MYRDDIN'S TINTO CAIRN AND ITS ALIGNMENT WITH THE WILDSHAW BURN STONE CIRCLE

Wildshaw Burn Stone Circle (Diagram Courtesy http://217.199.187.196/biggararchaeology.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WILDSHAW_BURN.pdf)

Tinto Hill, at Wiston, earlier Abercarw, is the mountain of Aber Craf mentioned in the early Myrddin poetry.  He speaks with the wild men there (ghosts), and his sister Gwenddydd is also associated with the site.  Gwenddydd is elsewhere said to converse with her brother while he is in the grave and it is likely the great cairn of Tinto is being referred to in this sepulchral context.  

When we go to the fiction of Geoffrey of Monmouth's VITA MERLINI, we are told that Ganieda (= Gwenddydd) built Myrddin both a house and an observatory.  The latter, as described, is beyond doubt a stone circle.  When I did my original work on the Tinto cairn, I was unaware of the presence of the Wildshaw Burn stone circle not far to the southwest.

Recently, I've been corresponding with Tam Ward of the Biggar Archaeology Group about some amazing alignments he and his team have discovered involving Tinto and the stone circle.  The following is from http://217.199.187.196/biggararchaeology.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WS_BURN_REPORT2014.pdf:

Explanation of Figure 6

The Fig is not to scale and is diagrammatic only, but the information can be accurately

confirmed by using a 1:50,000 OS map as described above. Only No’s 4 & 5 are not on OS

maps but their NGR’s are given in the appendix.

The key to sites is:

1 Wildshaw Burn Stone Circle

2 Wildshaw Hill cairn

3 Tinto Hill cairn

4 Site No 2 on Black Mount Hill

5 Site No 1 on Black Mount Hill

6-8 Nether, Upper and one further cairn near West Linton

9-11 Easton Long Cairn, Burngrange Chambered Cairn, Greens Moor Long Cairn

The cairns are all large and prominent and the Tinto cairn is one of the most conspicuous

monuments in Scotland.

1–3 make a perfect alignment although none are inter-visible.

4-3 makes a perfect alignment to midwinter sunset behind Tinto cairn.

5-3 makes a perfect alignment to midwinter sunset behind Tinto cairn and also to mid summer

sunrise across a notch in Black Mount to Mendick Hill in the NE. The viewpoints from Sites 1 &

2 are taken making a central line through them towards the events.

6-8 makes a good alignment with Tinto Hill cairn but are not intervisible to it.

9-11 align east/west with each other but only Burngrange and Greens Moor cairns are intervisible.

The Figure is presented to make two points;

1 that sites will align where there are numerous examples but which may not have obvious,

if any significance, because of their alignment and,

2 that some alignments between sites or between sites and horizons, often prominent, are

unmistakably and demonstrably deliberate, and point to astronomical events. 

On the Tinto cairn itself (see https://canmore.org.uk/site/47525/tinto-cairn), Mr. Ward has told me:

"The cairn is certainly prehistoric in origin; Neolithic/Bronze Age, possibly both but we'll never know as it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument which effectively means it is unlikely ever to be investigated. The person responsible must have had some clout as the stones were mostly carried up to the summit. I suspect a Neolithic chambered tomb. I'd love to see the inside of it, but never expect to."

NOTE:  There were other graves for Merlin.  As either the god Lleu or an avatar of that god, he appears to have been linked to Lleu sites.  I've elsewhere shown that the French romance Broceliande stands for Dumfries in Scotland (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/08/myrddinmerlin-conflated-version-of-past.html), where we find the Lochmaben Stone.  The single remaining stone once belonged to a large circle.  In Welsh tradition, Lleu and Mabon are both placed in death at Nantlle in Gwynedd, suggesting that the two deities were identified with each other.  Gwenddydd or 'White day' (cf. Goleuddudd, 'Bright Day') appears to be a Welsh name for Diana, who was paired with Apollo Maponus in the Roman period.  The Roman themselves interpreted Diana's name as coming from the word 'day' (Cicero ND 2.69: Diana dicta quia noctu quasi diem efficeret; "she was called Diana because she made it like day during the night").

The whole idea of a 'grave' for Myrddin doubtless has two origins.  First, that Lleu as an Otherworld deity would naturally have been thought to inhabit fairy mounds, i.e. ancient funeral mounds.  And, second, the death of Myrddin at Arderydd (his flight as a wild man is actually symbolic of his assuming spectral form after bodily dissolution) was misunderstood and so at some point in the development of the tradition it was thought necessary to provide him with a proper ending.  Thus the story was invented of his Lleu-like triple sacrifice.  As a final confusion, the original location of his grave was relocated from the Tweeden Burn and Willow Pool of the Liddel to the Powsail ('Willow pool') and Tweed.  The presence in Tweeddale of Louden Knowe (quite possibly a Lugh place-name) may have contributed to the transference of the story.  The Willow Pool of the Liddel is at the confluence with the Esk, and the Lochmaben Stone is at the mouth of the Esk.

It was eventually found necessary to place Myrddin in or near a Christian Church.  We may ignore the Drumelzier church, as this was not dedicated to St. Martin, Myrddin's Christian replacement. In the Liddel area, St. Martin churches seem to represent sites originally sacred to Myrddin.  The St. Martin Church at Canonbie, called the Church of Liddel in old records, is very close to the Willow Pool.  Only several miles separate this St. Martin Church from the Lochmaben Stone.

In passing, there is also a major chambered long cairn at Long Knowe, once known as Tweeden Rigg (see https://canmore.org.uk/site/67938/langknowe). Directly opposite Liddesdale from Long Knowe is the equally impressive Windy Edge chambered cairn and stone circle remnant (https://canmore.org.uk/site/67899/windy-edge; https://canmore.org.uk/site/67908/windy-edge).  Windy Edge is hard by Tinnis Hill and Tinnis Burn.  There is a Tinnis Castle hard by Drumelzier.  Any of these significant funeral monuments might at one time have had something to do with Myrddin.

When we look for a Myrddin grave, then, we must bear all this in mind. For barrows and mountains were the haunts of Lleu and any Lleu-warrior or Lleu-poet/prophet should be sought in the same liminal spaces.