‘born at the right time’
– Paul Simon
Our Sanemori's helmet is the rock-cut boar at Dunadd
Dunadd
D
U N
A D D
Sunshine. Many visitors – mums and dads, kids and dogs – at Dunadd. At the start of the short climb we meet a big caterpillar – hawk moth maybe? before we reach footprint, boar and basin below the summit. Eck innovates a suitably archaic matriarchial ceremony and, through the boots of our womanly companions, the common agreement is that the footprint is best filled by a size 8. We offer the Scotti a dram from Islay, halfway between West and East Dalriada.
44 footprint and whisky
Ken Cockburn, 2010
On a second top, to the east, a rowan grows from the edge, upon which Eck ties several hokku-labels.
hokku flutter
on precipitous rowan
siren-voices
44 Dunadd rowan
Ken Cockburn, 2010
44 hokku-label (Dunadd)
Alec Finlay, 2010
Dunadd Hokku
(I)
a split hill
or shapely paps
let the right
foot in
(II)
how many bends
of the river
added to the
surging sea
(III)
Moine Mhoir bricollage
mosses and rush
patched heather
pools & cloud shadow
(IV)
waves
grasses
inland
island
grasses
waves
44 hokku-label (Dunadd)
Alec Finlay, 2010
The river snakes its way around the nub of rock and through the Mòine Mhòr to meet the sea at Bellanoch.
coMmensurate
mEandering
Add's
aNd
aDding
mEander's
ciRcuitousnesses
From the great Moss you can see how close the sea came, lapped around – once made the fort an island – as at Dun Mhic Uisneachan (Beregonium), this is a seaside powerbase, perfect for passage over the inland sea to Erin. Eye’s drawn from all points to the paps of Jura. The 263 brooch moulds found at Dunadd, show it was another smelting centre.
(KC & AF)
footprint : tnirptoof
In his analysis of Kilmartin Glen, Angus Farquhar developed an interesting theory based on early Scandinavian symbolism: you step into the Dunadd footprint, and the foot of a person in the spirit world – or in a death limbo – is mirrored beneath you. Coronation stone as portal: point of symmetry: communicant with underworld:
as above
so below
(AF)
Tor a’ Bhlarain
I’d spotted the typical hill fort hill form of Tor a’ Bhlarain, down Kilmichael (Kil-Mikkel) Glen, on the drive back from Achnabrek. The point of it made a triangle with Dunadd and Dounie. We didn’t climb up, viewing it from the smooth cup-and-ring marked stone by the road, listening to 3 mewling buzzards, reading the rise and the reeds in the light of Basho’s famous cricket-helmet hokku.
audio, 44 Tor a' Bhalain 1
audio, 44 Tor a' Bhalain 2
Alec Finlay & Ken Cockburn, 2010
44 hokku-label Buteo Buteo
('3 of us listening / by the stone // to 3 buzzards / mewling & circling / over Tor a’ Bhlarain' AF)
Ken Cockburn, 2010
Stopping off at Kilmichael Glassary’s cup-and-ring marked rocks – past the school potato-patch, the workmen in the churchyard, rusted bells on a cottage gate. Seton Gordon says that among the cup marks there are two footprints where, he speculates, the Queens of Dalriada were crowned.
sun's not shifted
rainwater runnelled
cup-to-cup-to-cup
44 hokku-label
('pockled / rock / cup // puckered / stone / ring' AF)
Ken Cockburn, 2010
(KC & AF)
To Make Your Very Own Dun
You will need –
a split rock form, like camel humps, one bigger than the other, with the fort on the lower peak
a conspectus view over a plain toward a surrounding curtain of mountains; alternatively, for those who wish to stay alert, a distant hill with a rival dun
a geomantic alignment with other duns, standing stones, and cup-and-ring marked rocks
a small winding path, oku or hosomichi, often obscured by fern or heather
vitrification (optional extra)
a spring or well
a mythic figure (Saint, King, Warrior, Cailleach, Witch, Seer)
a tale, always tragic: ‘no Dun has a happy ending’ – Sora)
a disupted association with one or more of the Stone(s) of Destiny
a scattering of sorrel and wild thyme
some ferns, nettles and birch, sheep are also optional
a rowan at the margin
foxglove and stonecrop
buzzards mewling gothic lettering (on the OS)
Kilmichael Glassary is a quiet guardian for the cup-and-ring marked stones. As at Dunchraigaig, we spend a few moments hypothesising what they might mean. Has anyone made a comparative survey between the marks found on the standing stones and those found on the rock slabs? Perhaps these enigmatic cups and curves speak to us, and will continue to do so for years to come, in the shape of our future glimpsed as we attempt to interpret our past.
playing
ringer and rolley
mapping
the constellations
Ahead, Kilmichael Church seems to dissolve at the edges, leaching into the surrounding scrub and hillside. On the way down to the car I notice the fluorescent jackets of the council groundsmen, primed with grass-strimmers. I wonder if they’ll remember to blow the cuttings off the grave slabs afterwards, or will Sharon be along in the evening to brush them away?
(RH)
Castle Dounie
At Crinan Rebecca and I lunch by the canal. Puffer Vic 32's smoke shifts us from our initial picnic spot to a table by the lock.
We watch an enormous Golden Opal make its way through and out into Loch Crinan. Walking to the harbour we can't find the path and ask the way of a lady gardening – she points us in the right directions, and advises us just to ignore the PRIVATE – RESIDENTS ONLY sign, taking the liberal view that as the path is marked on the map it's OK for non-residents too.
We follow a steep path through dappled birch-woods and join a forestry track. Painted ladies display; sun throbs zriit-zriit of grasshoppers. We pass several lively-looking rocky outcrops before the arrows, which the car-park board assured us would lead to the castle, point perplexingly downhill. We retrace our steps and soon come across the dùn, a semi-circular wall still intact. Aligning the planets in our constellation of duns – Dunadd, Tor a’ Bhlarain, Dounie. The views are fantastic, across the Sound of Jura through the Dorus Mor, over Craignish, our peninsula, to the south-end finger-tip of Luing, Scarba's rounded back and the mass of Mull.
Japanese Cherry Tea replaces the minerals we've sweated out. Rebecca ties a wish to a young pine. The fort's on the lower of two tops. Ken scrambles up the higher and leaves a wish for his sister on a birch. A last look-back sees the height won, ground gained.
hilltop tea
tastes of cherries
Matsushima's
not so far
44 wish, Castle Dounie
Ken Cockburn, 2010
to every
path, peak & point
(KC & RH)
Kilbride
a certain quiet lochan,
where water lilies rise
like small fat moons,
and tied among the reeds,
underneath a rowan,
a white boat waits.
from 'Lochan' by Kathleen Jamie (Jizzen)
The following day we took the road up to Kilbride, one of my dream destinations. We struck out for Lochan an Tormalaich, hidden beyond Barr of Baroile, cupped within four hills. The sheep trod winds up hill through Cnoc Gaothach’s oaks, then we headed east over tussocky bog.
44 wish, oak, Kilbride
Alec Finlay, 2010
Just as last time, a mythopoetic deer showed herself on the slope, divining the final hill to climb; but she led us away from Tormalaich, to a smaller unnamed lochan that’s fed from her waters. I wondered at the changes in my perfect loch, for the water lilies used to make a perfect circle. It was Ken who found out what, as Holly would say, was 'actually' real, by spotting the smaller nameless lochan on the map next morning.
44 Duilleag-bhàite
Alec Finlay, 2010
As at St Fillan’s hill, this is a walk too far for my muscular illness, but I pay the fee without grumbling – for the joy of the swim, a chance to rekindle the memory, and to share the place. It’s wonderful, wading in over rubbery compacted roots, eye-to-eye with green leaf-boats, uilleag-bhàite – lily, with an echo, in Gaelic, of ‘page’ –, to the peat dark swimming hole in the middle.
44 hokku-label, waterlily lochan, Kilbride
('eye-to eye / with lily / and blue / dragonfly' AF)
Alec Finlay, 2010
(AF)
Other words
Maclennan's Gaelic dictionary gives three options for the English water-lily; checking them the other way, cuirinnean, pronounced 'coorinen', is given as 'the white water-lily', which seems to fitting for where we swim – 'Loch Cuirinnean' – though of course I could again be mistaken –
facalair offers variant
paths to follow to
stray from
(KC)
44 Lochan Na Torrnalaich
Ken Cockburn, 2010
Binnein Mor
Above the lochs, on Binnein Mor, there’s another fort: the pair to Tor a’ Bhlarain, which is SE over the ridge and across the Add. I climbed this fort 20 years ago. Below is reed fringed, Lochan t Curaich. I can still recall how, as you climb the heart-shaped lochan slowly diminishes to the size of a quaich.
There are views from here over Moine Mhor to Crinan and Jura, and we had a sense of the 4 forts – Dunadd, Dounie, Binnein Mor, Tor a’ Bhlarain – connected in a matrix of outlooking, coronation and protection.
(AF)
20-21.VII.10
guide
Dunadd is located 2 miles south of Kilmartin, a few hundred yards west of the A816 (56° 5'9.52"N) (5°28'39.60"W). The site is well sign-posted with ample parking at the foot of the fort.
Further south again, and to the east of the A816, is the turn-off for Kilmichael Glassary. Tor a’ Bhlarain is north of Kilmichael, visible to the right-hand side of the road as you cross the stone bridge over the River Add (56° 5'46.27"N) (5°27'3.73"W). Parking is available opposite Kilmichael Glassary Church.
Castle Dounie (56° 3'24.58"N) (5°36'34.68"W) can be reached from the carpark at the Crinan Hotel, or slightly nearer from Crinan Harbour. OS Explorer 358 is helpful for those wanting to extend the circuit, although the paths are clearly marked (just be sure not to miss the summit by following the green arrow 'right' into an early descent!). See also the walkhighlands website for a snapshot map.
Lochan an Tormalaich (and its smaller sister!) are best accessed with the aid of OS Explorer 358. Respective grid references are NR856955 and NR854953. To reach the beginning of the walk take the road sign-posted to Rhudle on the east side of the A816 (Rhudle is north of Dunadd). If you are in a car, park in the lay-by before the NO PUBLIC ACCESS sign. Directly opposite the lay-by is a wooden bridge across Rhudil Burn. From here you will have to climb over a fence and ascend up through the tress. Strike out due east across open country, ascending up between Barr of Baroile and Cnoc Gaothach, before plateauing eastwards across moorland. Please be advised that there is no clear path, and there are barbed wire fences in place.
the completed journey will be realised as an audio-visual word-map, published online and in print, May 16, 2011. If you would like more information about the project email info@theroadnorth.co.uk
intimations
NVA/HALF LIFE
The best companion for uncovering Argyll's historic landscape is the NVA publication and route master HALF LIFE. Visit the HALF LIFE website to download the walking routes and find out more about the legacy of this extraordinary art event.
The publication, featuring contributions from Tracey Warr, Mike Pearson, and Sharon Webb, is available to order from the HALF LIFE website and can also be picked up from the Kilmartin House Museum shop.
NVA is a public arts organisation based in Glasgow and directed by Angus Farquhar.
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