Something Amazing

I saw something truly amazing during my visit to Lewis last year. My wife and I were staying in a cottage on Great Bernera, and one day we decided to drive to Stornoway to visit Museum nan Eilean at Lews Castle. The museum was fantastic, and as I was looking at the various items on display I noticed an unusual dark green stone mounted high on a wall. It was egg shaped, with veins of lighter green running through it: a talisman of some kind. In an instant a memory of something I read 30 years ago popped into my head, and I knew what it was before reading the adjacent information plaque. Before me was something fantastic; something I thought I'd never see.

What was it?  It was something Frasier Darling found over 80 years ago buried below the altar of St Ronan's Cell in far off North Rona.

St Ronan's Cell (beehive cell oratory at left)

Inside the oratory - altar (and fulmar) at bottom

Here is Darling's description (from A Naturalist on Rona; pp. 43-44) of what he found while excavating the altar in St Ronan's cell:

As I was digging at floor level beside the altar my spade was deflected from a rounded stone which, even in the dim light of the cell, showed green. My first thought was - Iona Marble - a stone of which I am familiar, for I always carry some small pieces in my pocket. I picked up the stone, washed it, and found a piece of smooth, dark-green marble about the size and shape of a sheep's heart. There was an intricate veining of lighter green. No rock of this kind occurs naturally on Rona, and, found in this place of all others, I wondered if St Ronan had been to the collage of Iona and had brought this piece of stone to his church on Rona to be a symbol of the mother foundation.... this stone has left Rona with me, so that it may be seen by antiquaries and men of science, and that it may not be lost. But it must go back to its place as part of Ronan's altar and not be kept by me or placed in a museum. I have left a token of good faith of my present custodianship by burying three of my own pebbles of Iona marble in the masonry of the altar. Fanciful, perhaps, but it has pleased me so to do.

Oh how I wish I'd taken a photo of the Rona stone when I saw it in the museum. But I did not have a camera with me, and even if I did I doubt that the docents in the museum would have approved of taking a photo. 

So next time you are in Stornoway be sure to pay a visit to Museum nan Eilean at Lews Castle. And while there take the time to find a beautiful green stone mounted high on the wall - it is easy to miss. Darling did not want to see it end up in a museum, but I think it's the best place for it; although I wonder how many tourist who see it truly appreciate this ancient relic of island history.

If you are interested in visiting North Rona consider joining our ten-day cruise in July of 2019.

Postscript (May 6, 2018): I was just reading DDC Pochin Mould's book Irish Pilgrimages. On page 81 there is a description of a stone strikingly similar to the one found on Rona:

Martin Martin (1695) tells of St Moluag's Ball... this is Moluag of Lismore, who was originally a monk of Bangor in Ireland before crossing to Scotland. The stone was round and green, 'about the bigness of a goose egg'; it was used for swearing oaths, for curing stitches, and for throwing at enemies armies, the opposing force being flung into confusion and at once running away. Macdonald of the Isles was said to have carried the stone and always to have been victorious when he had it with him. The stone had a hereditary keeper of the Clan Chattan.

This makes me wonder if at some point St Moluag's stone found its way to Rona.