23 X 1773
24 VII 2013
24 VII 2013
GLEN ARAY
The old Wade military road on the map passes, as it heads south from Loch Awe to Inveraray, many burns and waterfalls. We went looking for the “rough music” of the torrents and waterfalls Johnson counted, totalling, he said, 53 in all. None were to be seen; it has been too dry, and the forestry plantations are too dense. But we did come across the Neil Munro monument, a dour stone pintle dating from 1935, inscribed in Gaelic ‘SAR LITREACHAS’, ‘matchless literature’. The wide view was grand though, and well chosen, between and Cruach na Gearr-choise and Beinn Ghlas.
Later, Ken and Amy climb to Dùn na Cuaiche, the folly on the hill above Inveraray Castle, through woods, and then cleared woodland. It affords a fine view south down Loch Fyne. We meet a Swede, who tells us he’s from Uppsala, adding, as though he knows our minds are stuck in the 1770s, that it’s where Linnaeus lived.
The RCHAMS website gives the following details: “1748. Roger Morris, architect; William Douglas, mason. 'Gothick' folly. Square, 1 storey and basement. Rubble, domed, aperture at top. Doorway; 2 pointed unglazed windows. Apsidal recess at basement. Stone floor.”
It’s made to be seen from below – up close it’s inelegant, though the grafitti that covers the floor-lintel is very neatly chiselled, all serifs and swirls. (Did young folks once carry mallets and chisels as they carry cans of spraypaint today?)
Bibliography
Munro, Neil; Para Handy
Linnaeus, Carl von; Systema Naturae (1735–58)
Walker, Frank Arneil; Argyll and Bute, in the series Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Scotland (2000)
The old Wade military road on the map passes, as it heads south from Loch Awe to Inveraray, many burns and waterfalls. We went looking for the “rough music” of the torrents and waterfalls Johnson counted, totalling, he said, 53 in all. None were to be seen; it has been too dry, and the forestry plantations are too dense. But we did come across the Neil Munro monument, a dour stone pintle dating from 1935, inscribed in Gaelic ‘SAR LITREACHAS’, ‘matchless literature’. The wide view was grand though, and well chosen, between and Cruach na Gearr-choise and Beinn Ghlas.
Later, Ken and Amy climb to Dùn na Cuaiche, the folly on the hill above Inveraray Castle, through woods, and then cleared woodland. It affords a fine view south down Loch Fyne. We meet a Swede, who tells us he’s from Uppsala, adding, as though he knows our minds are stuck in the 1770s, that it’s where Linnaeus lived.
The RCHAMS website gives the following details: “1748. Roger Morris, architect; William Douglas, mason. 'Gothick' folly. Square, 1 storey and basement. Rubble, domed, aperture at top. Doorway; 2 pointed unglazed windows. Apsidal recess at basement. Stone floor.”
It’s made to be seen from below – up close it’s inelegant, though the grafitti that covers the floor-lintel is very neatly chiselled, all serifs and swirls. (Did young folks once carry mallets and chisels as they carry cans of spraypaint today?)
Bibliography
Munro, Neil; Para Handy
Linnaeus, Carl von; Systema Naturae (1735–58)
Walker, Frank Arneil; Argyll and Bute, in the series Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Scotland (2000)