| Transcript |
| 0:00 | · | I recently discovered something in the Sma Glen... |
| 0:03 | · | and it was huge. Then I found out... there were two of them |
| 0:13 | · | If you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history then click the |
| 0:17 | · | subscribe button at the bottom right of the screen, and if you enjoy the video give it a |
| 0:22 | · | thumbs up and share it with likeminded people. In the meantime, let me tell you a story. |
| 0:31 | · | I turned sixty recently, and to celebrate |
| 0:34 | · | I took a tour of 25 people round my favourite places in Scotland. |
| 0:40 | · | It should be no surprise that we spent some time in North Perthshire... |
| 0:47 | · | As we drove through the Sma Glen my colleague and driver, pointed out |
| 0:51 | · | something that I hadn t noticed... and it was huge... |
| 0:56 | · | In fact, it was reputed to be the gravestone of a giant |
| 1:01 | · | Now when I taught physics in Aberfeldy this road was my daily commute. |
| 1:08 | · | I ve driven this road hundreds of times, but to my shame, |
| 1:12 | · | there was something I was missing... and that's what we re going to look at today... |
| 1:17 | · | with a wee hat tip to The Northern Antiquarian which has been a really useful resource. |
| 1:23 | · | We know from old sketches and descriptions that just up ahead there was some sort of |
| 1:28 | · | prehistoric ring and in it... a huge stone of significance. |
| 1:35 | · | but a road had to be built through this glen. You see after the 1715 Jacobite uprising |
| 1:43 | · | the Hanovarian government wanted its troops to be able to access the Highlands |
| 1:48 | · | to suppress the local population. Between 1725 and 1737 |
| 1:57 | · | one General Wade of the British army was given the job of building |
| 2:02 | · | 250 miles of road and 40 bridges to penetrate the Highlands. |
| 2:08 | · | Back then, along here you would have seen flags |
| 2:12 | · | marking out the route this road was to take as it wound its way through the glen. |
| 2:18 | · | There was just one problem... OK there were loads of problems but for the |
| 2:41 | · | purpose of this video let's stick to one... There was a dirty great stone |
| 2:49 | · | smack bang on the route planned for General Wade's road. |
| 2:54 | · | The stone had to be moved. A letter written by a |
| 3:01 | · | Captain Edward Burt tells us Well that was that... but no. |
| 3:33 | · | Moving the stone revealed something else This is where that stone ended up. |
| 3:45 | · | Today they call it Ossian's Stone ...but when it was moved, |
| 3:50 | · | what it revealed underneath was even more interesting |
| 3:55 | · | than the stone itself..... He went on to suggest that: |
| 4:56 | · | So first this was the gravestone of a giant, then a Roman officer |
| 5:04 | · | Would a Roman officer really want to be buried out here |
| 5:08 | · | beyond the Gask ridge... the last line of Rome's defence. |
| 5:14 | · | There WAS a Roman watchtower at the entrance to the Glen. |
| 5:19 | · | Romans DID have themselves cremated and remains put in urns |
| 5:24 | · | but I m trying to imagine that ceremony as locals watched from their own vantage point. |
| 5:31 | · | Was the assumption that the stone was to keep Barbarian hordes from the remains |
| 5:37 | · | and that only Romans could cover it with such a stone the prejudice |
| 5:42 | · | from a more recent imperial mind. ... |
| 5:46 | · | No doubt modern day examination of the urn will give us an answer to that question. |
| 5:54 | · | Change Captain Burt |
| 5:58 | · | tells us that the officer in charge of the work party had pondered what to do with the urn, |
| 6:04 | · | but the Commander in Chief decided that he should keep it and its contents as a curiosity... |
| 6:12 | · | makes sense. That's exactly the type of thing a fascinated |
| 6:16 | · | officer of the new imperial order would do... but can you see the exquisite irony of this? |
| 6:26 | · | Our letter writing British officer makes the assumption |
| 6:30 | · | that the reason the civilised Romans went to the bother of moving this rock |
| 6:36 | · | was to deter the barbarian locals who would disrespect the |
| 6:40 | · | sanctity of this internment but, what it really needed protection from |
| 6:47 | · | was the civilised officer of the British military occupation |
| 6:52 | · | who saw curiosity rather than sanctity. The remains of his Roman counterpart |
| 6:59 | · | might have survived as intriguing objet d art on his mantlepiece |
| 7:05 | · | maybe eventually found its way into a museum or a rubbish tip with equal probability |
| 7:14 | · | But Captain Burt's letter tells us that's not what happened... |
| 7:20 | · | As I returned the same way from the Lowlands, I found the officer, with his party of |
| 7:25 | · | working soldiers, not far from the stone, and asked him what was become of the urn? |
| 7:32 | · | WAS the sanctity of this Roman burial despoiled by the stiff upper lip of modernity? |
| 7:39 | · | Apparently not So where had the highlanders |
| 8:29 | · | taken the remains of our Roman? Let me take you a mile down the road. |
| 8:38 | · | As I head there, let me just remind you that in April |
| 8:41 | · | I ll be repeating the 11 day tour that inspired this video. |
| 8:45 | · | I ll be taking you to all my favourite places from Hadrian's Wall to The Isle of Skye, |
| 8:50 | · | We ll visit the best Castles, a fantastic Iron Age village, |
| 8:55 | · | the birthplace of Scotland, the birthplace of more |
| 8:59 | · | Scottish kings than any other... and burial place of Robert the Bruce. |
| 9:03 | · | You ll also meet the current Lord Bruce and you ll enjoy good food, fine hotels in |
| 9:09 | · | one all-inclusive price. Click the link top right, |
| 9:13 | · | or in the description below, or if in doubt email |
| 9:17 | · | alexis@scotlandhistorytours.co.uk This is the Sadlin Mare, or the Saddlin Stone. |
| 9:27 | · | It's a test of strength. The stone is the Saddle, |
| 9:32 | · | and the big boulder is the Mare. The challenge is to pick up the |
| 9:38 | · | saddle, and put it on the mare's back so that it stays there without sliding off. |
| 9:46 | · | There are three stones of different weights and you have to get all three to balance at once. |
| 9:54 | · | Folks come here to this day to try to meet the challenge... |
| 10:03 | · | Are you going to do it? Matt, I told you not to pull this schtick! |
| 10:06 | · | I m a fat Afro Celtic tour guide with a bus pass. |
| 10:09 | · | I d give myself a hernia trying to lift that. Some say Drovers used to try this challenge as |
| 10:21 | · | they came down from the highlands, driving their cattle to the market |
| 10:26 | · | in Crieff six miles to the south. This was the spirit of Highland Games. |
| 10:31 | · | Highland Games, part of a culture that is continued through to the present day |
| 10:39 | · | Some say that this is the place to which the Roman's remains were brought... |
| 10:43 | · | away from Wade's Road to be reinterred under a different stone |
| 10:49 | · | recognising and respecting the man's spirit in death. |
| 10:54 | · | ...now here's the point A British army officer, |
| 10:59 | · | writing from the haughty position of culture and sophistication of a superior civilisation, |
| 11:06 | · | postulated that, centuries ago, the reason for Ossian's Stone |
| 11:11 | · | was to protect a Roman's remains from the sacrilege that might be wrought by |
| 11:16 | · | the savage barbarian tribespeople nearby. In fact..., |
| 11:21 | · | the sacrilege was wrought by that very civilised British officer class that he represented. |
| 11:29 | · | The remains were only respected and preserved because of the actions of those |
| 11:35 | · | savage barbarian clans people, who had continued to live in these mountains... |
| 11:42 | · | since the time the urn was buried presumably in the irony age. |
| 11:50 | · | Speaking of which, probably the best time I ever had making any video |
| 11:55 | · | was in an Iron Age broch in Shetland. It was fabulous... |
| 12:00 | · | and you can watch the video by clicking the link coming up on screen now. |
| 12:04 | · | Support the channel by clicking top right to become a Patreon member or |
| 12:08 | · | buy me a coffee in the description below. |
