Literature of the Gaelic Landscape. John Murray
occasion.
… the Highlanders firmly believe that if a dead body should be known to lie above ground, or be disinterred by malice or the accidents of torrents … and care was not immediately taken to perform to it the proper rites, then there would arise such storms and tempests as would destroy their corn, blow away their huts, and all sorts of misfortunes would follow till that duty was performed.
(ibid 280)
This recorded incident reflects the sustained resonance of Fenian legend to Highlanders in the 18th century. Until the end of the 19th century, a visitor to the ceilidh house in the Central Highlands would be asked: ‘A’ bheil dad agad air an Fhèinn?’ – ‘Do you have anything about the Fian?’ (Black 2001, xiii & Fraser 1978, 28). Ballads about Fionn and the Fianna were sung in the Hebrides within living memory. Tradition says that Fionn was buried at Killin - Cill Fhinn (NN572330), where a stone marks his supposed grave. Though the name could also mean White Church. Another Fionn’s grave - Uaigh Fhionn - lies in Glen Luss. It may be associated with Dùn Fhinn in nearby Glen Fruin.
Watson cites a story describing the death of Fionn near an island on Loch Iubhair in Glen Dochart (NN434273). Our hero fell in love with another man’s sweetheart. Fionn used to visit her on the island in the loch. Her other lover was called Taileachd mac Cuilgeadain. To settle the matter, they had a competition leaping backwards over a pool. Taileachd landed safely on dry land. Fionn landed up to his neck in deep water. Whereupon Taileachd decapitated him and carried away his head to a ford that would later become known as Ath Chinn – Ford of a Head, near Loch Laidon in Rannoch. The name cannot be found on OS. The Fianna then killed Taileachd in revenge, retrieved Fionn’s severed body and buried him at Killin. The act of leaping fits with Irish accounts of Fionn’s death, even if the location may be different.
Place-names associated with Fian lore can still be found all over the Highlands, attached to different landscape features. Sgòrr nam Fiannaidh - Peak of the Fianna (NN141583) lies at the western end of the An t-Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe. Bealach nam Fiann - Pass of the Fianna (NC272382) is near Kylesku. Leac na[m] Fionn - Slab of the Fianna (NG454704) can be seen to the north of the Quiraing on the Trotternish peninsula in Skye. Associating Fionn and the Fianna with large landscape features emphasised their gigantic and superhuman status.
Plate 10: Leac na[m] Fionn – Slab of the Fianna, Trotternish, Isle of Skye. The flat-topped slab is just to the right of centre.
Fionn’s stature was of such a measure, that near Ardtalnaig on Loch Tayside he could stand with one foot on Cìoch na Maighdinn (mapped as Cìoch na Maighdean) - the Maiden’s Breast (NN736364) and his other on Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh - Chest of the Sword Blow (NN729352), and wash his hands in Lochan nan Làmh – Little Loch of the Hands, possibly above Glen Lednock, and then turn around to drink from Loch Tay - Loch Tatha. Lochan nan Làmh cannot be traced with certainty on the maps, but from this description it could well be an unnamed water at NN741308, which is roughly equidistant with Loch Tay, from Fionn’s standpoint astride Gleann a’ Chilleine – The Glen of Concealment, to the southeast.
Figure 2: Ardtalnaig - Cìoch na Maighdinn and Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh in relation to Loch Tay and the possible location of Lochan nan Làmh
Plate 11: Cìoch na Maighdinn – Maiden’s Breast to the left and Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh - Chest of the Sword Blow to the right, either side of Gleann a’ Chilleine, Ardtalnaig, Loch Tayside. Fionn planted a foot on each hill. From the glen, the Sword Blow is a small notch on the righthand horizon.
Plate 12: Buille a’ Chlaidheimh – The Sword Blow, Ardtalnaig, Lochtayside.
The OS 1:25,000 sheet mistakenly shows Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh as Ciste Buide a’ Chlaidheimh and the 1:50000 OS map substitutes this name with The Shee of Ardtalnaig. William Gillies, a Gaelic speaker from Barra, quotes the correct name (Gillies 1938), which he gathered in the district in the 1920s during his ministry at Kenmore. Shee is a corruption of sìth meaning fairy. It is also the origin of Glen Shee - Gleann Sìodh further east in Perthshire (see below). Plate 12 shows what seems to be a large cut in the rounded flank of The Shee. More prosaically than its name implies, the Fenian-sized sword blow of Ciste Buille a’ Chlaidheimh has actually been caused by an igneous dyke intruding into the surrounding quartzite and leading to a landslip at the junction between the two rock types after the retreat of glaciers at the end of the ice age. It is a pity that Gillies remains silent about the story that must surely lie behind the massive sword blow.
The Lay of Fraoch – Laoidh Fhraoich
Unlike the exploits of Fionn and the Fianna, the ballads celebrating them, can be dated. Those which circulated orally in the Highlands after 1600, were in most cases, composed between the 12th and 16th centuries (Meek 1991). Most Gaelic ballads of that period are linked with Fianlore. This canon of work is characterised by outdoor adventures, an engagement of story with landscape and the use of local place-names in narrative action.
The Lay of Fraoch, where Fraoch means heather, but is also the name of the hero involved, involves the healing properties of rowanberries, gathered from a heathery island in a loch. In the 18th century the legend was associated with an island in (plate 13) two miles west of Amulree (NN864376) in Perthshire. It is believed that, before it was named after Fraoch, who came from Connacht in Ireland, the loch was called after the Glen where it lies, Glen Quaich - Gleann Cuaich (NN797396), which runs west from Amulree. Both names were known in the 18th century. It is thought that the Lay of Fraoch was an early Irish legend, probably composed in Roscommon (ibid). It was transferred to this location in the Perthshire Highlands, because it was similar enough topographically to be able to support the storyline, or the landscape included place-names comparable to those found in the original setting. In summary, the tale is as follows.
Plate 13: Loch Freuchie - Loch Fraochaidh and the island where Fraoch gathered rowan berries, Amulree, Aberfeldy, Perthshire.
Fraoch mac Fhiodhaigh falls in love with the Fionnabhair, the daughter of Queen Maeve of Connacht. Maeve is jealous and feigns an illness. It can only be remedied with rowanberries gathered from an island in a loch. Unfortunately, a monster lurks in the water, protecting the medicine tree. Maeve commands Fraoch to fetch berries by swimming to the island. On his return, Maeve is not content with what our hero has gathered and orders him back to fetch an entire branch plucked from the root. On his second visit to the island and as he tries to sever the rowan branch, Fraoch awakens the water-monster. He is attacked and killed after the beast has first bitten off his hand. In the legend, which is recorded in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, Fraoch’s body is buried at Càrn Fhraoich – Fraoch’s Cairn. Other place-names cited are Cluain Fhraoich - Fraoch’s Meadow – whence his body was borne on a bier, Cruachan, Loch Maighe and Càrn Laimhe - Cairn of the Hand. The latter commemorating a detail of Fraoch’s luckless demise. Unfortunately, none of these places-names can be found on the 1:25000 OS map of Loch Freuchie.
Important points of reference in the story cannot be traced, perhaps because many orally transmitted place-names were lost from the area, when its population was cleared between 1830 and 1835, well before OS mapping commenced in the late 19th century. The loch does have an island (NN362376) 30 metres from its shore labelled ‘Crannog’, where rowan trees could have grown in the past. At the time of writing it supports a stand of larch. If such a species can grow in these conditions, then so could rowan