“Such is the topography of the country in which, tradition says, that Sir Niel Campbell made his retreat and refuge. It now remains to show, what correspondence there is between its features, and the relation given by Blind Harrie. The words of the Minstrel are as follows:
“Ye knycht Cambell maid gud defens for yi
Till Craigunyn with thre hunder he zeid,
Yat strenth he held for all his[144] cruel deed,
Syne brak ye bryg quhar yai mycht not out pass
Bot throuch a furd quhar narow passage was
Abandounly Cambell agayne yaim baid
Fast upon Avis yat was bathe deep and braid,
Makfadzan was apon ye toyir syd,
And yar on force behuffyt hym for to byd,
For at ye furd he durst nocht entir out,
For gud Cambell mycht set hym yan in dout,
Mak Fadzane socht, and a small passage fond
Had he lasar he mycht pass off yat land
Betwix a roch and ye gret wattir syd
Bot four in frount na ma mycht gang or ryd.”
Book vii. Chap. iv. (Edin. Edit. 1758.)
The correspondence between the above description and the account which I have before given of the topography of the Pass of Brandir, must be evident to every examiner. But the identity of that place and the one mentioned in the poem, is confirmed to a degree of certainty; first, by the fact, that such a correspondence can be found in no other part of the neighbouring districts; and, secondly, by the mention which is made in the description of the poem, of names which now exist in the appellation of the place to which it is supposed to apply. ‘Avis’ is well known to have been the ancient name of Loch Awe,[145] and is often met with in old poems which make mention of that lake; and Cragunyn is clearly but a mis-spelling of ‘Craiganuni,’ the name of the rocks at the extremity of the Pass of Brandir. The error is merely owing to the ignorance of the transcribers of the poem, who did not understand Gaëlic orthography. Except by persons very competently masters of the language of the country, there is scarcely a name in the Highlands more correctly written at the present day.
“It is easy to show the solitude of the correspondence between Blind Harry’s description of the position of Sir Niel, and the topography of the Pass of Brandir. In the eighth line of the passage above quoted, it is said, that when the Campbell had gained the craig to which he retreated, he ‘baid’ (abode) fast upon Loch-Avis. From whence it is plain, that this post was immediately above the shore of Loch-Awe. In the brief notices of MacPhadian’s situation at the same period, it is equally evident, that he was entangled in a narrow and dangerous pass, bounded on one side by rocks, and on the other side by the lake. It is expressly said that he was on the opposite side from the Campbells. The water was then between them, and yet their positions were communicable by a bridge and a ford. In the whole sixty-eight miles, which form the circuit of Loch-Awe, there is not a spot where these circumstances could have existed except in the Pass of Brandir. On no part of the shore is there a pass of the nature and difficulty implied in Blind Harry’s notices of MacPhadian’s embarrassment except there. Neither is there any part of the lake which could be interposed between two bodies of men, and yet rendered evadable by a bridge, except the arm which terminates in the river Awe. In all other places the water is from one to three miles wide, and does not contract into any stream or inlet which could prolong its barrier sufficiently to prevent it from being turned, and yet admit of its being evaded by a passage of the nature above mentioned. But in the Pass of Brandir all these particulars are identically to be traced. The narrowing of the lake to an inconsiderable channel, and its prolongation into the river Awe, by which the former might be interposed as a barrier, and yet evaded by an immediate crossing; the bridge mentioned by Blind Harry as having existed at the foot of Craigunyn, and the probability that one formerly did exist in the corresponding spot of Craiganuni; the ford described as having been the only remaining communication in the separating water, its dangerous character, and the actual being of a pass of the same nature, and the same relative position in the water of Awe, all give the strongest evidence of the truth of the Minstrel’s relation, and the application of the scene which he has described. Having then established so much from the circumstances of the poem and the nature of the country, we may draw a clear deduction of the proceedings and motives of Sir Neil Campbell previous to his entering Craiganuni.
“Allowing that this spot was the place to which that chief retreated from MacPhadian, it follows as a necessary consequence, from the situation of the latter at the breaking of the bridge, that he must have made his pursuit round the east end of Loch-Awe; and it will very clearly appear, that he could not have chosen this direction, had he not been enticed into it by a similar route in the flight of the Campbell. The proof that MacPhadian did take the direction which I have advanced, is sufficiently decisive. We are expressly told, that when Sir Neil had gained Craiganuni, he was stopped in his pursuit on the opposite, or east side of the water beneath. Now, as he possessed no vessels on Loch-Awe, he could not have gained this side of the arm of the water which runs under Craiganuni, had he not come to it by encircling the east end of the whole lake, which is only four miles distant. The conviction of this fact leads decisively to discover the march of Sir Neil. It is perfectly evident that he must have entered the heights from the same side as that on which it is apparent MacPhadian endeavoured to follow him; for, had he proceeded to Craiganuni by the west end of the lake, or crossed the water any where west of the Pass of Brandir, his enemy could have had no motive in taking the eastern route. In the first instance, he would have marched in an opposite direction to those whom he was pursuing; and in the second, he would have taken a road, which, allowing it might have been the shortest, would have placed between him and his enemy an impassable barrier, and have entangled him in a strait and dangerous labyrinth, where his numbers would have become useless, his attacks impracticable, and his retreat dangerous. Among such difficulties, it is not to be supposed that MacPhadian would voluntarily and unnecessarily have hazarded his success and his safety; he could only, therefore, have been enticed into them, by the allurement of pursuing upon the footsteps of his enemies. The proceedings of Sir Neil are thus reduced to a degree of certainty, and leave no alternative from the circumstances which I have pointed out.
“He observed, that entered from the east, and having his enemy on that side, Craiganuni was the most inaccessible and advantageous hold in all Argyleshire; but that entered and attacked from the opposite direction, all the securities of the place were converted into dangers. Placed then on this quarter, it was only by a stratagem that he could win the desired advantage; and in prosecution of its attainment, he adopted the only plan which could have been unforeseen by his enemy, and carried into execution with a certainty of success. At the approach of MacPhadian into Nether Loch-Awe, he fled before him along the south side, and towards the east end of the lake. Drawn after him by the consciousness of superiority, and the facility of the pursuit, the Irish Captain followed him with no thought but the eagerness of capture.
“The advantage, however, of Sir Neil in point of time, was sufficient to prevent him from falling into his hands in the open district from Inch-Connel to Glen-Urcha; and suddenly turning the head of the lake, and circling towards the west, he dived down the Pass of Brandir, crossed the water, broke down the bridge, ascended the height, and threw between him and his pursuers, the craigs, the rivers, and the lakes. It was then that the plan of the chief was seen in all its superiority.
“Had he passed round the west end of the lake, or crossed it westward of the Pass of Brandir, he would have entered that wide and open country which I have before described,—a country every where untenable, and so surrounded by natural barriers, that it would have been almost impossible for him to have evacuated it under the closeness of his pursuit. Craiganuni, which had been before him, would have been not only totally unserviceable to him, from the direction in which he entered; but its barriers, lying wholly in his rear, would have made it the most dangerous situation. Had he been beset in the moors, the multitude of his enemies had devoured him; had he been overtaken at the craig, his flight would have been cut off by the gulf below; and those who had fled from the sword would have been driven over the precipices, and plunged into the water. Had he escaped these alternatives of ruin, every hardship would have been presented to his retreat. The country round the pass was wild and barren, even to horror and desolation; and had he succeeded in gaining it with security, he must have pursued his flight, hopeless of reinforcement and straitened for subsistence. By the tactic upon which he acted, he not only avoided all the evils, but converted the whole of their disadvantages to the inconvenience of his enemy. The instant he had occupied Craiganuni, and broken down the bridge over the mouth of the river, he was inaccessible on every side, and possessed in his rear a tract of nearly three hundred square miles, wholly open to his operations, but secured from his enemies by the same barriers which rendered himself unapproachable. In front, the depth of the water, and the precipices of the pass, were an insurmountable barrier; on the north, Loch-Eitive continued the line of circumvallation from the sea to Beann Starabh; and on the south it was extended by Loch-Awe from Lorn to Glen-Urcha. Sir Niel was thus encompassed by a formidable barrier of seventy-three miles in circumference; and from the obstacles of this cordon, and the security of the wide space in his rear, he could at pleasure have evacuated his position under cover of the night, and have retreated, in unmolested security, to Loch-Fine, from whence he might have proceeded in his galleys to the coast of Airshire, and here joined himself with the successful associates of the late victorious Wallace.
“I have said nothing of the ford through the Awe, by which there was an approach to the position of Sir Niel, nor of the capability of MacPhadian, to have passed Loch-Eitive by means of his fleet; of the first, the enemy feared to avail himself from the danger of the passage, and the want of discipline among his troops; and from the second, he could have reaped little avail, since, in the consumption of time necessary to have brought round these vessels from the sea, Sir Niel might have abandoned his position, and in one night have made good his retreat beyond Loch-Awe.