), I can only make a stab at translating "Abhainn na Braghad".

In this, I admit an eccentric interest. Perhaps it is the romantic in me, but Gaelic is a poetic language. It has a sonic beauty, a soft roundness. It almost sings, evoking myth and mystique.

Once nearly extinct, Gaelic is an ancient tongue spoken in a bygone age of knights and damsels, bards and ascetic hermit priests, fairies and magicians. My translations attempt to provide a cultural richness, an esoteric understanding.

Self revelations aside, "Abhainn" is a common Gaelic geographical term in Argyll.

Its meaning becomes obvious, once one consults enough Ordnance Surveys.

Abhainn means river, or more precisely "stream".

The trickier Gaelic translation is "Braghad". It generally means neck, or throat, or upper chest. But in this particular place name, Braghad probably is a specific reference to the hollow in the upper part of the breast, roughly at the sternum.

Admittedly "Sternum Stream" is hardly romantic. As a geographic and anatomical description however, it is comparatively accurate.

Apparently it refers to the shape of the stream valley, when viewed from the water's edge as Abhainn na Braghad empties into the headland of Kilkiaran Bay and drains over the shingle beach into the Atlantic.

A picture being worth many words, the following photo looks up Abhainn na Braghad toward Kilkiaran chapel ruin. It shows the "U" shaped rocky ribbed outlet.

March 23, 2017 Abhainn na Braghad and Kilkiaran chapel ruin

An anatomical drawing (snipped from healthline.com) compared to the rocky skyline as Abhainn na Braghad opens to the Kilkiaran Bay headland looks remarkably similar.

A note:  The Ordnance Survey has Abhainn na Braid.  So a difference, depending on whether a surveyor or an archaeologist are describing it.  Braid is essentially synonymous with Braghad.  Braid means horse collar.  Locally on Islay Braid it also takes on the meaning of the collar on a thief's neck...the metal shackle collar.

These describe the same feature...the hollow in the neck or at the collar.  However, for completeness this from Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary (Illustrated):