History and Historic Site News!
October 3, 2005
Da Vinci Code effect 'could spell disaster' for Rosslyn
Clearing the air on the Clearances
Rosslyn gets police guard for filming
Da Vinci Code effect 'could spell disaster' for Rosslyn
FERGUS SHEPPARD
Key points
• Hollywood success could spell disaster for unique part
of Scottish history
• Prospect of hundreds of thousands of visitors heading
for tiny Rosslyn chapel is daunting
• Historic Scotland hope to minimise possible problems,
however
Key quote
"We will be looking very carefully at how we manage our visitor
numbers as we get into next year." - Stuart Beattie, the chapel's
director
Story in full
RECORD crowds of tourists being drawn to Rosslyn
chapel by the incredible success of the bestseller The Da Vinci Code
could "spell the end" of the historic building, a former curator
has warned.
Judith Fisken, curator of the 15th century chapel from 1981 to 1996, warned that interest generated by the Dan Brown novel, coupled with a forthcoming Hollywood movie of the book starring Tom Hanks, would lead to unmanageable numbers of people packing into the building.
In a letter to The Scotsman, Mrs Fisken said predicted estimates of 120,000 visitors next year touring a chapel measuring just 69ft by 35ft would create a situation "nothing short of madness".
However, the trust that runs the chapel responded by signalling there could be a move to control the huge visitor numbers expected in the wake of the film's release, with pre-booking for visits as one option.
In her letter published today, Mrs Fisken warns: "The headache will not simply be crowd control and concern of footfall through the building.
"It will be souvenir hunters removing pieces of stone, taking rubbings, carving their initials and generally leaving litter, all of which is part of living in the 21st century."
The ex-curator, who has also worked for the National Trust for Scotland, said a balance needed to be struck between earning income from the huge interest in Rosslyn Chapel and safeguarding the fabric of the building through measures like capping visitor numbers and banning coach parties.
"The Rosslyn Chapel Trust has to decide whether it has money or conservation at its heart," she said. The chapel, six miles south of Edinburgh at Roslin, has seen visitor numbers almost double from 38,000 in 2003 to over 68,000 in 2004 due to its portrayal in The Da Vinci Code as "the Cathedral of Codes". The chapel is to get a new entrance and will recruit more staff to cope with the anticipated flood of extra visitors.
Stuart Beattie, the chapel's director, said the protection of the building was "always under review" and discussed with organisations like Historic Scotland. "We are constantly looking at risk management," he said.
He said the famous carvings were largely shielded by pews and the problems encountered in the building had related more to the environment, for example, condensation, rather than damage to its fabric.
However, Mr Beattie added: "We will be looking very carefully at how we manage our visitor numbers as we get into next year." The chapel director said pre-booking to visit the building could be one option, although no decisions had yet been taken.
Rosslyn Chapel will close its doors to tourists between 26 and 29 September for filming on the film, which will star Hanks as Harvard professor Robert Langdon. The Hollywood actor has visited Scotland before and his 23-year-old daughter, Liz, went to St Andrews University.
Founded in 1446 by Sir William of St Clair, the third and last St Clair Prince of Orkney, Rosslyn Chapel is said by some writers to have been used by the Knights Templar as a hiding place for dozens of holy relics taken from Jerusalem.
Its sand-filled vaults, as deep as the chapel is tall, have been claimed to contain early Gospels, the Ark of the Covenant and even the mummified head of Christ.
The chapel's trust has a 99-year lease from its owners, the St Clairs of Rosslyn, and earlier this summer advertised for a full-time visitor services manager and a fundraising director. It is seeking funding for the final stage of a £4 million conservation programme.
Clearing the air on the Clearances
BEN MCCONVILLE
DURING
the period 1785 to 1886, when the Crofters Act was passed, it is estimated
that about 500,000 Highlanders left their homes in search of a new life.
Some were forcibly evicted in the most brutal circumstances, others left of
their own volition. But the debate in post-devolution Scotland now rages on
what were the social and economic factors that led to so many Highlanders
seeking a life elsewhere.
A
compelling contemporaneous account of the Clearances was written by
Alexander Mackenzie in 1883. Mackenzie was the editor of Celtic Magazine
and although he was born too late for the height of the Clearances, he
witnessed the trials of the Braes Crofters who had revolted against being
removed and was a witness to the Glendale Revolt.
He
spoke to many witnesses who told of the miserable conditions of those
cleared from their homes. Using various earlier texts, Mackenzie documents
a number of incidents recounted by those who witnessed the deaths of the
vulnerable young and old who could not survive the harsh conditions many
crofters found themselves in when forced off the land.
A
different first-hand version of events was offered by James Loch, a
notorious factor for Lady Sutherland, who, in his book An Account of
the Sutherland Improvements published in 1815, described the
Clearances as progress. The land could no longer sustain its population and
the lairds did their best for the people, often paying for their passage to
the New World, although many crossed the sea as indentured servants bound
for America, Canada or Australia.
An
actual image of the clearances taking place in the Highlands, circa 1880s.
Pictures: Copyright unknown
However,
the Duke of Sutherland cleared 15,000 people from his land to make way for
200,000 sheep. Evictions at the rate of 2,000 families in one day were not
uncommon. Many starved and froze to death where their homes had once stood.
The
first modern overview of the period was written 40 years ago by John
Prebble. A popular historian, his book The Highland Clearances
describes how the chiefs lost their powers in the late 18th century after
the Jacobite uprising was crushed.
Prebble's
version of events was one of forcible removal by "bayonet, truncheon
or fire" and became the benchmark of accepted history of the
Clearances. It portrayed the landlords as cold and callous, pursuing
commercial interests above all others.
He
wrote: "So that they might lease their glens and braes to
sheep-farmers from the Lowlands and England, they cleared the crofts of
men, women and children, using police and soldiers where necessary. It is
the story of people, and of how sheep were preferred to them, and how
bayonet, truncheon and fire were used to drive them from their homes."
During
this period the whole of Europe was going through seismic change. The
economic forces of industrialisation and the consequent urbanisation were
changing rural areas. A new working class was growing in cities like
Glasgow and the fodder for its factories were the immigrants of the
countryside.
The
ways of the crofters was perhaps doomed in any case, but what set apart
events in the Highlands was the speed and ferocity of change. The
landowners were quick to remove populations - often up to 5,000 at a time -
and install the new economic miracle of sheep. But the Gaels were also
ethnically distinct and spoke their own language, giving an extra dimension
to the rest of Scotland’s indifference to their plight.
It
is the story of people, and of how sheep were preferred to them, and how
bayonet, truncheon and fire were used to drive them from their homes.
- John Prebble, author
Lowlanders
often caricatured the Highlander as lazy and debauched, living an idle,
drunken life. Edinburgh, the cradle of the New Enlightenment, saw this
change as necessary and good.
But
James Hunter, Highland historian and author of The Making of the
Crofting Community, says improvement was an unintended consequence.
"The
term 'improvement' often seems to be accepted by historians
uncritically," he says. "They seem to accept the notion that all
this change was for the best in the long run. That's a very dangerous
notion to perpetrate, because it minimises the horror that was experienced
by the people who were on the receiving end of this."
Tom
Devine, author and noted professor of Irish and Scottish Studies at
Aberdeen University, believes the same fate befell rural communities across
Scotland and that Lowlanders too were cleared off the land. He says
populations were also removed by stealth.
"Clearance
normally means the forcible removal from land. It has to be understood that
not only in the Lowlands, but also in the Highlands, there were other means
of removing people from the land which were much more subtle," he
says.
The
Lowland lairds used legal frameworks to remove tenants, including
unworkable new leases and massive rent rises.
"We
cannot explain the catastrophic haemorrhage of population in some of these
rural areas over such short time-spans except by suggesting that either
indirect or direct compulsion was used," says Devine.
A
recent revisionist tract that claims the Clearances were nothing but a myth
was suggested by Michael Fry. His book, Wild Scots, challenges the
notion that the Clearances were a shameful episode in our history. Fry
offers the mass evictions of the period were greatly exaggerated and claims
to prove this by pointing out that the region's population increased
over the period.
Fry
says current theories on the Clearances perpetuate the idea of Scottish
victimhood and claims the changes benefited the Highland people.
"They
(the Clearances) were typical examples of social engineering which met
neither the hopes of the benefactors nor the needs of the beneficiaries,
but produced social disaster," Fry notes.
Kate
Smith, from the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University in Connecticut,
says the debate over the Clearances is gathering pace in post devolution
Scotland.
"You
can't move forward unless you straighten out the past, and the Highland
Clearances have a huge impact on how Scotland is today," Smith offers.
"The Clearances have never been fully acknowledged or commemorated.
Instead they have been played down by a combination of diminishing the
extent of the violence and force used by fallacies that every soul who
emigrated did so voluntarily and benefited greatly at no risk or cost or
simply dismissing them as 'victimology'.
Rosslyn gets police guard for filming
Sun 28 Aug 2005WILLIAM LYONS
ARTS CORRESPONDENT
wlyons@scotlandonsunday.com
A
POLICE guard has been ordered for Rosslyn Chapel amid fears that religious
protests could disrupt filming of Dan Brown's best-selling book The Da
Vinci Code.
Filming
will begin at the 15th-century chapel, six miles south of Edinburgh, at the
end of next month. But following protests at earlier shoots at Lincoln
Cathedral, the production company contacted the police to try to avoid any
disturbance during the four days of filming.
Last
night a spokesman for Lothian and Borders police said: "As a result of
the filming at Rosslyn Chapel we've been in discussions with the production
company and we've agreed that there will be a police presence during
filming at Rosslyn as a precaution."
Hollywood
director Ron Howard, Oscar winner Tom Hanks and Amelie actress Audrey
Tautou will be involved in filming and the field opposite the chapel will
be used as a trailer camp for the cast and crew.
The
production moved to Lincoln after Westminster Abbey, whose Chapter House is
featured in the book, turned down an approach from producers, saying it
would be "inappropriate" to allow filming.
Stuart
Beattie, director of Rosslyn Chapel, played down fears of a disturbance and
said he hoped visitors to the site during filming would respect the
sanctity of Rosslyn.
He
said: "I would hope that people would recognise that Rosslyn is not
just a working church but is also an historic building and an ancient
monument and as such has a number of different lives that it can justify.
The filming is not a unique experience we have had hosted other films,
notably Sword of Honour and Boswell and Johnston's Tour of the Western
Isles."
The
four-day shoot will take place from September 26-29. Since the publication
of the book visitor numbers at the chapel have almost doubled from 38,000
in 2003 to more than 68,000 in 2004, largely thanks to its portrayal in the
book as "the Cathedral of Codes".
When
Brown's novel was published two years ago, it was condemned by Christians
who were offended by the book's central claim that Jesus married Mary
Magdalene and had descendants.
Dunvegan Castle on Skye
The Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod
DIANE MACLEAN
TO THE uneducated eye the disintegrating cloth hanging in Dunvegan Castle looks more like something used to mop up a beer spill than the "most precious possession of the Clan MacLeod". But if you look closely, you begin to pick out a delicate silk thread, the remains of an intricate pattern. The fabric looks ancient and foreign.
The Clan MacLeod has had its family seat at Dunvegan Castle since about the 12th century. For as long as the clan has been there, so has their flag. No one knows for certain where it came from but the MacLeods have always maintained that it is no ordinary piece of cloth.
The Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod
Picture: Courtesy of Dunvegan Castle
For this is no rag but the Fairy Flag of the Clan MacLeod, which came to Dunvegan from "a far away place".
Legend has it that a long time ago a chieftain of the MacLeods met and fell in love with a beautiful woman, who unfortunately, turned out to be a fairy princess. She begged her father to allow her to marry the handsome chief, and he agreed, on condition that she return to her fairy folk at the end of a year and a day.
They were a happy couple, and the year passed all too soon. Before returning to her fairy palace beneath the hills the princess made her husband promise that he would never allow their young son to cry. Through his tears the chief agreed.
His sadness grew and nobody could console him on his loss. A great feast was organised to try to make him forget his fairy-wife. Such was the rumpus and laughter that the baby’s nursemaid crept away from his nursery to see the fun. The small baby awoke and - finding himself alone - began to cry. Nobody was there to hear him, and for ten minutes he wept out loud. When the nursemaid returned she was amazed and not a little startled to see a woman bending over the cradle comforting the infant, wrapping him up in a shawl. The mother, for it was she, then vanished into the black night.
When he could talk, the boy remembered the night his mother visited. He told his father that the shawl could be used by the MacLeods three times when they were in danger and help would come, but on the fourth it would disappear. The chief took this seriously and ordered a casket to be prepared to store the fairy flag.
Hundreds of years later the MacDonalds were harassing the island. One Sunday they locked the doors of the MacLeod church and set fire to the building, killing most of the worshippers. In fear and fury, a small band of MacLeods gathered on the beach. They unfurled the fairy flag and, as if by magic, their number appeared magnified ten times. The MacDonalds were slaughtered and the flag returned to its safety in the casket.
The flag was used a second time when a terrible plague had killed nearly all the MacLeod’s cattle. With starvation on the doorstep they waved the flag once more, and again the fairy host rode down and miraculously restored the herd to health.
On the web
Even today it is believed by some that the flag will give protection. During the Second World War, men from the MacLeod clan carried pictures of the flag in their pockets to act as a talisman. Whether this saved them is not known, but the current chief, John MacLeod of MacLeod, freely admits to carrying a picture in his wallet when he fought the Mau Mau in Kenya in the 1950s.
There remains a third time for the unfurling of the fairy flag, but it could be that the threat of the power of the flag is enough. It is thought that during the Second World War the clan chief offered to bring the flag to the white cliffs of Dover and wave it if it ever looked like the Germans were invading.
History does not record whether the War Cabinet slept better knowing of this "secret weapon".
The faerie folk
KATH GOURLAY
REMEMBER feeling strangely guilty at the bit in Peter Pan where it was said that every time a child announced "I don't believe in fairies" a little fairy dropped down dead? Or did you go "Oh, puh-lease" when your parents tried to persuade you that the tooth fairy was too tiny to carry a 50 pence piece - so you only found 20 pence under your pillow.
"No wonder children are sceptical when presented with commercialised toyland fairies," says Alicen Geddes-Ward, acknowledged as Britain's leading exponent on faeries. "They've never been encouraged to experience the magic of looking for faeries as part of the natural world."
Alicen and husband Neil are aiming to rectify this with their book Faeriecraft which coincides with the opening of the UK's first faerie museum on the Orkney island of Westray.
"The proper study of faeries in folklore has got nothing to do with the the trivial things associated with the popular interpretation," adds Alicen, pointing out the difference in spelling when it comes to the genuine article. It's all to do with listening to the spirits of nature and what they can teach us about encouraging harmony between mankind and the environment. And no, you don't have to believe to benefit.
"People need escapism from the harsh edges of the modern world, and that's what I hope we can do in some small way. We aim to bring a bit of magic and innocence back into people's everyday lives by providing an enchanting experience for them."
Orkney Enterprise reckoned the proposed Orkney Faerie Museum and Gallery, exploring faerie folklore and legends, could be a definite crowd puller, and were quick to back the novel idea. The current popularity of Harry Potter's wizardry and Lord of the Rings shows that people are indeed happy to escape, and a boat trip across to the island of Westray is an added attraction.
"We've been wanting to do this for some time," says Neil, a television transmission controller turned artist, "but the setting had to be right."
Originally from Buckinghamshire, the couple knew Scotland was the right place but could never find the perfect location. Then they saw Cameron Stout's home video on Big Brother.
"That was it," Neil continued, "I just knew Orkney was the place it had to be."
Alicen needed no convincing.
"When it comes to faerie myths and legends there are two places that stand out when you're researching. One is Cornwall, and the other is Orkney. Orkney wins hands down - nearly every third reference you come across is from Orkney."
The faeries of folklore are not the familiarly gossamer-winged images that we are accustomed to, though. The references point to a host of legendary creatures - both helpful and malevolent - co-existing with humans, who were not to be annoyed or aggravated. To incur their wrath would have brought unwanted consequences, such as milk turning sour and animals and people becoming ill. Grassy mounds (Orkney abounds with them) were the homes of trows (trolls) and on the shores selkies (seals) turned into beautiful maidens. Young men were lured away by them, never to be seen again. Alicen says Buckinghamshire faeries are a lot tamer than Orcadian ones.
"Scotland's legends are a lot scarier, with a lot of the darker elements. Awareness of ancient and otherworldly things, and the forces of nature are respected among island people. In Westray quite a few folk sing back to the selkies on the shore - big strong hairy fishermen included."
It's all true. Recently, a local newspaper told of a pet dog rescued after a week of being trapped down a rabbit hole on the Westray sand dunes. A resident walking along the beach started singing back to what he thought was a seal, followed the sound and found the collie. The tale is likely to be included in the local music, craft-making and story-telling sessions the museum will be hosting when it opens in a few weeks' time. Local arts and crafts will fill the gallery too, along with Neil's illustrations and sculptures which take visitors on a journey through the legends of the Faerie Realm. "Children can play in their own faerie house and make things out of wood and shells," says Alicen, who consults her nine-year old daughter and five-year old son as to the best ideas.
Alicen travels round the country giving lectures and workshops as part of her collaboration with people who want to investigate the mysteries of the otherworldly in more depth.
"There can be a great deal of confusion about the different aspects of it all, so I've brought out a book based on the experiences I went through."
Spring tides collide and form a bubbling maelstrom in the Corryvreckan whirlpool Picture: Gemini Cruises
The Corryvreckan whirlpool
DIANE MACLEAN
IT WOULD be amusing to draw a map of Scotland in the style of an ancient 16th-century cartographer. Pen and ink sketches would indicate where fairies and giants live. Lochs would be home to monsters and our seas filled with mermaids. To top the whole thing off you could even draw a great big swirling whirlpool showing a ship being dragged down into its watery depths.
Whilst there are few people who would suggest that fairies and monsters exist outside of this rather fantastical map of Scotland, you may be surprised to learn that everyone - even the Royal Navy - acknowledge the existence of one of these ancient mysteries. Because, on the west coast of Argyll, just off the Isle of Jura is a terrifying natural phenomenon.
You can hear the Corryvreckan whirlpool from ten miles away. Among the largest whirlpools in the world, it is caused by the intersection of tidal pathways which collide undersea round a 200-metre pinnacle of rock. Water rushes upwards causing enormous waves to rise up in the middle of the Sound of Jura and, if conditions are right, the whirlpool bursts into action. The Royal Navy considers it to be one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the British Isles and it is alleged to have taken many lives, including that of the man the whirlpool is said to be named.
Legend has it that a young Viking prince named Breacan asked for the hand in marriage of the Lord of the Isles's daughter. To win her hand, the young man had to hold his boat steady in the whirlpool for three days, in true "Once upon a time" style. He asked his father's wise men for advice and was told to gather three ropes - one of wool, one of hemp and the other woven from the hair of the pure maidens of the village. As our young hero was something of a looker, the women rushed to his aid.
The wool rope broke his first night in the whirlpool. The hemp rope went on the second. And disaster struck on the third night when the hair rope snapped too. It transpired that one of the young maidens who had donated her hair had previously forsaken her honour. For the want of her virtue, Breacan was drowned.
Further reading
"George Orwell: A Life" by Bernard Crick; Little, Brown and Company, 1980
On the web
Whilst the story of poor Breacan cannot be verified, one sailor has had his encounter with the whirlpool witnessed and recorded. In 1947 Eric Blair was on Jura writing a novel. Tiring of the rigours of fiction writing, he decided to go for a sail with his nieces and nephews. Having just sailed out, they ran into an angry Corryvreckan. The boat was tossed about and the outboard motor was ripped off. Fearing for the lives of his young relations, Blair grabbed the oars and struck out for land. When the oars were lost and the boat was sucked under, he battled to reach a small rocky island, barely managing to rescue his three-year-old nephew as the boat flipped over.
Fortunately they were rescued by a lobster boat. Had they perished then Eric Blair - or George Orwell as he is better known - would never have returned to Jura and completed his novel 1984 and Big Brother would have remained unwritten.
Since then there have been some rather grand claims made on behalf of the whirlpool. Some writers in recent times have been troubled with the setting of Homer's epic novel The Odyssey. A couple of startling re-appraisals of Odysseus's travels have re-set the voyage far from the Mediterranean and nearer the North Atlantic.
Water on the seabed is forced upwards when it hits submerged rocks, causing huge waves Picture: Gemini Cruises
Edo Nyland, in his book Odysseus and the Sea People, lines up an impressive list of sources to give weight to his theory that all the action was far west of Greece. Plutarch, Tacitus and Dante are just a sample of the big-hitters he calls on to pitch for his theory that the journey was set in Ireland and the west coast of Scotland. Integral to our story though, is his conclusion that if you follow Homer's tale to where Odysseus was bewitched by Siren songs (Hebridean women waulking the heather on Iona, according to Nyland.), he reached the whirlpool of Charybdis. Nyland looks at tides and charts, cliffs and dimensions of all sorts of technical matters and concludes that Charybdis is no more, nor less than Corryvreckan.
Such a revisionist theory of a Greek classic needs looking into, or would if any academic thought Nyland's whirlpool theory held any, well, water. But it seems unlikely to gather serious research, if Dr Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart at Edinburgh University is anything to go by.
"Brilliantly mad", he says, before heading off laughing to reconsider his classics degree.