by Annie » Tue May 23, 2006 2:43 am
The Piper's Cave
There is a legend about Bengullion, that mighty hill rising above the south side of Campbeltown. How it came about is unclear but the following is a rough guide to the events surrounding the Piper's Cave.
The cave lay well up on the north face of Bengullion, the entrance a cleft in the rocks near the summit and hidden by thick gorse and heather.
Long ago there was a piper who could play the most wonderful tunes on his instrument, almost like a pied piper. The lilt of the notes captured the soul of those who listened to him. Some people said he was a the only man to escape the Dunaverty massacre and, with his little dog, played for money to buy food.
Time drove on and the piper grew old and feeble, his hair white, his frame bent with age but his playing remained virile and strong. Strangely his dog kept his strength and followed his master bravely, warning him of approaching dangers.
Eventually the council decided that the piper was an eyesore to the town, with his ragged clothes and the constant wail of the pipes. They decided that he should be put in the care of the parish and his dog drowned in the loch.
The piper must have had supernatural powers, for he sensed that the council was going to act against him. Gathering his few belongings, he headed up to the cave on Bengullion then turned to face the town far below. Taking up his pipes he blew the lament of Flodden. The notes beat down on the town and the council leaders were filled with remorse at their attitude to the piper.
Runners set off up the hill to bring the piper back down, but the lament grew weaker and then died in the stillness of the day. The piper could not be found nor his little dog. People searched into the cave, for one of his shoes were found, but that was all.
Sometime later near Southend a farmer out tending his sheep saw a little dog appear from an opening in some rocks. He noticed that the dog had lost most of its hair as if scraped off by rocks. As the farmer listened at the opening he heard far in the depths the wail of the pipes, haunting notes of Scotland's sad history. He took the dog home and cared for it and when it died he buried it near the opening where it had appeared to him many years before.
That is the legend of the Piper's Cave. Did the dog make it all the way to Southend, after his master had perished? Who can tell.
Yet when we used to go near the cave in the hot summer afternoons of the school holidays you could, if you listened carefully, hear in the depths the faint drone of the pipes mingling with the flitting insects and wonder if the piper was still striding in the dark with his pipes.