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The Hermitage, Ossian's Cave
Date 1999 - 2000
Event ID 1001559
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1001559
Ossian’s cave is an enhanced natural feature, employing several large boulders to form part of the cave. These have been joined with undressed stone to form the roof and sides of a ‘cave’, with two small, irregular windows and a round headed doorway. The corbelled roof is made up of stones, set on edge and mortared into place. It is only one stone in thickness. To the left of the doorway, inside the cave, is a low stone seat, c.1.5m in length, 0.3m from the ground. The whole structure is only part mortared together, making its overall condition somewhat precarious. Steps have been taken to revegetate the top in recent years.
The dates of the cave and stone seat, below, are not exactly known. Estate records suggest that the cave was possibly built in 1755, before Ossian’s Hall, however, there are no visitors’ accounts until 1776 (ibid. 25), suggesting that the earlier structures are different. Originally, within the cave there was an inscription, purported to be an Ossianic poem. This no longer survives.
(HER99 09)
Information from NTS (SCS) June 2015
