The Testimony of Tradition

by David MacRitchie

It is sometimes called Tomman-heurich, and spoken of as a tomman, which connects it with the word tulman or tolman, already referred to. Hugh Miller, in speaking of "that Queen of Scottish tomhans, the picturesque Tomnahuirich," employs both forms at the same time, which is contradictory. Pennant, who visited it last century, refers to it also as a tomman. In his Tour he thus describes "the strange-shaped hill of Tomman heurich:"—

"The Tomman is of an oblong form, broad at the base, and sloping on all sides towards the top; so that it looks like a ship with its keel upwards.... It is perfectly detached from any other hill; and if it was not for its great size, might pass for a work of art." "Its length at top [is] about 300 yards; I neglected measuring the base or the height, which are both considerable; the breadth of the top [is] only twenty yards."

Captain Burt, in his "Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland" (Letter XII.) speaks of it as follows:—

"About a mile westward from the town [Inverness] there rises, out of a perfect flat, a very regular hill; whether natural or artificial, I could never find by any tradition; the natives call it tommanheurach. It is almost in the shape of a Thames wherry, turned keel upwards, for which reason they sometimes call it Noah's Ark. The length of it is about four hundred yards, and the breadth at bottom about one hundred and fifty. From below, at every point of view, it seems to end at top in a narrow ridge; but when you are there, you find a plain large enough to draw up two or three battalions of men. Hither we sometimes retire on a summer's evening.... But this is not the only reason why I speak of this hill; it is the weak credulity with which it is attended, that led me to this detail; for as anything ever so little extraordinary, may serve as a foundation (to such as are ignorant, heedless, or interested) for ridiculous stories and imaginations, so the fairies within it are innumerable, and witches find it the most convenient place for their frolics and gambols in the night time."

Now, if this large hill, which "might pass for a work of art," was really, as tradition states, the residence of the little people known as dwarfs or Pechts, it was clearly an important seat of those people. And, on regarding them from the historian's point of view, one finds that this district was specially so distinguished. "When we can first venture to regard the list of the Pictish Kings preserved in the Pictish Chronicle as having some claim to a historical character, we find the king having his seat apparently in Forfarshire; but when the works of Adamnan and Bede place us upon firm ground, the monarch belonged to the race of the Northern Picts, and had his fortified residence near the mouth of the river Ness" [Inver-Ness]. And the same historian again observes:—"Adamnan, writing in the seventh century, tells us of the fortified residence of the king of the Picts on the banks of the river Ness, with its royal house and gates, of a village on the banks of a lake, and of the houses of the country people."[258]

Hitherto, the place which has been regarded as most likely the site of this seventh-century stronghold, is the vitrified fort which crowns the summit of Craig Patrick (or Creag Phadruig), a hill not far from Inverness. But the top of a hill more than four hundred feet high can scarcely be referred to as a situation "on the banks of the river Ness," from which river it is, moreover, two miles distant.[259] The situation of Tomnahurich, on the other hand, does exactly answer to the description given. And this "hill," whose peculiar appearance has attracted the attention of several travellers, is locally remembered as a celebrated home of the "Pechts." Nor is it necessary to confine oneself to the consideration of this hill alone. Adamnan speaks not only of a royal residence, but also of "the houses of the country people." "The country people" of whom he speaks were Pechts, and their "houses," of course, were "Pechts' houses"; "houses" such as the Fairy Knowe unearthed at Coldoch, near Doune, already referred to. In other words sheeans. Now, when Hugh Miller speaks of "that Queen of Scottish tomhans, the picturesque Tomnahuirich," he states that it belongs to "a wonderful group" of similar mounds "in the immediate neighbourhood of Inverness." The "houses" of the mound-dwelling Pechts had one admirable characteristic; they were almost indestructible. If the King of the Dwarfs had his residence at Inverness during the seventh century, with "the houses of the country people," of the same race, scattered all through the immediate neighbourhood, their dwellings must be there still: and any one who wanted to localize them would naturally turn to such mounds as the "wonderful groups" of "tomhans" of which Hugh Miller speaks.[260]

Inverness, however, was not the only important centre of Pictish power. Among others, there was Abernethy, a few miles south-east of Perth. And at this place, says Small, in his "Roman Antiquities of Fife," the spot wherein the treasures of the Pictish king are believed to be hidden[261] was guarded by a droughy (droich or trow) who fiercely assailed any invader. Of the Pechts in that neighbourhood there are many traditions.

A few miles to the west of Abernethy is Forteviot, where Kenneth MacAlpin, the conqueror and ruler of the Pechts, died in the latter part of the ninth century. Prior to the successful invasion of Kenneth's race, this district—like that of Abernethy and all the country north to Inverness—had been inhabited by Pechts: and Forteviot is stated to have been a seat of Pictish royalty. Some miles to the south-west of Forteviot there is a hill called Ternavie, which has characteristics similar to those of Tomnahuirich. "Ternavie has been pronounced 'the most remarkable spot in this parish or neighbourhood.' It is a hill or mound of earth of a very curious form, occupying, when the Old Statistical Account was written, 'many acres of ground, covered with a fine sward of grass, and striking the eye at a distance of several miles. It resembles in shape the keel of a ship inverted.'" And local tradition asserts, says the writer quoted from,[262] that once upon a time, a countryman attempting to obtain turf on the side of this hill, was suddenly confronted by an old man who emerged from the hill, "and with an angry countenance and tone of voice asked the countryman why he was tirring (uncovering) his house over his head?" This story does not say that the mound-dweller was a dwarf, but here we have a hill whose appearance suggests that it is at least partly artificial, and local tradition alleges that it was once inhabited. And this in the heart of Pictavia, or the country of the Pechts.

In the same county, but farther to the west, there is a locality which is remembered, like the island on the Ross-shire loch, as a gathering-place or rendezvous of the little people. It is situated in the valley of the Forth. The "Fairy Knowes" of Coldoch have already been spoken of. One of them, it was stated, has been opened, and its interior shows to the most sceptical that the tradition which told that it was a home of the dwarfs was absolutely correct. The other "knowe," some hundreds of yards distant, has not as yet been touched.[263] But that it, too, was a dwelling of the same "little people" is almost as certain as if the spade of the excavator had already done its work.