Township: Barrapol,Ceann a’ Bharra

Map Reference: Kenavara 27

Name Type: cave

Meaning: the bed of the daughter of the King of Norway

Other Forms:

Related Places:

Information:“On the right hand side from the entrance [of An Uamh Mhòr] is what is known as the bed of the daughter of the King of Lochlin...Tradition says that she eloped with a youth whom her royal father deemed ineligible as her spouse.” - Handbook to the Islands of Coll and Tiree, Hector MacDougall and Rev. Hector Cameron, Archibald Sinclair, p101.

A short distance from the Great Cave is Leabaidh Nighean Rìgh Lochlainn. It is a rock shelf shaped like a couch...oral sources say that she eloped to Tiree with a lover deemed unworthy of her by her father - Bailtean is Ath-Ghairmean, Niall M Brownlie, Argyll Publishing, 1995, p78-80.

"Nach eil Uamh Dhiarmaid thall an sin an Ceann-a-Bharra?"
"A Bheil?"
"Tha gu dearth, 's a' leab' anns an robh e laighe."
["Wasn't there the Cave of Diarmad over in Kenevara?"
"Was there?"
"Yes, definitely, and the bed on which he lay too".]
Donald Sinclair talking to Dr John MacInnes, in Cregeen E 2004 'Recollections of an Argyllshire Drover', ed Margaret Bennett. Edinburgh: John Donald, 158-161

A bed shaped platform in An Uamh Mhòr - DMcC.

Local Form:

Languages : Gaelic

Informants: David McClounnan, Balephuil, 4/1994

Informant 2: Bailtean is Ath-Ghairmean, Niall M Brownlie, Argyll Publishing, 1995, p155