WORLD FOCUS ON BRITISH ISLES CORONATION MAY MISS HISTORICAL NUANCES WITHIN KINGDOM
FIRST WEDNESDAY SURFACING from UNDERGROUND WRITER’S CAVERN into LIGHT OF DAY to WELCOME MAYDAY/BELTAINN CELEBRATING SPRING/ONSET OF SUMMER/ RETURN OF HOPE & JOY & PROMISE
Both Barack Obama and Nainoa Thompson were born in Oahu, Hawai’i—one ten years before the other. Both have grown up to influence a world which has lost its way, and both have taken a lead in altering the course of Mankind for its greater good.
Barack Obama b. August 4, 1961 Honolulu, HI; Nainoa Thompson b. March 11, 1953
“Like Hokule’a captain Nainoa Thompson says, ‘We’re all in the same canoe.’
“We’re all on this planet Earth together, so it makes sense to get along and change things for the greater good-together.”
44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, 1st to implement 2015 Paris Agreement Carbon Neutral goal during his tenure, 2009-2017.
Huntly, Aberdeenshire: Rich Rival Gordon [Catholic] Stronghold Enraged James VI & I So Much, He Forgot Position as King of England, Personally Hacked Coat of Arms on Doorway
Elizabeth I’s rule of England in 1500s was remarkable for its peace & prosperity & fact that she refused to align herself with royal houses of Europe. She died childless & throne passed to her cousin James VI of Scotland & I of England in 1603.
Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee, Harry, Dick, John, Harry Three; One, two, three Neds, Richard Two, Harries Four Five Six, then who? Edwards Four Five, Richard Three, Two Harries, Edward and Bloody Mairee; Elizabeth the Virgin Queen Two Jameses with Charlies in between….
William and Mary, Anna Gloria Four Georges, William and Victoria…
John de Critz c. 1606 courtesy Dulwich Picture Gallery
James VI (Stuart) & I, cousin of Elizabeth I who died 1603 without issue
With a British coronation coming up this month, many cities in the United Kingdom of Scotland, England, Wales & N.Ireland [+oceanic territories & dominions of the far-reaching British Commonwealth) will be celebrating.
Unfortunately, because of an internal lack of foresight on the part of the soon-to-be king, many regional territories within the island chain have felt discarded-superfluous even-[pic far rt below]as Buckingham Palace has been concentrating on a round-the-country series of events—breakfasts, [ancient feast-days] streetside “Big Lunches” & picnics in the run up to Coronation in the heart of London at Westminster Abbey, seated on 1066 Edward the Confessor’s Coronation Chair, with Scotland’s crowning stone: Stone of Destiny (royal Stone of Scone, Perthshire, pic.1 below left) in position under the seat. After coronation it will be returned to Edinburgh Castle.
The Stone of Destiny/Stone of Scone usually resides—along with other Scots royal regalia—in throne room of Edinburgh Castle, pic.lower left above, under protection of @Nat_Trust_Scotland, alongside crown & sceptre, dolphin staff of sovereignty & other crowns of the North. Pic 2 left above shows Scotland’s Lord Lyon King of Arms Lord (Johnny) Douglas-Hamilton bearing regalia for HM The Queen on her last visit to Scotland before she died last year. That particular crown is Scotland’s oldest, created from Rhynie [ABD] gold & pearls from River Ythan, Buchan ABD. Pic 1 top where Stone of Scone used to reside, Scone Palace, Perth.
Forgetting his Elevated Position, Resorting to Childlike Behaviour
Interestingly, when James VI & I was given dominion over England as well as Scotland in 1603, one would have thought honour would have consumed him, banishing all other jealous or childlike thoughts forever. His ancestors, from Guardian of Scotland William Wallace, to Stuart kings before him, had longed to subjugate the southern kingdom from the time of the 1308 Herschip o’ Buchan [wholesale destruction by burning of Scotland’s eastern landmass of ancient Caledonian Forest] by self-crowned Robert Brus in his mindless rampage north to destroy Comyn rivals in Buchan, & coastal Morayshire; when Edward I, Hammer of Scots first demanded subservience.
Instead, one of first actions James chose was in fact to follow a long-time grievance against powerful [Roman Catholic] Earls of Huntly whose ‘Gret Place’ [Palace] of Strathbogie between Aberdeen & Moray coast rankled. From Wars of Independence, through 14th century protestantism throughout the land, Huntly had maintained staunch Roman Catholic ties. It also held sway over one of the richest agricultural valleys [between Deveron-Bogie rivers] in inland Aberdeenshire.
Original castle, known as the Peel of Strathbogie, was built by Duncan II Earl of Fife on the Strathbogie estate some time around 1180 and 1190.
Earl Duncan’s third son, David, inherited Strathbogie estate, later-through marriage-became Earls of Atholl around 1204. During Strathbogie ownership, Robert Brus was a guest after razing Caledonian forests in Herschip o’ Buchan.
The family was loyal to him throughout this awful vendetta, but before [Bruce’s win at] Bannockburn 1314, David of Strathbogie shifted his support to the English. Bruce saw this as treachery and granted the castle and estate to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly because he was consistently loyal.
In 1506, the castle was officially renamed Huntly Castle. Although the castle was burned to the ground, a grander castle was built in its place.
Huntly—an Aberdeenshire Favourite Royal Haunt
In 1496, Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, was married to Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly and Jas. IV was guest at their wedding. James IV came from Edinburgh to Huntly in October 1501 and gave gifts of money to the stonemasons working on the castle. In October 1503, James IV came again and played in a shooting contest at the “Prop” target in the grounds. He came back the following October, on his way south, accompanied by four Italian minstrels and an African drummer. James IV played cards at the castle 10 October 1505 and gave a tip to masons working on the building. These visits were part of the king’s annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Duthac at Tain, Rossshire.
Architecturally L-plan, the castle still consists of a well-preserved five-story tower with an adjoining great hall and supporting buildings. Areas of the original ornate carved façade, above rt. and interior stonework remain from early 16thC. The grounds, though less imposing today, stretched for several acres through rich agricultural farmland which supported all of Earl Huntly’s household, with loads to spare for tenants, friends and neighbours.
Wings were added to the castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. English diplomat Thomas Randolph stayed two nights in September 1562, and wrote that the castle was “beste furnishede of anye howse that I have seen in thys countrie”.
Its rich landholdings attracted other royals.
Royals with more Warlike Intentions found Reason to Enjoy Bounty
Mary, Queen of Scots decided to take the castle, to enhance her power in the kingdom, giving her reason that the Earl withheld from her a royal cannon lent to him by Regent Arran. She sent her half-brother Commendator of Coldingham, John Stewart to arrest Geo. Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly at the Castle in October 1562. On the day child’s Tutor Pitcur arrived and spoke at the gate, the castle tower watchman spotted Coldingham and the Master of Lindsay with troops a mile off. He alerted the Earl who ran “without boot or sword” and hopped over a low wall at the back of the castle, finding a horse before Pitcur could stop him.
Elizabeth, Countess of Huntly, then welcomed the queen’s men and gave them a meal and showed them around the palace. It was noted she still had her chapel furnished for Roman Catholic worship.
George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly died after Battle of Corrichie October 28, 1562; the castle was garrisoned for Mary, Queen of Scots [Queen Dec.14, 1542 until forced abdication 1567] by Crawfurd and 20 soldiers. Furnishings, including beds and 45 rich tapestries were taken to Aberdeen, then shipped in barrels to Edinburgh for the royal bedchamber and MQS’ “refurbishment”.
In 1576, Geo. 5th Earl collapsed from food poisoning, while playing football outside the Castle on the Green. He was taken to a bedchamber in the round tower, next to ‘Grit Chalmer’, Great Chamber. After he died, he was laid out in that Chamber, with his valuables in his bed-chamber.
Supernatural events then occurred: sudden collapse of a servant in the ‘Laich Chalmer’. Next day, another went to the Gallery at the top of the ‘New Warke’ where precious spices were stored. She & two others also collapsed and when revived, felt cold.
After the Earl’s body was embalmed & in the chapel, his brother sat on a bench in the Hall by the Great Chamber door, and heard unexplained sounds from inside. He said “there is not a live thing bigger than a mouse may enter that chamber with the door locked.”
James VI & I’s Jealousy his Undoing
As a child, James VI & I had witnessed his mother MQS systematically rob Huntly of rich tapestries, paintings & furnishings for her own private apartments in Edinburgh. After her imprisonment, he ruled Scotland efficiently, without sentiment as a protestant monarch for 35 years before being summoned as King of England on Elizabeth’s death, 1603. He had to have suffered much pain through his mother’s mistreatment & death; yet he masked it well.
On being visually confronted by the land of his youth, however—the abundant rich landholdings of central Aberdeenshire between rivers Deveron and Bogie in particular, where the policies of Catholic Gordons in his Protestant kingdom flourished, he must have literally “lost it”. No recourse to parliament or pretense of leniency for “misunderstood” or ignorant subjects.
He took a hacksaw, a hammer and a knife and started hacking at the Gordon initials and Coat of Arms on the delicate doorway entrance to the New Warke, left above.
His sublieutenants and courtiers waited while their monarch became exhausted and then found him a carriage and whisked him away from temptation. No-one has so far taken a ladder to erase the beautifully (though egotistically-inspired) lettering on the Castle’s main Warke but it may now seem improbable as inscriptions lie four storeys above ground.
Historical Perspective on Coronation Madness
With impending madness centred on London for next week’s great event, many will forget—perhaps philosophically, and therefore with calm forgiveness that the to-be-crowned Monarch will in all conscience never approach a gentle peaceful. loving countenance which his mother always held in her heart for ALL of her subjects.
Scotland was for HM Queen NEVER a place to wear a pretend kilt or to make false appearance of enjoying the wilderness of the North.
She literally DID love the North: Aberdeenshire, Deeside and Balmoral in particular. She may or may not have worn a tartan skirt but she always had her headscarf and handbag at the ready ❤
We love you your Majesty, r.i.p.
Writerly Word to the Wise
From our (not so insecure) Writers’ Cavern below the present Earth, as it continues on its endless rotation around our solar parent & the great Universe beyond: may we say how “admirable” it is to be calmly confident enough to forgive any and all silliness on the part of current royal pretenders who wear kilts one day as a gesture (?to what) & forget about our northern region of the British Isles on the next.
Not certain if as a Brit ex-pat, currently living mid-Pacific, I should announce her death as a post- or ante-script to IWSG & First Wednesday, but a series of unprecedented events this week led me to miss this month’s deadline by 2 days {GMT-1 day PDT}.
SOCIAL MEDIA MEETS ITS MATCH—HACKERS WITH PRETEND MONEY WORMING THEIR WAY INTO PEOPLE’S HEARTS
FIRST WEDNESDAY BLOG—TIME FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS—INSECURE OR OTHERWISE—TO RISE OUT OF OUR DUSTY WRITING CAVERN INTO THE LIGHT OF DAY TO CHRONICLE/COMMENT ON HUMANITY’S SEPTEMBER FOLLIES—BEFORE THE FALL
Hack-Attack: new fearsome enemy on the home front that nobody thought would last
Human memory bank-especially in a child’s 1st, happy, protected, familiar territory with beloved toys, dollies, baby names-rulez!
"I'm gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own / A doll that other fellas cannot steal / And then those flirty flirty guys / With their flirty flirty eyes / Will have to flirt with dollies that are real" John Mayer
As the Old World [double-entendre] gets demolished around us to make way for the New—below left Cahuenga cut-off where SoCA’s Hollywood “superhighway” (no longer exists) used to link northern end of San Fernando Valley Hwy with downtown Los Angeles Civic Center. Demolished too are downtown Alhambra district Japan and Chinatown, with loss of beloved restaurants like The Far East Café. Korean food trucks replace.
As fuel prices soar, superhighways aren’t getting the traffic. Windfarms and environmentalists rulez.
A ‘stay-at-home work-from-home’ preference shown by majority of employees during our enforced two-year isolation period—using video meetings instead—has begun to rub off on businesses around the globe, with outdoor walks, recreational gardening and a work-at-home-ethic becoming the norm. Remarkably, Saudi desert’s THE LINE, recreational ‘outdoor living’—a feature of old hippie times—is likely to catch on with the new wave—nouvelle vague—of iGen/Generation-Z of youngsters finding joy, pleasure and fulfillment in simple pursuits.
This shorthand version of ‘happiness’ is the wavelength accomplished hackers beam in on. But it’s the oldies—but goodies with a kindly trusting heart—who get spammed.
Decline… and Fall—Call Center Consciousness
There are many spaces between Earth and Heaven and in between are The Doors
misquote Wm.B.Yeats by Jim Morrison & The Doors
In the ‘Fifties when Baby Boomers were ‘in’, English-speaking nations commissioned call centers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan using [cough] “English-speaking” local labour at a fraction of cost of a similar outfit at home in the West. They died pre-internet revolution, with onset of mobile phones, but seem to have raised their head again in this latest phone-related scandal.
In the ‘Sixties and ‘Seventies, nobody gave a thought to such strange remote telephone exchanges. An antiquated (but cheap) method of communication did survive the noughties’ boom. But now, surprise surprise, not only is the hacking empire privy to your personal information, but it has resuscitated the old call-center theme—this time in Nigeria, South Africa and Midlands England.
To a veteran ex-pat Brit with octogenarian comfort zone, a Manchester accent even in text—dahling—is a whole lot less intimidating than a voice on the line in broken accent telling you to hang up already.
The little lady from Manchester—so short of breath you can hear her gasping between texts—but so inner circle—in the know about it all—she has time and patience to chat (text)with an oldie—usually a safe bet as we Booomers & beyond less likely to baulk at bottom line when the money chat comes up.
iGens & Millennials are decidedly wary creatures; have little time for subjects that need a long-winded explanation. Often the shortest answer—no—can take Boomers and vintage grannies a very long time to unearth from their verbal repertoire. So they/we say yes instead and then wonder why our friendly social media accounts no longer belong to us.
Cleverly, the technique works in the hackers’ favour: soc.med. sites like Pinterest and Facebook aren’t equipped to handle breakdown. Restoring isn’t an option, either—your site no longer belongs to you. One has to start all over at the beginning; ask to join Insta, send a new photo—the newbie approach.
Meantime—every day since—my poor iPhone jumps and splutters, beeps and cajoles me from mine- no-longer Insta account telling me fifty-two messages from the hacker to all of my followers. Some of my followers still think it’s me. And until I have the strength to initiate a new account, I’m unable to correct that. Thankfully some (young, bright minds) figured it out & challenged the chat-monkey.
Monsieur Musk Plunges into Twitterdom
Most brilliant of all events, however, unfolding in this cyber-saga of crazies, and because I managed to (sortof) get my Twitter page up and running again, albeit with no files or explanation to friends: I asked Elon Musk to look into security risk and hacking potential of his new acquisition.
True to his image as Humanity’s Saviour, not only did the dear billionaire listen, actually read my text, give it some thought, respond! and follow up but my stats on that day hit the ceiling. Bless you M.Musk
Warning to oldies who get targeted: at first it feels friendly, ‘why not help her? I’m old, what harm can it do?’ Loads. Don’t mean losing friends. I mean losing one’s mind. Constant texting-even when I didn’t reply- sent me to cloud cuckoo-land. More below.
I believe in Musk. I believe he will actually make the change which wraps all this garbage up into a spaceball and flings it into orbit to join all the other spacejunk circling ever circling out there till it falls…
In 40% of hacking cases, the target is older, newcomer-friendly, artistic, feels socially responsible to help humanity and therefore, almost invariably will respond to the long-reaching arm of a complete stranger asking intimate personal questions with a view to “helping out”.
Generation Gap Plus Factor—More Oldie+Goodie Vibe
The older the target, the greater likelihood of receiving off-the-wall personal questions amicably. This sole fact of difference in age producing a different response on a thorny subject has been a miracle catalyst in the whole “false-coin” issue. Hackers already know who the best targets are: they’ve usually well beyond middle years. They’ve had their life. It’s okay to help another out, especially if they’re only just past the starting gate.
One pill makes you larger / And one pill makes you small / And the ones that Mother gave you / Don’t do anything at all Go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall
And if you go chasing [White] Rabbits / And you know you’re gpin’ to fall ——— Tell them a hookah-smokin’ caterpillar / Has given you the call
When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead / And the White Knight is talking backwards / And the Red Queen’s lost her head / Remember what the dormouse said:
‘Advice from a Caterpillar’ from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll illustration by Arthur Rackham d. Sept. 6th 1867-1939 (71) via his dau. Mrs B. Edwards
‘Sixties: Biggest, Most, Best, Weirdest—all the Superlatives
Sample text (below right) received by new Insta ‘followers’, with emphasis on revealing your own pet project, so that #superfriendly lady hacker from Birmingham or Wolverhampton can encourage a ‘sale’
If you were assured a sum of 50 thousand [take your pick, Euro, Yen, Roubles], how would you spend the money?
New car
New house
Cruise liner vacation abroad
Help relatives
None of the above
I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying
Woody Allen
Music holds the space as underlying influence in all 20thC generations. The earlier the group, the more likely are they to be controlled by addiction of choice. Twenties and Thirties: booze, including illegal venues. Forties: war-restricted, but booze and cigarettes. Fifties & early ‘Sixties: heroin, cocaine, opium. Late ‘Sixties: everything including hard drugs, heroin, cocaine, synthetic and natural coca, ayahuasca, methamphetamine, opiate morphine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) & recreational ganja.
Closing the StarGate: Full Harvest Moon ends Twin Flame Month
So what do the ‘Sixties and 21stC 2022 Full Harvest Moon post-8/8-Lionsgate Twin-Flame month have in common?
For several generations of moviegoers/big screen watchers, film production invariably features as a growing-up medium. Less so is the attitude of Millennials, 16-year old Gen-Zs and 20-year old iGens to anything that smacks of Media, television news, man-made hype. They are, as a rule, only interested in one person aka self.
This generational trait surfaces in art, film, media presence, social interaction, text and creative identity.
For us (Insecure) Creative types, writing fills the gap between empty memory Muse-infused hippie cabin in Redwood country and 21st Century internet wobble from a system of bots who will control our cyber-future.
Stargates are familiar. We’ve all been here before. As all the best ‘Fifties & ‘Sixties beat generation know, Reggae and Boyband Dance Moves are just playful repeats of an age-old message. This one’s REALLY the last time round, this time. Maya gate-keepers confirm.
p.s. Rainstorms over Pacific and gates of Balmoral; yet HM managed to hold an audience with new Tory PM Liz Truss to form a goverment, before she died Weds/early Thurs—like her daddy Geo.VI— in her sleep. Royal Family members William, Charlotte & George had flown north from Norfolk to Ballater and Balmoral on Monday, to be by her side as she rested on advice of doctors. She asked Tory appointee Liz Truss in her official capacity as Monarch to form a government Tuesday. Died peacefully in early hours of Wednesday a.m.
Ticking all the boxes, Your Majesty. Stay cool, Ma’am. We love you.
Like Her Majesty, tapping her riding crop with an impatient dig at the Almighty B4 the Pearly Gates: Open the Door brother: Immortality here we come.
PLACENAMES: HIDDEN GEMS STREWN ALONG DROVE-ROADS TO PAST
MONTHLY FIRST WEDNESDAY EMERGENCE FROM OUR (INSECURE) WRITERS’ CAVE TO GLIMPSE THE LIGHT
Northumbrian Venerable Bede, left, 7thC monk at Jarrow’s church of St. Peter and St. Paul, pulled north England and Pictish east Scotland up to the level of Rome by building stone kirks, ‘educating the unlearned’ populace.
Language is a dialect with an Army, a Navy and a Monarch
Simon Taylor, PhD, ‘Pictish Placenames’
Eastern Scotland holds Secret Language Key to the Past
When Bede wrote his glorious Ecclesiastical history of the English people—Historia Gentis Anglorum Ecclesiastica—before he died in 736, most of the landmass he was addressing still lived a rural pastoral life with belief in nature spirits, Celtic deities and giving gifts to the Earth in thanks for sustenance through the year.
An English education custom which continues to this day is sending boys to boarding school at an early age—in the Noughties girls go, too. Sometime around 680, a small seven-year old Bede was enrolled at Monkwearmounth and spent the next fifty years learning Church history. As an adult, he wrote 40 books—including his De Natura Rerum—a 7thC guide to the Universe—along with hundreds of pamphlets to enlighten ‘unlearned’ Britons in the ways of Rome. As Irish churches and Iona calculated by a different calendar—one year King and Queen of Anglian Northumberland held Easter on separate Sundays. Bede encouraged closer alignment with up-to-date Rome.
He succeeded.
King Nechtan Orders ‘Fite’ Peterkirks for Roman Easter in N & E Scotland
During Bede’s own simple monastic life, he was able to witness Pictish King Nechtan write to Jarrow asking for stonemasons to help build stone kirks ‘in the manner of Rome’. When work began on ‘Fite Kirks’ (rather than ‘black hoos’ hovels), Nechtan thanked his resident monks (from Iona, i.e. antiquated) and asked them to leave. Bede recorded in his own lifetime the lives of Nechtan, Adamnan, Columba and the rise of Christianity.
Throughout Pictland, new monasteries were set up, sometimes—as at Turriff—on the foundations of the old, where Celtic observance was replaced by the ‘new’ Roman calculation and, for monks, their hair cut in the tonsure of a crown. Others, like Rosemarkie and Tarbet may well have been completely new foundations. Curitan (Boniface) of Rosemarkie was a strong supporter of Adamnan (abbot of Iona and Columba’s biographer) at the 697 council held at court. He continued to support Nechtan’s initiative.
Maelrubai (‘Maree’) had founded the huge settlement at Applecross in Wester Ross, dying there in 722 at the age of 80. His influence was widespread, did not conflict with the royal strategy, and stretched east to Keith, where his Summareve’s Fair was [and is still – Keith Show] held annually.
Status and wealth were directly related.
The larger the citadel, the more land it controlled; but it had the burden of producing more to feed its dependents. Food had to be grown in abundance to stock a royal town (urbs or civitas, Bede, (HE I1). For a small dun crops could be grown locally. Whereas in a larger province, centred on a major fortress, a higher proportion would be tithed and collected as tribute from widespread tenantry.
‘He held his household . . .
Sometyme at Edinburgh, sometyme at Striveline,
In Scotlande, at Perthe and Dunbrytain,
At Dunbar, Dunfrise, and St. John’s Toune,
All worthy knights more than a legion,
At Donydoure also in Murith region’
Jhon Hardyng, 1465 describing wealth of Pictish nation and royal residences
Scots and Irish Gaelic travelling monks used ogham etched into sacred stones as a means to teach locals Christianity. Fish shape design incised in rocks at parish boundaries held the message from Gk ICTHYS (L. piscis) which would be understood by the locals as salmon was sacred beast in Pictish pantheon
ICTHYS Jesu Christos son of God Gk. ΙΧΘΥΣ
Brandsbutt on old Inverurie ‘marches’, now in housing estate; Aboyne Formaston ogham flanks ClassII cross slab; Afforsk simple cross-inscribed boulder in ancient Caledonian forest on parish boundary of the Garioch and Monymusk—itself an early monastery with ClassII cross stone.housing Columba’s ‘Monymusk Reliquary’
‘At the present time there are five languages here [in Britain], just as the divine law is written in five books … These are namely the languages of the English, of the British, of the Gaels, of the Picts as well as of the Latins; through the study of the scriptures Latin is in general use among them all’ Bede Historia Gentis Anglorum
Writing in Latin, which he learned from age 7, gave him unlimited access to church history. It also elevated him to stardom.
In 1022 a monk carried Bede’s remains from Jarrow to Durham cathedral, where he was interred as a saint next to Cuthbert. Durham is considered the greatest Anglian cathedral.
Britain’s Four Languages—and Latin
Celtic linguistic roots surface in all four British languages: pronunciation being the dividing line between Q-Celtic [West Coast, Glasgow, Eire and Isle of Man Manx] and P-Celtic sounding Breton, Cornish, Pictish and Welsh or Brittonic. e.g. Latin piscis, fish above, is Gaelic iasg ‘fish’. Latin pater, becomes Gaelic athair ‘father’.
P-Celtic pen ‘head’ becomes Q-Celtic ceann—sometimes ‘borrowed back’ into P-Celtic. Aberdeenshire has Kintore and Kincardine: combines caen + carden=rich grassland, pasture enclosure. Pit or pett is well-known for denoting a place of Pictish importance, a regional division, an enclosed place owned by Picts, usually high status. Pitcaple in the Garioch was royal stables: Pit-capull place of the horse. Many Scots Gaelic names borrowed into Pictish survive in rural steadings, ancient kirkyards and wild sheep-devoured meadows.
Original Uu sound of Celtic in Uurguist (Pictish king) translates Fergus in Scots Gaelic. St Fergus of Dyce Aberdeen (pic below of his ‘teaching slab’) represented his king, stonekirk-building Nechtan, at a Council in Rome in 721, to relate his nation’s conversion to Roman Christianity.
Royal Forests, Cold Mountain Passes & Gleaming Fields
Among Pictish beauties still giving their names and meaning to the landscape—rare in Britain south of the Border—are Aber ‘river or burn mouth’ as in Aberdeen, Arbroath, Aberfeldy; Cet, a wood (Keith family name ruled from Caithness to Angus); Cuper a confluence, Cupar in Fife; Mig bog, marsh, perhaps peat bogs, Migvie ABD;, Migmar ABD, Meigle Gowrie PER & Strathmiglo FIF. Pert wood, grove as in Perth. Interestingly Perth in Welsh means wood, copse, hedge brake or bush. Strath, Pictish broad valley like Welsh/Brittonic ystrad. Strathearn lush valley of Earn, see below.
Some names contain Pictish loan-words attested as common nouns in Scots Gaelic, e.g.bad (‘spot, clump’), dail, (‘haugh, water-meadow’), monadh (‘hill, hill-range, muir’), preas (‘bush’), pòr(‘seed, grain, crops’); and obsolete pett. The Slug—difficult climb alternative road over the Mounth from Crathes to Dunnottar comes from sluig (v.) ‘to swallow, devour’ slugan m. ‘gullet, or whirlpool..Yet on a totally different tack, the Slug connects 2royal strongholds.
Fergus/Uurguist Pictish monk who represented his king in Rome in 721 Stone rear wrapped in fish-curled ogham
Royal Ownership Dictated by Fertile Valleys
It is thought by linguistic scholars that the Mounth—1500ft.mountain ridge denoting E-W geological fault dividing ‘lowland’ from ‘highland’ Scotland—is pure Pictish, as Irish-Gaelic Annals of Ulster list ‘Dub Tholargg rex Pictorum citra Monoth 782,’ King Dub Talorc gives family name Duff, surviving landowners in Aberdeenshire.
Fetter names contain Gaelic foithir usually translated as a slope, a terraced ravine. Multiple locations, however, include a remarkable number of high-status names in former Pictland: both N & S: Dunottar, Fetterangus, Fettercairn, Fetteresso, Fetternear, Forteviot, Kineddar, Kingedward – all medieval parishes. foithir is made up of two Gaelic elements: fo ‘under’ and tìr ‘land’. The Welsh/Brittonic cognate is godir ‘region, district, lowland, slope’.
Dr Taylor suggests that behind this foithir in many eastern placenames is Pictish *uotir, which may have referred to some kind of high status/royal administrative district within Pictish domain. Probably not fuar=cold as in freezing Balfour (cold place!) equivalent of Cinrighmonadh=old name for religious pinnacle St.Andrew’s where kings were buried. ‘Head of the mountain of kings’. Birse, brass describes ‘gleaming’ cornfields, i.e.rich pasture = contented tenantry.
*It is quite synchronous that HRH Prince William is traditionally called Earl of Strathearn when he treads North of the Border, It was, after all, the highest pinnacle of royaldom any mormaer coiuld reach. The regal hub, as it were.
I believe Dr Taylor has hit jackpot on his connection of P. uotir as a high-status arondissementruling body district, considering much of Scotland still remembers feu duty, tenantry and ownership of land by ruling classes.
Now that makes complete sense in high status and royal Pictish strongholds such as Forteviot, Fuor-triu (nom., acc. For-trenn) ‘Kingdom’ of Forgue, Aberdeenshire (kingdoms included Fife Fib, Forgue, ‘Regality of the Garioch
Surviving Ten Centuries of English Domination
While a surprising amount of anti-English rhetoric survives since our Scots barons signed their Declaration of Independence (1320), there are quite a few who (Cornish, Manx are being revived, the Doric is still spoken among loons & quines o’ the NorthEast) working to an all-indigenous culture. Much new research brightens the horizon.
That’s the Light we cave-dwelling scribes look for when we emerge from our [deeply-immersed-intuitive Muse-driven internal space into the sparkle of a New Dawn—ever hopeful—a new vibrant Earth full of its own history, totems and tautology—aka longwindedness. Us writers can’t help it. It came with the package.
LOCKDOWN’S SURPRISE BENEFITS: REVEAL NEW INSIGHTS ON OLD—ROMAN—GROUND
MARCH MUSINGS IN THE WRITERS‘ CORNER—INSECURE WRITERLY STYLE—AFTER ONE YEAR OF SOCIETAL DISLOCATION, INNER DISRUPTION & FOLLOWING THE RULES
Writing—especially when done under difficult conditions—can, like many professions—medical, physical, psychological—bring joy, new discoveries, even resolve to beat one’s own record. When our usual comfort zone in the Writer’s Cave is threatened, writers, creative artists and humans generally have the capacity to hunker down and do what it required. We have had TIME to think, to be comfortable with ourselves, sometimes to open new doors we didn’t know existed.
Suggestions from the world of archaeology have indicated that long term study provided by enforced closure and reversion ‘to the books’ and laptop have produced remarkable new insights into what we thought was a locked-up world of Scotland’s Pictish past.
Fierce Pictish ‘beasts’ guard Class II relief slab at former early Xtian site in Conon Bridge, Easter Ross Black Isle. Rescue-restoring a previously-recycled 18thC McAuley tombstone, revealed affinity with larger group of Pictish relief cross-slabs Rosemarkie, Cromarty Firth and inner Morayshire, direct line to southern enclaves of Pictish centres Forfar, Brechin, Meigle. Pink granite stone will be on display after conservation in Dingwall museum.
The new Dingwall cross-slab is a uniquely significant western extension of the prestigious Pictish symbol-bearing relief sculpture of Easter Ross, notably connected with the tall slabs of Shandwick and RosemarkieDr. Isabel Henderson
Double disc, Z-rod & horsemen, 7thC similar to reliefs in ‘Kingdoms’ of Fib (Fife), Fotla, Fortriu (Forteviot) & Forgue are dominated by cross-carved interlace guarded by beasts on Christian side of 6-foot Conon megalith
Not so. In Pictland, the former Scotland, that is. With time on their hands, access to drone and digital technology, it’s all change.
So say archaeological field- and National Museum-based historians and archivists who have had amazing revelations on their doorstep appearing within last 24 months. With recent lockdown private time provided to reassess and appreciate collections and individual finds, their vision of North Britain in (1st C) Roman times and following Roman withdrawal in A.D. 420 has changed.
At the close of the 1st Century, when Roman legions were at their most adventurous and conquering best, the Empire stretched from modern Russian riviera in the Caucasus to Scotland’s Ultima Thule. Marching camps furthered the Roman reach beyond what would become Hadrian’s Wall, and while Romans never quite relaxed to enjoy the warm waters of Moray Firth and Cromarty—no lush villas built after Agricola’s seminal campaign, A.D. 83 below, as they did in the South near Bath, Colchester, St. Alban’s or Birdlip Gloucestershire. No swimming pools, games or multi-servant dining in the tricliniumuntil autumn return to Rome. Nevertheless, Roman marching camps (following the few ancient tracks north) were substantially built upon—sometimes like Inchtuthil reworked to become fully-manned forts—Raedykes in Kincardine spanned 93acres/37ha. and was capable of housing three legions, or 16,000 troops.
A marching camp of similar size at Durno in Donside seems more likely to have fueled 11,000 legionaries ‘held in reserve’ at battle of Mons Graupius—on undulating lower ramparts of Mither Tap of Bennachie—in the Garioch*, while 3000 cavalry and 8000 British auxiliary infantry (according to Tacitus) alone decimated the screaming tribes numbering at least 30,000. *pron.Gee-ree
Cairnamounth pass between the Mearns (Kincardineshire) and Deeside (Aberdeenshire) has also been suggested, but no large Pictish royal centre lies south of River Dee at Banchory. Several Pictish placenames do help, however—Pictish Pitcaple Pet-capull ‘place of royal horse’ gives weight to a location closer to Bennachie. Kintore was built adjacent to a mile-long avenue of prehistoric cairns, circles and carved stone megaliths (Druidsfield, Broomend Crichie, Kintore kirkyard) sacred-ancestral to local tribes. Kintore-Inverurie corridor is lined by Pictish Class I (5thC-7thC) incised carved stones.
At the time of building Emperor Hadrian’s wall to keep out wild pagan Caledonii (A.D.122) Roman presence in NE Scotland followed ancient trackways from conquered territories in S, over the Mounth into Donside and via Aberdeen north to Fyvie, Banff and Moray coast, in order to control gold reserves and pre-Pictish sacred centres in Black Isle (Rosemarkie) and Cawdor
At the height of Agricola’s campaign, 20 years before the end of the 1st Century, according to his son-in-law, Tacitus, Rome could do no wrong. Twenty years earlier, her legions had defeated (tortured and killed) most of the Iceni under their great queen Boudicca, ransacked all the Brigantian gold reserves and sacred shrines they could find, and were on a mission to subdue the northern tribes: Dicalydones (Caledonian tribes in two main divisions) for their rich eastern landholdings.
Caledonians Unsubjugated, Rome Withdraws By A.D.368, just thirty years before Roman withdrawal from Britain, Ammianus Marcellinus describes tribes of the Priteni [Picts] split into two by the Mounth: northern Dicalydones and Verturiones in the south. To Roman authors, Priteni-Britannii were linguistically just another people of Prydein. By the post-Roman (early Medieval) Dark Age, Caledonians had re-possessed their northern forests, the Fortriu people their rich lands of Perth, Kinross and Fife.
Following the rout of local tribes by such a small Roman force—not even involving key legions— army ranged from 17,000 to 30,000; although Tacitus says that 11,000 auxiliaries were engaged, along with a further four squadrons of cavalry, the number of legionaries in reserve was iapproxunately 15,000—none deployed.
Caledonian chariotry was charging about on the level plain between both armies, their wooden war chariot wheels getting stuck in mud. Imagine Harthill Castle, Back of Bennachie, Gadie Burn hinterland, leading to Insch, the Cabrach, protective forest cover.
After a brief exchange of missiles, Agricola ordered auxiliaries to launch a frontal attack on the enemy. These were based around four cohorts of Batavians and two cohorts of (paid) Tungrian swordsmen intended to terrorize the tribes who were deployed in a U-shape upslope. Caledonians were cut down and trampled on the lower slopes of the hill. Those at the top attempted to outflank them, but were themselves outflanked by Roman cavalry. Caledonians were then comprehensively routed and fled for the shelter of nearby woodland, ‘relentlessly pursued’ by well-organised Roman units.
It is said that the Roman Legions took no part in the battle, being held in reserve throughout. According to Tacitus, 10,000 Caledonian lives were lost at a cost of only 360 auxiliary troops. 20,000 Caledonians retreated into the woods, where they fared considerably better against pursuing forces. Roman scouts were unable to locate any Caledonian forces the next morning.
Tacitus was succinct in his criticism of Agricola’s recall to Rome in the autumn of 83: having confiscated the Caledonians’ granary harvest—leaving the locals without food for winter—their subjugation was assured. It was a significant victory for Rome. Honors and illustrious awards awaited him, but the frontier he had opened shut down tight. Tacitus’ quote on his account of Roman history A.D.68-98 : Perdomita Britannia et statim missa ‘Britain was completely conquered and immediately let go’, showed his bitter disapproval of Emperor Domitian’s failure to unify the whole island under Roman rule after Agricola’s successful campaign.
Retreat to Writer’s Cave When no Other Avenue on Offer
Given Tacitus’ example of a journalist’s account of an event outwith his area of conttrol (mostly), our suggestion to fellow scribes for March—one year down the line from a time when we had not a (writing) care in the world—must be to hold down that inner knowing that we’ll pull through; that we can (and will) find the words we’re looking for. And to use them as wisely—and with as much human compassion—f not love—as we can muster.
THE CARNYX, THE GAMES—ABERDEENSHIRE’S ROYAL FAREWELL TO SUMMER
or The Royals know where to Party for End of Summer Fun First Wednesday IWSG Party Time for Insecure Writers and other Scribes
March of the Lonach Men recalls the 1745 Rebellion, when wearing of the kilt was outlawed for 100 years
This Saturday, September 6th, 2019 finds the human Scots-Collective rallying at Braemar in extreme-inland-and-upland Aberdeenshire for the ‘Games’—the Braemar Gathering and Highland Games—in the 12-acre Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park in the town, attended by HM the Queen and her immediate family. It is her last (holiday) appearance in Deeside—and Scotland—before her return at the end of the month to business-as-usual in London.
Aberdeenshire’s Other Summereve’s Celebration
Braemar, on the river Dee, follows a rival tradition—over the mountain and through the pass to Donside—where the (178th) Lonach Gathering and Games was held last Saturday, August 24th in Bellabeg, on the banks of the Don.
Beloved of Lonach fans, Robin Williams at the 2001 Gathering at Bellabeg, Strathdon Aberdeenshire
Known as the Alternative Gathering because of its attraction for Hollywood stars and in-the-know Royals, the Lonach is more of a society promenade than a competitive event. Yes, caber toss, hundredweight lugging and tug-o’war with dainty Highland dancing are all going on within the stadium enclosure, but the action is where international alliances are being forged on the ‘champagne picnic circuit’ ringing the field. Scots actor Billy Connolly is not alone in having a gracious country house within spitting distance of the grandiose Beer Tent; and his international guests are legend—Steve Martin and Robin Williams among them.
It’s an excuse for the remote glen to entertain as many famous international guests as they can squeeze into the valley for their last summer party—and the noble families of Donside hinterland open their houses in force. Sir James Forbes, Bart, cousin to Lord Forbes, head of clan Forbes, leads his green-kilted warriors to pipe and march from 8a.m. until they reach the field at 11a.m. Other pipers and pike-carrying members of the Wallaces and former rival-clan Gordon—join them, swinging in down the winding track.
No Historial Reenactment—Lonach Men March Three Hours through the Glen
Sir James Forbes of Newe, Bart, Patron of the Lonach Highland & Friendly Society, Bellabeg Strathdon
“Scotland in 1823 was on the cusp of monumental change, finally emerging from the bleak post-Culloden years to resume her rightful place in the World. With so much change in the air our ancestors saw the need to preserve their heritage, whilst still embracing the new.
“This is no historical re-enactment. The Lonach March represents an unbroken link from our forefathers to the 21st Century. Encountering the Lonach Highlanders for the first time takes you back to pre-1745 Scotland.”
Sir James Forbes of Newe and Edinglassie, Bart.
The Forbeses were once premier barons of Donside and Mar. Today, despite dwindling fortunes and a rich, punishing history—but unlike rival Gordons—a Forbes remains in possession of the clan’s oldest stronghold, Druminnor—the original 1429 Castle Forbes, seat of Chiefs of Forbes for 500 years. The Gordons rose to become Marquesses and Dukes, lording it over Strathbogie and the North, but Huntly Castle is a ruin and the feud has gone into the history books. Nowadays Lonach Men march together as one.
Flying threadbare standards gifted by Queen Victoria (tattered replaced by new, 2011), the Lonach Men stop at several remote dwellings on their way through the pass, each marcher toasted in whisky, given a dram and ‘haste ye back’, before the next halt. By the time they reach the playing field three hours later, they are in fine fettle.
Drunk or sober, it is the pipers’ duty to play after the day is done, too. They beat the retreat at 5:30p.m. when everybody—upwards of 8,000 souls—starts packing up champagne bucket, shooting stick and cucumber sandwich leftovers, to drive home. There have been years when it took four hours to reach Aberdeen and the coast—42miles away—in single-track traffic from Newe. [For perfectionists, it’s pronounced N-y-ow, like Meow with an N].
Rallying Call to Battle Gathering—Pipes or Carnyx
Celtic continental influence in Roman Scotland, Deskford’s Carnyx battle horn rallied Caledonian troops to march—as haunting a sound as Lonach bagpipes
On a magnificent cloudless late August day, it is tempting to compare the faint haunting call of the pipes as the Lonach Men march into the valley with the battle cry of Pictish hoardes described by Tacitus in A.D.79 at Mons Graupius.
A recent collaboration by Aberdeen and Euro continental archaeologists, comparing the few examples of bronze-cast sacred battle horns—Roman carnyx—allowed a replica to be made which sounds authentic—John Kenny plays, photo left.
Its weird high-pitched call (to battle) is hauntingly similar to the sound of the pibroch from a single piper’s drone on a high mountain pass. The Deskford carnyx , found in 1816 Banffshire (now Aberdeenshire) was ritually buried (on a battlefield?) with gold, silver, bronze bell, the battle horn itself a stylized boar’s head with upturned snout, signifying bravery of an indomitable superior race.
Sacred to the Picts, carved Boar stone from Donside, Aberdeenshire approx. A.D.420-700—earliest clan animal of Forbes and Gordon, courtesy National Museums of Scotland
Pictish Symbols Distilled into Clan Heraldry
Roman legions called them the painted people. In A.D.4thC Ammianus Marcellinus’s historical accounts Dicalydones were northern tribes: one of two branches of Picti, Picts, Roman chronicler Tacitus’s Caledonians who inhabited modern-day Moray, Banff and Buchan. The second group were the Verturiones who occupied southern territories of modern Fife, Perthshire, Forfar (Fortriu) and Lothian. Carnyces have turned up in sacred settings along Roman routes through France to northern Baltic. There is a famous carnyx series embossed on the silver Gundestrup cauldron found in 1891 in a Baltic peat bog in Jutland, dating to around 2nd Century B.C. Its boar-headed shape has the same curvature, and was the work of Iron Age Celtic Franco-Germanic artists.
My fellow IWSG-ers and our Cap’n at the Helm, Alex will agree that we writers who have the advantage of Space-Time awareness, courtesy of our ancestral lineage, know how the power of sound/music—certain plaintive notes—can trigger a rush of joy, inspiration, fresh creativity.
Danzig Willie’s Craigievar William Forbes, creator of Craigievar Castle in Upper Donside brought the style of France to the Aberdeenshire hinterland, 1686
It may be my historical-fantasy-bias that drives me to compare the pale single note of an ancient Pictish battle horn against Roman battalions in rural Banff, with an even fainter soul-wrenching skirl of bagpipes played on a high mountain pass in Corgarff, but the heart beats faster when both are sounded.
Forbes tradition has it that their ancestor, Pictish chief Ochonochar, trapped a boar which was terrorizing the neighborhood. Their emblem shows stylized muzzled boar. The House of Gordon has a similar legend for their boar crest worn by the Cock o’ the North. Pictish Class I Boar stone, as late as A.D.700, above, was a Donside symbol—just as the Pictish Bull is mainly associated with Burghead and Moray.
IWSGers with Scots-Irish ancestry, even when writing deadlines hover—today is Anthology Contest—know we all enjoy a dip in the gene pool.
Trees: without them and our wilderness, we as a species are lost
‘Archetype of our oneness with the earth’
We used to call it Arbor Day. On the hinge between Aries and Taurus, when the Sun enters this celebratory earth sign in the western zodiac calendar: that’s the day John Muir was born in 1838. A native Scot who emigrated to the United States and changed the face of a nation, Muir was the original arborist: lover of trees.
Wolves being hunted to extinction following a change in legislation to the US Endangered Species Act
It wasn’t easy. In early 19th-century Britain or the US, wilderness wasn’t a concept naturally entertained by Victorian huntin’ shootin’ choppin’ mentality. [It still isn’t, one might argue, when considering the recent Obama administration’s upholding the Bush cancellation of sections of the Endangered Species Act: which has resulted in wholesale wolf-massacre in the US States of Montana, Idaho, New Mexico and Alaska].
Muir had similar adversaries. A naturalist and explorer of nature, his favorite wildernesses were in northern California, and it is there that his perseverance eventually paid off.
His activism was instrumental in saving swathes of western wilderness which eventually became the National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite Valley and Sequoia NP. The Sierra Club, which he founded in 1892, is now the most important (and vociferous) conservation organization in the United States.
His essays, letters and books have been read by millions.
At first, however, his petitions to conserve large areas of natural beauty were ignored. In the USA, it was a time of railroad expansion, the explosion of large cities, and big business in politics and in agriculture.
In his opinion, the high Sierras and other wild mountainscapes were being ravaged by livestock grazing (especially sheep, which he termed ‘hoofed locusts’). He personally spent weeks, sometimes months, in this high country, documenting and writing about the need to allow areas of such magnificence protection from grazing and (by analogy, its later counterpart,) the human and vehicular footprint.
He was persistent and he was inspired. The wild nature of California captivated him, from his first moment of exposure to its awesome grandeur.
Yosemite by Ansel Adams
“We are in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us” John Muir
He had, after all, grown up in rural (but ‘tamed’) Scotland, where the wildcat was close to extinction, where wild boar no longer existed outside zoos, and where in his grandfather’s time a royal patron, King George I (‘Big Geordie’), had commissioned a granite bridge over a tributary of the River Dee at Invercauld, so he could be wheeled from Ballater to the hide to shoot; and where, incidentally, he is credited with killing Scotland’s last wolf in 1722.
Muir saw huge vistas of the Cairngorms, Deeside, Donside and the Ladder Hills have their natural tree populations annihilated by sheep, deer and rabbit. He dreamed of a world that might be otherwise.
Grandeur of Yosemite inspired Muir's lifelong work for wilderness
Muir arrived in San Francisco in 1868, and immediately set out to spend a solitary week in Yosemite. He later built a cabin there, where he lived for three years. For months at a time he would wander alone in the wilderness, making notes, carrying ‘only a tin cup, a handful of tea, a loaf of bread, and a copy of Emerson.’ It is here that he and his correspondent-in-Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson eventually met in 1871; Emerson traveling from Harvard to meet the man who lived the life he merely wrote about. His visit lasted only one day, but he promised assistance, and offered Muir a teaching position at the prestigious university, which Muir declined. ‘My work is here’, he said.
In 1872, the first National Park was created by federal legislation, on the strength of Muir’s efforts, at Yellowstone, Wyoming. It was to be the precursor of many others in the continental United States, including a total of nine national parks, now administered within the State of California by the National Parks service.
After his meeting with Emerson and over the following twenty years, Muir gathered, collated and compiled volumes of data on geology, natural history and plant and animal life populations of the Sierras. He envisioned Yosemite and the Sierra mountain range as pristine lands where original wildlife might roam, breed and proliferate, unimpeded by artificial (human) regulation. It was a difficult concept to instill. And his vision suffered throughout his life, wherever conflict surfaced between wilderness and ‘business.’
In one respect he was visionary, in doggedly hounding US Congress, and in writing for pro-conservationist magazines and organizations.
‘“Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts, and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.”
In 1873 and 1874, he made field studies along the western flank of the Sierra Nevada, on the distribution and ecology of isolated groves of Giant Sequoia, one of the few redwood groves left in the world in virgin stands. In 1876, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published Muir’s paper on the subject. In his personal essays, however, he valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities.
Mount Whitney, at 14,500ft, the southern terminus of the John Muir Trail
His work inspired countless Americans, whose culture at the time was focused on the growing phenomenon of sky-scraper building and nationwide travel. He got them out of cities and back to nature. His work inspired photographers like Ansel Adams, painters such as Bierstadt, Jorgensen and Virgil Williams and he might even be seen as the father of the naturalist movement ‘EarthFirst‘. In the words of his biographer Steven Holmes:
“Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world.”
John Muir in 1907 - wildman to the end
In 1903, after an inspirational (but chilly) night in a tent at Glacier Point with President Teddy Roosevelt, whom Muir was invited to take ‘to the wilderness’, the President rearranged bureaucratic legislation, and consolidated the boundaries of Yosemite, which had been split and decimated for earlier conflicting ‘business interests.’
Many wilderness areas are named after him: from Muir Woods and Muir Beach in Marin County, north of San Francisco, to the 211-mile John Muir Trail, which runs from Yosemite through King’s Canyon NP and Sequoia National Park, to the 14,500-ft peak of Mount Whitney in central California. A glacier in Alaska bears his name. He was instrumental not only in establishing the structure which became National Parks, but in the resulting expansion of National Forests, including areas with protected ‘Reserve’ status. In addition, State Parks now proliferate throughout the US. California, alone, has twelve regions of state parks (CSPs) administering 278 parks on 1.4 million protected acres.
So, what has happened in the bigger picture?
John Muir would be delighted to know that in 1964, the US government passed the Wilderness Act, to protect around nine million acres of wilderness. Arbor Day was traditionally a celebration conceived in the midwestern state of Nebraska (a treeless zone), as a springtime event to encourage the young to plant a tree. And two Earth Days appeared on the American calendar–one ratified by the United Nations and celebrated on equinox, March 21st–when both hemispheres receive equal amounts of light and dark and when the sun appears to stand directly overhead on the equator; the other, April 22nd, has gradually superseded Arbor Day; their celebrations now interchangeable.
Recently, with the advent of the blog, acceleration of internet communication and a focus on Earth-related activities, New Earth consciousness, Earth Day has expanded into ‘Earth Week‘. That, too, would please Muir.
But what of his homeland? the sheep-munched treeless wilderness of northern Scotland?
Cairngorm National Park
Cairngorms National Park was established in 2003, the largest of 12 national parks in Britain at 1400 square miles, literally 10% of the landmass of Scotland. Stretching from Grantown-on-Spey (north) to Glen Clova in Angus (south) and from Ballater on Deeside in Aberdeenshire (east) to Laggan and Dalwhinnie (Aviemore) on the A9 (west). Its supporters describe great vistas, mountainous peaks (all less than 4000ft) and the Tourist Board of Scotland heralds it a shelter for a quarter of Scotland’s threatened species, and home to 25% of its native trees.
That in itself is disturbing.
Its ‘Angus glens’ the ‘haunt of red deer and golden eagle’; ‘heather moor vivid with summer color’, and ‘wild tundra of high mountain tops’ tell the story.
Every last vestige of hunting forest put to the torch by Robert Bruce, 1308
Brief historical recap: in the early 14th century, Robert the Bruce murdered his (Comyn) rival for the throne of Scotland and pursued his son through the hunting forests of Aberdeenshire until he cornered him in his coastal Buchan fortress and – having proclaimed himself monarch – confiscated what was left of Comyn lands. On the ‘royal’ progress north, every last indigenous native Caledonian pine was either burned to the ground or used as live torches to light the way of the conquering army. This deliberate extinction of the species–and the wildlife it harbored–was Bruce’s way of destroying the Comyn hunting forests, themselves a symbol of wealth and source of self-regenerating food and fuel supply. His act (colloquially called the ‘Herschip o’ Buchan’, harrying of Comyn lands in Buchan) totally changed the face of Aberdeenshire, from which it has never recovered.
What Robert Bruce’s actions created – a treeless raised beach from the Grampian mountains to the sea – was not replanted. Except for small pockets on landed estates where tree regeneration was encouraged, an agricultural zeal took over the desolate wasteland, capitalizing on open countryside with few obstructions.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Highland estates cleared out their resident employees–crofters–to make way for agricultural innovation: turnips and sheep. While these ‘clearances’ were more specific to Caithness, Sutherland and the western portions of Scotland, some effects were felt in what is now the Cairngorms National Park. Where sheep were introduced, trees died; were not replanted; not allowed to regenerate. Where deer population had been nurtured and maintained in small numbers in remnant natural forests, for hunting, with the exit of human monitors, they overpopulated and devastated their own environment.
Thus, the Tourist Board’s ‘heather moor with vivid summer color’ and ‘wild tundra’.
Tree planting has begun again in the agricultural hinterland
The tourist brochure’s proclaiming its 1400 sq.miles as “harboring one quarter of the nation’s native trees” is also misleading. One tenth of the landmass containing one quarter of the nation’s pine, birch, aspen and alder? sounds a little drastic. Especially if compared with John Muir’s Yellowstone. Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres, or 3.5 thousand square miles, has more trees per acre than all of Scotland put together. It is true that Aberdeenshire, a region half the size of Switzerland, still has fewer indigenous trees than it should–for its kindly climate–support. But that number is growing: private plantations are beginning to take hold again.
The good news is the story of Glen Affric: and Trees for Life. This Scots charity has gradually (through donation) been purchasing 600 square miles of ancient Caledonian remnant forest west of Inverness, and has begun the mammoth task of replanting original species of oak, alder, Caledonian pine, juniper, birch and rowan (mountain ash).
Regeneraton of Caledonian pine -- a rewarding task
While their goal is not to service the forestry industry, but rather to provide habitat for original animal, insect and plant subspecies, (with the possible future reintroduction of wild boar and wolf being tentatively suggested), the group recognize that some felling and forestry operations may be appropriate.
‘We envision our work to restore the Caledonian Forest as not only helping to bring the land here back to a state of health and balance, but also having global relevance, as a model for similar projects in other countries.’
Other small parcels–once adjacent to hillfarms, and escaping the ‘set-aside’ agricultural brainstorms of the 1980s–were maintained by individuals, and planted with pines, which are now starting to look mature.
John Muir would indeed be proud of his ancient heritage and the inspiration it has given new groups to start again.
Old growth 1000-year old redwoods felled in early 19thC lumber operations
The best news, however, is back in California.
In Muir’s time, after the (1848) Gold Rush, California was inundated with new immigrants. His beloved trees came under great threat. In the 1880s four hundred sawmills north of San Francisco were churning out lumber from felled redwood giants–a process which accelerated after the 1906 earthquake–in a need for timber to rebuild the city. In 1920, however, the Save the Redwoods League began purchasing groves that would become the backbone of California’s redwoods parks. It continues adding to this day.
In the 1950s–the post-war boom–lumber mills were cutting in excess of one billion board-feet of timber per year, a level maintained until the mid-1970s, when clear-felling vast acreage of virgin trees was still allowed.
…Until science and sense stepped in.
Science argued, but the battle was won by 1990s tree-sitters, those brave souls who camped out in makeshift treetop platforms while Caterpillars, chainsaws and chokesetters bumped and strained and devastated beneath them.
To explain:
Old growth virgin redwoods now protected in State and National Parks
In 1905, the Murphy family started Pacific Lumber, believing that by leaving some of their old growth redwoods standing, they could sustain an industry, well into the 21st century. But Pacific Lumber was purchased (by hostile takeover) in 1985, by Houston-based Maxxam, and clear-felling became the norm. Like the Amazon rainforest, Maxxam were clear-cutting eighty acres of California redwoods at a time–eating into the company’s (and the State’s) last remaining virgin stands. When CEO Charles Hurwitz attempted to clear-cut the largest remaining block of old growth redwood, in Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, in 1990, tree-sitters — ‘Forest Defenders’ — scaled remaining giants the size of a Boeing 707, and moved in.
They were supplied food and refreshment by allies via pulleys, by night, their hoists and ropes removed and burned by loggers, by day. Tempers ran high; lives were lost; protesters murdered. But State legislature listened and stepped in.
Headwaters Forest was purchased in 1999 by State and Federal government agencies, and put under permanent protection. Clear-felling practice was legally reduced to a 20-40-acre maximum.
The logging industry finally sat up and paid attention. Its own resource was decimated; salmon runs and ecosystems had suffered in a mindless race for economic gain, with only ‘table scraps’ left, in the view of Humboldt State University forest scientist Steve Sillett. ‘The challenge now is to improve management on the 95% of redwood landscape (felled) that is just starting into regrowth.’
Sequoia sempervirens, redwoods as big as a Boeing 707
Growing trees like a crop of grain is no longer the enlightened view. Scientists from HSU have discovered that the older the redwood, the harder and more disease-resistant is the wood, and the tougher its ability to withstand weathering, damage; i.e. you get more value out of one 1000-year old tree than a thousand 10-year olds. Forestry attitudes are changing too. Heavy Caterpillar earthmoving tractors, that caused such erosion (skid trails) and consequent pollution to streams and spawning pools, are being replaced by smaller, lighter shovel loaders on tracks which leave the forest floor intact. State law now enforces a mandatory buffer zone of trees, along streams and rivers, and salmon and other fish are returning.
They are on target to create new forests (in one hundred years) like the ones protected in the Redwoods National and State Parks. Muir is by now roaring with delighted laughter in his (redwood) coffin.
So, when they ask you ‘what did you do for Arbor Day, Mummy or in Earth Week, Daddy?’ it may no longer be adequate to say you took the dog for a walk or raked leaves off the driveway. With renewed focus on the Earth, a show of determination coming from youth groups and in education, we may be inspired to show our ability to replenish, regenerate and restore parts of our planet we’ve been gifted as custodians, to bring back to life.
Lots of writers use a nom de plume to distinguish between their personae – it’s the way publishing works. Blogs, too. What choice, what abundance: we can be guided by all our Muses and still retain our integrity (who doubts it?)if we are prone to take one persona more seriously than another. For this blog I become this particular blogger because the material is time-sensitive; the research is all coming together now and our way forward is mapped. That said, it’s up to us whether we take the information and run with it.
The Stellar Perspective
Youngblood Blog 