Pipers Cave??

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Postby petewick » Fri May 26, 2006 10:51 am

Are ye' sure it wisna' at Crosslegie, Gen, as an extension of the story tells us that a family in that steading were sitting by their fire one night and heard the ghostly drones of the tune you mentioned coming from below the hearth of the fire.

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Re: Pipers Cave

Postby Bobbie En Tejas » Fri May 26, 2006 3:58 pm

Dunc wrote:Entrance is very steep and very slippery all the time. A rope is needed to go into it and obviously someone at the open end to hold it!!. plus a torch.It goes down very steep then there,s a large pool of water at the base.


You have some pretty spritely "old and feeble" men if the old piper was able to get into the cave by climbing a rope carrying a dog and a pipe. :wink:
Some people die at 21 but aren't buried until they are 65.
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Pipers Cave

Postby Dunc » Fri May 26, 2006 5:33 pm

Yes Bobbie but he did,nt come back up............
Only the truth has been changed
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Postby Bobbie En Tejas » Fri May 26, 2006 5:46 pm

How'd he get in?
Some people die at 21 but aren't buried until they are 65.
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Postby 4th gen Suthen' » Fri May 26, 2006 7:40 pm

You might be right Petewick you might well be right.......Crossleggie is not far from Killellan!

Bobbie the Piper and his doag went in at Keil Point in Southend. An area you know of course.

Quite a tunnel from there to Big Ben G :roll:
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Postby Bobbie En Tejas » Fri May 26, 2006 7:58 pm

Ah so, 4th, yes, yes :mrgreen: But I thought he went in on the Campbeltown side and his little dog came out the Southend side, according to the legend that Annie posted. Now I'm confused :shock: :oops:
Some people die at 21 but aren't buried until they are 65.
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Postby 4th gen Suthen' » Fri May 26, 2006 8:17 pm

Well, that's hoot we wurr telt in Suthen' school.........and Mr McLeod and Angus McVicar were seldom wrong! :wink:

Much work done at Crossleggie recently and it is looking good........betya many locals dont even know where that is.

Also much work done at Southend school........also looking good but they knocked down the old playground shed :cry: :cry: ....just a sheltered 3 sider with 4 steel poles supporting the open front..........the FUN we had in that shed.....middle poles made perfect goal posts, there was an atmosphere in these sheds.... they should be protected, there cant be many left now......but there IS another in Southend.............. :wink:
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Postby petewick » Sat May 27, 2006 10:45 am

4th gen Suthen' wrote:
Much work done at Crossleggie recently and it is looking good........betya many locals dont even know where that is.

.............. :wink:



I dae, cos my mammy was boarn in there.


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Postby jdcarra » Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:42 pm

4th gen Suthen' wrote:That is SOME zoom lens you have there JD!



It is good 4th gen, but I had moved across the loch tae the new houses below the cave which Dunc has corrected as the position of the cave entrance on the slope.

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Postby amron » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:42 pm

According to the book Argyll's highlands printed 1902 there are a few stories of the Pipers Cave

The Pipers Cave at keil on the Mull of Cantire, is but a small one. to all appearance, compared to some of its neighbours. What the cave lacks in outward signs its vastness is fully made up of its interior depth and distance; for its ramifications are said to be so vast that although one of its outlets is at Keil, the other is at Kilellan, six miles away while a branch passage communicates with another cave in the hill of Bengullion a distance of 10 miles away.

A bold piper marched in accompanied by his terrier dog while hid friends watched at its mouth - how they heard the pipes get fainter and fainter till there came a wild skirl and a yeldritch laugh and all was still; how the dog came running out without his skin, in time he obtained a fresh skin but he never barked again. The piper was never seen though he is often heard under the hearthstone of a farmhouse at Kilellan, playing his favourite tune and stopping occasionally to exclaim "I doubt, I doubt I'll ne'er win out!"

Another version is A superstition existing amoung the country people that, if anyone ventures beyond a certain length the cave will close over the inquisitive explorer. A piper of the MCDonalds is said to have entered playing Cha till, Cha till, cha till mi tuille on his pipes and was heard underground for many miles, He never returned as the cave is said to have closed and held him fast inside the flinty walls.

The other version was 2 pipers MacLeod and MacCrimmon made a wager and they would enter the cave at keil and not cease playing until they reapeared at Kilkerran. The tune they played was a gaelic pibroach called MacCrimmons Lament and the translation of the words were "MacLeod won't return and MacCrimmon is dead". MacLeod was heard playing this about halfway through the cave in Coniglen when he was supposed to share the same fate as his companion for he was never seen again., however the little dog appeared at kilkerran much emaciated and without any hair

There is also a story called the Great Cave at Bolsa which also mentions A piper goes with a dog to explore a large cave. The dog comes out at a great distance, with the hair rubbed or singed off his body. the piper is heard playing but never reappears.
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Re: Pipers Cave??

Postby TeeJay » Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:40 pm

holidayed at crossleggie many times in the 50's with the mcgeachy family. heard the piper many times, so did ma drunken pals.
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Re: Pipers Cave??

Postby linda_j » Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:30 am

I remember my dad telling me the story about Piper's Cave and how it came out at Southend....:D
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Re: Pipers Cave??

Postby Iain » Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:44 am

My Grandmother always warned me never to up Ben Gullion because of the cave. And always told the same story about the dog arriving at the Southend cave.

Now…, putting a date to it ! She said that it was her father who told her the story…, and he was born in 1860.
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Re: Pipers Cave??

Postby EMDEE » Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:33 pm

Iain

Don't know if you've read "Piping Traditions of Argyll" by Bridget MacKenzie (published 2004), a fascinating book for those of us who are interested in the music and history of the Great Highland Bagpipe. It has a section devoted to Kintyre, and makes reference to the Piper's Cave. The author states that there are no fewer than 27 such caves throughout mainland Scotland and the Islands with much the same story attached to them. She says that she has been unable to find the origin of the story, but suspects it may be in Latin or Greek literature, or have its roots in an old Irish tale.
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Re: Pipers Cave??

Postby Iain » Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:28 am

EMDEE wrote:Iain

"Piping Traditions of Argyll" by Bridget MacKenzie (published 2004), a fascinating book:


Thanks Emdee…, should be interesting ! I'm not surprised at seeing that there's so many…, I suppose every town with a cave must have its story... :)
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