Anail a’ Ghaidheil, air a’ mhullach

Walk to the summit of Cairngorm

Friday 19th August 2011

Meet at Allt Mor Car Park at 9.30am.  Walkers will leave at 10am prompt.
If joining the walk at Cairngorm Coire Cas Car Park, be ready to join the walkers as they come up from Allt Mor, approx 10.45am.  Please be there before this!

Please let us know you are coming, email: info [at] johnroystuart.org.uk  (see form below)

The walk is over rough terrain. Bring your own Map and compass – you will need OS 1:50 sheet 36 or OS 1: 25 Explorer sheet 403 and a compass, and know how to use it.

Walking boots are needed and waterproof jacket and trousers, warm clothes, hat & gloves, midge repellent & sunscreen.  Don’t forget your lunch & water to drink.

Dogs must be kept on the lead.

The Walk (click to enlarge, ESC to exit viewer)

The walk is over rough terrain. Bring your own Map and compass – you will need OS 1:50 sheet 36 or OS 1: 25 Explorer sheet 403 and a compass, and know how to use it.

Walking boots are needed and waterproof jacket and trousers, warm clothes, hat & gloves, food & drink should be carried, also midge repellent & sunscreen.

Persons improperly clad or equipped will be advised NOT to take part.

The Route – see sketch map

Allt Mòr Car Park by good track to Coire Cas Car Park.
Up a steep and rocky path onto Sròn an Aonaich (Windy Ridge), pausing for a picnic somewhere.  Continue to the Ptarmigan,  and then by the Marquis’ Well,to the summit of Cairngorm for our Ceremony of Unfurling the Banner.
We will return directly down to the Ptarmigan, where there is the option for any who wish to, to descend by the Funicular (cost about £6 adult). Otherwise retrace the ascent route.

Contacts:

Please register your interest by completing the form below – thank you!

Anail a’ Ghaidheil, air a’ mhullach

Walk to the summit of Cairngorm

Saturday 15th August 2009

Deoch-shlainte

Hugh Stewart delivered a short address in Gaelic [with translation] on a theme, taken from the toast below, of the immortality of heroism.  Appropriately enough, that toast was used originally by the Seaforth Highlanders, one of the three regiments in which Hugh served half a century ago.  The Seaforth were numbered among those Highland regiments recruited by former Jacobite ruling families then anxious to ingratiate themselves with the Hanoverian establishment. Many Highlanders were thus enlisted after Wolfe had sought their service in the Seven Years War in Canada/America, with the recommendation that they were “hardy and bold, very patient of cold and hunger, habituated to a rough country and NO GREAT MISCHIEF IF THEY FALL [i.e. expendable]. The toast is made appropriate by replacing the Seaforth slogan “Cabar Feidh” with “An Suaicheantas Ban” as follows:-

Tir nam Beann, nan  Gleann, ’s nan Gaisgeach
Land of mountains, glens and warriors

Far am faighear an t-eun fionn
Where the white bird is got

’S far am faigh am fiadh fasgadh
And where the deer find shelter

Cho fada ’s a chitear ceo mu bheann
So long as mist is seen round a mountain

’S a ruitheas uisge le gleann
And water runs through a glen

Mairidh cuimhne air éuchd nan treun
Memory will endure of the brave’s feats

Slainte agus buaidh gu brath
Health and victory for ever

Le gillean An Suaicheantais Bain!
With the lads of the White Cockade!

An Suaicheantas Ban gu brath!
The White Cockade for ever!

The unmodified toast is still used by the 3^rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland [72, 78, 79 and 92nd]. The regiment at large now sounds like a military millipede after a surfeit of amalgamations. It is collectively the 1^st, 21^st, 25^th, 42^nd, 72^nd, 74^th, 78^th, 92^nd and 93^rd of Foot.

Photos from the day:

Setting off from Glenmore - the JRS anniversary walk- photo by Fiona Patrick

David Kerr and Walter Patrick on the way up - photo: Ann Wakeling

Struggling to hoist the banner! - photo: Stanley Norton

Pete Dutfield struggles to hold the Banner - photo: Ann Wakeling

Walter, Pete, Mary and David - photo: Ann Wakeling

Wind-blown Cuilly Dog near Cairngorm summit- photo: Ann Wakeling

David Kerr, Stan Norton, Ann Wakeling, Pete Dutfield, Mary Mackenzie, Hugh Stewart and Walter Patrick, not forgetting Cuilean.

]]> http://www.johnroystuart.org.uk/?feed=rss2&p=130 0 http://www.johnroystuart.org.uk/?p=28 http://www.johnroystuart.org.uk/?p=28#comments Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:11:59 +0000 admin http://www.johnroystuart.org.uk/?p=28 Two Bronze Axe-heads found under a Boulder in  Abernethy.  There was a local tradition that Colonel John Roy Stewart had hidden Arms and a Flag there and when found the Axe-heads had silk cords attached to them and it is believed that they were attached as Relics, to Colonel Stewarts flag staff.

Seen in the Kingussie Museum (Highland Folk Park) store.

Two bronze axe-heads

Iain Ruaidh

Mists swirling round,
Shroud us in time an space.
Transport us back to times long ago.
Though hundreds of years have past,
your names still spoken, your songs sung,
the bard of Cul Lodair, Charlie’s general.
Fer as in yer own words, ‘The Lord’s my Targe’,
you were protected from harm, kept safe, in support of the Prince.

Many died on Cul Lodair’s cold moor,
an in memory of the moment,
Honour of the Prince,
Your banner, musket ridden an tattered,
was tae be carried to the top of blue mountain,
to fly in the winds of time,
its green streaking the sky’s blue,
Flashing defiant and strong.

Today, fer the first time in two hundred and fifty years,
we carried your new banner, proud and strong,
Up Cairngorm’s misty slopes,
To fly in the Highland breeze once more,
In your memory, in your Honour,
A new generation will never forget,
The green once again flashes,
defiant on the breeze.

Iain Ruaidh, red haired John,
you were Prince Charles’ general,
A poet fer the ordinary man.
You sang fer the blindfolded Campbell,
He could not turn you in,
But if his eyes were to meet yours,
the fate of death,
would have been your pay.

You roamed the hills, hid in caves an moors,
Composed songs an poems fine,
an before you left our golden shores,
Your banner you gave in trust,
till the Prince should come once more.
Today your banner flew like the eagle,
high on Cairngorms top,
Defiant in a new world, A link with our past.

Michelle.

Some links to John Roy’s music and poetry.

“John Roy Stuart” composed by Alexander McGlashan (1740-1797)

Two poems by John Roy Stuart on The Gutenberg Project »
(Lament for Lady Macintosh & The Day of Culloden)

http://news.scotsman.com/gaeliclanguage/A-cuimhneachadh-a-chirneil-a.3315652.jp