Purchase the decorative title of Laird or Lady and do some good at the same time. Supporting a restoration project to restore Dunans Castle on Scotland’s Cowal Peninsula, just an hour and a half away from Glasgow.
ScottishLaird Gifts is a Scottish social enterprise with the sole aim of restoring Dunans Castle. Read more HERE
Lord or Lady of Chaol Ghleann title with souvenir folder
Ownership of one square foot of pasture on the grounds of Dunans Castle
Deed of entitlement signed and sealed by present Laird
Includes downloadable pdf with deeds of entitlement
Free tours to all Lords and Ladies of the grounds and building
Access to woodland garden and rivers for fishing on the ancient estate
Titles help towards restoring the historic Highlands castle
Deeds of entitlement posted, signed, and presented in a presentation folder
Subscription to the Lords and Ladies Monthly Newsletter
Rights to use and wear the Dunans Rising Tartan
Please Note: (Just in case you wondered).
The Court of Lord Lyon considers these particular titles to be meaningless because it is impossible to have numerous "Lairds" of a single Estate at the same time. Additionally, the Scottish Land Register does not recognise individual ownership of such small plots. Read more HERE
Hence, only Decorative Titles. You are funding restoration.
Ownership of land only accrues to a person who owns land in Scotland, your title will relate specifically to one square foot of land set in the grounds of Dunans Castle, which you will ‘own’ on an informal basis, and will be referred to specifically in your Deed of Entitlement. This land will be identified by an ID number at Dunans on a plan derived from the deeds of Dunans. You will receive a plan of the site with the approximate position of ‘your’ piece of land, marked, this will be for illustrative purposes only. The exact position of your square foot of land will be derived from the ID number and relative to two permanent markers set out on site by Charles Dixon-Spain, Laird of Dunans Castle.
If this restoration idea doesn't appeal, then you could donate to the National Trust for Scotland, for Scotlands Heritage. HERE
As a writer, I love a bit of fantasy and this fires my imagination, I don't mind contributing to Dunans Castle restoration in this way. The novel, The Paper Unicorn, is stirred with more ideas of how the protagonist acquires a castle, and upkeeps, this is a fun way to explore more possibilities of the tale.
According to its website, Dunans Castle first appeared on maps in 1590 and was owned by Clan Lamont. Its ownership changed many times over the years. During the mid-1700s the Fletcher Clan took ownership and it remained in the family for over two centuries until 1997. The castle was converted into a hotel but was ruined by a fire in 2001.
To help fund the restoration project the trust is selling tiny plots of land, a square foot each to be exact. Along with these plots of land come the decorative titles of Laird or Lady. You will receive a “Deed of Entitlement”, a free tour of the grounds if you choose to visit the castle, and you will be allowed to wear the “Dunans Rising” tartan.
All sales contribute to the restoration of Dunans Castle, Bridge and Grounds. The Restoration Project is a longterm endeavour, and our progress thus far could not have been achieved without the help of ScottishLaird. The core aim is to create from the ruin of Dunans Castle an events and accommodation space, which will consolidate the site's use as a visitor attraction, and in time, a wedding and conference venue.
Just like the Decorative Titles every purchase made contributes to the restoration of Dunans Castle, and this fact means that anyone wearing, purchasing or promoting the tartan acquires the right to call the Dunans Rising tartan their very own – a tartan they can wear to weddings, to parties, at ceilidhs, every day for the rest of their lives. Material sourced in Scotland, and100% wool
Exotic Purple Rhododendron at Dunans Castle, Glendaruel
Stunning ruined Dunans Castle as your backdrop. Set in 25 acres of woodland, mountain and meadow.
Create your dream day – romance in the meadow, a piper, piping you over an A-listed Bridge to your ceremony, curl up by a woodland campfire, fireworks against a starry sky, or teepee marquee and dancing in the lantern-lit dark. We can create something that is utterly YOU!
Beltane honours life and represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of Summer.
Beltane is a Fire Festival. The word 'Beltane' originates from the Celtic God 'Bel', meaning 'the bright one' and the Gaelic word 'teine' meaning fire. Together they make 'Bright Fire', or 'Goodly Fire' and traditionally bonfires were lit to honour the Sun and encourage the support of Bel and the Sun's light to nurture the emerging future harvest and protect the community.
Beltane Fire Dance by Loreena McKennitt
Traditionally all fires in the community were put out and a special fire was kindled for Beltane. "This was the Tein-eigen, the need fire. People jumped the fire to purify, cleanse and to bring fertility. Couples jumped the fire together to pledge themselves to each other. Cattle and other animals were driven through the smoke as a protection from disease and to bring fertility. At the end of the evening, the villagers would take some of the Teineigen to start their fires anew."
~ (From Sacred Celebrations by Glennie Kindred)
Beltane is the anglicised name for the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. May Day is a public holiday and is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival. In many cultures, dances, singing, and cakes are usually part of the celebrations.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27 during the Roman Republic era, and with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30.
Flora's altar at Rome was said to have been established by the Sabine king Titus Tatius during the semi-legendary Regal period. Flusalis (linguistically equivalent to Floralia) was a month on the Sabine calendar, and Varro counted Flora among the Sabine deities.
Walpurgis Night is the English translation of Walpurgisnacht, one of the Dutch and German names for the night of 30 April. In Germanic folklore, Walpurgisnacht, also called Hexennacht (Dutch: heksennacht), literally "Witches' Night", is believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe.
On May Eve there is abundant fertility, on all levels, and is the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. She is the manifestation of growth and renewal, Flora, the Goddess of Spring, the May Queen, the May Bride.
In the Arthurian legends, the Flower Bride is Guinevere, though she is usually abducted on May 1 and must be rescued. However, in Celtic lore, there are many ladies or goddesses, such as Creiddyled and Bloudewedd, who fit this role.
The Young Oak King, as Jack-In-The-Green, as the Green Man, falls in love with her and wins her hand.
The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant.
Together the May Queen and the May King are symbols of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos), the union of Earth and Sky, and this union has merrily been re-enacted by humans throughout the centuries. For this is the night of the Greenwood Marriage.
Sacred Union
"Sacred Marriage" between Dumuzi and Inanna on a bed. Old Babylonian Period.
I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake,
If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break:
But I must gather knots of flower, and buds and garlands gay,
For I’m to be the Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be the Queen o’ the May.
– From “The May Queen” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
The May Queen or Queen of May is a personification of the May Day holiday, and of Springtime and also Summer.Today the May Queen is a girl who must ride or walk at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations. She wears a white gown to symbolise purity and usually a tiara or crown. Her duty is to begin the May Day celebrations. She is generally crowned by flowers and makes a speech before the dancing begins. Certain age-groups dance round a Maypole celebrating youth and the spring time.
Sir James George Frazer found in the figure of the May Queen a relic of tree worship:
According to folklore, the tradition once had a sinister twist, in that the May Queen was put to death once the festivities were over. The veracity of this belief is difficult to establish; it may just be a folk memory of ancient pagan customs. Still, frequent associations between May Day rituals.
In the High Middle Ages in England, the May Queen was also known as the "Summer Queen". George C. Homans points out: "The time from Hocktide, after Easter Week, to Lammas (August 1) was summer (estas)." - On the 30th day of May was a jolly May-game in Fenchurch Street (London) with drums and guns and pikes, The Nine Worthies did ride; and they all had speeches, and the morris dance and sultan and an elephant with a castle and the sultan and young moors with shields and arrows, and the lord and lady of the May".
A May Day festival is held on the village green at Aldborough, North Yorkshire on a site that dates back to Roman times and the settlement of Isurium Brigantum. A May queen is selected from a group of 13 upward girls by the young dancers. She returns the next year to crown the new May Queen and stays in the procession. The largest event in this tradition in modern Britain is the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Michael A. Michail - Flora.
The Faery Queen also represents the May Queen, although in practice the honour is usually carried out by young women who are soon to be married.
Mists of Avalon
Morgan le Fay is a powerful enchantress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or sorceress. She became both more prominent and morally ambivalent in later texts.
A "May Crowning" is a traditional Roman Catholic ritual that occurs in the month of May, honoring the Virgin Mary as "the Queen of May".
Our Lady of the Sea, Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides, Scotland ~ The May Crown
The feminine connection in many forms ~ Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Virgin Mary by Christians mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism. The title is a consequence of the First Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, in which the Virgin Mary was proclaimed "theotokos", a title rendered in Latin as Mater Dei, in English "Mother of God". The Eastern Orthodox Churches do not share the Catholic dogma, but themselves have a rich liturgical history in honor of Mary. In the Hebrew Bible, under some Davidic kings, the gebirah, the "Great Lady", usually the Mother of the King, held great power as advocate with the king.In the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen.” Later Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title. A text probably coming from Origen (died c. 254) gives her the title domina, the feminine form of Latin dominus, Lord. That same title also appears in many other early writers, e.g., Jerome, and Peter Chrysologus. The first Mariological definition and basis for the title of Mary Queen of Heaven developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was defined to be the Mother of God.
Our Lady, star of the Sea statue, overlooking Castlebay, Isle of Barra. - Karen Matheson. Our Lady, Star of the Sea is an ancient title for the Virgin Mary. The words Star of the Sea are a translation of the Latin title Stella Maris.The title has been in use since the at least the early medieval period. Originally arising from a scribal error in a supposed etymology of the name Mary, it came to be seen as allegorical of Mary's role as "guiding star", as a guide and protector of seafarers, in particular, the Apostleship of the Sea, and many coastal churches are named Stella Maris or Star of the Sea.
Hawthorn tree is the true symbol of Beltane, the original May tree, and the tree of the fairy folk. Also known as the May-tree, due to its flowering period, it is the only British plant named after the month in which it blooms.
In Britain, it was believed that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would be followed by illness and death, and in Medieval times it was said that hawthorn blossom smelled like the Great Plague. Botanists later learned that the chemical trimethylamine in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue, so it is not surprising that hawthorn flowers are associated with death.
Until the tree was root and branches of my thought,
Until white petals blossomed in my crown.
~ From The Traveller by Kathleen Raine
When we read of medieval knights and ladies riding out ‘a-maying’ on the first morning of May, this refers to the flowering hawthorn boughs they gathered to decorate the halls rather than the month itself. For on this day, according to the Old Style calendar that was in use until the 18th century, the woods and hedges were alight with its glistening white blossoms.
In some villages, mayers would leave a hawthorn branch at every house, singing traditional songs as they went.
The young girls rose at dawn to bathe in dew gathered from hawthorn flowers to ensure their beauty in the coming year. For May was the month of courtship and love-making after the winter's cold; and so the hawthorn is often found linked with love-making. In ancient Greece, the wood was used for the marriage torch, and girls wore hawthorn crowns at weddings.
But while hawthorn was a propitious tree at Maytime, in other circumstances it was considered unlucky. Witches were supposed to make their brooms from it, and in some parts, it was equated with the abhorred elder, as in the rhyme:
Hawthorn bloom and elder-flowers
Will fill a house with evil powers.
Even today many people will not allow the branches inside the house, for, as one might expect from its association with Beltane, a time when the two worlds meet, it is considered a tree sacred to the faeries, and thus to be regarded with fear at the least, respect at most. As such, it often stands at the threshold of the Otherworld.
In the ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, the Scots poet is taken away by the Queen of Elfland as he sits beneath an ancient thorn known as the Eildon tree. In another old rhyme, the Ballad of Sir Cawline, a lady dares the hero to go to Eldridge Hill where a hawthorn grows, to await there the faery king.
There are noteworthy parallels between this tale and the romance, The History of Sir Eger, Sir Graham, and Sir Gray-steel.
The full moon of May, also known as the Flower Moon, Milk Moon, or Hare Moon, will occur Wednesday (May 10) at 5:42 p.m. EDT (2142 GMT). It will appear full to the casual observer for about a day before and after.
According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Native American name for the May full moon was the Full Flower Moon, though some Algonquin-speaking nations named it the Corn Planting Moon or Milk Moon (milk, referring to nurture - milkweed or cows, though not native to the Americas).
Perhaps, keeping in mind the feminine moon cycle (and matrilineal aspects), Beltane would be best celebrated by the moon cycle and not the modern dating of the Gregorian calender.
Did you know:
1. The original Roman calendar is believed to have been an observational lunar calendar whose months began from the first signs of a new crescent moon. Because a lunar cycle is about 29½ days long, such months would have varied between 29 and 30 days.
2. A lunar calendar is a calendar based upon cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months), in contrast to solar calendars based solely upon the solar year. The details of when months begin varies from calendar to calendar, with some using new, full, or crescent moons and others employing detailed calculations. Traditional lunar and lunisolar calendars continue to be used throughout the Old World to determine religious festivals and national holidays. Such holidays include Ramadan (Islamic calendar); the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian New Year (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian calendars); the Nepali New Year (Nepali calendar); the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chuseok (Chinese and Korean calendars); Loi Krathong (Thai calendar); and Diwali (Hindu calendars).
A picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film and television dominates the island, which lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the village of Dornie. Since the castle's restoration in the early 20th century, a footbridge has connected the island to the mainland.
Eilean Donan, which means simply "island of Donnán", is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint martyred in 617. Donnán is said to have established a church on the island, though no trace of this remains.
If this restoration idea doesn't appeal, then you could donate to the National Trust for Scotland, for Scotlands Heritage. HERE
