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from Arran’s Hunting

Arran of the many red deer,

ocean reaching to her shoulders;

island where warriors are nourished,

ridge where blue spears are blooded …

… Greyhounds running there and mastiffs

brambles and dark sloes on blackthorn;

close against woods her dwellings,

deer scattered in her oak groves …

… Delightful for them in fine weather,

trout beneath the banks of her rivers,

gulls around her white cliff replying,

delightful at all times is Arran.

(ibid 305-6)

The Fenian hunt is embedded in nature. There is no distinction between man and the natural world. The hunter is as innocent as the quarry he pursues. A description of dwellings in Arran is included amongst references to the natural world. Such poetry is characterised by its close observation of nature, a symbiosis between man and his natural environment, joy tempered with sadness at the hunting of deer and nostalgia for a bygone era (Wiseman 2009). Traces of the heroic age on Arran can still be found amongst place-names in the mountains. Caisteal an Fhinn – Castle of the Fianna (NS953398) lies to the south of Beinn Nuis and Bealach an Fhir-Bhogha – Pass of the Bowman (NS963416) to the north of Beinn Tarsuinn – Mountain Athwart (the way). As late as the mid-18th century, when Highland society and land use were beginning to change radically, Donnchadh Bàn Macintyre in his Song to Homeland – Òran Dùthcha, was still praising hunting prowess as a defining quality of the Gael.