The archæology and prehistoric annals of ScotlandWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
Scotland -- Antiquities
To this class probably belongs a very large earth-work, styled the
Hill of Rattray, Perthshire, and perhaps also another of still larger
dimensions, called Terrnavie, in the parish of Dunning, in the same
county. It is a mound of earth, resembling a ship with the keel
uppermost, and occupying several acres of ground. The name appears
to be a corruption of terræ navis, or earth-ship, given to it on
account of its form. Superstition has conferred a sacredness on it,
by the association of legends evidently of primitive character. It is
told that a profane hind, having proceeded to cut turfs on the side
of the Terrnavie, was suddenly appalled by the vision of an old man,
who appeared in the opening he had made, and after demanding, with an
angry countenance and voice, why he was tirring (unroofing) his house
over his head, as suddenly vanished.[64] Remains of ancient armour were
dug up a few years ago, on the farm of Rossie, a little to the east of
Terrnavie; of these "two helmets, a small hatchet of yellow metal, and
a finger ring, are preserved in Duncruib House."[65]
The barrow was not, in all probability, entirely superseded until some
time after the introduction of Christianity into Scotland. Several
examples seem to indicate that the Anglo-Saxons were wont to convert an
accumulating barrow into the general place of sepulture of a locality,
interring the body apparently in its ordinary robes, but without any
cist. Such appears to have been the tumular cemetery at Lamel Hill,
near York, of which a minute account is given by Dr. Thurnam, in the
Archæological Journal; and such also was a large sepulchral mound,
levelled near the beach at North Berwick, East-Lothian, in 1847, in
preparing a site for new gas-works. The latter was in the immediate
vicinity of what appears to have been used as a general burial ground
probably till a late medieval era, but its contents were clearly
referrible to the Anglo-Saxon period; while in the same neighbourhood
many cists and other relics of still older races have been found. This
last adaptation of the primitive memorial mound as the cemetery of
a whole race, ere it was abandoned along with the creed to which it
had been allied, is thus beautifully referred to in the description
by Dorban, an ancient Irish poet, of the _Relec na Riogh_, the place
of interment of the kings of the Scotic race, of which the last Pagan
monarch was killed in the year 406.
"Fifty mounds, I certify,
Are at Oenach na Cruachna,
There are under each mound of them
Fifty fine warlike men.
Every hill which is at Oenach
Has under it heroes and queens,
And poets and distributers,
And fair fierce women.
"The host of Connaught that was energetic,
A truly warlike host,
Beautiful the valiant tribe,
Buried in Cathair Cruachna.
There is not at this place
A hill at Oenach na Cruachna,
Which is not the grave of a king or royal prince,
Or of a woman or warlike poet."[66]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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