The stones speak

I was in Kintyre for most of the day, starting off with a visit to the work being done by SSE to build the shore facilities for the substation at the Kintyre end of the undersea cable from Hunterston which will be laid in 2015.

This is a massive investment in the constituency and much to be welcomed both in terms of potential for export of generated power but also because it will strengthen the network in the area something that is much needed after the storms in March.

I then spent two very pleasant hours with the Kintyre Way team and after lunch, courtesy of Marcus Adams of the Carradale Hotel, we walked to Waterfoot along a short stretch of the path that runs from Tarbert all the way to Southend.

At Waterfoot we looked at the small graveyard which I had never noticed before.

There were several stones with Gaelic inscriptions on one side and English text on the other and they all seemed to date from the end of the 19th century . This one commemorates Archilbald McConachie, a farmer from Auchenbreck who died in 1884.

I suspect they confirm that even at that time the two languages were, in this part of Argyll, both in common use. Of course now Gaelic in Argyll s very much in the minority and indeed now is only to be found as a real community language on a few of the Argyll islands. But it is staging a comeback through Gaelic Medium Education and the census figures from 2011 are encouraging in that they show the precipitate decline to have been halted.

The text is from the Beatitudes and says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God".