STORY OF CLACH RURIC. 395 



the West Highlands ; the day was so bright, and calm, and clear, 

 that while mavis and merle, and hedge-accenter and chaffinch 

 greeted us from copse and hedgerow with their rich and mellow 

 song, the driver, sitting beside us, couldn't help observing as we 

 passed by Appin House, " Na 'n robh chuag again a nis, bha 'n 

 samhradh fhein ann ! " " If we had but the cuckoo now, it would 

 be summer its very self ! " On the beach, a little above high- water 

 mark, just under Appin House, and within an easy stone's cast of 

 the public road, there is an immense spherical boulder of granite, to 

 which there is attached a curious old story, which invests with 

 additional interest an object deserving enough of attention for its 

 own sake for the sake, that is, of its huge size and almost perfect 

 spherical form, this latter peculiarity, in the huge solid mass, 

 making it the most remarkable thing of the kind on the mainland, 

 at least of the West Highlands. The story of the Appin House 

 boulder, or Clach Ruric as it is called, is, dropping minor and 

 unessential details, to the following effect : Long, long ago a 

 Prince of Lochlin or Scandinavia, with a formidable fleet of war 

 galleys, made a descent upon the Hebrides, killing and plundering 

 everywhere with a ruthlessness known only, even in those days of 

 rude lawlessness, to the Vikings of the north. Having thoroughly 

 devastated the islands, Kuric for such was the Prince's name 

 steered for the mainland of Morven, and took up his residence in 

 the castle of Mearnaig, in Glensanda. In this stronghold, the 

 rains of which still exist, he resolved to pass the winter, with the 

 intention of over-running and plundering 'the adjoining districts in 

 the spring, and afterwards sailing homewards in the calm of 

 summer seas, for his galleys were so deeply laden with booty that 

 he feared to encounter the turbulence of the North Sea at any 

 other season. In the early spring the cruel Northman was betimes 

 astir, killing and plundering with but little opposition throughout 

 the districts of Kingerloch, Sunart, and Ardgour, to the head of 



