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Plate 15: Loch an Tuirc – Loch of the Boar and Ben Gulabin - Beinn Ghulbainn in the background, Glen Shee, Perthshire.

These places reflect how people placed the telling of Laoidh Dhiarmaid in the landscape. In Glen Shee this had a more complex and structured relationship than that between Laoidh Fhraoich and its setting by Loch Freuchie. In the profile of a snout-shaped mountain we have a massively exaggerated and zoomorphic symbol of the legendary boar given pride of place in the landscape. Secondly, we have places which complement two more episodes in the tale: the burial site of Diarmaid and the well where Fionn drew water for his cup intending to heal his dying comrade in arms. At Loch Freuchie the situation is much simpler. There is only the island to which Fraoch swam and perhaps a memorial cairn and a meadow. The setting provides verisimilitude, but it does not possess the symbolic and physical manifestation of the narrative given to Laoidh Dhiarmaid by Glen Shee.

Plate 16: Tulach Diarmaid – Diarmaid’s Hilllock and Ben Gulabin - Beinn Ghulbhain in the background, Glen Shee, Perthshire.