Grant's Fort, The Legend of the Highland Skull, and an autumn walk in Clais an Dunain

The steep slopes of Clais an Dunain below Grant's Fort

Two years ago an exhibition at our excellent local museum had a sketch map of Iron Age hill forts in the area, one of which lay hidden in some woods not far from home so one autumn day I set out to visit it and see if I could make out any of the hill fort amongst the trees. I wrote about that trip here.

The hill fort is called Grant’s Fort but I couldn’t find out why. I know the answer now due to another exhibition at the Grantown-on-Spey Museum called the Legend of the Highland Skull. Recently I went to the launch of this fascinating story at the museum and discovered that an event that might be historical or might not and which might relate to the skull or might not took place at Grant’s Fort. This was in the 13^th century and explains why this ancient hill fort is called Grant’s Fort.

There is far more about the story and the skull on the museum website, including links to a series of excellent podcasts. This is local history at its best. If you’re in Grantown it’s well worth a visit.

Grant's Fort

Having heard this much more modern story about the hill fort (compared to the iron age anyway) I decided to visit it again and try and imagine the events that are said to have taken place there. The tale tells of how a young Grant man and the daughter of the Chief of the MacGregors fell in love. But the Grants were not powerful and the MacGregors were. There was no way the MacGregor Chief would accept his daughter marrying someone so far beneath him. So the young lovers fled and ended up with some followers at Grant’s Fort. MacGregor pursued them and the two sides met in the deep ravine below the fort called Clais an Dunain, a place I know well.

I had come across the story before but in a version that says the lovers hid in Huntly’s Cave and met the MacGregors there. Grant’s Fort isn’t mentioned. However the Grantown Museum story has them going from Huntly’s Cave to Grant’s Fort, which makes sense as the fort, on a ridge with steep slopes either side would be far easier to defend than a cave in a ravine. That applies to whichever Huntly’s Cave the story refers to as there are two in the area, just four kilometres apart. I wrote about them here.

In Clais an Dunain violence was avoided by the Grant man suggesting that he and MacGregor should join forces and launch an attack on the local Clan Comyn chieftain. The Comyns were a powerful clan and a victory over them would be a boost for both the MacGregors and the Grants. Their base was at Freuchie Castle, which lies between Huntly’s Cave and Clais an Dunain. The Comyns were defeated and the castle taken over by the Grants and later renamed Castle Grant.

Wandering amongst the peaceful woods in the Clais an Dunain I imagined it full of armed Highlanders on a moonlit night holding their meeting and agreeing to attack a neighbour rather than each other. I climbed up to Grant’s Fort and made a guess as to what it might have looked like when it actually was a fortress. I could see where ramparts might have been and I could see how the ridge on which it lies could have been easily defended.

Bracken

Today in the Clais the bracken was turning rusty orange and there were red berries on the rowans. The first aspen leaves were starting to change to their brilliant autumn yellow and cherry tree leaves to their brilliant autumn red.

An ageing rowan in the fields above the Clais

Then I wandered over to the huge old willow that’s a favourite local tree. A dead branch that poked high above the living parts of the tree had fallen since I last visited and the tree is now more horizontal than vertical. A rowan that is growing out of the willow’s trunk is now quite a substantial tree itself and was red with berries.  

The old willow

The willow is only a few hundred metres from Clais an Dunain. It would have to be exceptionally old for a willow to have been there when the Grants and MacGregors passed however so it almost certainly wasn’t. But maybe an ancestor was.

The old willow