The Curious Incident of Dundurn, Part III

transcript

After delivering the rock to the top of Dundurn, I then went on a bit of a trek to the top of the opposite hill. I knew Paul was interested to know what was over there, so I documented part of it on my camera, and transcribed my inane babbling because it was quite windy.

A very interesting adventure. I think I can safely say that my sense of balance has returned. Take that, hill! You have been well and truly climbed.

Here are a few additional pics I took...

Standing in the tree I feared I might have to
spend the night in.

Panoramic of fairy mounds.
(click to enlarge)

Beautiful round lump of quartz by wall structure.

Wall structure.

First mound, illustrating why
I thought it was fay.

Primrose :)

Love this rock with the pool underneath.

Old Man Moon rock near quiet pool.
Looks like an old man smiling from the front
and a crescent moon from the side.

Dried-up Polypore

Pointy Rock
Perhaps a beacon point?

I absolutely fell in love with this wavy pattern on the rocks. You find it all over the place. Like I said in the video, it's as though the whole valley has been carved out of water. Perhaps not rock art, but I feel it must have been used decoratively. Stunning wallpaper. 

Whilst scrambling up the side of the second mound from the pool, I stopped to take a study of thick moss growing on a tree branch. 

The Branch

Also found this strange natural altar. A ledge with a shard of rock beneath and a slab of rock towering up, with a tree on top of it. If I lived around there, that's definitely where I'd leave my offerings.

Dundurn from the opposite hill.

I climbed up Dundurn (left) then down its right-hand
side and two-thirds of the way up the one on the right.

The field beneath Dundurn has a number of strange features, including a couple of very large rocks, like the one above. There are also a number of mounds, including a strange little one by the gate as you enter the foot of Dundurn, which looks a lot like the plague pit at Fortingall. There is rumoured to be a plague pit, but I'm not sure whether it's referring to St. Fillan's Chapel, which is the ruin at Dundurn, or the Church in the village, which we didn't visit. There's also supposed to be a coin table, but I couldn't find it within the chapel, so perhaps that also refers to a nearby church.

There are a number of barrow-shaped mounds around the field, though more likely to be either settlement earthworks or something more modern, perhaps from dredging the marsh in the centre of the field. Someone with a sense of humour appears to have turned one of them into a fish face, with two eyes and a rocky mouth.

Sorry to keep distressing people with pictures of dead sheep, but the marsh between the field and the chapel was a slaughter ground of lambs. Either an unlucky winter or some mighty big foxes around those parts.

Finally, I made it back to the chapel and laid my last rock on Saint Fillan's Grave. It felt pretty good. I'm glad I went back. I still don't have much of an explanation for what happened the first time, but I don't feel upset about it any more. I feel as though I've conducted a fairly thorough geographical and emotional study of the place, and it doesn't bother me now. If anything, I'm slightly fascinated.

As an addendum, I was hoping to have dreams about the place, but nothing came. Although, after both visits, the next morning Paul woke to find me asleep on the couch, the first time on my back with my legs straight and my arms folded above my head, the second time in the same position with them full-stretch above my head. I assure you, on a couch, that is not an easy or comfortable position to maintain, yet I woke feeling wonderfully refreshed. This has never happened before or since, as I tend to sleep on my side.

[UPDATE JULY 2013: See also Dundurn - The final Chapter.] 

Natural (?) stone rose on one of the graves.