One beach – three historical events over 11 centuries

The remote south end of the Kintyre peninsula is a wind swept spot. Roads are poor and usually single track. To get to the Mull (the point where Scotland and Ireland are but 12 miles apart) involves a 7 mile drive down a windy very narrow track with occasional passing points to allow cars to pass. Not that we did pass a car on the way down it. Reaching Mull we gazed across to Ireland and then beat a hasty retreat as wind and rain descended.

Twenty minutes later we were at Southend and St Columba’s footprints. The sun was out and it was really quite pleasant. This spot saw three events in history over 11 centuries.

Firstly in 563 A.D. this was the spot where St Columba was supposed to come ashore from Ireland. Columba was a christian missionary who brought Christianity to the picts as well as getting heavily involved in their politics as well as that of the Irish Scots who were settling Argyll . He was a friend of the kings of the Dal Riata Scots who granted him land in Iona – which became holy Island and the focal point for Celtic Christinaity. Much of what we know of the nations, kings and politics of Scotland in the 6th centuries is through the eyes of Columba’s biographer Adomnan.

Near the shore here are stone footprints cut into the rock. They are called St Columba’s foot prints and in the past effort have been made to link them with St Columba. In fact until about 1860 there was but one footprint. A victorian stone mason (called Daniel Mcilreavie) carved the second one in an attempt to stimulate tourism. He even carved a wrong date – 564 rather than 563 as the date they were supposed to have been made by Columba  BUT it is much more likely that they are Scot or Pict in origin. The Scots used foot prints to “claim the land” especially at their main fortress of Dunnadd not far to the north (of which more in a couple of days).

The Scots actually had a fortress here at southend on the nearby rock of Dunaverty.

This rock was still home to a fortress when it became involved in a dispute between King James IV and the Lord of the Isles. That title was given to the de facto king of the islands and west coast of Scotland but in  1493 the last Lord of the Isles was required to forfeit his title and pay homage to King James IV of Scotland. To make sure of his position the King garrisoned Dunaverty Castle with Royal forces in 1494. Sir John MacDonald rebelled and, retook Dunaverty Castle just as the King was sailing away from it, taunting the royal party by throwing the dead body of the castle’s governor over the castle walls. Eventually Macdonald was executed for treason in 1599.

In 1645 an army of convenanters slaughtered a Royalist army, who had just surrendered to them, at this very spot and threw their bodies down the cliff or stabbed them with swords.

So a spot with several historical events. It goes to show that even remote and unlikely spots can play a role in history.