A Haunted Mountain and a Pelagic Wanderer

Rum in the distance from Kilmory on mainland

It was summer and I was camping on the island of Rum, a remote, lonely, mountainous spot off the West coast Scotland.

It was my first trip to the island and my plan was to climb its main peaks.

I arrived off the late afternoon ferry. The hike to my camping spot near the foot of a mountain called Trollabhal, took about two hours. As I neared the mountain and was looking for a level area of ground to pitch my tent and contemplating the delicacy of a boil in the bag supper, I first became aware of spooky, unusual noises. They were loud, continuous and a tad disconcerting. I had no idea what they were.

Some months later I came across the following description penned by the naturalist, Ronald Mathias Lockley, a description I could not better:

‘A bedlam of wild screaming, a howling wind like the crying of insane spirits.’

To explain let me first meander to a time in Scotland’s past and mention two creatures, one mythical, originating in Nordic folklore and the other ethereal and, according to some, magical.

One is a Troll the other is a bird.

The Troll I write about is not the disagreeable creature who leaves offensive messages on your social media platform.

No, this Troll comes with a reputation for being difficult to behold, perhaps slow witted and, according to some, who claim experience of the creature, occasionally unhelpful and dangerous to humans.

They are mostly to be found living in caves or burrows in isolated mountain areas.

Or have I got that the wrong way round?

Where was I?

From the ninth to the eleventh century, Scotland received regular visitations from the Nordic nations. Vikings influenced Scotland and its culture in many ways. For this tale however I will concentrate, however briefly, on their influence to our language.

Many of the mountains on Rum retain the names vested upon them by these Norse visitors these many centuries ago.

It would appear that seafaring Vikings simply bestowed names to geographical features, such as mountains and other places, based on the detail they observed from the sea as they approached.

Barkeval is a good example of this.

The Nordic word for hill is fjall, pronounced ‘val’. You will see examples in England where fjall,or ‘val’, now appears as ‘fell’. Hence hill runners in England being commonly referred to as ‘fell’ runners.

The first element of Barkeval, ’bark’, takes us to the Vikings word for wood or trees.

So Barkeval roughly translates to the hill with trees, the hill of the trees or perhaps, the hill of the wood.

Barkeval is, to this day, continues to be easily recognised from the sea as its slopes are still covered in birch trees.

Trollabhal however was different. It was not named by what the Vikings saw, it was named by what they heard, strange, eerie noises coming from deep with and high on the mountain.

The Vikings were startled and spooked as this was new to them. They were certain the mountain was inhabited by Trolls.

troll - courtesy of Pixabay free download

Trolls are a mythical creature from Nordic folklore, said to live well away from humankind, often deep in forests or in remote mountains. The mountains of Rum certainly qualify.

The Norse invaders however were very much mistaken.

The noise that so unsettled them was not made by strange mythical creatures from their folklore, but by altogether more magical creatures, the amazing, Manx Shearwaters.

When experiencing the sound of these birds during the nesting season and particularly after dark, it definately is an eerie sound and it is no surprise that uninitiated listeners can be alarmed and spooked. In some areas, because of that call, they are known as, ‘Devil Bird’.

Having heard their calls, I can attest to the fact, they are eerie and ghost like.

However, never having heard a Troll, I cannot compare.

Manx Shearwaters are a bird of longevity, some have been known to survive into their fifties. They are an open ocean, pelagic, seabird.

Their breeding season starts in March. They tend to be monogamous and lay one egg a season, which is incubated by both adults, taking turns of a few days each, for about two months.

Once incubated the parents stay with their single offspring and feed it for a week. After that the feeding pattern changes to night feeding only. That continues for a few weeks, usually about two months.

It is then something extraordinary happens, both parent birds leave their single chick alone in its burrow to fend for itself, while they fly off to South America.

manx shearwater — ©Jeremiah Trimble / Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab. — Thank you.

For the next ten days or so after seeing its parents fly off, the chick goes without food, losing weight. During this period it spends each night sitting alone outside its burrow, stargazing and working out how it will travel where its insticts are programmed to take it. Some experts think it might use the earth’s magnetic field, like Geese and some other species. Whichever way is correct, or if it is a combination, or even if a totally different way we do not understand, one thing is certain, the young Manx Shearwater is a remarkable, tough wee bird.

A miracle feat of some five and a half thousand miles over open oceans, crossing the equator and on to Brazil, on its own. It leaves me awestruck.

A final thought; I am glad it spooked the invading Vikings, because it appears the local inhabitants couldn’t.