Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow PedestrianAnonymous
History
Our Western Hills: How to reach them; And the Views from their Summits: By a Glasgow Pedestrian
Anonymous
Hiking -- Scotland; Scotland -- Description and travel
There has been many a visit paid to the summit of Ben Ledi since that
day, but the largest, probably, and certainly the most enthusiastic
party was that which went up to erect the Jubilee Cairn. The loyal
Highlanders and the inhabitants of the classic district embracing Loch
Lubnaig, Loch Vennachar, and Glenfinlas, in answer to a summons, which,
like the “fiery cross,” was carried down the valley of the Teith, and
up the Pass of Leny by the Kirk of St. Bride, erected a cairn on the
top of an older one, which had existed for sometime, but had probably
been blown down by the high winds which sweep across the hills with
great violence. The new cairn, which was erected out of an abundant
supply of building material to be found in the summit, has a base of 14
feet, and its height is equal to its diameter. It is chiefly made up
of great slabs of a slaty sandstone, which had, we understand, to be
dug, in not a few cases, out of the mountain side, in which they were
embedded, in some cases, several feet. At a height of 12 feet the slaty
material was no longer used, and for the next 2 feet, to the summit,
the cairn consists of white quartz, which, when the sun shines upon
it, has a beautiful effect even at some little distance. The fact that
the cairn only took five hours to be “begun, continued, and ended,”
speaks volumes for the number and the diligence of the willing and
loyal workers. And if the cairn is not quite as firm as the “Eddystone
Lighthouse,” it will at least outlive the reign of the next two of our
crowned heads.
But though the jubilee builders were numerous, and although the quartz
on the crown of the cairn can shine and sparkle in the proper given
circumstances, these are as nothing to the concourse of grave Druid
priests who used to worship here, and to the glittering of their
fires far and wide. It is said that at sunset on the night before the
first of May they found their way to this summit ready to welcome the
rising of the God of day with a fire offering, which could be seen
from all parts of the Lowlands of Scotland from the German Ocean to
the Atlantic, and which the superstitious natives took to be kindled
by the hand of God. All private and domestic fires had been put out,
and the country was universally waiting for the first gleam of the new
Bal-tein, or Baal-fire from heaven, for another year.
As we rest behind the Jubilee Cairn to eat our biscuit and cheese, and
get shelter from a stiff north-wester, we again and again look round
in all directions, but the views to be had are at once so grand and
so various that it would only bewilder the reader to go into details,
and we would recommend him to lose no time, but embrace the first
opportunity he has of making the ascent and getting the view himself.
One other reason why we should not go into particulars is that we
have to embrace much of the same prospect that we had on Ben Venue,
although with this difference that we have now a much better view away
to the north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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