An Coileach Arannach also known as an Coileach
Clachaig (the stone cockerel) is perhaps most famously known to
generations of passing sailors and geologists as the Cock of
Arran. The cock itself is a huge boulder of Permian desert
sandstone that has fallen onto the shore from the cliff behind.
From the sea it was said to resemble a crowing cockerel with
outspread wings. Unfortunately a couple of hundred years ago it
seemed to resemble a perfect target to a passing British naval
vessel which literally blew its head off.
Today the most frequently seen passing naval vessels are nuclear
submarines from Faslane but in the 18th century the Argyle fjords
formed the front line of a clash between the newly invented British
identity of the United Kingdom and the traditional Highland
identity with allegiance owed to clan, chieftain and Jacobite king.
The coastline south from the Cock to Sannox is now uninhabited but
prior to 1829 there were three villages along this coast at Cock,
Laggan and Laggantuim. Nearly five hundred souls were cleared from
Arran in that year and many of them sailed for Quebec on the
Caledonia in April 1829;
like roads and representational government, the Highland Clearances
were a by product of the pacification of the Highlands (or
destruction of traditional culture) that followed the Jacobite
Rebellions. Remains of lazy bed cultivation strips can still be
seen along the shore by the the Cock of Arran and make one wonder
whether an immigrant life in Canada was preferable to a desperate
subsistence existence on this bleak coast. For
Harold McMillan the
great grandson of one evicted tenant it certainly was.
Haqre n fgbar bs pbhefr.