76 EXCURSIONS TO BUTE AND CUMBRAE. 
split bones which had been broken from those of some large 
animal. This was our resting and turning point, and having 
found a pass in the trap cliffs we reached one of those curious, 
smooth, grassy glades which lie between the rough outcroppings 
of the trap rocks near South Garrochty. 
“Right in front of us was a very remarkable hill, and a certain 
gentleman we met furnished us with a good cock-and-bull story 
of the marvellous kind concerning it. South Bute occupies but a 
small area, only some four square miles, but from the irregularity 
of its surface it presents from many points of view landscapes 
worthy of the brush of the painter, the admiration of the 
excursionist, or the camera of the photographer. 
“ Turning to the right by the road which leads to the Plan farm, 
we found a footpath which took us to the ruin of St. Blane’s 
Chapel. 
“‘ The arrangements here are peculiar, the church and churchyard 
being situated on the top of a mound raised some distance above 
the general level of the ground. Some repairs and additions have 
lately been made on the ruins, but it may take centuries ‘ nibbling 
of the tooth of time’ to bring them into harmony with the rest of 
the ruins. 
“To the south-east of the churchyard a bit of ground has been 
excavated to a shallow depth, exposing some exceedingly primitive 
structures. What we dubbed the ¢veasure chest is a hole in the 
ground lined with four rough stones and covered by a stone lid, 
which has a convenient notch in one side of it, so as to allow a 
person to put in or take out any small article without being at the 
trouble of raising the stone. 
“Just to the west of the church there is a cliff of trap rock, and 
close up to it there are two remarkable structures built entirely 
without lime. The south one may have been the original kil or 
cell of St. Blane, and the north one—called the cauldron—was 
probably where his servants resided. It is sub-circuiar in outline, 
and the boulder-built walls are ten feet thick. Inside of it one of 
the party detached a large fragment of an under hand-millstone— 
the ‘sitter.’ 
“Proceeding from the base of the cliff, at the north side of the 
cauldron, there is the root of a very thick, old, dry-stone wall, 
which, curving round, continues in a straight line for a considerable 
