About an hour north of the city of Glasgow, towards the northwestern end of Loch Lomond, there rises an exceptionally striking patch of mountain country. Although they are one of the most southerly mountain ranges in Scotland, they are in no way inferior to the peaks of the northern Highlands; they possess all of the wild and rugged grandeur of any of the mountains to the north, and we are very fortunate indeed to have them so near at hand. They extend from sea level to 1011 metres at their highest point, encompassing four Munros and seven Corbetts in the process, and mark the northwestern edge of the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park. These are the mountains called “the Arrochar Alps”.
The mountains are famous today because of their scenic beauty, and their importance for outdoor sports; they are one of the most popular walking and climbing destinations in the land, and lie adjacent to the popular waterways of Loch Lomond. The internet contains a great many guides & reports on how to ascend them, and so I will refrain from adding another – I have however included links to a select few at the end of this article that well deserve the reader’s attention. I have also incorporated into this piece photos from an ascent myself and my brother made a few years back (the good ones are all his), but these are not intended this time to help outline a trip. Rather, they are simply to illustrate the nature of the place, and to highlight some key locations. The meat of this post is another kind of story entirely; a journey into the mythology of the Arrochar Alps, and the position these mountains held in the legends of the ancient Celtic societies of the land.
There is a strand of mythology present in this landscape, that has received far less attention than it deserves. It connects to some of the most famous and well-known points within the area, while also incorporating some particularly striking points that are far less visited. The body of mythology to which it connects is a famous one, known throughout the world; building a connection to it can only serve to enhance the fame of a place that well deserves it. The mythology in question is that of the Brythonic Celts connected to King Arthur, and its principal embodiment within this land is the mountain that bears his name; Ben Arthur.
The crags of Ben Arthur are a famous sight, and with good reason. The mountain is a well-known landmark, easily accessible by public or private transport, and therefore an immensely popular climb for hillwalkers. While not high enough to qualify as a Munro (884 metres only), what it lacks in height it makes up for in character; a slew of cliff-faces, rock outcrops and enormous boulders are to be found upon its slopes, ensuring that any ascent will be a memorable one.
Ben Arthur is one of the first high mountains encountered when travelling north from Glasgow, and as such played a major part in the development of mountaineering in Scotland. It was here that many of the first climbing clubs for working people formed, with men from the cities to the south catching the train north for the weekend, to spending their daylight hours scrambling over its precipitous faces, and the nights gathered around shared fires in the makeshift shelter of the Narnain Boulders, or the caves in Glen Loin. Today, it remains a popular first mountain for many would-be Scottish hill-walkers, and one that therefore holds a special place in many hearts; it is no exaggeration to say it is one of the best-loved mountains in all the land.
The name by which the mountain is most regular known is “The Cobbler”. Both this name and that of Ben Arthur are attested from early dates, but it is the English-language name that is most popular in modern times. Ben Arthur is the name in Scots Gaelic, a language no longer spoken in the region; it was nonetheless present here before English, and therefore the Gaelic version of the name may be the older. This is not to say, however, that it represents the original name of the mountain; there was a language spoken here before either English or Gaelic, and it was almost certainly in this tongue that this mountain was first connected with the name of Arthur.
The language in question was that a Brythonic Celtic one called Cumbric. It was spoken by a people called the Britons, who had inhabited this land for millenia before Scotland or England came into being. Their territories in northern Britain are remembered under the name ‘The Old North’, and the mountain country around Ben Arthur formed the northwestern extremity of their domain. The great majority of the current inhabitants of southern Scotland are in fact their descendants, though they do not know it; the nation of Scotland was formed from the merger of several once-separate nations during the Dark Ages, and the Britons were one of the principal components out of which it was forged. Though forgotten in the north, their culture was ancestral to that of Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, and they have had an outsized influence on the folklore and legends of the island – it was from among them that the legends of King Arthur and his court originated.
The legends of the Britons portray Arthur as a king who ruled in the aftermath of the withdrawal of the Roman armies; a native Brythonic Celt who fought against invaders from east, west and north, and who imposed by force a fragile unity upon his fractious countrymen. Any solid history to support the existence of such a ruler is, however, lacking; and in the legends themselves there is far, far too much of the stuff of magic and mythology for them to serve as any kind of reliable witness to the passage of real events. The king, and the era in which he ostensibly reigned, remain one of the great mysteries of British history; though conjecture has offered up many possible explanations for the stories told of him, all such theories have ultimately been swallowed by a fog of uncertainty.
How the famous name of Arthur came to attach itself to such a beautiful and important mountain is a fascinating riddle. No legend has come down to us to explain it. In the absence of any certain tradition, connections to a Gaelic chieftain bearing the name have been suggested, but no chieftain of any enduring fame who bore that name is known from the region, though – and it would be unusual for one of the most famous and significant mountains of the region to be named after a figure who was neither famous nor significant. Add to this the fact that four important clans in the region include the figure of King Arthur among their ancestors – clans Campbell, MacNaughton, Drummond & MacArthur – and we can certainly say that this most famous of Arthurs is the likeliest candidate. This identification would place the naming of the mountain in the time when this land was part of the Brythonic Old North, and of its northwesternmost kingdom, that of Strathclyde.
If we look for possible answers to the riddle, three principal ones present themselves. None can claim to be anything other than a theory – but each creates its own story, leaves an intriguing narrative hanging over the mountain’s crags. The first assumes that there was indeed a historical Arthur, and that he made it his business, as the legends state, to defend the frontiers of the lands of the Britons. Were this the case, then it is not unlikely that such an Arthur would have fought a battle or battles here; to the west lies the pass of Rest & be Thankful, the principal land route into Argyll, and to the north the road to Glen Falloch, the clearest corridor of flat land connecting the region to the northwestern and central Highlands. In the legends, the enemies against whom Arthur fought included Pictish tribes from the north and west – and it is here near Ben Arthur that the routes to and from the Pictish territories are to be found. If Pictish armies came south, Brythonic armies marched north, or indeed Gaelic armies from the west were to attack the lands of the Clyde, then inevitably all of those armies must pass by here. The mountain may have been named after a battle between such armies, as a memorial to some great but now-forgotten victory over which Arthur himself once presided.
The second answer takes the more sceptical view that Arthur was simply a legendary figure conjured up by the Britons; a culture-hero who symbolised their resistance to invasion, but who lacked any underlying reality. Such an idea is not so outlandish as it might first seem; detailed bodies of folklore and legend exist describing the lives of Robin Hood or Odysseus, but few take seriously the idea that either set of stories depict events that actually took place. Such could very well be the case with Arthur.
Were the king indeed such a legendary figure, it is nonetheless still the case that such a legend might attach itself to this frontier zone. Brythonic soldiers could be inspired to fight by invoking the name of the famous Brythonic hero – and so the name of that hero may have become attached to the mountain that rose by the border to inspire in its defenders that same spirit of stubborn resistance that Arthur had come to symbolise. A fictional hero might inspire acts of heroism as easily as any real one, and so some version of his legends may have evolved here – or perhaps even have been knowingly contrived – that attached the famous name of Arthur to an especially potent physical symbol in the landscape. For stories to survive, it is not necessary that they be true – simply that they serve a useful purpose.
The third possible answer to the riddle is, to me, the most intriguing one. A school of thought exists on the origin of Arthur’s legends that sees them as a transmutation of tales drawn from the pagan mythology of the Celts. According to this theory, the legends now attached to Arthur were originally told of an ancient god or gods, with the name Arthur being slotted in during the period when the Britons were becoming Christianised. This transmutation allowed some of the most popular pagan legends to survive into the Christian era; if they were attached to the name of Arthur, rather than to an overtly non-Christian deity, they would no longer directly oppose the teachings of the new religion.
This theory too could account for the presence of the name of Arthur in the mountains of the Arrochar Alps. One particular figure to whom the figure of Arthur has been connected is the god Lugus; the principal god of the Celts in both the British Isles and Gaul. History tells us that the Celts worshipped Lugus atop mountains sacred to him – and if we are to look for an obvious candidate for a sacred mountain in the region of the Arrochar Alps, Ben Arthur immediately stands out. It was as prominent, dramatic and accessible in the past as it is today, making it a natural focus for human attention, and it also possesses three separate peaks, a trait regularly found in mountains the Celts held sacred. Lugus was, among other things, also the god of both journeys and borderlines; and as previously noted, important frontiers and land routes are both to be found in the vicinity of Ben Arthur. It would therefore be no surprise to find that this region housed an especially active cult to him – he must surely have been worshipped here, once.
One final point in favour of this theory comes from the alternative name of the mountain; ‘The Cobbler’. In the Welsh legends of the Mabinogion, Lugus (called Llew therein) is made a shoemaker; and inscriptions also survive from Spain showing dedications to him made by a guild of shoemakers. As god of journeys, an association with footwear would not be unusual – and so Lugus might very well once have been considered a cobbler. It is possible that both names of the mountain in fact originate from the same figure; that both Arthur and the Cobbler represent different names for the god to whom the mountain was held sacred.
If I had to guess as to which explanation represents the truth – and it would be a guess – I would conjecture some combination of all three. It seems to me more likely than not that there was an original, historical Arthur – for how else should the name of Arthur become famous enough in the first place for it to attract the legends to it? Whether that Arthur fought any battles in Arrochar, however, I would hesitate to say. The possible links between the mountain and the figure of Lugus seem to me the more compelling explanation for the presence of his name here, without the need for any ‘real’ Arthur ever to have operated in the vicinity – and once the connection between Arthur and Lugus was made, legends set in this landscape describing the hero king fighting off invaders might well spring up of their own accord.
All these theories are, of course, guesswork. No legend has survived that accounts for the name of the mountain, or that specifically associates king Arthur with this region. What is clear, however, is that the name of Arthur was unusually important hereabouts. Ben Arthur is not the only physical feature to bear the name of the king; it was applied also to the stretch of flat land at the foot of Glen Croe, now called Argartan but once called “Aird Arstair” – Gaelic for ‘Arthur’s promontory’. At the other end of the glen, atop the mountain of Beinn an Lochan rises to the west of the Rest & be Thankful Pass, there is to be found an enormous rock outcrop resembling the face of a man, which is today marked on the OS map “The Old Man’s Face”, but which was previously called in Gaelic “Agaidh Artair” – ‘the Face of Arthur’. Lastly, on the summit of Ben Arthur itself, the highest point of the mountain is occupied by a dramatic rock pinnacle that bears the name Arthur’s Seat. Although there are quite a few places in northern Britain that bear Arthur’s name, a concentration of so many in close proximity is unusual – and that the name should be attached to some of the most striking physical features of the landscape is suggestive.
It was the habit of the Celts, we are told repeatedly by classical authors, to find their gods in the natural world they inhabited. They worshipped springs, rivers, mountains and natural rock formations as embodiments of the spirits who ruled over the landscape. To such a people, the mountain of Ben Arthur, the pinnacle upon its summit, and the vast cliff-face on Beinn an Lochan that resembles a human face would surely have been considered sacred places – and it is to just these features that the name of Arthur clings. These connections between natural features and the name of the king may well be the strongest evidence of a connection between his legends and the old, pre-Christian religion, something that sites the origins of the traditions concerning him in a mythology far older.
It is possible that there is one final, yet grander image of Arthur embedded in the landscape. The name “The Cobbler” is often explained by reference to the shape of the mountain’s summit. The northernmost of its rocky crags is an overhanging precipice that resembles a man hunched over; this shape is said to resemble a cobbler huddling over his work. If we accept the connections between the names of Arthur, the Cobbler, and the god Lugus, then it raises the possibility that the Celtic Britons who once inhabited this land may have seen this great crag as an embodiment of the god; that the vast anthropomorphic rock at the head of Loch Long was in fact an enormous image of the principal god of the land.
If this should be so, then the walkers and climbers who venture north each weekend from the urban centres of the Clyde are keeping alive a tradition that dates back to the time of their deepest ancestors; to the era of the Britons, when the mountains of Arrochar marked the northern frontier of the Brythonic kingdom called Strathclyde. Headquartered initially at Dumbarton, and latterly in Govan, this kingdom was the last portion of the Old North to fall, the last place where a state rooted in the pre-Roman civilisation of the Celts endured. If anywhere was to preserve echoes of the ancient mythology of the druidic religion, it would surely be here – and in the rocks of Ben Arthur, we may see the last remnants of that ancient mythology incarnated. When the climbers of modern Glasgow make their pilgrimage to their favourite mountain, they may reincarnate another such pilgrimage, to that self-same place – but in pursuit of a far older kind of connection.
This may be the truth, or it may not. Whatever the facts may truly be, a greater awareness of the connections between the Arrochar Alps and Scotland’s other Celtic heritage – the Brythonic one – can only serve to enrich what is already a very wonderful place. Scotland has seldom embraced this portion of its heritage, seeing its own history as starting with the Gaels of the western shores. The Britons have been considered a portion of the past of lands further south, a foreign intrusion into a country that has sought for its Celtic soul in the Gaelic culture. Archaeology and population genetics have, however, shown this view to be flawed; the blood of the Britons flows in as many, possibly more veins than does that of the Gaels, and by coming to understand their tales we regain a connection with a forgotten portion of the heritage of our own country. These tales are fascinating and enthralling things in their own right and, regardless of ancestry – be we descendants of the Britons themselves, or more recent arrivals – to let those tales help bring to life the land we inhabit can help us see it in a new and exciting light. There is a whole other country hidden within this one, waiting to be explored…
For more on the Brythonic legends of the Old North, do take a look at my book, “The Ghosts of the Forest“. It contains a number of connections to ancient mythology that are far stronger than those outlined here – if you have enjoyed reading the content of this article, you will certainly find plenty in it to get your teeth into!
For more reading on the Arrochar Alps and on Ben Arthur, I recommend the following;
- Walkhighlands – An excellent practical description of a route, with built-in map and access details.
- This post on the Walkhighlands forum – A particularly stunning set of photos.
- Short, practical report from Eat, Sleep Wild giving a geological perspective on Ben Arthur, and a great gallery of images.
Select Bibliography
- Campbell, A. (1885), “Records of Argyll: Legends, Traditions & Recollections of Argyllshire Highlanders”, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh
- Duncansone, R. (1670/76), “Ane Accompt of the Genealogie of the Campbells”, in Macphail, JRN, ed. (1916) “Highland Papers, Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 2.”, pp. 70-113, T. & A. Constable, Edinburgh
- Green, Thomas/Caitlin (2007), “Concepts of Arthur”, Tempus, Stroud
© William Young and Inter-Celtic, 2022. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to William Young and Inter-Celtic with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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