THE GLENFINNAN ROCK SLAB
August 18, 2000

Today, on the 255th anniversary of the Raising of the Jacobite Standard at Glenfinnan, there are signs that the National Trust for Scotland may be accepting that Bonnie Prince Charlie's Monument to mark the event may be in the wrong location. Ten years ago, Highland historian, Iain Thornber (52) uncovered at Glenfinnan a series of carved stones on a high knoll overlooking Loch Shiel, a quarter of a mile from the monument site on the loch's shoreline. Since then he has been calling on the Trust to acknowledge the hillside as the precise spot where the Standard was unfurled to herald the start of the 1745 Rising. His discovery was made after a moorland fire laid bare the stones and rock slabs. Incised into these are the Latin words: "1745. Here in the name of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Raising of the Standard was finally celebrated." Various other markings include Jacobite symbols and a notch in one of the slabs into which the Prince's banner is thought to have been placed.

But until now Iain Thornber's pleas to the Trust to examine the site have fallen on stony ground, albeit experts accept that it would have been logical for the Standard to have been raised on a hillside where the Clansmen could literally look up to their Prince. At the Trust's Visitor Centre in Glenfinnan, leaflets continue to state that the Monument marks the spot where the Jacobite Rising began. But on Friday, on the eve of the 255th anniversary today August 19 - Iain Thornber was advised that the Trust may, at last, be having second thoughts. "I have had a long discussion with Trust Director, Trevor Croft," said Iain Thornber. "He is keen to have a site meeting with me to have my thoughts on how the inciseed stones location could be interpreted by the Trust. And, perhaps significantly, the Trust is about to appoint an archaeologist to the West highland area...."

ST. PATRICK: LOCHABER'S NATIVE SON?

In the past it was a little known fact, but in recent years the word has spread far and wide: Ireland's Saint Patrick was a Scotsman by birth. Experts seem divided on their opinions as to exactly where in Scotland he was born, but one popular theory currently making the rounds is that Patrick, the son of a Roman tax collector, was born at Banavie, near Fort William, around AD 389. His father had come to Banavie with the Roman Legions who had invaded the West Highlands and Islands, including the Great Glen area where Banavie is situated. Tenth century writers in their chronicles, stated: "St Patrick belonged to the village of Banavie - not far from the western seas." Professor Watson whose 19th century work on the 'History of Celtic Placenames' is considered unchallengeable wrote: "St Patrick was born at Banna-venta, an early town south of the Grampians."

Father Patrick O'Regan, an Irishman who was parish priest at Glenfinnan - just 15 miles from Banavie - produced a 36 page booklet in which, in 1948, he was in no doubt as to St Patrick's Scottish origins: "His father Calpurnius, carried out his Roman Imperial Government duties in what are now the West Highlands," said Father O'Regan. "No one who reads the 'Confessions of St Patrick' can fail to see that Banavie is the Banaventum which is described by St Patrick as 'the place of my early years among the Scots.'"

Other theories have been presented as well, including one that places St. Patrick being born at Bannavem Taburniae, which is said to be the Hadrian's Wall fort of Birdoswald (Banna), located in present day northern England. This area was once considered part of Scotland, Strathclyde to be specific.

The local reaction in Banavie? Some are calling for excavations, as to discover the hidden Roman forts and associated archeological treasures that would no doubt be found. Others are wary, for this 1600+ year old mystery may never be solved, and the excavations may be pointless. Nevertheless, it appears to many that Ireland's Patron Saint may have been a Lochaber resident early in his life, though it is doubtful that anyone could make a convincing argument for his being a member of the Clan Cameron - now that might be pushing it a wee bit!

SHONA CAMERON ARRIVES IN LOCHABER

Last year Atsie Cameron, an active and enthusiastic young gentleman from the Scotland Branch of the Clan Cameron Association, participated in the first-ever "Light Exchange" between the Scotland and New Zealand Branches. Now back home in Lochaber, Atsie and his fellow Scotland Branch members recently welcomed New Zealander Shona Cameron as the reciprocal participant in the Light Exchange.

A recent e-mail relates Shona's first reaction upon entering "Cameron Country":

"Was driven up to Fort William on Friday night by Astie. The drive up, and what I could see before darkness fell was pretty spectacular with mountains and tree-covered hillsides, not to mention the sheep and highland cattle dotting the land. And there's still a lot of snow on some of them there hills - especially Ben Nevis which I'm currently living at the foot of."

Shona is working this summer at Lochaber College, where she has a 10 week contract to set up a marketing and PR strategy for the college. Regardless of the work load, which is anything but light, Shona has managed to see a fair portion of the local area:

"I've been given a bike and have been biking around. Did my first climb/walk last weekend up to Steall Falls above Glen Nevis. The rugged scenery is just beautiful with a thick forest on one side of the path and on the other rushing water cascading over nasty-looking rocks metres and metres below. A trip further a field last night saw more wildlife in one night than most locals see in months. Six wild red deer - beautiful graceful creatures - came up to the car at various times, two red deer bounded across in front of us, as did a hare. Black and white faced sheep lined the road and of course there were the ultra-serious looking Highland Cattle."

In early May she had her first visit with the Scotland Branch as a whole, and a lunch appointment with none other than Lochiel, at Achnacarry. We wish Shona the very best for her summer, and hope to see her on the summit of The Ben on August 2nd!

WEST HIGHLAND LINE CENTENARY
Sunday, April 01, 2001

Just as the opening of the scenic 40 miles extension of the West Highland Railway Line between Fort William and Mallaig on April 1,1901, passed with very little ceremony, so there are little or no centenary celebrations planned for today (Sunday April 1).

Yet, in many ways, the 40 miles of single track line, through some of the most stunning and spectacular scenery in Europe, deserves recognition of its 100 years even more than the 1894 and 1994 euphoria which marked the opening - and centenary - of the West Highland Line between Glasgow and Fort William. The construction of the 'Mallaig Extension', 16 months ahead of its 5 1/2 year schedule was a civil engineering marvel of the Victorian era. The envisaged two tunnels through sheer rock faces, became 11 in total.

The new building medium of poured mass concrete, utilised by 'Concrete Bob' McAlpine for the spectacular Glenfinnan and Loch nan Uamh Viaducts, ensured the McAlpine family a place in the engineering Hall of Fame, as this was the first time it was used in any construction project. A swing bridge across the Caledonian Canal at Banavie had to be devised, as the waterway traffic had - and still has - first right of passage. More than 3,500 navvies were employed along the iron road - and 400 shuttering joiners.

The epic feat of carving out 40 miles of track through the rough terrain, beautiful though it is, had to be completed by April 1st, 1901. That morning, the steamer, Clydesdale, entered the brand new harbour at Mallaig. The vessel brought the first ever passengers booked from Stornoway to Glasgow and Edinburgh, who would be continuing their journey via the 'Iron Road to the Isles.' At 7.20am the first ever up train on the Mallaig Extension departed for the south, crossing, two hours later, the first down train, which had left Glasgow Queen Street at 5.55am, both sets of passengers being the first to experience the Mallaig Line. But there was no particular pomp or ceremony.

Similarly today, although a "Mallaig Centenary Special" had been due to make the return trip from Birmingham, it won't now be running. A plaque unveiling planned for Mallaig Station has been postponed till June - when the terminus will be 'busier.' So, when the Jacobite Steam train specials return, also in June, it will look, at first sight, as if little has changed on the Mallaig Extension of the West Highland Line where, a century on, those who might have been expected to mark the occasions just let the train journey speak for itself.

BEN NEVIS SHOWS ITS METAL
Thursday, November 08, 2001

A century after the closure of Britain's Victorian weather station - the Ben Nevis Meteorological Observatory - a chunk of copper found on the summit of Britain's highest mountain is providing a present day metallurgical riddle.

Corpach climber, George Bruce, picked up a foot-long length of copper on top of the Ben last Saturday. George (58), a member of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, has been to the summit of Ben Nevis on countless occasions.

And, in the fast disappearing ruins of the 1883-1904 Observatory, he has found bits and pieces of door locks, hinges and timber - in the manner reminiscent of a beachcomber.

But George, who is the Lochaber Mountaineering Club custodian of a 64 square feet refuge on the summit of the Ben - the only part of the top tier of the mountain not owned by the John Muir Trust - is all but baffled by the heavy piece of cast copper.

"At first my colleagues and I reckoned it might have been a part of the training telegraph cable used for transmitting the weather readings to the low level observatory in Fort William, and to the national newspapers," George said. "But this chunk of copper is so solid that it is more likely to have has some sort of function on the observatory building itself, and it could well be a section of the lightning conductor on the tower part of the structure."

"I'll be interested to find out what the Scottish Meteorological Society say it is." In his book, "Twenty Years on Ben Nevis," Fort William man, William T Kilgour, one of the weathermen at "the highest Meteorological Station in the British Isles," recorded an entry in the Observatory logbook in June, 1895.

It read: "A blinding flash of lightning hit the tower, wrecking the telegraphic apparatus and St Elmo's fire, the electrical phenomenon, appeared like little jets of flame on the lightning rod."

George Bruce may well have a piece of that "lightning rod" down at ground level a hundred years on.