Ossian Collection > Loch Etive and the sons of Uisnach

246 LOCH ETIVE AND THE SONS OF UISNACH.
The road from Oban to the loch itself is steep, but it is
good, and only about four miles long. To go by land
to the other side of the loch would make four or
five more round, so that it needs a good walker to
traverse in a day all the ground to be visited. Glen
Lonain itself needs some ten miles of walking to and fro
if it is all to be visited. We preferred, therefore, to have
a conveyance to take us to the ground, and to help us at
need. As the party drove out of the glen leading from
Oban south-east, the rugged heights showed themselves
more than on the other side, and the strange shapes
of the hills seemed more and more the playthings of
numberless streams and violent submarine currents. But
soon wo came to a not extensive moor, and saw before
us the isolated but warm-looking, because wooded valley,
with its couple of good country-seats and the manse of
Kilmore. The valley goes to the right, and below is Loch
Feochan, the entrance of the sea ; but we went to the left,
and immediately came to a house or two, poor enough looking,
and with a desolate kind of name, Clcigh. This name signifies
a burying-place, and one of the younger of us naturally
asked, " Why do you take us to burying-grounds .-' We never
visit such at home, unless it be to see the tomb of a relative."
The answer was easy : " We are here to see the memorials
of the people who have long passed ; history is among the
dead ; at home we live among the active men. Besides,
here are our distant forgotten relatives." And here, certainly,
there are few and scattered dwellings to see, but the name
seems to indicate that many persons, lixing or dead, were
brought here, if they did not live and die here. It is not hard