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Gu fiadhach a’ mhunaidh,

No dh’ iasgach air buinne,

Anns gach gnìomh a nì duine

’S mòr urram nan Gàidheal.

For hunting the mountain,

or fishing a current,

for every task demanding manliness

great is the Gaels’ distinction.

(in MacLeod, A 1978, 233)

The reverence Highland folk had for Fionn and the Fianna can be seen in an actual and recorded incident, which occurred at the beginning of the 18th century. After the Jacobite uprising of 1715 General Wade built a network of military roads though the southern Highlands. One ran between Crieff and Aberfeldy through the dramatic defile of the Sma’ Glen - An Caol-ghleann. It means the very narrow glen in Gaelic. (Adjectives coming before the noun in Gaelic emphasise their meaning and lenite the noun following). To avoid a costly diversion in such a tight landscape, the engineers elected to shift a large boulder blocking their plotted route. For local people the rock marked the grave of Ossian or Oisean, Fionn mac Cumhail’s son, and the blind poet, who was first to compose the songs and tales about his father’s exploits and adventures. Wordsworth heard about the story during his tour of Scotland in 1803. Interestingly, he uses a direct English translation of the Gaelic name for the Glen, rather than the Scots, Sma’ Glen.