Scottish Flotsam from the Hebrides

I imagine the first question anyone will ask is what is a column called "Scottish Flotsam". I guess we will have to begin with what is "flotsam". According to the among the definitions of the word are "things washed ashore" or "miscellaneous trifles". Well, we believe you can find some great treasure on the ocean shore. But -- you will never know what you will find or its value. So we decided that is what this column is - flotsam. We wanted a place to put things that didn't fit anywhere else and might be of interest. Each item could be a column itself and might be some day but for now it will be the flotsam which washes our way.

Lets look at an island neighbour.

NEXT STOP, NEWFOUNDLAND

A circus clown, an Irish saint and an eccentric lone sailor are just three individuals who have shared an obsession for a 70-foot-high lump of rock out in the Atlantic, hardly big enough to make its mark on large-scale nautical charts.

Island fever is a well-enough known phenomenon - the urge to visit or, in more extreme cases, to settle on the wild and windswept corners of these British Isles, to share the unique flavour of remote community life and, with a bit of luck, find yourself closer to the greater realities.

In Western tradition the romantic escape to a Utopian island society has a long pedigree. The pursuit of this dream has inspired classic works such as The Tempest, Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. However, the fixation with Rockall is less easily explained.

This guano-stained lump of granite - the only visible reminder of a long-sunken landmass which separated the North Atlantic from the Arctic Basin - beloved principally by seals and seabirds, lies 191 miles west of St Kilda. This week, in 1972, the outcrop was formally incorporated into Scotland having been annexed by Britain in 1955 when naval commandos landed by helicopter, claimed it for the Queen, hoisted the Union Jack and cemented a plaque to the summit.

Since then, it has assumed strategic importance as a sea-mark in fishing disputes and oil exploration negotiations, and has attracted the adventurer, Tom McClean, to perch for a few days on its inhospitable ledges. And, of course; Rockall gives its name to the huge sea area forming part of the Meteorological Office's vital shipping forecast.

Widely held to be the first person to set eyes on Rockall is the intrepid Irish saint Brendan AD 484-577 who, with his team of 60 monks, roamed the Atlantic in search of a 'mysterious land amid the waves'.

And the clown? A French expedition which reached the rock in 1921 put ashore a nimble crew led by a merchant seaman who, in his civilian life, was a circus clown. This party spent an hour and a half on Rockall before departing, having left a sealed bottle with a commemorative record in a cleft.

One other intriguing possibility has been mentioned concerning Rockall. Could it be the last visible mountaintop of the lost and fabled continent of Atlantis?

What are some of the events that occurred in January.

1316 - Feb 1
The army of Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, routed Edmund Butler, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the Battle of Skerries in Kildare, opening the road to Dublin.

1941 - Feb 4
Freighter Politician foundered off Eriskay in the Western Isles with her cargo of whisky - the legend of Whisky Galore was born.

1472 - Feb 20
Orkney and Shetland were annexed to the crown of Scotland having been offered, three years previously, as security for Princess Margaret's of Denmark's dowry.

1310 - Feb 23
The church and the people of Scotland declared in favour of Robert the Bruce from the church of the Friars Minor in Dundee.

1683 - Feb 27
Soothsayers were in great alarm and consternation in Scotland over the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Leo. It was seen as an ominous portent for the year ahead.

Source - Scotching the Myths by Jim Hewiston can be found in the History Book Section of Scottish Radiance.

It is time to stop combing the library but we can not quit without some quotes from Quotable Scots another great History bookshelf resident. Lets see what quotes we can find to help with the new year

WORLD

You have to know a man awfully well in Canada to know his surname.
John Buchan

It is a curst, selfish, swinish country of brutes placed in the most romantic region of the world.
Lord Byron, of Switzerland

It might be called Stinkibar rather than Zanzibar
David Livingstone,1866

No Italian can hate the Austrians more than I do unless it be the English, the Austrians seem to me the most obnoxious race under the sun.
Lord Byron, 1820

The simple thing is to consider the French as erratic and brilliant people, who have all the gifts except that of running their country.
James Cameron News Chronicle, 1954

That monstrous tuberosity of civilised life, the capital of England.
Thomas Carlyle, of London

I sometimes wish that I was the owner of Africa to do at once what Wilberforce will do in time viz. - sweep slavery from her deserts and look upon the first dance of their freedom.
Lord Byron, Detached Thoughts, 1821-2

The world is neither Scottish, English, nor Irish, neither French, Dutch, nor Chinese, but human and each nation is only the partial development of a universal humanity.
James Grant, on founding the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, 1852

'World crisis' - Winston has written four volumes about himself and called it 'World Crisis'.
AJ. Balfour, of Winston Churchill, 1899.

You can find more articles in the archive under Scottish Flotsam.

New

Home

Contents