The villages of Colintraive and
Glendaruel
are situated
on the
Cowal Peninsula in Argyll
and
Bute on the west coast of Scotland. The area is
known locally as Colglen.
The old
name of
the Glen is Glenduisk, meaning "The Glen of
Blackwater".
About 1110 a battle
was
fought between Mekan, King of Norway and son
of Magnus Barefoot, and the
Gaels,
in which the invaders were defeated and the
slaughtered thrown into the River
Ruail or
"Ruel", Glen-da-Ruail
(Glen of red blood). The clachan, Glenderwell or
Glendaruel was anglicized to the name we know as
Glendaruel.
Glendaruel is thought to be one of the glens
praised in the Gaelic poem "The Lament of
Deirdre", in which
reference is made to a Glenndaruadh. It
is found in the 15th-century Glenmasan
manuscript, which may go back to an original
written down in 1238. Deirdre is a tragic
heroine in Irish mythology, and in the poem she
is lamenting the necessity of leaving Scotland
to return to Ireland.
Glendaruel is the inspiration for a number of
bagpipe tunes, including The Glendaruel
Highlanders, The Sweet Maid of Glendaruel,
and The Dream Valley of Glendaruel.
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