After a fantastic day in Jura and relatively easy walks it was time for a 'drewbhoy special' but before I got to Kintra there was the Carragh Bhan to visit.
It can be found on a tiny wee hill, west, next to the minor road. A large slab, almost like the Millplough recumbent near Inverbervie (Aberdeenshire), it stands having magnificent all round views and is 2.2m by 2.2m, almost square.
On the way from Kilnaughton to Kintra, this stone is next to the road on the left (it is marked on OS Explorer Map 352). Carragh Bhan means 'white stone' and near to it are 'possible stubs of two other standing stones' (Caldwell). The top of the stone is similar in shape to the hill in the background (Cnoc Mor Ghrasdail?).
Although probably placed there in the neolithic or bronze age period, this stone 'is said to be the burial place of Godred, King of Man, who died in 1095' (Caldwell, p.109).
Godred Crovan was the 'Norse-Gael ruler of Dublin, the Isle of Man and the Hebrides in the second half of the 11th century. Godred's epithet Crovan means white hand (Middle Irish: crobh bhan)' (Wikipedia). He fought with the Vikings at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, where they were defeated by the English and their leader, Harald Hardradi, killed. He is said to have died on Islay in 1095 "of pestilence" according the Irish chronicles 'Annals of the Four Masters'.
Source of quotes: David H. Caldwell, Islay, Jura and Colonsay: a historical guide (2001); Wikipedia article on Godred Crovan.
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