Scotiana

Whether you are a great lover of nature, authors and books, films, castles, whiskies, historical subjects or whatever your tastes you can be sure to find in Scotland a thematic trail about your favourite author or subject. Of course you can create your own itinerary as we’ve done in our previous trips in Scotland, but what I’ve discovered quite recently is that a Merlin Trail had just been created in the South of Scotland. I didn’t know there was a  link between Merlin the Enchanter and Scotland but to tell the truth, I don’t know much about the Arthurian legend, except a few vague romantic ideas conveyed by films and books of tales and legends. What a good opportunity to find out more about such a fascinating mystery.  But let me tell you first how I discovered the news.

I was doing some research on the Internet and jotting down my first notes to prepare our next trip to Scotland 🙂 🙂 (itinerary 10 – probably in June 2025) when I came across a very interesting article that had appeared recently in Futura Science, a French magazine. This article was about recent archaeological discoveries made in the south of Scotland. This article was entitled ‘En Écosse, les archéologues sur la piste de la tombe de Merlin l’enchanteur’. A title like that could only pique my curiosity! I immediately found equivalent articles in the Scottish press.

Dark Age Digs Merlin article IMG_4996

The legend of King Arthur and Merlin has not finished spilling ink…

Merlin & the Arthurian legend

Merlin and Arthur engraving by Gustave Doré 1868

The Enchanter Merlin is a very enigmatic figure, close to King Arthur Pendragon, who is the driving force behind the stories surrounding the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table and the Quest for the Holy Grail. This mythological figure has been used in numerous works of fiction and appears in ancient historical texts, providing clues for researchers trying to uncover the truth about the story of Merlin.

The stories surrounding Merlin and the Arthurian adventures emerged with the texts of Geoffrey of Monmouth (and probably even before).

Geoffrey_of_Monmouth_at_Tintern_Station_(geograph_6023609)

Born in 1095 and dying around 1155, this Welsh bishop wrote a massive work of the medieval era, the Historia regum Britanniae. Inside is a chronology of the English regency, focusing on heroic figures such as Arthur Pendragon.

Manuscript of Historia Regum Britanniae

The ecclesiastic’s writings were taken up by authors such as Chrétien de Troyes, and the legends were embellished over the centuries in Great Britain and France, to mention only these two countries.

Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien’s chivalric romances, including Erec and Enide, Lancelot, Perceval and Yvain, represent some of the best-regarded works of medieval literature.

Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been from Troyes or at least intimately connected with it. Between 1160 and 1172 he served (perhaps as herald-at-arms, as Gaston Paris speculated) at the court of his patroness Marie of France, Countess of Champagne, daughter of King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married Count Henry I of Champagne in 1164. Later, he served the court of Philippe d’Alsace, Count of Flanders.

(Wikipedia)

Lancelot_passant_le_pont_de_l’Épée

Scottish Origins of the legend

The possibility that the Arthurian legends may be partly true has never ceased to haunt researchers and medieval specialists. Recent archaeological discoveries shedding new light on this internationally famous legend are bound to fire their enthusiasm and it’s to Scotland that the spotlight is turning. Since 2022, a team of archaeologists in Scotland has embarked on a very exciting adventure to try and find the tomb of Merlin.

Following my reading of the article found in Futura I was looking for more information on the web when I came across ‘Senchus’ an extremely well documented blog created by Tim Clarkson, ‘as a personal notepad for things Scottish and medieval’. This blog appears to be a goldmine for anyone interested in the Scottish sources of the Merlin legend.

The very name of Tim’s blog is quite appropriate (though its pronunciation sounds quite strange for a non-initiated Gaelic speaker ;-))

“What is Senchus?

In the Gaelic language ‘senchus’ (pronounced shen-uh-kuhs) means “history”. It seems an appropriate name for a collection of notes, thoughts and jottings about the early medieval period in Scotland.

The Senchus weblog has a focus on North Britain between the passing of Rome and the arrival of the Vikings. In chronological terms this covers the period AD 400 to 800 but these limits are fairly fluid. In geographical terms the scope includes not only Scotland but also parts of northern England, Wales and Ireland.

The entries posted on this site reflect my own medieval interests together with other snippets of information which I think might be useful or relevant.”

Vita Merlini by Geoffrey of Monmouth

“Many visitors to this blog [Senchus] will no doubt be familiar with a theory that the legend of Merlin originated in Scotland rather than somewhere further south, such as in Wales or Cornwall. The theory is fairly well known, having been around since medieval times. In the twelfth century, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini (‘Life of Merlin’) located a large part of the legend in Scotland. Medieval Scottish tradition later equated Geoffrey’s Merlin with a ‘Wild Man’ called Lailoken who featured in stories about Kentigern (aka Mungo), the patron saint of Glasgow.”

Merlin_and_St_Kentigern,_Stobo_Kirk

Tim Clarkson mentions the existence of a lovely stained glass window in Stobo Kirk, a picturesque 12th old church situated near Peebles (Scottish Borders) featuring Merlin Sylvestris (Merlin Wyllt) being converted to Christianity by Saint Kentigern.

There is a very interesting page about the story of Mungo and Merlin on the blog Dark Age Dig, a blog aimed at promoting Scotland’s Dark Age Heritage.

An old Scottish old church with its kirkyard around… well worth the visit! Itinerary 10 😉

I’ve downloaded Scotland’s Merlin – A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins on my kindle. Though I haven’t finished it yet, I’ve already learned a great deal about Merlin and the Scottish origins of the Arthurian legend through these pages.

The back cover of the book reads :

Who was Merlin? Is the famous wizard of Arthurian legend based on a real person? In this book, Merlin’s origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious ‘wild man’ who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as important events such as the Battle of Arfderydd. Lailoken’s reappearance in medieval Welsh literature as the fabled prophet Myrddin is also examined. Myrddin himself was eventually transformed into Merlin the wizard, King Arthur’s friend and mentor. This is the Merlin we recognise today, not only in art and literature but also on screen. His earlier forms are less familiar, more remote, but can still be found among the lore and legend of the Dark Ages. Behind them we catch fleeting glimpses of an original figure who perhaps really did exist: a solitary fugitive, tormented by his experience of war, who roamed the hills and forests of southern Scotland long ago.

The book appeared around the time that a project called The Merlin Trail was taking shape in the Scottish Borders” writes Tim Crichton…

The Merlin Trail: Robin Crichton’s “brainchild”

Robin Crichton of the Arthur Trail Association

… a project called The Merlin Trail   was taking shape in the Scottish Borders. This project is the brainchild of Robin Crichton whose tireless efforts have recently come to fruition. In March 2018, the Trail and its accompanying website were officially launched. The website describes the routes of the trail and the places visited along the way. On the ground, the trail is marked by information boards at key historic sites across a broad swathe of southern Scotland, reaching westward as far as the Rhinns of Galloway. Robin Crichton discusses the Scottish Merlin in his book On the Trail of Merlin in a Dark Age which can be purchased via the trail website.

The History behind the Legend

This is the true story behind the legend of Merlin. Born of a royal family to a life of privilege and luxury, his place in society was ordained until he lost everything in a bloodbath of pillage and genocide. Forced to live on the run he survived as an outlaw hiding out in a cave, living off what the forest could provide.

It is the story of the clash between Christianity and traditional belief – a duel between St Mungo the priest and Merlin the pagan, played out against a webs of late 6th century political intrigue and the strife of a land tearing itself apart.

Until now, our Early Dark Age heritage has been largely ignored by historians because of the lack of cross-checkable written data. This book combines history, archaeology, etymology, topography, botany and folk memory in a giant jigsaw. With nearly 150 colour illustrations and maps, the book is accompanied by a gazetteer of 28 Dark Age sites. It presents the evidence, suggests various interpretations and invites the reader to be the historical detective.

(The Merlin Trail)

I was immediately drawn by the idea of a Merlin Trail in Scotland but even more so when I discovered that it had been created by Robin Crichton  (his “brainchild” as underlined by Tim Clarkson). Robin Crichton is a brilliant and passionate Scottish writer and film-maker.  His book Monsieur Mackintosh had not only allowed us to rediscover a beautiful region of our own country (the French Pyrénées Orientales), but also introduced us to an unknown facet of Charles Rennie Mackintosh  and his art. We are great admirers of the famous Scottish artist and of his wife Margaret.

Monsieur Mackintosh Robin Crichton Luath Press 2007

Monsieur Mackintosh, is a French-English book – a beautifully illustrated and very useful guide-book –  about the trail Robin Crichton he created in France in memory of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. As suggested before, we followed it a few years ago and I did write a series of posts on Scotiana about our adventures in the Pyrénées Orientales . Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret moved to Port-Vendres in the winter of 1925 to the former Hôtel de Commerce, where the owners, Mr and Mrs Dejean, treated them with care and sympathy. The dining room overlooked the busy harbour, which must have brought back memories of Glasgow. They certainly shared here the happiest years of their lives. When Charles Rennie Mackintosh died, his ashes were scattered in the harbour by Margaret…

Traquair House © 2003 Scotiana

“With Brexit, it was going to be impossible to continue our bi-national lifestyle, so we returned permanently to our home at Traquair. The south of Scotland is also an area where the tourist traffic rushes through without stopping on the way to Edinburgh and the Highlands. Just as Mackintosh was long forgotten in the Pyrenees so was Merlin in Southern Scotland.” (Robin Crichton)

We are very grateful to Robin Crichton for the large-scale cultural and artistic project he completed in the south of France. It’s very sad and frustrating that the brexit forced him out of our country. Fortunately, we have now another of his projects to discover in Scotland, and it’s just as exciting even if it takes us far back in time…

What I’ve just learned about “The Merlin Trail” has given me new ideas to include in our “Itinerary 10”. I’m sure our trip will be much too short, as usual, to see all we want to see in Scotland but we’ll do our best to make the most of it.

We’ve already planned to visit a number of sacred sites along the St Cuthbert’s Way, including some of them in England, places so lively described in Alistair Moffat’s book To the Island of Tides : A Journey to Lindisfarne. We’ll also try to visit some, if not all, of the sites listed on the Merlin Trail.  We’re sure to find on our way the very interesting information boards that are always to be found on natural, cultural and historical sites of interest in Scotland. Although some of the sites listed on the Merlin Trail  are already familiar to us from previous journeys around southern Scotland some sites would be well worth revisiting. No better guide, anyway, to visit or revisit the Scottish Borders than Alistair Moffat. I intend to read several of his books before we leave ;-).

I really hope I’ve inspired you to visit or revisit the south of Scotland and of course to explore the Arthurian legends in greater depth, as I’m about to do. It’s a great quest…

Á bientôt pour de nouvelles découvertes en La Belle Alba!

Mairiuna