THE ARGYLL NECROPOLIS.

New Zealand Herald, 29 June 1914, Page 4

THE ARGYLL NECROPOLIS.

BURIAL BY THE HOLY LOCH

It is one of the most curions things in Clan Campbell history, recalled by tho death of the Duke of Argyll, Tnat fruin the Middle Ages the heads of the house of'^rgyn''should, contrary to the most cherished sentiment of the Celt, find sepulchre among strangers, among hills that were none of theirs, and where 'TEcy did not possess an acre. " Their burial-plafcft is far from Inverary and Hhe watchtower of "Dunchuach— 30 miles by road, and three times as far by sea, in that bight of tho Firth of Clyde, called Holy Locli, in the villago of Kilmun, threo miles recessed from tho busy channel up and do\Vn which passes Glasgow's shipping traffic. ' ' • Till the 15th century isles and churchyards of Lochawo were the family's burialplaces; it was the cradle of the race in Lorn. The later choice of Cowal for their tombs was a shift inspired by piety. St. i Mannu, or St. Mund, a contemporary I of' St. Coliimba, had, dfi the shores'"of "t.lie ! Holy Lochia'Cell 'and'mbnastory ill 'which he himself was burredthe place would seem to have become to faith the most sacred spot in the province of Argyll, and tho first peer of (he Jioase of Campbell, Sir Duncan i>( X/ochawe, in 1442 erected a memorial chapel', to his wife and child on th« site of the old monk's labours and rest. Twelve years lajer he was buried there himself, and froip that tiino Kilmun has been 'the Argyll necropolis. Among"the" I 'thieft whosa' bones repose there in an unostentatious domed mausoleum' at the (dot* if the Bill's, "are Archibald, the 'first'jnarqueSs,' guillotined by the " miden'rlat- in. 1661, and his son' ana successor, Archibald, ninth

carl, who met lho-.«aine fate 24 years i later. The 'clan; as won oft-possible,- fft- ' covered from Lowland and .dishonoured s graves |neso mutilated bodies of their , chiefs, will] th? heads (hat had been [ weathering on fortes gateways, and car- . ri£(jHi»m'for bijrjaMo' the" Highlands. Those" 'national exploits that giv6 to the • Argylla apromiuence in history were, for : the most part,' outside of Argyllshire; comparatively few of them havo died there, and they have no burial-placo at Inveraray. But wherever they .died they have —at least the chief of thertP-unfiiilingly been brought to " the Holy Loch. -'-It looked, on the death of the •eighth duko, George, who died at Inverary 111 1900, * as if the sequence of four' -centuries and a-half were to fcc broken, the widow, his ' third d\iqhpss, wiphed hun to bo taken to 1 lona, l?ut the tradition and 4 the family in- 1 fiuence, backed by the direct' Intervention 1 <tf Queen Victoria, ' 'insisted" on V f Kilniuri. And.the duke wag buried there-beside-the mpjhfi- Of his'famijy, who had died more (nan '20 years before him. In a humble •wafeffonfette> willTiHc coffin covered by rt : pMd' of'Camjpbell'WrtflTi.' the duke's re- . Wiiftis nvere' driven 30 miles, ahrtut Loch I Pyrio and 7 through the' glens of - Cowal, i frttf tie' the' loveliest- in i Sttftlaii'cl—fOr-*hfch'he had a passion, to < thrifthely 'alien ■ ctfll 6tt the shrifts" of the I Holy Lo6h,"' a plttce r lie had ' rarely seen : except *at-funerals •* ''• "• j