Finlaggan Islay

The Centre of the Lordship of the Isles

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Replacement Bridge Progress

Replacement Bridge Progress

August 11, 2022 By ron Leave a Comment

The new bridge is starting to take shape. Check out social media feeds for updates as we near completion.

Progress Finlaggan Bridge

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Replacement Bridge Update

Replacement Bridge Update

July 10, 2022 By ron Leave a Comment

Work on the replacement bridge to Eilean Mor and the historic site continues. Unfortunately, a number of factors outwith our control have delayed the completion of the project. Please bear with us.

We realise that many are coming to Islay specifically to see Finlaggan, but our priority is to have a safe and robust structure in place for the future in order to preserve the site and to allow public access. We are tentatively looking to have the new bridge ready for you all very soon, but we need to ensure that all measures are in place. We apologise for the delay.

Visitor Centre Opening Hours

The Finlaggan Visitor Centre is now closed for the season, reopening for Easter 2023. The historic site, however, remains open all year round.”Thank you to everyone who visited us during this year. Your support is very much appreciated.

Please check our social media posts for further updates.

Finally, the trustees would like to convey our thanks to all those who have visited us this year. With so much work at the site underway, much remains in flux, but your donations have been very much appreciated and have helped us through the summer.

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Restricted Opening Hours

Restricted Opening Hours

May 27, 2022 By ron Leave a Comment

The bridge to the historic site is currently closed to the public. We hope to have the new replacement structure finished within 5-6 weeks. We apologise for the inconvenience but the safety of all visitors is paramount.

However, we have decided to open the Visitor Centre on the following days for those interested in the history of the Lords of the Isles: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10.30-4.30.

We will not be charging admission prices, but any donations are gratefully accepted and will go towards the maintenance of the site.

Please check our social media posts for updates.

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Under Construction

Under Construction

April 5, 2022 By ron Leave a Comment

Following two years of fundraising, the Finlaggan Trust is delighted to announce that work has now begun on the disassembly of the old wooden walkway to the historic site and the construction of a replacement structure.
The new walkway will not deviate markedly from the original in route or design. However, it will take time and, therefore, we will be unable to open the Visitor Centre and welcome you all to Finlaggan until completion, which we expect to be sometime in May.

Profuse thanks to all those who have contributed to our appeal. Trying to raise the necessary funds in the recent climate has been challenging. But with your assistance we are now in the final stretch. Our thanks also go the the McEachern Bros. Construction Ltd., who have undertaken this important project.
We will continue to update you all on the work as it progresses.

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The Finlaggan Tuppence

The Finlaggan Tuppence

November 23, 2021 By ron Leave a Comment

Dr. David Caldwell

I remember when I was a child there was a popular nursery rhyme which went:
There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
 He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

When we were excavating on Eilean Mor at Finlaggan in the 1990s we found a silver coin that had been bent over on itself (see right), a crooked coin I supposed, and I have been intrigued ever since as to why the coin was bent. The crooked man of the nursery rhyme, in the sense of one who was physically bent or twisted, is now believed to have been the great Scottish general, Sir Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, and the nursery rhyme is a wry comment on his role in bringing the parliaments of Scotland and England together in the 1630s and 1640s in their struggle against King Charles I.

The Finlaggan coin is nothing to do with Alexander Leslie as it is much earlier in date, and while a political message may have been intended by its selection and deposition we can understand that there was much more to it than that. The coin in question is a silver half-groat of King Robert II (1371–1390), minted in Edinburgh. A groat was valued at four pence and a half-groat, therefore, was worth two pence, quite a substantial sum of money at that time. The coin would appear to have been deliberately bent, an action that required a reasonable amount of force, more than could have been applied by most of us with our bare hands, and it was then incorporated in the mortar of the chapel on Eilean Mor (see below). The chapel is one of only two medieval structures on that island still with substantially upstanding walls.

There is evidence from England that coins were deposited by pilgrims and worshippers at churches and shrines, the coins being bent as a sign that they were being dedicated for the use of the local saint. In the case of the Eilean Mor chapel that was St Findlugan, a sixth-century follower of St Columba. Perhaps one of the builders was a devotee of Findlugan, or a visiting pilgrim was able to deposit the coin in the fresh mortar of the unfinished chapel when nobody was looking.

These are possible explanations but not, to my mind, the most likely ones. A late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century clan history of the MacDonalds records how John I Lord of the Isles roofed or built this chapel. Since John probably died in 1387 the coin appears to be useful confirmation that he was indeed responsible for erecting this church. Might John himself have required the coin to be bent and deposited, or else his wife, the Princess Margaret? Is it a symbol of their devotion to the Church and St Findluggan? Well, possibly so, but there are other factors to be taken into account.

One of those is the fact that King Robert, represented on the coin by a crowned bust with a sceptre, was Margaret’s father. It is possible that that link would be seen to be strengthened by the deposition of the coin, and not necessarily just in a religious context. One of the main reasons why the Lords of the Isles needed a chapel at Finlaggan was to allow the churchmen in their entourage, the clerks who undertook administrative work, to carry out their religious duties. The chapel, or the adjacent burial ground, may have been the place where important pronouncements were made and documents witnessed, their integrity protected by God and his local saint, Findlugan. Some of those proclamations and documents would have related to dealings with the king, whose authority was represented by the coin.

However, the Finlaggan tuppence is explained I am sure that neither its deformation nor deposition were unintentional. In the course of our excavations on Eilean Mor we discovered several other artefacts incorporated within medieval and sixteenth-century walls, foundation trenches, the pits excavated for upright posts and so on. It is probable that much of this was accidental, and of no significance to our ancestors. Sherds of pottery, broken roof slates, small metal artefacts, etc, lost or discarded during the occupancy of one building very readily got incorporated in earth moving operations or wall building of later structures.

Some do seem to have been placed with some thought. An obvious case is a full-scale sandstone head of a man, now in the National Museum of Scotland’s storage facility in Edinburgh, positioned within the thickness of the wall of a sixteenth-century house. The carving was probably made to decorate the nearby medieval great hall, in ruins when the house was erected. What message might have been drawn from it is harder to say. Other possible examples of deliberately deposited items include a piece of roof slate with graffiti, including lions, and knives.

Other examples of such deposits can be found in the Medieval World. A question the writer would like answered is, are other examples known in Islay, perhaps of much more recent times?

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New Walkway

Opening Hours

The Finlaggan Visitor Centre is now closed for the season, reopening for Easter 2023. The historic site, however, remains open all year round. "Thank you to everyone who visited us during this year. Your support is very much appreciated..

Please see our social media pages for updates on the progress of the new bridge.

Contact Us

Email: finlaggan@outlook.com
Tel +44 (0) 1496 840 644

    

When visiting the historic site, dogs are to be kept on a leash at all times. We only welcome guide dogs inside the Visitor Centre.

© FINLAGGAN TRUST 2015 - SITE BUILT AND HOSTED BY BRAVEHEART WEBDESIGN & IT ISLAY
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