1 STONE FORMATIONS ANDROCK GONGS

The great and ancient stone structures of Scotlandare now emerging clearly, rather than speculatively,as places for music-making as well as ritual. Therecumbent stone in a stone circle in NortheastScotland, Easter Acquorthies, is the focal point ofa type of structure unique to the area, that datesfrom circa 3000 BC (Fig. 1a, 1b). Such structures(there are about 200 in Aberdeenshire alone) oftenhave an astronomical and calendrical function aswell as a ritual purpose. Some are considered to belunar and others solar observatories. In a recentfeature in British Archaeology, Aaron Watson hassuggested that this particular grouping of stonesappears “to bounce sound around the interior ofthe circle. Subsequent testing with audio record-ing equipment confirmed that these blocks werereflecting sound…” (Watson 1997). That soundwas a potential part of these structures is provenbeyond doubt by the recumbent stone at anothersite, Arn Hill stone circle and rock gong, for thisis an idiophone – a ringing rock, or sangelsteinwith traces of semicircular markings. It is knownlocally as the iron rock, because of its sound; butthe people who erected it some 5000 years agocould not have put it in place without hearing itsvoice, and they mounted it on smaller rocks so asto leave its surfaces free to resonate. Such rocksare variously known as “rock gongs”, “ringingrocks” and “bell rocks”. I shall basically followCatherine Fagg in calling them rock gongs (Fagg1997).

These rock gongs frequently retain their signi-ficance into modern times. It is said that if the rockgong on Tiree (Fig. 2) were ever to be moved, thelow-lying island would sink back beneath thewaves. The rock is covered over much of its sur-face with prehistoric cup-marks and is still a focusof ritual behaviour (Henschen-Nyman 1988;Alvarez/Siemens 1988), the weathered coins in adepression on the top being modern votive offer-ings. When struck with hand-held stones it has atleast two clearly audible pitches – a feature of sev-

eral other rock gongs, including Clach Oscar onthe Island of Skye.

Whether the rock gong on the sacred island ofIona (Fig. 3) was used by the early Christians Icannot say. It is an unusual saddle-shaped rock, andhas a small hollow, probably man-made, which cansupport a stone with which to strike it. It is not farfrom the Abbey which is on the site of the original6th century AD monastic foundation and it wouldbe remarkable if the monastic occupiers of thissmall island were not aware of its properties.

It is interesting to note that the destiny of theScottish nation is intimately involved with an idio-phone known to St Columba – a rock which wassupposed to make a sound. It is known variouslyas the “Lia Fail” or “Stone of Destiny”, “Stone ofScone”, and “Coronation Stone”. A stone bearingthat name is currently housed in Edinburgh Castleand is itself a focus of pilgrimage, as it was hithertowhen it resided in Westminster Abbey where Eng-lish and British monarchs have been crowned sit-ting ignorantly upon a 13th century chair intowhich the stone was incorporated. I say ignorant-ly, because this is certainly not the true “Lia Fail”or “Stone of Destiny”, for it is a piece of Scottishsandstone, and has no footprints carved upon it.The ignorance is compounded by the fact that allthese pretended monarchs, from Edward II to thepresent incumbent, have failed to legitimise theirsuccession, for they should have stood barefootupon the stone. The stone itself has failed to legiti-mise them – it cannot, as it is not the true stone;but even if it were, it has not, for the true stone

1 I should perhaps acknowledge my own personal debt to theSwedes for the initial stimulus to do anything about thecarnyx in particular and Music Archaeology in general. Itwas the work of Cajsa Lund as recorded for the great Musi-ca Sveciae project that made me culturally jealous. At thetime I had no idea of the riches that awaited discovery inScotland, and was delighted and astonished to realise justhow much there was. But I never really believed I wouldmanage to get the carnyx reconstructed, never mind two ofthem, yet here they are, taking their places as cultural iconsand certain proof that good dreams can come true. All dra-wings (Figs. 1–9) by Daniel Arendt after photographs takenby the author.

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland1

John Purser

always uttered a cry of recognition or acceptance,and the stone now in Edinburgh and formerly inthe hands of thieves in the form of the Church ofEngland, has remained decently silent for cen-turies. This much can be accorded to it as a mereimposter of a stone, that it has been honest andmodest.

The legend is that the true stone was Jacob’spillow and was brought to Ireland out of Egypt byScota and Gaythelos, her Greek husband, andthence to Scotland some time after the Gaelic-speaking Scots settled in Dalriada in the south-west of Scotland, in the 5th century AD. If such astone ever existed, it was certainly known to StColumba who, in the 6th century, was personallyresponsible for the election and coronation ofAidan, one of the Scottic kings of Dalriada, andfor whose predecessor, Fergus MacErc, the stoneis said to have been transferred to Scotland. TheEgyptian origin legend was and remains part of theorigin myth of the Scots, being first publishedabroad by the seminal Scottish historian, John ofFordun, in the mid 14th century; but the first refer-ences to the Lia Fail itself occur somewhat earlierin Irish texts. Whatever the truth about this stone,the fact is that its symbolism as a sacred idiophoneremains central to our political self-perception. Itsreturn to Scotland from Westminster was onlyrecently engineered by the Conservative Party in avain hope of retaining some influence in Scotlandat the last election. The significance was not loston the Scottish people who recognised it as a falsegesture from an unsympathetic government whowere subsequently left without one single seat inScotland.

With such a central image surviving throughthe centuries, it should not surprise us to knowthat rock gongs that were used in 3000 BC are stillvisited today, albeit with a debased understanding.Such rocks are more wide-spread than might besupposed (Fagg 1997), and one of them – at PortAppin – was used until recently to gather the localclanspeople, suggesting a lengthy function as a sig-nalling device, if nothing else.

2 BRONZE AGE HORNS ANDCROTALS – BULLS AND BOARS

Returning, however, to prehistory, we have noknowledge of whether the Bronze Age horns andtheir associated idiophones, the crotals were usedat these sites. The crotals and Bronze Age hornsdate from 800 BC and earlier, and while it is myguess that they were played at major sites such asstone circles, possibly with rock gong backinggroup, this is an amiable fancy only! In Scotlandwe have one surviving fragment of a bronze age

horn, found in Wigtownshire and now in theNational Museum of Scotland.

However, commerce between Ireland andScotland has been intimate for millennia andbronze smiths working in a style similar to that inIreland were in Scotland’s Northern Isles around800 BC (Coles 1959–1960, 48),2 so the horns andcrotals could have been known and even made inScotland anywhere along the west coast, wheresuch skills would have travelled.

These instruments were technically difficult toproduce; yet they were made in considerablenumbers and deposited together, as in the famousDowris horde, suggesting they would have beenplayed together. The horns have the true shape ofcattle horns (Fig. 4). Cattle were the backbone ofthe economy – indeed they were, until recenttimes, the economy itself; and the cast bronze jin-gles of the crotal type almost certainly accompa-nied the horns in music-making, for they were rit-ually deposited together. In size, shape anddecoration the crotals (Fig. 5) are similar to a bull’stesticles (Purser 1992). The ball within the rattle,that makes the sound, may represent the seedwithin the husk, and the bull’s fertility, just as thehorn itself, represents the animal’s power andweaponry. However, this association and deduc-tion is not universally accepted. It is almost certainthat these crotals were not hung round the necksof animals as their design is such that they wouldproduce only a small sound, and that infrequently.For the crotals to sound clearly they have to beagitated quite vigorously. The tone can be alter-nately damped by grasping the body of the crotalwith the hand, or allowed to ring free, using thebronze ring to keep the hands clear of the surface.

The Celtic culture of Ireland and Scotlandmust at least have over-lapped with that of themakers of the horns and crotals, if it was not actu-ally a continuation of it. The question is a matterof fierce debate and remains unanswered. Butthere is no doubt that the people were cattle peo-ple. Their greatest epic – the Tain Bo Cuailnge –centres round a cattle-raid and is resolved by afight between two bulls, one coveted by QueenMaeve who wished to prove herself as powerful asher husband, Aillil, who owned the other. The taleis written in Gaelic in a style dating from the 8th

century AD, but with older elements, and the taleitself is probably much older still. Another cattle-raid – the Tain Bo Froech – tells of such wonderfulmusic made by King Aillil’s nine horn players,that thirty of his men died of rapture – and it is

2 The suggestion was originally put forward by ProfessorV. Gordon Childe (1935) and was echoed by ProfessorEogan at a conference (1955) on Ireland and Scotland, atEdinburgh University, 18th February 1989.

John Purser326

significant that in this tale the horns are used toaccompany a healing ceremony.

The bull and the wild boar could act as anintermediary between this world and the next, justas the (presumably sacred) pool in which so manyof these musical instruments were ritually deposit-ed, allows the artefact to move on to another exis-tence.

As late as the 12th century, Jocelin, bishop ofGlasgow, was happy to relate in his Life of StKentigern that a white wild boar showedKentigern where to found his monastery in NorthWales, by scraping the ground with his foot on thetop of a small – possibly a fairy mound (McQueen1980). Glasgow Cathedral was built over the burialplace of St Kentigern who was himself drawn tothe spot as it was the burial place of a holy mancalled Fergus: and Fergus was buried there becauseit was his will that he be buried where the twooxen drawing his bier first stopped – which theydid by the banks of the Molendinar burn, pre-sumably for a drink. Thus the divine intuition ofthese totemic creatures was adapted to the newreligion which cheerfully borrowed from olderreligions in order to reconcile the people who hadfollowed the trumpetting boar’s head of the carnyx(s. excursus), or the curved cattle-horn shape ofthe bronze age horn or the Scottish example of theCeltic lituus (the Caprington horn), to the newways of the missionaries of Christ.

3 CROZIERS AND BELLS – MERECHRISTIAN SYMBOLS?

Indeed, the connections of the missionaries withpre-Christian religion were frequently carefullyestablished rather than the reverse. St Ninian’sbull, which he protected from cattle-raiders byconfining them within a magic circle so that thebull could finish them off himself, indicates closeties with the bull cult of former times. The line wasdrawn with his crozier – an object of magicalpower like a Druid’s wand (McQueen 1980). StSerf’s crozier had similar powers, and the pastoralstaffs – of which the fragment of St Moluag’s is a7th century Scottish example – is precisely a simpleshepherd’s stick which has lost its later mediaevalembellishments of copper silver and gold. Thisstaff (in Gaelic, bachuil) was and is traditionallyguarded by a dewar.

Given the universal association of the crozierwith the pastoral staff or shepherd’s crook, it is notsurprising that the protective, gathering and sig-nalling aspects of bells are profoundly associatedwith herding of cattle, sheep and goats in manyparts of Europe. But it is an interesting fact thatthis custom does not prevail in Ireland and Scot-

land, though in Trotternish in Skye they were puton cows “eight generations ago” (Swire 1961, 38)and a single image of a cow with a bell is shown onthe Fowlis Wester Pictish stone in Perthshire.However, like the pastoral staffs, the early CelticChristian bells were also magical and, along withother important objects such as psalters, gospelsand breviaries, were under the special care of thesehereditary guardians – the dewars. The name“dewar” derives from the Gaelic deoradh, meaningstranger, or pilgrim – perhaps because they carriedthe cult objects on missionary pilgrimages. Thetitle has become a surname as well as surviving inits original use, for there are still dewars of thebells, in unbroken succession, though the dutiesare now passed on from minister to minister in theappropriate churches, rather than from father toson. The Little Dunkeld bell (s. Fig. 8) is one suchexample, currently under the custodianship of theRev Albert Smith. The function was also contin-ued in Iceland (the title was bjolu gaetr), probablyunder Celtic influence. Not only do the traditionsof custodianship continue in Scotland, but some ofthe bells, such as St Finnan’s, are still in their origi-nal locations.

However, we do not have to rely on merelysymbolical threads to connect the idiophones ofthe stone, bronze and iron ages to the Christianiron age, for St Gildas (who came from the sameStrathclyde region of Scotland frequented by StKentigern) used a rock gong at his hermitage nearCastenec in Brittany to call the faithful to mass(Fig. 6), as did his associate, St Bieuzy. Their rocksare still there, still in use.

The early Christian bells of Scotland are stillplayed today, and occasionally used for much thesame functions as in the past – for the burial of thedead, for calling people to prayer, for protectionand, until recently, for curing ill-health. St Finnan’sbell had these properties and used to be brought tothe landing place for the arrival of a funeral partyand then carried clockwise round the island(Thornber 1975). Saints, such as Patrick, Gildas,Brigid, Adomnan, Kentigern and Ninian had theirown bells, and a bell appears to have been a badgeof office of a bishop, for they are shown on earlystone carvings in the hands of mitred bishops. StKentigern’s bell, which features on Glasgow’s coatof arms, was rung in memory of the dead and wasreplaced in 1641, probably because the originalwas worn out with ringing.

There were two types of bells, both quadran-gular, one type of sheet iron (Fig. 7), the other ofcast bronze, and all had their own clappers (themorphology of these bells has been comprehen-sively described by Cormac Bourke, 1980, 1983;cp. E. Hickmann 1998). The iron hand bells maydate from as early as the 7th–8th centuries and are

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland 327

intimately associated with the Iona mission andtherefore with Ireland. There is one which isknown as St Adomnan’s and it may well date fromhis time. It is still housed at a site, long associatedwith the saint, at the eastern edge of his missionaryactivities. There are other bells, iron and bronze,similarly sited, proclaiming their territorial signifi-cance. The iron bells are made by bending, lappingand rivetting sheet iron. They were originallycoated in bronze (a practice still extant in Sar-dinia) – one or two perhaps even in gold (Gregory1904) – and have suffered from corrosion. Saintsthemselves were supposed to have made them,which adds to their magical skills the deep-rootedmagic of the smith. In the case of St Gildas, and hisfellow St Bieuzy, the natural rock gongs, and theirassociated man-made hand bells have contempora-neous and parallel functions. Indeed, legend has itthat St Gildas made two bells himself. The bellshown here is St Lonan’s (Fig. 7), and is the bestpreserved of the iron bells, having lain in the silt ofthe River Forth for centuries, until caught in afisherman’s net this century. Its handle and clapperare intact and its tone is metallic and strident.

The bells were not necessarily popular, forthere is more than one uncomplimentary referenceto them in the early literature:

“Patrick of the closed-up mind… Patrick of thejoyless clerks and of the bells… the rough voice ofthe bells has deafened me… I have no liking forclerks, their music is not sweet to me… I haveheard music sweeter than your music, howevermuch you are praising your clerks: the song of theblackbird in Leitir Laoi… the very sweet thrush ofthe Valley of the shadow, or the sound of the boatsstriking the strand.” (Gregory 1904).3

The lover of the song of the thrush was Oisin(Ossian) who had been in the land of youth andreturned to find all his companions of the greatwarrior troupe – the Fianna – long gone and a newreligion and a new music to confront him. Theconversations between Patrick and Oisin wereworked up by scholars much later than the days ofPatrick, but they reflect genuine confrontationsbetween the peoples of Scotland and Ireland andthose wishing to christianise them. Another poemfrom the 11th century reads thus in English:

“Blackbird it is well for youwherever in the thicket be your nest,

hermit that sounds no bellsweet, soft, fairylike is your note.”

The fact that the chants and bells are fixedupon as symbols of the new religion suggests thatbells of this type were novelties. Bells were some-

times given a form of baptism, and a service ofdedication for a bell is still in use in the BritishIsles. Bells are still used to exorcise evil spirits(hence the phrase “bell, book and candle”). Thebells were employed for healing purposes, but thehealing seems mainly to have been associated withtouching the bell (considered effective for skindiseases, as recorded in the Life of St Mochua ofBalla), or drinking well-water from it, using it as acup, rather than from listening to it. St Fillan’s bellwas said to cure insanity. The bronze “SkellatBell” in Dunbartonshire Museum gets its namefrom an old Scots word meaning a pan or cup.

The power of flight with which some of thesebells are credited (e.g. the bell at Insh, MacGregor1961) may be a magical extension of the power ofthe sound of a bell to travel over long distancesand draw people to it: in any case they often trav-elled with their owners. This same power is tradi-tionally associated with St Moluag’s bachuil orstaff, which obligingly crossed the Firth of Lornefor the saint on one occasion when he had forgot-ten to bring it with him from his island home. Thepower of speech accorded to bells may simply be ametaphor for their use for signalling purposes;and, visually, the hollow of the bell represents thepreacher’s mouth, the clapper his tongue. We stillspeak of the iron tongue of a bell.

It was a dangerous business to attempt to stealone of these bells. One man became rooted to thespot at the ridge of a hill with a stolen bell, until hemade up his mind to return it (Ellacombe 1872,134). Another group of men attempting to steal abell from the Island of Skye by boat, wererebuffed by increasing storms, until they left thebell behind them. No doubt these tales were toldto intimidate thieves, but the belief that the talewould carry weight with a thief is itself testimonyto their power.

Such was the significance of the bells, that theygave their name to one of the unique structures asso-ciated with the Celtic church – the round towers,whose name in Gaelic is cloicthech – bell-house. Thehand-bells would have been rung from the smallwindows at the top, allowing the sound to carry afair distance. The round towers were also refuges, sothe bells may well have been used in times of dangeras well as, naturally enough, to call monks to prayer.This 9th century poem (the original is in Gaelic) dis-armingly reveals that, to the Christians at least, theyhad great powers of attraction!

3 The passage is translated from the 12th century AD Acal-lam na Senorach, which is also the source for the possibleuse of gold coating on bells, though this might refer tobell-shrines. This seminal text was published with atranslation by O’Grady, Standish H. (1892), Silva Gadeli-ca, London and Edinburgh.

John Purser328

“Sweet little bellThat rings in the windy night,

I’d sooner be with youThan to be meeting with a wanton woman.”

We may imagine a monk on Iona, young enoughfor temptation, old enough to reject it, stumblingout of his cell on a wild night to the call of the bellto sing the twelve prescribed psalms.

The iron bells produce a melancholy clangingsound not dissimilar to that of large cow or sheepbells, but with the bronze bells of Scotland,thought to be of slightly later date we enter a dif-ferent order of musicality, for these bells can eachindividually play three different notes.

Two of the faces produce the same note, but theothers are different from it and each other. Theycover a minor third. Subsequent ringing of otherbronze bells of similar design (quadrangular,flared, and with a curved flange where the bellopens out) produced similar results. The bells inquestion are the Little Dunkeld (Fig. 8), Forteviot,Banchory and St Fillan’s bells. It seems likely thatthe effect was deliberate and it is possible that itwas achieved by a slight irregularity in the quad-rangle, sufficient to make the sides unequal in area,though not so as to produce a distorted visual effect.The characteristic is, as far as I can determine,unique to this design; but the bronze bell of StFinnan, which is the smallest, is an exception, pro-ducing only one basic note, possibly because it istoo small to make a meaningful difference in termsof surface area of the four faces. Irish bronze bells,which are generally less flared, hint at the charac-teristic but do not achieve it. The different notescould have been used to indicate different times ofday or of the hour, or to accompany chanting andto indicate moments of special importance inchurch services – Christ’s presence at the Mass isannounced by the Sanctus bell. Pitched bells werecertainly used in the middle ages to accompanysinging; and the Scottish bronze bells, which pro-duce a lovely clear sound capable of soft as well asvery loud playing, could well be among the earliestsurviving bells worthy of that function.

Two of the bronze bells may have been com-missioned by Kenneth MacAlpin in 848/9, whounited the Picts and the Scots and had built achurch at Dunkeld to house the relics of SaintColumba, perhaps to save them from Vikingraiders but also to move the focus of Scottish reli-gious life from the remote West to as near the deadcentre of his country as could be managed.

The ancient symbolism of the bronze age cro-tals and horns, has become the symbolism of thenew religion – the three notes in the one instru-ment, the Holy Trinity. But of course it was not anew religion, any more than the instruments were

new instruments, for the chain of symbolic reso-nance remains unbroken, and this little bell doesno more and no less than the oldest of them all, therock gongs with which I started.

Like the Lia Fail, the bells are intimately tiedup with the destiny of Scotland as a nation. At thecoronation of James IV it was borne in a pageant:and at the decisive battle of Bannockburn in 1314,when the Scots defeated the English and estab-lished the Scottish monarchy as sovereign andindependent, the crozier and bell of St Fillan werecarried before the army, to symbolise in Christianform a continuity of pastoral staff (or druidicwand), and protective bell (descendant of the rockgong) that will proclaim the validity of their con-text and the certainty of their continuity into thethird millenium AD.

4 EXCURSUS: THE CARNYXAS MODERN TOTEM

We should not be surprised that the effect of thereconstruction of the carnyx (cp. the paper of J.Creed in this publication) on Scottish cultural lifehad been quite dramatic. It sounds impressive (eg.paper of M. Campbell/Th. Gillivray in this vol-ume). It looks impressive. It impressed the Ro-mans, and it impressed the Celts because it is animportant part of their imagery – not least amongthe Picts.

The Pictish wild boar carving from Knockna-gael is typical. The stone comes from near Inver-ness and is now in the Highland Council Officesin Inverness. Similar images appear on two otherClass I stones as well as on summit rock atDunadd, which was the seat of the early Scottickings. But the carnyx itself is our finest example ofsignificance. The image is stylised, but it none-the-less carefully reflects aspects of the live creature.

The imagery of the wild boar bears upon thequality of ferocity, courageousness and cunning.Pigs are intelligent, and the wild ones particularlyso, and very fast. But they were an important partof diet (vide Obelix!) and, according to manyCeltic tales from Ireland and Scotland, were regu-larly herded if not partially domesticated. Somehad magical properties, notably the wild boarwhose poisonous bristles caused the death ofDiarmuid – again a tale common to Ireland andScotland.

The hazel nuts discovered at the site where theDeskford carnyx was discovered are especially sig-nificant, for the nut was not only food for humans,but for pigs who are great nut eaters. More thanthat, the hazel nut was known in Celtic mythologyin Scotland and Ireland as the nut of wisdom. Itwas said to give bards their knowledge and the

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland 329

wisdom could be imparted at second hand, by eat-ing a salmon of knowledge – for the salmonacquired its red spots and its wisdom from swal-lowing the nine hazels of knowledge that fell intothe sacred pool where it swam. But the pig, as aneater of hazel nuts, was itself wise and flesh washighly prized. The people of the Orkneys taketheir name from that of the pig – the Arcaibh orpig people, it being their totemic creature and tra-ditionally featuring in their dreams, an associationwhich would give extra force to an artefact fromnorth-eastern Scotland, assuming associationbetween the two peoples of those parts. It is alsothe traditional crest of the MacKinnons and theCampbells of Argyll and Breadalbane.

With all the cultural associations cited (e.g.MacQueen 1980; scenes of the Gundestrup bowl,Fig. 9), the instrument, far from seeming alien, hasbeen accepted in Scotland as something whichbelongs here. Of course it is recognised as pan-European but, as Fraser Hunter (s. his paper inthis publication) has pointed out, elements of thedesign appear to be local, and the potential role ofthe instrument in the holding back of the Romansgives it a particular appeal, the Scots being proudof the fact that much of their territory was never

truly conquered, and such as was, was only heldfor a brief and turbulent period.

What has been particularly heartening is thatthe enthusiasm for the instrument has been felt bya wide cross-section of Scottish society. Schoolchildren from opposite corners of the countryhave been enthusiastic: in Fochabers they per-formed a play with the carnyx as its focal centre,and in Bearsden the instrument was a vital link in aEuropean-funded Comenius partnership projectin which the pupils examined their Celto-Romanheritage. The reconstruction has brought togetherspecialists of various fields (see the paper of J.Creed and J. Kenny in this publication) and thegeneral public: and such has been the demand thata second instrument had to be made, in order toallow the first one to spend a reasonable amountof time on public display in the National Museum.

Interestingly, the public have not had anydifficulty in approaching the instrument’sunique sound world. Perhaps the combinationof its superb zoomorphic presence with thegreat power and variety of the sound, makesthoughts of conventional melody irrelevant. Itis accepted for what it is, not compared withwhat it is not.

John Purser330

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ÁLVAREZ, R./SIEMENS, L. (1988)The lithophonic use of large natural rocks inthe prehistoric Canary Islands. in: The Archae-ology of Early Music Cultures, Third Interna-tional Meeting of the ICTM Study Group onMusic Archaeology (Hannover/Wolfenbüttel,Nov. 1986). Ed. by E. Hickmann and D.W.Hughes. Bonn, 1–10.

BOURKE, C. (1980)Early Irish Handbells. Journal of the RoyalSociety of Antiquaries of Ireland (JRSAI), vol.110, 52–66.

BOURKE, C. (1983)The Handbells of the early Scottish church, in:Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries ofScotland, XIII, 464–468.

CHILDE, V. G. (1935)Prehistory of Scotland. London.

COLES, J. M. (1959/1960)Scottish Late Bronze Age Metalwork. Pro-ceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scot-land, Vol. XCIII.

ELLACOMBE, H. T. (1872)Bells of the Church. Exeter.

FAGG, M. C. (1997)Rock Music. Occasional Paper on TechnologyNo.14, Oxford.

FURNESS, J. OF (12th/13th C)Vita Kentigerni, in: Forbes, A.P. (1874), Livesof S Ninian and S Kentigern, in: The Historiansof Scotland Vol V. Edinburgh.

GREGORY, A. (1904)Gods and Fighting Men. London/Edinburgh.

HENSCHEN-NYMAN, O. (1988)Cup-marked sounding stones in Sweden, in:The Archaeology of Early music Cultures.Bonn, 11–16.

HICKMANN, E. (1998)Das heilige Signal. Irische und schottischeHandglocken aus der Frühzeit der christlichenMission, in: Glocken und Glockenspiele. Mi-chaelsteiner Konferenzberichte 56, Michael-stein 1998, 37– 45.

LUND, C. S. (1984/1991)The Sounds of Prehistoric Scandinavia, Stock-holm: Musica Sveciae, EMI-LP 1361031, inclu-ding a booklet; MSCD 101.

MACGREGOR, A. A. (1961)The Lure of Ancient Bells. The Scots Magazine(August 1961), Dundee.

MACQUEEN, J. (1980)Myths and Legends of Lowland Scottish Saints.Scottish Studies 24, Edinburgh, 12–13.

MEEK, D. (1990)The Death of Diarmaid in Scottish and Irish Tra-dition. Celtica vol. XXI. Essays in honour ofBrian O Cuiv. Dublin 1990, 335–361.

PURSER, J. (1992)Scotland’s Music. A History of the Traditionaland Classical Music of Scotland from the EarliestTimes to Present Day. Edinburgh/London.

SWIRE, O.F. (1961)Skye the Island and its Legends. London/Glasgow.

THORNBER, I. (1975)The Bell of St Finnan. The Scottish Field (June1975).

WATSON, A. (1997)Sound-Reflecting Rocks. British Archaeologyno. 23 (April 1997) London.

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland 331

John Purser332

Fig. 1 Sound-reflecting rocks Easter Acquhorthies, North-East Scotland.

a

b

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland 333

Fig. 2 Tiree Rock.

Fig. 3 Iona Rock (Isle of Iona, Scotland).

John Purser334

Fig. 5 Bronze Age crotal, h=12 cm.

Fig. 4 Irish Bronze Age horns (about 800 BC), end-blown instrument: L = 75 cm; side-blown horn = 60 cm.

The Sounds of Ancient Scotland 335

Fig. 6 St. Gilda’s rock.

Fig. 7 St. Lonan’s bell (9th cent. AD, h = 21,5 cm).

Fig. 8 Little Dunkeld bell (9th cent. AD, h = 21,5 cm).

John Purser336

Fig

. 9Sc

ene

wit

h th

ree

carn

yx-b

low

ers.

Inn

er s

urfa

ce o

f the

Gun

dest

rup

caul

dron

(cas

t aft

er o

rigi

nal)

. Cel

tic,

2nd

/1st

cen

tury

BC

, Nat

iona

l Mus

eum

Cop

enha

gen.