Dùn Caan
Dùn Caan offers its image
to the sky in the dark
pool of Loch na Meilich
delighted by the cap’s view
Boswell performed a solo
Highland Schottische
Dùn Caan’s name may derive from Canu, a king referred to in Annals of Ulster. For site records of the hill and
the battle fought on its summit see RCAHMS (Grid ref NG53NE 6). This viewpoint on Raasay, Isle of the Roe
Deer, is the only one located off Skye. The distinctive flat-topped volcanic plug of Dùn Caan gave it the nickname
Raasay’s Cap. Boswell & Johnson visited the island on their Highland tour in 1773; the verse is based on a poem
Ken Cockburn composed on the summit, published on the road north. Gavin Morrison discusses Johnson's visit
in his essays.
panorama of ‘Hallaig’ from Dùn Caan
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
‘Tha tìm, am fiadh, an coille Hallaig’
Tha bùird is tàirnean air an uinneig
trom faca mi an Àird an Iar
’s tha mo ghaol aig Allt Hallaig
’na craoibh bheithe, ’s bha i riamh
eadar an t-Inbhir ’s Poll a’ Bhainne,
thall ’s a bhos mu Bhaile Chùirn
(Somhairle MacGill-Eain)
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
‘Time, the deer, is in the wood of Hallaig’
There's a board nailed across the window
I looked through to see the west
And my love is a birch forever
By Hallaig Stream, at her tryst
Between Inver and Milk Hollow,
somewhere around Baile-chuirn
(Sorley MacLean, tr. Seamus Heaney)
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
the flat palisade of the summit
overlooks the 12 places whose names
form the skeleton of Sorley MacLean's
elegiac masterpiece, ‘Hallaig’
litany of a heartbroken landscape
devastated by the hated Rainy
who cleared the townships the poem
lovingly commemorates
years ago now, I climbed the path,
more kin to a purling burn,
and sat with my back to the trig,
holding the poem open,
looking around me,
along the length of Raasay
across to the mountains of Applecross
& the Cuillin massif
I realized the poem was embedded
in Dùn Caan's complete conspectus,
& as I located each name
on the map, it lit up
in my mind
as Sorley summoned the procession
of the dead to endlessly pass by,
alive, if only in his magnificent
incantatory speech & my remembrancing
eyes
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
Hallaig
Hallaig
Allt Hallaig
the Burn of Hallaig
an t-Inbhir
Inver
Poll a’ Bhainne
Milk Hollow
Dùn Cana
Dùn Cana
Cnoc an Ra
Cnoc an Ra
Bheinn na Lice
Beinn na Lice
Leac
Leac
Fearnaibh
Alders
Suidhisnis
Suishnish
Chlachan
Clachan
Allt na Feàrnaibh
Burn of Alders
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
added to these, the unnamed home,
‘Tha bùird is tàirnean air an uinneig’
the window, now unboarded, that looked
to the west
Meg & I ate our picnic as the rain
slid down the windshield,
parked by the cottage at Oskaig;
we followed the poet’s gaze
from Àird Ghiuthai & An Àird’s wing,
over the beacon of Dùnan an Aisilidh,
on between Ben Lee & Glàmaig,
down Loch Sligachan to Sgùrr nan Gillean
& the fourth pinnacle,
the Knight’s Peak
that day a life came into perspective,
looking over to Sorley & Renee’s final home,
snug at Peighinn a’Chorrainn,
where Glàmaig & Oskaig are framed
in different windows
& the Battle of the Braes is
by the garden gate
Hallaig, Sorley MacLean, tr. Seamus Heaney; Hallaig (see here and here). I made a poem-label bearing each
of the names and Luke Allan photographed in the direction of each place, from Dùn Caan. You can view the
complete panorama of labels here. The Clearances on Raasay predate the island's purchase by George Rainy
in 1846, but it was he who brought in workers from the Lowlands and England, bringing about what Norma
MacLeod defines as a 'definite break in tradition'; see John MacInnes' review of MacLeod’s Raasay: The
Island and its People (Birlinn, 2005). The name 'Hallaig’ may derive from Norse, Holy Bay; MacBain gives
Oskaig as either Osk's Bay, or The Desire Bay; Àird Ghiuthais, Fir Height or Pine Height; An Àird, The Point.
The Knight’s Peak is on Sgùrr nan Gillean. Translations of the mountain names are given with the conspectus
below. Peighinn a’Chorrainn, or Peinachorainn, the poet's final home, is also referred to in the guide to Dùnan
an Aisilidh, which begins very near it, and which looks back toward Dùn Caan and Oskaig. For more on the
Battle of the Braes see Gavin Morrison's essays.
word-mntn (Quiraing); poem AF, photograph LA
word-mntn (An Storr); poem AF, photograph LARaasay word-map
Sorley MacLean’s conspectus
word-mntn (Glàmaig); poem AF, photograph LA
in a later retrospect, Sorley described
his childhood view from Raasay
as a conspectus & the foundation
for his poetics
Raasay is a centre-point, with such a wonderful
situation in relation to Skye & the mainland
of Wester Ross
from Raasay we could see the Cuillin,
from Sgùrr nan Gillean to Bruach na Frìthe
& further south-east, the great landscape
of Blà-Bheinn & Garbh-Bheinn
from Raasay we could see the coast of Skye,
from Beinn na Caillich in Broadford
to Rudha nam Bràithrean in Staffin
from Raasay there must be very few
stretches of sea in the Highlands
more spectacular than the Clàrach,
the southern sound
(Sorley MacLean)
This description is adapted from an interview with Sorley MacLean by Donald Archie MacDonald, ‘Some
Aspects of Family and Local Background’, published in Sorley MacLean: Critical Essays, ed. Raymond J.
Ross & Joy Hendry (Scottish Academic Press, 1986). Rudha nam Bràithrean, Headland of the Brothers;
translations of the mountain names are given with the conspectus below.
word-mntn (Liathach); poem AF, photograph LA
word-mntn (Sgùrr nan Gillean); poem AF, photograph LA
word-mntn (Dùn Caan), AF
Luke Allan's vision of the Cuillin
when Proust caught sight
in a foreign market town
of a spire above the trees
it reminded him of the spire
from the church of his childhood
and he exclaimed, simply,
the church
so from the summit of Dùn Caan
look out over the Cuillins'
undulating cloud shadow, Glamaig's
distant lifted pinnacle,
and exclaim, silently,
the world
(Luke Allan)
Composed after a stay on Raasay in August 2011. Story about Proust and the spire is taken from Swan's Way
For 'the dim glen's lamp' (below), see Trevor Joyce's poems of Sweeny Peregrine: a working of the corrupt
Irish text (New Writers Press, 1976)
.png)
Trevor Joyce's vision of the woods of Raasay
THE DIM GLEN'S LAMP
birch
(after Trevor Joyce)
vision of Celeste
from Raasay bàta brèagha
the bonnie boat Celeste set sail
over the Clàrach
around the point of Beinn Tianavaig
broadcasting her shimmer of soundings
& silver beams
Celeste featured in Bàta Brèagha / Bonnie Boat, a multimedia artist project by Neil Bromwich & Zoe
Walker, commissioned by Atlas (Skye), Isle of Skye, September 2011.
word-mntn (Beinn Tianavaig), AF
Strummer of Raasay
Hallaig (after Somhairle MacGill-Eain); poem AF (after SM), photograph, LA
look from Dùn Caan along Raasay's spine,
beyond Inverarish & Beinn a Chapuill,
is the road Callum made by hand,
from Brochel to Arnish
a way of life may someday flourish
beyond the road end, beneath the gneiss slabs
of Beinn na h-Iolaire
at the township of Umachan, far from the Westway,
the ashes of Joe Strummer were scattered
by the ruined croft built by his
great-great-grandfather
Calum's Road, constructed by Malcolm MacLeod, as described in Roger Hutchinson's Calum's Road
(2006) and Timothy Neat’s When I was young: voices from lost communities in Scotland: the islands
(Birlinn, 2000). Paul Camilli writes an intersting blog on life off-grid on Raasay, life at the end of the
road. Joe Strummer, founding member of The Clash, discovered his Skye Nicolson ancestry late in life
and, although he never visited, he had his ashes scattered on Raasay. Bandmate Paul Simonon painted
this view and left a Clash album lodged in the township's last standing gable. 'London Burning' includes
the lyric: "I'm up and down the Westway, in and out the lights. / What a great traffic system, it's so bright.
/ I can't think of a better way to spend the night, / than speeding around underneath the yellow lights."
(1979). It is interesting to compare the band's romantic insurrectionary spirit on albums such as
Sandinista with Sorley MacLean's anti-Fascist poetry of the 1930s.
word-mntn (Bruach na Frìthe); poem AF, photograph LA
word-mntn (Meall Acairseid); poem AF, photograph, LA
in the early 90s Jimmy Cauty & Bill Drummond
came to Skye, seeking an island on which to found
a new vision
they sailed from Portree in a fishing-boat,
over the Sound of Raasay to the Isle of Rona,
which was for sale
they shared a vision of the island as the base
for the next chapter in their creative adventure;
a cross between The Thunderbirds isle
& something not yet dreamed
on the crossing the distinctive form
of a killer whale surfaced alongside the boat
& followed them
it was the first time either of them
had been close to a killer whale;
a porpoise or dolphin would have felt welcoming
but this killer sent a different message:
they were being warned
landed safely on Rona’s south tip
the fisherman agreed to collect them
from the main bay, Acarseid Mhór, at eleven
the next morning
all that day they fought their way
through heather, birch, bracken & bushes
under attack from battalion after battalion
of midges
the night Bill spent on Rona was filled
with disturbing dreams
the next morning the fisherman
picked them up at the allotted time
& ferried them back
it was a relief to be off the island;
they never discussed their idea further,
knowing instinctively that Rona
was not the place they dreamed of
Bill Drummond recalls that the asking price for the island would only get you a flat in London; they were
flush from meddling in pop music at the time. Drummond later returned to Skye to work on a very different
project, The 17, described in the guide to Dùn Liath.
Dùn Caan conspectus
This conspectus is composed from the names of some of the mountains that
are
visible from this location. The centre-point marks the location of Dùn Caan.
The
typography represents the view as it is experienced by the human eye,
giving an
approximate impression of distance and scale. Mountain ridges are
indicated by
overlapping names. The gradation of hill slopes is suggested by
the use of grey-
scale, with the peak in black.
Click on this graphic to view the original and, if you wish,
print it out for use in
situ. A booklet containing all 14 conspectuses is available from ATLAS Arts. The
14 conspectuses have also been archived in an
album, indexed here. A complete
list of the mountains referred to in the Dùn Caan guide is given below, with links
from each one to its OS map. English translations have been given where possible.
A gallery of word-mntn drawings, including mountains visible from Dùn Caan,
can be found on the drawing page.list of the mountains referred to in the Dùn Caan guide is given below, with links
from each one to its OS map. English translations have been given where possible.
A gallery of word-mntn drawings, including mountains visible from Dùn Caan,
| An Stòrr | The Big (One) |
| Beinn a' Chapuill | Mountain of the Horse |
| Beinn Lì | Coloured or Water Mountain (?) |
| Beinn na Caillich | Mountain of the Crone |
| Beinn na h-Iolaire | Mountain of the Eagle |
| Ben Tianavaig | Bay or Harbour Mountain |
| Blà-bheinn | Blue Mountain |
| Bruach na Frìthe | Brae of the Moor Forest |
| Garbh Bheinn | Rough Mountain |
| Glàmaig | The Greedy Woman |
| Liathach | The Hoary Place |
| Meall Acairseid | Meall, lumpish, shapeless hill; Acairseid, anchorage, harbour |
| Quiraing | Round Fold |
| Sgùrr nan Gillean | Peak of the Lads |
contributors
Alec Finlay (AF)
with
Luke Allan (LA)
Ken Cockburn
Bill Drummond
Gavin Morrison
Gaelic Consultant
Maoilios Caimbeul
navigation
to view the next conspectus click here
to return to the map with links to all 14 guides click here
to read the project overview click here
to return to the map with links to all 14 guides click here
to read the project overview click here
for basic project information, including acknowledgements, click here
Còmhlan Bheanntan | A Company of Mountains
commissioned by ATLAS, Skye, 2012-13
http://atlasarts.org.uk/
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