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Important points of reference in the story cannot be traced, perhaps because many orally transmitted place-names were lost from the area, when its population was cleared between 1830 and 1835, well before OS mapping commenced in the late 19th century. The loch does have an island (NN362376) 30 metres from its shore labelled ‘Crannog’, where rowan trees could have grown in the past. At the time of writing it supports a stand of larch. If such a species can grow in these conditions, then so could rowan trees. Although there are no place-names containing fraoch in the area mapped by OS, heather moorland is widespread in the hinterland. This may have been enough to make the actual landscape serve as a theatrical backdrop to the recitation or singing of the story. By relocating an Irish ballad to a Scottish setting to support its performance, the incoming narrative could be grounded in the indigenous landscape and so would lend additional poignance to the words for a local audience (Meek 1998). The legend was also transferred to islands on Loch a’ Lathaich – Loch of the Mire in the Ross of Mull and to Fraoch Eilean – Heather Island, near Kilchurn – Cill Chùirn, on Loch Awe. Its inclusion in the Book of the Dean of Lismore implies that such relocations in Scotland happened in the 16th century (Meek 1991).