Hedging Your Bets

I've not had much to report of late, unless of course you'd like me to tell you all about the indoor decorating that has been taking up most of my working days. No, didn't think so. 

Skye is creaking beneath the weight of Woodcocks at the moment. There were seven along the access road to where I live a few nights ago. Frustratingly, they all seem hell bent on not entering or flying over the hotel grounds, and hence remain off my patch list. For now. Yesterday, after numerous failed attempts, I finally connected with Neil's Little Egret along Loch Snizort as it flew down the mudflats in front of me. I was starting to think he was making the whole thing up, nobody else has seen it as far as I know, yet he's seen it kicking around for several weeks now.

Uncropped image. Distance from camera to bird is around 500 to 520 metres!

In plant news I have made two recent discoveries. The first is a patch of Acaena which I tried and failed to key to species. Despite much looking I couldn't see any burs, these being a big aid to identification. The second plant of interest was a single Chilean Hard-fern that I found in a quarry, this being the second VC record following on from the colony I found in Dunvegan Woods a few weeks back. 

The mystery Acaena. It's close to A.anserinifolia I think

Chilean Hard-fern in a wet ditch

It was whilst trying to locate Neil's Little Egret that I found myself wandering close to St Columba's Isle, burial ground of the MacDonald and Nicholson clan chiefs for several hundred years. A small tributary of the River Snizort runs alongside the isle and I thought it worth checking in case the egret was hidden away along its length. It wasn't, I didn't connect with it until later that morning, but I had to check.

Christianity came to Skye a very long time ago. After the collapse of Roman occupancy around 410 AD, Roman-borne Christianity took a severe bashing at the hands of the invading Anglo Saxons, until they too were subverted converted into Christian beliefs. It is believed that Irish missionaries carried the word onto Skye sometime during the 6th and 7th centuries, pre-dating the Viking invasions which occurred during the 8th century. The Vikings, after giving everyone in sight a damn good bashing of their own, slowly adopted Christianity during the 9th and 10th centuries at which point Skye became a notable Christian hub, with the Diocese of the Isles moving its seat to Snizort, this being very near to St Columba's Isle. The upshot of all this religious nonsense being that St Columba's Isle was the burial place of Christian clan chiefs and bishops for over five hundred years. 

You will undoubtedly have noticed that I used the words Christian and Christianity fairly frequently in that last paragraph. Yep, and for a good reason.

Whilst on St Columba's Isle, I took a few images of the ruined graves and chapel. See if you notice anything that they all share in common (apart from having grey clouds overhead)

The answer is that they ALL have an old Elder growing through them. A closer look will reveal that each Elder is situated in what used to be the entrance to the graves. This may seem fairly innocent and innocuous to some of you, but it's really not. Elder does occur on Skye, but typically as singletons in a hedgerow or thicket. I've never seen more than two or three at a single locality. Apart from here, where there are lots, and they are all very ancient looking too.  

Elder trees are steeped in ancient folklore and in pre-Christian times were widely 'known' to offer protection from evil spirits, witches and demons. I say widely because apparently this belief extended right across Europe and into Russia. Elder was also believed to be a way of communicating with the spirit world (via the hollow stems) and Elder twigs were often placed on coffins to aid the departed person's soul on its journey into the Otherworld. None of which resonates very well with the Christian belief system. 

And yet here we see Christian clan chiefs being buried with the added protection of an Elder next to the grave. Now that's what I call hedging your bets. Canny Scots.

As an aside, were you to go back to before the time when those Irish missionaries were first spreading the word of Christianity across Skye, you would find yourself in a pagan world ruled by various (often warring) tribes. Much of the north and eastern areas of Scotland was run by the Picts. These people, or rather group of peoples (they came together to fight off the Romans), didn't leave behind any written language, but they did leave behind a few hundred large, carved stones. Pictish Symbol Stones, as they are now known. Rather bizarrely, a cottage overlooking St Columba's Isle was demolished in around 1880 and a Pictish Symbol Stone was discovered within, it had been incorporated into the main doorway. It was erected at the side of the road and is now known as the Clach Ard Stone. Nobody knows how this stone came to be on the Scottish west coast at Skye, and there are two others here as well.

I have no idea if this is what happened, but I wonder if somebody deliberately built their cottage around the Pictish Stone in order to protect and preserve it from the Christians that were now flooding into the immediate vicinity. I really like the idea of paganism living alongside the new kid on the block that was early Christianity, and still being believed in, if not outwardly followed. Next week I'm looking after a friend who is too unwell to travel with her husband into England. Their next door neighbour was meant to be looking after her, but she's had to pull out, hence I got the call. And guess what, that next door neighbour is a pagan witch. A mere fourteen centuries after that Pictish Stone was carved and pagans are still alive and well here on Skye. How very marvellous!