Megalithic shipping and trade routes

[Boreades]

Is it a coincidence that the brochs are in the wilder parts of Scotland?

We might need to start our own campaign - Bring Back The Brochs - as safe havens for tourists and travellers, if this suggestion takes off...

Rewilding Scotland, with bears, wolves, boars, lynx and other predators.
http://www.scotclans.com/rewilding-scot ... -scotland/

Some eco-warriors think it would be a good idea to have a lot more predator species on the loose aboot the hoose. Without much thought (it seems) on what they would be predators on. If not each other, there would have to be a lot more prey for these predators. As the landscape, as it is now, has a hard time providing for a pitifully small number of vegetarian species, perhaps that what the human tourists will be for?

A bit like a MacJurrasic Park? if so, here's the plot for the film:

A Scottish entrepeneur (played by Richard Attenborough) starts a Rewilded Tourist Theme Park, stocked with bears, wolves, boars, lynx and other predators. Don't get out of the car or leave the windows open. What could possibly go wrong? Sure enough, some Sassanach Tourists get chewed to pieces, and the children are lost in the grant-maintained forest. Cue the rescue squad (played by Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum). As a side plot, some bad guy with a wind farm that's being killing raptors comes to a nasty-but-kharmic end when he gets chewed up by his own wind turbine blades.

[TisILeclerc]

One possibility is that they could have been beacons for guiding ships. Given the weather in that area they would have had to have had something substantial that would survive the gales but also keep the flames from going out. Early lighthouses with a spiral staircase. And if there was a regular trading route something like this would be essential.

The MacNicols were the original keepers of the beacons on Lewis, Skye, and the north west mainland.

Another tradition which may refer to the MacNeacails concerns the coat of arms of the MacLeods of Lewis. In the 17th century, the Earl of Cromartie recounted the traditional explanation of the arms: that the Kings of Norway had the MacLeods man two beacons, one on Lewis and one on Skye, to guide the king's ships safely through the islands. Since the MacLeods appear to have gained Lewis long after the Hebrides was incorporated into the Kingdom of Scotland, the tradition may well refer instead to the MacNeacails. If this is the case, then the MacLeods of Lewis not only inherited their lands from the MacNeacails, but also aspects of their heraldry.[7] The actually heraldry borne by the medieval clan is, however, unknown.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_MacNeacail

And if this works this is what the original coat of arms looked like.



https://clanmacnicol.org/history

[Boreades]

Coals from Newcastle?

[Boreades]

One possibility is that they could have been beacons for guiding ships.

A bit of a hobby-horse of ours, usually associated with Celtic Saints, probably because their doings (darn Sarf) are a bit better documented. But the whole coast needs beacons. So it's good to find them oop north as well.

So - where are the ones in the middle? (Cumbria/Northumberland southwards)

[TisILeclerc]

Possibly Whitby under its older name of Strenshalh or variants of that.

Bede, who wrote two hundred years after the departure of the Romans, interprets Streonshalh, the name of the bay at the time, as “Sinus Fari”-the Bay of the Lighthouse.

http://www.endeavourcottage.co.uk/whitb ... t-one.html

And of course Hilda came down from Hartlepool to set up her abbey on the cliff top. Although that was much later.

[TisILeclerc]

We are told that Borg is the Norse original for Broch.

We see this name on the Isle of Lewis at Borve or Dun Bhuirgh.

In Melbost Borve there are the remains of a burial ground (Cladh Bhrighid) and the barely visible ruins of a tiny chapel (Teampull Bhrighid) and a well (Tobar Bhrighid) - all dedicated to St Brigid.[4][5]

About half a mile north of Melbost Borve stand the ruins of the pre-Norse broch Dun Bhuirgh. Its name derives from the old Norse word borg, meaning a fort, and according to 19th-century accounts is the origin of the village's name. The original fort was circular in shape with an internal diameter of 30 feet and walls 11 feet thick.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borve,_Lewis

The hard 'c' and the gutteral 'gh' have softened to become a 'v' sound.

Come further south and it gets softer and the 'v' changes to a 'w' and we get barrow as in Barrow in Furness.

This was a Norse settlement at one time and they have known about iron ore since at least the middle ages but the geography of the area is interesting for this site and ties in with other areas.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow-in-Furness

Getting back to Whitby for a time Bede translates its old name of Strensalh as Sinus Fari. I imagine Sinus is related to nose and Fari to Pharos or Fire hence light house.

But this was the land of the Brigantes who we are told spoke a variant of old Welsh. To my ear 'Stren' is very similar to the Gaelic 'Sron' pronounced 'stron' which means nose. I wonder if the Brigantes were originally 'Brig, Brog, Borg, Broch' builders? Rather than mountain dwellers as we are usually told?

[hvered]

We are told that Borg is the Norse original for Broch.

Other way round perhaps? Borg is such a widely-used term it's unlikely to be limited specifically to 'broch'.

Broughton is said by self-styled place name-experts to be something to do with broch. Anyone else would simply recognise another spelling of 'borough', 'berg' or whatever, it's a common enough name.

This Broughton is near Kirkby in Furness, kirk being church spelt phonetically, on the eastern side of Duddon Sands [closed to the public for safety reasons] but the origin and meaning of Furness are unknown. It sounds like 'furnace' which ties in with our earlier cauldron discussions. But anyway, the inter-tidal mudflats make it a hazardous coastal area -- Morecambe Bay is especially infamous -- so presumably a line of broch-lighthouse-kirks would be useful.

Getting back to Whitby for a time Bede translates its old name of Strensalh as Sinus Fari. I imagine Sinus is related to nose and Fari to Pharos or Fire hence light house.

But this was the land of the Brigantes who we are told spoke a variant of old Welsh. To my ear 'Stren' is very similar to the Gaelic 'Sron' pronounced 'stron' which means nose. I wonder if the Brigantes were originally 'Brig, Brog, Borg, Broch' builders? Rather than mountain dwellers as we are usually told?

Sinus is associated with bent, curved, crooked... also with 'left' and 'sinister'. Could just be a pharo light on the dangerous 'left' bank.

It's not clear whether a Brigantes tribe actually existed. If such a name was used, it might have referred to brigands with no fixed abode or traits.

[Boreades]

A topical conference, by the Islands Book Trust

An outstanding feature of the Norse-Gaelic seaways is the network of dramatic castles built on or near the shore, accessed originally by ‘birlinn’ or galley. They played a central role during the Hebrides’ heyday, when the islands were at the crossroads of the Norse-Gaelic world. This 3 day international conference brings together leading experts to explore the history of these castles in their wider cultural context.

Friday 18th September – Sunday 20th September 2015
Venue: Community Hall, Castlebay, Barra

http://www.theislandsbooktrust.com/even ... d-castles/

Does the Petty Cash box have enough to get the TME Team Bus to Barra and back?
Otherwise we'll has to send MacTisi solo. Or ma wee cousin MacBoreades.

[TisILeclerc]

Sail your yacht round to my place and I'll get my Viking helmet out of the loft. I'll help with the rowing.

[Boreades]

Good timing. The SS Golden Rivet is back in the water, after a major maintenance effort.

#1 Son, Euan MacBoreades proved worth the price of a steak in the marina bistro. He probably shovelled the best part of 1/2 tonne of mussels (san frites) off of the hull of our intrepid vessel. It's now bobbing in the briny about a foot higher in the water, ready for inspection by the High Inspector-Admiral Mick Sturbs. Or whatever his nom-de-plume is now.

Family and friends are welcome, after a shake-down cruise by M'Lady Boreades and 'er 'umble hobidient 'elper, across to the family vineyard to stock up.

P.S. Where is your place?