Finlaggan Islay

The Centre of the Lordship of the Isles

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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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Filed Under: History

Update on the Walkway

Update on the Walkway

August 13, 2021 By ron Leave a Comment

The Finlaggan Visitor Centre will be re-opening on Tuesday, 10 August. We have had to conduct some last-minute maintenance work at the historic site and Centre, but will soon be able to welcome you all back once more after a trying two-year hiatus.

The wooden walkway to the site is also undergoing some essential restoration work prior to its dismantling and the construction of a new more robust structure in 2022. As we cannot guarantee its safety while work is continuing, we have had to make the decision to temporarily close it. We would ask all visitors to be aware of this and to avoid traversing the walkway.

This was a difficult decision for the Finlaggan Trust committee, but the safety of all visitors is paramount.

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Finlaggan Visitor Centre Opening

Finlaggan Visitor Centre Opening

July 7, 2021 By ron Leave a Comment

The Finlaggan Visitor Centre will be opening in early July. We need to complete some last-minute preparations before we can welcome you all once more to the site, but please keep checking our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds for updates on a confirmed opening date.

Apologies to all those who have visited the site during the past month. We are aware that many of you travelled specifically in the hope that the VC would be open for the season. But our concerns for the safety of our visitors and staff take precedence.

To all those preparing to come to the island and visit Finlaggan, it has been a trying period for all of us. We are genuinely appreciative of all who visit, seeking to know more about the origins of Clan Donald and the Lords of the Isles.

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Support us Through Amazon

Support us Through Amazon

June 24, 2021 By ron Leave a Comment

If you shop at Amazon, why not help the Finlaggan Trust by going to our page at AmazonSmile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/SC000821 and nominating us as your chosen charity. Every little helps and is much appreciated.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Amazonsmile

Free Talk Dr. Alan Macniven

Free Talk Dr. Alan Macniven

April 28, 2021 By ron Leave a Comment

Dr. Alan Macniven, Finlaggan trustee, and Senior Lecturer and Head of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, will be giving a free talk next week on “the Norwegian role in the European discovery, rediscovery, and colonisation of Greenland.”
Scheduled for Tue, 27 April, 19.30 BST, please click on the following link to register an interest: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-norwegian-origins-of-danish-greenland-tickets-151621318445?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
All are welcome.

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Filed Under: Events

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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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