Return to Iona

I asked for a sign while sitting in Saint Columba's shrine, which is a power centre where two dragon lines cross, but got nothing... 

Iona Abbey and Tor An Aba

1200 year old cross standing where it always has outside Iona Abbey

Next morning I'd forgotten all about this, but when I went outside I saw a corkscrew spiral of cloud in a clear blue sky, it was in the direction of Sithean Mor "The Large Fairy Mound" where it is recorded that Saint Columba had been visited by celestial beings in white who "flew down and spoke to the saint". 

The cloud looked like a vortex in the sky over the mound. There are many other mystical stories associated with the mound concerning fairies and pagan rituals too. 

Sithean Beg, the large fairy mound, 

centre of supernatural happenings and pagan rituals on the island

I walked to the mound and climbed up it and found a small circle of coloured stones up there like a little shrine. I could feel the power of this spot so I planted a quartz crystal there and called down a column of light to anchor the energies. I then noticed an alignment between the big fairy mound, the little fairy mound, and a distant rocky hillfort known as Dun Bhuirg, the only hillfort on the island, in which direction the cloud vortex had now drifted. So I did the same ritual on the little fairy mound and then climbed the hillfort and performed the ritual there too to connect the three places and energise the line.

Pool near the top of Dun Bhuirg

 View from Dun Bhuirg

Whilst on top of the windy hillfort I could see Dun I in the distance, the highest hill on the island, and I had an image of a black Dragon rising from the top of this hill. I hiked overland through rough terrain and climbed Dun I. I climbed the cairn on the summit and found a black tourmaline crystal right in the centre. I was guided to remove it and replaced it with a clear quartz instead, then drew down the light while standing on top of the world with amazing views of the island in every direction!

View across the sound to Mull from the summit of Dun I

I paid a visit to the Well of Age which lies atop Dun I and it was there I discovered the card with the poem Desiderata on it.

Finally I went looking for Saint Columba's Chair which Gary Biltcliffe says is a rocky outcrop on the north of the island, a ley line he'd discovered called the Bran line runs through it. Incidentally Bran is the name of a black dragon I've been working with, a dragon called Bran and a dragon line called Bran, must be more than a coincidence! I found the location and it felt very powerful with an intense beam of energy, I anchored the energies there too, and left feeling satisfied with my day's work!

 St Columba's Chair

Mysterious ancient cairns in St Columba's Bay

Rocks laid out in a Celtic cross in St Columba's Bay 

 Greenstone found in St Columba's Bay

Labyrinth in St Columba's Bay

The bay at the back of the ocean with Dun Bhuirg in the background

Roslin Glen and the Rose Line

The mysterious Rosslyn Chapel sits on the edge of the magical Roslin Glen in Scotland, drawing the green energy of the glen up into the chapel as demonstrated by over one hundred unique carvings of green men in the chapel. 

Rosslyn Chapel exterior (no photography allowed inside!) 

Rosslyn Chapel also sits at the heart of the Rose Line, a Scottish meridian encompassing many sacred sites and places of power.

Six hundred year old chestnut tree in Roslin Glen

The heart of the chestnut tree

Another ancient tree

Part of the yew circle, where rituals are performed

Wallace's cave on the opposite side of the river 

The River Esk flowing through Roslin Glen

The age and identity of this face are not known

Roslin Castle has a ghost dog which haunts and howls here, along with a White Lady. The drawbridge to the castle itself has also been the site of an apparition of a black knight on a black horse which gallops off the drawbridge - legend has it that the hoof prints of the horse can be seen on the vertical rocks upon which the drawbridge has been built.

Roslin Castle

Wallace's cave, referring to William Wallace of 'Braveheart' fame who is reputed to have hidden here.

Cave interior

Mysterious rock carvings near Wallace's Cave

Exploring the lost pathways of Roslin Glen today in some lovely Scottish weather! 

The mysterious hidden village of Temple, once the headquarters of the Knights Templar when it was known as Balantradoch

Mysterious masonic gravestones at Temple

 Magical stream behind the ruined church at Temple

Arthur's Seat, a volcanic plug in Edinburgh that sits directly on the Rose Line

St Fillan in Perthshire

Discovering sites associated with St Fillan around Perthshire, Scotland. Celtic saints were more like sorcerers than holy men. St Fillan used to read at night using a light that beamed out of his hand, he had healing stones and performed all kinds of miracles and magic!

St Fillan's Holy Pool 

At St Fillan's Holy Pool, men and women used to bathe in separate pools just before the first quarter of the moon. Cures, especially for madness, could be obtained by bathing in the pool, picking up 9 stones from the river bed, then walking to a nearby cairn and walking 9 times deiseal (sunwise) around the cairn, dropping one of the stones on it each time around. The patient was then taken to St Fillan's Chapel where he was then tied to a special stone and had St Fillan's Bell placed on his head. He was left there for the night and if the ropes had loosened by the morning he was said to be cured!

St Fillan's Chapel, 

with strange shaped stone altar where people leave offerings of coins etc

Dundurn Hill used to be a powerful Pictish settlement, 

on the top can be found St. Fillan's Seat

St Fillan's Seat atop Dundurn Hill

"The rock on the summit of the hill, formed, of itself, a chair for the saint, which still remains. Those who complain of rheumatism in the back, must ascend the hill, sit in this chair, then lie down on their back, and be pulled by the legs to the bottom of the hill. This operation is still performed, and reckoned very efficacious." The cure is supposedly most efficacious on Beltane (1st May).

St Fillan's Chapel seen from Dundurn Hill

St Fillan's Healing Stones 
in the Breadalbane Folklore Centre in Killin

Alt Clut - The Kingdom of Strathclyde

While dozing on Windmill Hill near Avebury last month I heard a voice psychically which simply said "Gervinion's ring". I researched Gervinion online and found out that he was a 6th century king of Dumbarton (Alt Clut). This kingdom was a Northern remant of the Britons who spoke the same language as the Welsh. They were never conquered by the Romans, Saxons or Scots, but Dumbarton rock was once sacked by the Vikings. They eventually merged into the Kingdom of Scotland. 

Alt Clut - Dumbarton Rock

This location and period of history stirs up feelings in me that I can only interpret as ancestral or past life, it's as if I remember how it felt to actually be there, and so I went on this quest to discover more about the area and the stories.

I subsequently found out that this whole area is tied up with the earliest myths of King Arthur and Merlin. I believe that when Britons migrated from Strathclyde to Wales and Corwall that they carried the stories of King Arthur and Merlin with them and transfered the stories to places that were more familiar to them.

Arthuret is the site of the Battle of Arderydd that was fought in AD 573 between the pagan king Gwendollau and the Christian kings Riderch, Peredur and Gwrgi. Riderch was the king of Alt Clut (Dumbarton). Gwendollau was defeated and his court magician Myrddin (Merlin) went mad with grief and fled to the woods of Celidon where he lived on wild food and became a prophet.

Arthuret Knowes

According to the author Hugh McArthur, Loch Lomond is the original Arthurian lake and Inchcailloch is the island of Avalon.

View of Loch Lomond from the island of Inchcailloch

Ancient church dedicated to St. Kentigerna on Inchcailloch

Bluebell woods on Inchcailloch

Sun wheel made up of four serpents on a stone in Govan church

Sarcophagus of St. Constantine, King of Dumbarton

Viking hogback tombs actually represent Viking houses

The Glebe Stone, near Yarrow

The Loupin Stanes

St Michael's Church at Arthuret

Could Liddel Strength on the border with Scotland be the ancient fortress of Gwendollau who died at the nearby battle of Arderydd? His court magician Myrddin (Merlin) survived the battle but went insane and lived as a wild man in the woods.

The overgrown ramparts of Liddel Strength, Cumbria

Arthur's Round Table, a prehistoric henge in Cumbria

Standing stone at the centre of Mayburgh Henge, that

forms a complex with Arthur’s Round Table