Literary Scotland

11 Ayrshire and Arran50 arranBurns never described the view fromAyrshire of the Isle of Arran, with its strikingmountainous skyline, but its landscape andnatural resources had been celebrated as earlyas the twelfth century in a lovely anonymousGaelic lyric beginning ‘Arran of the manystags / The sea strikes against its shoulder…’and concluding ‘Delightful at all timesis Arran.’ The island is rich in literaryassociations, from the tales of the Fianna,the ancient Celtic warrior band led byFinn MacCool and his son, Ossian thebard, to the modern plays and poems ofRobert MacLellan, who also wrote the bestintroductory guide-book to the island. Arranis also the main location for the popular cultsupernatural thriller Deadlight (1968) byArchie Roy.This is the birthplace of novelist GeorgeDouglas Brown, author of the classictragedy of small-town Scottish commercialambition causing family destruction indomestic slaughter of Greek proportion andcharacter, the novel The House with the GreenShutters (1901). His birthplace is markedwith a plaque in Ochiltree main street, on asteeply sloping hill with broad views over theAyrshire countryside beyond. There is also amemorial to George Douglas Brown in Ayrcemetery.51 loudoun hill 52 ochiltreeThis is a striking visual landmark, imposingon the flat landscape on the edge of Ayrshireand Lanarkshire, looming like a sleeping lion.Loudoun Hill was the location of variousbattles, most memorably those described byJohn Barbour in The Bruce (c.1376), BlindHarry in The Wallace (c.1477), and WalterScott in Old Mortality (1816).36Left View to Goat Fell, Isle of Arran. Right Loudoun Hill, near Darvel, East Ayrshire.