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TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

NO. XXXI.

ANCIENT CROMLECH AT ARDENADAM, NEAR DUNOON:

BY

A. D. ROBERTSON, Esq.

[Read at a Meeting of the Society held at Glasgow on 25th March, 1867.]

THIS ruinous structure of unhewn and unsculptured stones, which still remains to awaken ideas of an undefined period of time, and revive the shadowy existence of a people whose memories, habits of thought, and action, have long since been resolved into vague unsatisfactory legend, or become shrouded for ever in impervious oblivion, stands on a rising ground on the south side of the Holy Loch, on the opposite shore from the old tower of the ancient Collegiate Church of Kilmun.

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It occupies the centre and summit of a slightly elevated and dilapidated cairn or mound which measures at the base from twentyfive to thirty feet in diameter, and consists of four flagstones, forming a rude chamber about nine feet long by four to two feet wide,

and from four to five feet in height, internally. The sides converge upwards, and are each formed of a single stone, somewhat more than ten feet long, five feet broad, and from one foot to fifteen inches in thickness. The cover or tabular stone above is rudely circular in shape, measuring about eight feet across, and has a very decided declination to the east. The longitudinal axis of the cell is nearly north-east by compass. The south-west end of the chamber is closed by one of the four flagstones, and the opposite or north-east end, which is open, is flanked by two upright monoliths, from five to six feet high, two to three feet broad, and from one to two feet in thickness, which are all that now remain standing of twelve similar stones that once formed a complete circle or cromlech, crowning the tumulus and having the kistvaen in the centre.

To justify this idea of the original configuration of this monument, I may state that there were at one time prostrate on the cairn rough columns corresponding in every respect to the remaining uprights, and the measured distance from centre to centre of these two intact pillars gives in a circumference the positions for other analogous stones which would thus form a ring exactly as shown in the restored ground plan, and twelve is a common number in many of those ancient Druidical circles throughout Britain.

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When treating of such remains of remote antiquity the want of a settled nomenclature tends greatly to produce a very troublesome confusion of ideas. In this country, for example, we should have the tomb or cell portion of this structure described indifferently as a cromlech or kistvaen, &c., while those that follow the writers who have treated of the Celtic antiquities of Brittany would apply the word cromlech to the circle of stones only. Crom, in Gaelic, means

curved, sloping, &c. It means also a circle-(Ossian). Leac or leachd, a flag, a flat stone, &c. Cromlech then signifies literally a sloping flagstone; but this expression is descriptive of the top stone only of a kistvaen or altar; whereas cromlech, translated stone-circle, which is an equally legitimate rendering, becomes a perfectly intelligible and satisfactory term for a Druidical stone-circle.

The word cromlech is also, I think, misapplied to a species of monument which the writers referred to above are equally unhappy in denominating "dolmen, from dol, signifying a table, and maen, a stone; a stone table." "In the dolmen," they say, "the vertical supporters of the tabular stone are columnar, and the space beneath it is never entirely closed." Now this term, as understood by its definition, is perfectly descriptive of such erections as Arthur's Stone near Swansea, which has eight perpendicular supporters that terminate in small points, on which the whole weight rests; or the Coeton Arthur (Arthur's quoit) near Newport, Pembrokeshire, which consists of four upright irregular stones, each about seven feet high, upon three of which rests an immense stone, eighteen feet in length and nine across; but if we are to understand that the words Dolmen and Altar are synonymous, then it is inapplicable to "Altars of earthfast stones" that have no artificial supports, and to those of a trilithic kind where the two supporting stones are laid horizontally, as in the "Three Auld Wives' Lift," in the parish of Baldernock, Stirlingshire, &c. Besides, the tops of cairns and mounds of earth seem to have been used occasionally for altars, and the summits of mountains have been consecrated as such, witness Gottfeld, in Arran,* Benledi, in Perthshire, &c. It appears to me that the generic word Altar, with an appropriate qualifier, to answer its individual character, would serve a descriptive purpose much better than the word Dolmen.

"In the kistvaen," according to the same authority, "the vertical supports are slabs, as perfectly joined together as the rudeness of the material will permit, thus forming with the horizontal roofstone a stone chest, which is the signification of kistvaen in the Celtic languages."

Kistvaens are found of various dimensions and under different circumstances, either singly, or in groups covered by artificial tumuli, or buried beneath the natural surface of the ground. They are also sometimes found placed above the original surface of the soil in the

Gottfeld (Scandinavian) i.e., God's Hill.

+ Benledi (Gaelic) from Beinn, a mountain, and Dia, God, i.e., the mountain of God.

neighbourhood of stone circles, and within their circumferences, on the tops of cairns, &c., as in the present instance, and there can be no doubt, have been employed as altars for similar reasons that the altar-tombs in churches were likewise used during the medieval period. Nothing could be better fitted for the purpose of an altar than the above-ground stone chest, and when found in this position the term altar-tomb would, in my opinion, be a far more appropriate name for it than kistvaen, which designation, as it neither suggests the idea of an altar nor its uses, might be retained for the underground stone chest.

Cromlechs or stone circles, called "clachan"* by the Highlanders, are believed to have been the ancient Druidical temples, in the immediate vicinity of which parish churches were frequently built after the establishment of Christianity. They vary in magnitude and in the number of stones that compose them. Those marked by a single ring of stones, or by two concentric rings, are of common occurrence, and altars, earth-fast or supported artificially, sometimes occupy the centre, or form part of their circumference.

Many are of opinion that cromlechs were originally merely intended as places of sepulture, and possibly this may have been the case with those of limited size, but the mind cannot easily entertain such an idea in connection with the magnificent structures of Abury or Stonehenge, &c. There can be little doubt that like our Gothic cathedral churches and chapels they might not only serve this purpose, but would thereby have their sanctity and solemnity as places of worship greatly enhanced.

It is generally admitted that sufficient evidence has been adduced to show that at one time our heathen ancestors, and probably all other ancient nations, in some form worshipped the sun or Baal, and that they paid divine honours to the moon, and the other planets as well. In this view the circle has been supposed to emblemize the sun or the moon, as the case may be, and cromlechs of nineteen stones might refer to the lunar cycle of nineteen years, while those of thirty stones might have reference to the solar month of thirty days. Circles of twelve stones, it has been observed before, are very common in Scotland, and the same number of months is nearly the time in which the sun makes his annual circuit. Other numbers are found composing those circles, and may have been designed to indi

*Clachan (Gaelic) i.e., The Stones.

+In Ceylon, Bali means planetary worship. Bhála signifies light, and Baliya is the image of any particular planet to which sacrifice is offered. Forbes Leslie, vol. ii. The circle and crescent in this island symbolize the sun and moon.

cate circumstances connected with the ancient belief, but it would be fruitless to investigate the subject at this very remote period.

Almost all the varieties of structure known in this country by the general term of Druidical are still found, like the broken links of a chain, along the supposed migratory line of march of the Celtic race from India to the western limits of Europe, and fragments of religious ceremonial, faithfully cherished in the East, yet linger as vulgar superstitions among the people of Scotland, but whether the erection of these monuments is to be attributed to the Celts or a former unknown race remains an unsettled question.*

Ardenadam, the name of the locality of which this interesting relic is the centre, is a Gaelic word signifying "the height of the blessed person," a name that has always associated itself in my mind with the idea of some reverend priest or king of the prehistoric era, whose blessed memory a grateful people would not willingly let die. Hence it was perpetuated in this temple containing his sacred remains, which naturally enough might become a place of meeting and pilgrimage for certain ceremonies at stated periods, like the shrines of glorified individuals during the middle ages. The elevated character of this pious heathen would hallow the whole surrounding district. The land would be sanctified, and even the neighbouring arm of the sea, whose waters rippled on the consecrated shore, singing his requiem in the pilgrim's ear, would become holy, by which epithet it has been distinguished time out of mind. Its Gaelic name, Loch Seunta, signifies the Blessed or Holy Loch.

This memorial of devout antiquity seems to belong to that dim and distant period when the very earliest footprints of our remote ancestry appear. Its rude undressed stones exhibit no hieroglyphics or traces of engraving whatever, and there is absolutely nothing known in the locality concerning it. Not even a whisper is heard of the usual traditions that seldom fail to grow around those mysteri

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Dr. Meyer thinks that the Celtic nations passed from Asia to Europe by two principal routes, and that the migration was resumed at different epochs, thus forming two great streams of migration, flowing as it were periodically. The one, proceeding in a westerly direction, passed through Syria and Egypt, and thence along the northern coast of Africa, reached Europe at the pillars of Hercules, and passing on through Spain to Gaul, then divided itself into three branches-the northern of which terminated in Great Britain and Ireland, the southern in Italy, and the eastern, running along the Alps and the Danube, terminated near the Black Sea. The other great stream of Celtic immigration, proceeding in a more direct line, reached Europe at its eastern limit, and passing through European Scythia, and thence partly through Scandinavia and partly along the Baltic, through Prussia and northern Germany, reached Britain across the German Ocean. Of these two streams of migration, the former, viz., by the north coast of Africa, although the less direct, seems to be the more ancient, and to have reached the north-west of Europe several centuries before the other.

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