Kingdom of Dalraida

[Redshank]

The Kingdom of Dalraida, often overlooked as part of Scottish History, with much emphasis being placed on Burns, Bruce, Bonny Prince Charlie, Wallace et al, in favour of unwritten, undocumented pre history, but I feel it is a very important part of Scottish history, the very first chapter, there are few written facts, and the evidence on the ground is open to opinion and conjecture, but the fact of the matter is, that there is a huge amount of prehistoric artifacts, and evidence of life in this area, some renown archiologists say that the area is of more historical and national significance than Stonehenge, but who am I to argue, I just love the place, I live here, it's my home, and I am proud to share it with others

It's a little way off the usual tourist trail, but then we always keep the best for ourselves don't we ? well not me I am not selfish

The Kingdom of Dalriada, very much a place of myth and legend, but fact is early in 6th Century, about 502AD the Scotti tribe with warriors from Dalraida invaded the West Coast of Scotland and subsequenty colonised the area now known as Argyll or "Coastland of the Gael".
Their name was given over to the whole of the country, and from the Scotti, Scotland took it's name.
A man called Fergus was established as King, and for about 345 years the choosen capital of his kingdom was a small hill in the Kilmartin glen known as Dunadd (dun meaning fort, add being the river nearby) the hill is situated in the centre of the Moihne Mor (the great moss) an area of approx 6 square miles of peat bog laid down by glacial action after the last ice age.
Legend has it that from Ulster in Ireland was brought the "Stone of Destiny" to Dunadd, where in the year 574AD St Columba ordained the next King - Aiden.
Dunadd a rock some 30 meters in height has a carved footprint in the exposed rock at the top of the hill, very nearby on the same rock, hardly visible worn, by weather and time is a carving from probably the conquered peoples of the area, a pictish boar, a symbol that is thought to represent courage, (i have it tattoed on my thigh, a response to the question "what's under the kilt ?")

View of Dunadd from the road that passes from Lochgilphead to Kilmartin



My connection with Dunadd



As I stated earlier, Dunadd is located at the centre of the Mhoine Mor, or The Moss as it is known by the local inhabitants, a vast expanse of peat bog, now a site of national importance not only for it's pre history, but for it's flaura and fauna, some parts of the moss have been drained for agricultural purposes in the past, these areas are now carefully managed with a view to conservation as per next photo



some parts have been planted up with cash crop pine tree's as per much of this area of Scotland, I consider it to be raping the countryside, but will not go into my usual rant about here at this point, other parts of the moss have returned to natural scrubland, with a few exceptional trees, such as this lichen tree, an as yet undiscovered species, No, it's just a scrub silver birch, the lichen growning on the tree proof that the air is pure, no global warming here, and my 4 ltr petrol engined Jeep doesn't seem to have made an impact that some politicians and green do-gooders would have you believe



Some trees are particularly windswept, being directly inline with the gap between the Isle of Jura and Scarba taking the full force of the Atlantic winds that often prevail



As yet it is thought that many artifacts, as well rock carvings and other unimagined prehistorical artifacts lay beneath the moss, during earlier periods when parts of the moss where being drained for agriculture and peat removal mysterious stone circles and wooden henges where excavated, such as the Temple wood complex

This being the northern circle, thought to date around 3000BC, archiologist think the henge was never completed, being abounded in favour of the nearby southern circle



The Southern circle, again is thought to date to around 3000 BC, the northen most stone is marked with marked with a carved spiral, thought to be connected with sun worship.
Cairns, burial mounds where placed around the outside of the circle around 2000 BC, upon excavation beakers and flint arrow heads where found along with traces of an adult body, the central cist was added around 1400 to 1200 BC soon after the whole area was covered in stones to protect the area.



Nearby are the Nether Largie Standing stones



These photo's serve to give the viewer a taste for the area, and encourage those that are intersted to make their own visit, should you require further info, or a guide, then please feel free to pm me, further information on the historic and archiological aspects of the area can be found at
http://www.kilmartin.org/ dont forget to tell them Chris sent you ?

Of course there is more modern history to the area as well, as it has the seat of Clan Malcolm / MacCallum, the Clan Chief Robin Malcolm now resides in Duntrune Castle on the outer edge of the moss on the shores of Loch Crinan.
The castle comes complete with its own ghost, the story has been told on this forum, though the facts are sometimes distorted to make the story more appealing, but I wont venture there, it was at one time thought to be the oldest continually inhabited castle in Scotland



The Malcolm family once resided in the great mansion at Poltalloch nearby, but was abonded in the late 1950's, the roof and floors being demolished making it unhabitable, thus avoiding paying crimpling taxes called death duties, a great loss to both the family and the nation as a result of political greed
Historical photo's of the great house and interior can be found here

http://special.st-andrews.ac.uk/sasp...ltalloch+house

The house as it is today



Well that concludes my brief overview of the Kingdom of Dalraida, I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for your patience
Chris

[Jock Scot]

What a coincidence! We have some Australian friends staying and we were only talking about this over dinner last night! My problem was that I could not quite remember where it all happened! I have just shown them all the above and they are going NOW! If you see another 4 litre jeep(green) flying about, its mine, they have hijacked it! Its blowing a gale here and pouring with rain. Hope the weather is better down your way?!

[beloitpiper]

I love the standing stones! Thanks for the photos, they're always spectacular.

[McClef]

A fascinating glimpse of the land before it was Scotland.

How sad that such a building was rendered uninhabitable due to death duties - I guess that other alternatives were not available at that period.

[Redshank]

What a coincidence! We have some Australian friends staying and we were only talking about this over dinner last night! My problem was that I could not quite remember where it all happened! I have just shown them all the above and they are going NOW! If you see another 4 litre jeep(green) flying about, its mine, they have hijacked it! Its blowing a gale here and pouring with rain. Hope the weather is better down your way?!

Sorry Jock, it's raining here also, so your guests will get a wee bit wet, but i am sure they will enjoy the trip.

[Scot01always]

I found the place quite by accident when my map showed a standing stone on it. I thought I would go by to see it. What a big surprise that was. There is so much to see in the area one day is not enough. The view from the top of Dunadd is beautiful. Quiet place with a lot to see. Thanks for sharing the photos.
Cheers, Leslie

[Donnie]

My favorite wine? "I wanna go to Argyle"

[7 miles]

Very cool thanks for those.

[McMurdo]

Chris
Thanks for the wee glimpse into this part of history, as you say mostly overlooked, you can add this to the places I'd like you to show me when I get over, I promise I'll not pack my Balmoral .

[Sionnach]

Great photo tour, nice to see photos of places I ahve been reading about.