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| Earn Skelly - pastel sketch |
Through the rushing falls of the Water of Saughs, if you imagine, you can hear the screams and cries from the men of old, enduring ghostly battle, and the stolen cattle beasts and horses all astir at the gory action enacted before them in this isolated green hollow at the head of Glen Lethnot. Steep rocks to one side of them and a waterfall gorge to the other side and a boggy burn hemming in their escape to the higher hills, the Cateran rustlers led by McGregor the Hawkit Stirk, were trapped in a pursuit by the aggrieved men from the parish of Fern sometime around the 17th century. A hand to hand sword battle ensued until all of the Cateran thieves were slain.
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| Sketching today at the site of The Battle of Saughs |
"Raid of Fearn"
by
Alexander Laing.
Calm was the morn, and close the mist,
Hung o'er St. Arnold's Seat,
As Ferna's sons gaed out to Saughs
McGregor there to meet,
Lang time they faucht in doubtfu' strife,
Till Peathaugh, stealthfully,
Hamstrung McGregor unawares,
And drave him on his knee.
Thus on his knees, or on his stumps,
He hash'd and smash'd around;
But Ledenhendry pierce'd him through,
And Laid him on the ground.
So ceas'd the strife, and a' was still,
And silent in the glen,
Save glaids and corbies i' the air,
That hover'd o'er the slain.
Whase mangled bodies i' their gore,
Lay reekin' o'er the green;
A sight o'er sick'nin' for the saul,
O'er painfu for the een.
The place, history and imagination can all combine to re-enact scenes from a battle and this one sounds to be fairly savage, even although the fighters were limited in number to less than fifty. It is said that one of the wounded Cateran men crawled to a nearby hill-side to die and that place is named as the Shank of Donald Young. Well, today the blood has washed off all the boulders but it is nerve tingling to put yourself alongside the spirited voices of the place from so long ago.
I have chosen the meeting of the Burn of Duskintry and the Water of Saughs as the scene of the battle for my sketch but there are various possibilities where rustlers might hide cattle beasts, one is further up the glen near a large, flat haugh of the Water of Saughs but anywhere near the Shank of Donald Young must be considered. It is recorded that some human bones were washed out of the burn bank as a result of a spate during the early 1900's.
The poem by the Brechin poet Alexander Laing recalls the event and action of 'hamstringing' the Cateran leader by James Winter of Peathaugh. The poet mentions 'glaids and corbies i' the air' and I can only presume that 'glaids' are, the then common, Red Kites and, of-course, 'corbies' are Ravens.
I have chosen the meeting of the Burn of Duskintry and the Water of Saughs as the scene of the battle for my sketch but there are various possibilities where rustlers might hide cattle beasts, one is further up the glen near a large, flat haugh of the Water of Saughs but anywhere near the Shank of Donald Young must be considered. It is recorded that some human bones were washed out of the burn bank as a result of a spate during the early 1900's.
The poem by the Brechin poet Alexander Laing recalls the event and action of 'hamstringing' the Cateran leader by James Winter of Peathaugh. The poet mentions 'glaids and corbies i' the air' and I can only presume that 'glaids' are, the then common, Red Kites and, of-course, 'corbies' are Ravens.
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| Peregrine juvenile |
Ravens bring me full circle back to the present and a dozen of the violet-black glistening birds fly back and forth over the glen slopes in an regimented chaos of aerial acrobatics and noisy croaking pruks; I wonder if some of their forebears picked at the bodies left on the battlefield!
A young Peregrine Falcon flies overhead through clear blue skies, with hardly a wisp of white cloud showing, to inquisitively inspect our earthbound progress. Carried on winnowing, unproven wings tinged with bronze by the morning sunlight, it settles on a rock up the hill and waits on the expectation of a food offering from the presently absent parents. We are surprised to see any signs at all of successful Peregrine breeding in this glen because it has been a bad year for them generally.
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| White-tailed Eagle pair soaring |
My quest to see the pair of White-tailed Eagles that tried to nest on Invermark estate paid off today when an adult eagle flew up from a crag and seconds later was joined by its mate, good news. It had been said that the pair were all right after the tree nest they were preparing during November and December of 2012 was destroyed by a malicious act but I wanted to witness that for myself as I had seen one solitary bird before but not both together. They climbed and soared in spirals for minutes above the blue horizon, white tails shining in the light as they turn, to finally glide westwards out of sight behind the bright green hills. A male Peregrine rose to escort their flight for a wee while but made no attempt to bombard them and the slate-grey tiercel eventually darted off with a more pressing, juvenile obligation on his mind that waited further down the glen.
This particular glen is hardly flush with good heather coverage as many areas of intensive burning are still to yield mature plants, so blaeberry, deer grass and a multitude of grass species temporarily take over the burnt zones. Many hill-sides are covered in lush grass growth and as I look at them, seem to be irrecoverably lost from traditional heather cover and its ability to support a good grouse population.
On a high crag overlooking the glen is a unique area where the local Ravens have adopted the deep nooks and crannies of the rock to create a communal roost where ages worth of white lime has collected below the roosting ledges. Black feathers that have an iridescent violet sheen are strewn around on the grassy terraces below and dozens of pellets regurgitated by the birds lie disintegrating, thus revealing what they have eaten which includes berries, insects, hare carrion and small vole bones. At this place there seems to be evidence of visits from many raptor species and one Raven in the neighbouring corrie is upset by the presence of a couple of Common Buzzards who have been picking over the remains of a two week old grouse chick left on a rocky ledge.
He croaks and pruks and hustles until the buzzards take to the air. Food is at a premium here on the hills and we always wonder what birds of prey find to eat. After all we have seen a total of eighteen raptors in a few square kilometres already today, yet there is little visible evidence of grouse predation or ample carrion being available for the likes of scavenging White-tailed Eagles and there are no reports of anyone seeing one of these eagles actually catching fish on the local lochs. These large raptors seem to survive for days on nothing more than a 'sook of a dry stane'. Our first sighting of a young Common Sandpiper is playing hide and seek between the burn boulders and it prefers scampering over the water washed rocks rather than flying at the moment, migration to Africa beckons though.
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| Black Craig |
On a high crag overlooking the glen is a unique area where the local Ravens have adopted the deep nooks and crannies of the rock to create a communal roost where ages worth of white lime has collected below the roosting ledges. Black feathers that have an iridescent violet sheen are strewn around on the grassy terraces below and dozens of pellets regurgitated by the birds lie disintegrating, thus revealing what they have eaten which includes berries, insects, hare carrion and small vole bones. At this place there seems to be evidence of visits from many raptor species and one Raven in the neighbouring corrie is upset by the presence of a couple of Common Buzzards who have been picking over the remains of a two week old grouse chick left on a rocky ledge.
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| Predated Grouse chick |
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| Common Sandpiper juvenile |
I have found white heather growing wild in the hills only three times, once in each of the glens Esk, Isla and now Lethnot. Not sure if finding this lucky white heather has given me any luck, but I wouldn't know what would be classed as lucky anyway because I have all the precious things in life that I might humbly desire, I suppose that is good luck or maybe predestined good fortune, whatever, all of it can run out that's for sure.
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| Quartz cairn on the Shank of Donald Young |
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| Lucky White heather |
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| Sneezewort |
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| Common Frog |
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| Valerian in Corrie na Berran |
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| Tiger Beetle |
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| Deer Grass Pom-pom |
Notes;
All sketches and photos done on the day.
Please be aware that it is illegal to disturb nesting eagles or other raptors and you may do so inadvertently in your journeys into the highlands. I do not recommend searching for any of the species mentioned in this blog because this may cause undue disturbance to them. With my knowledge of the areas described in this blog I can locate and observe protected species at a respectful distance usually from about 1000 metres for short periods of time only.
skelly - rocky promentory
earn - usually referred to as Sea Eagle
Cateran - general term for any band of renegade cattle / horse rustlers in the highlands but originally the term applied to fighting clansmen or highland warriors. The Cateran band referred to here is reputed to be made up of men from Lethnot.
sook of a dry stane - my coined up phrase when my Italian climbing friends could go on forever in the heat without drinking or eating, but seemingly the old alpine guides would give their clients a pebble to suck on to keep their mouths moist whilst climbing.
glaid - Red Kite from Anglo-Saxon glead, meaning to glide.
corbie - Scots word for Raven
Map of the area