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Rhymer's Cave [Dumbuck Hill]

Dumbarton, Dumbuck, Dumbartonshire.

A Cave or Rockshelter actually just a large overhang approx. 30 wide and at most 5 m deep near the top of Dumbuck Hill; what old maps call "Rhymer's Cave" was located below this.

The first-edition OS map (surveyed in 1857and published in 1864) shows three interesting features on the hill, which, at that time, had not yet been quarried. Two of the features are caves. As seen from the adjacent shore, there are two rocky crags at the southern end of Dumbuck Quarry; see NS4173 : Dumbuck Crannog from the south for a typical view. One of those crags also appears, among trees, at the right-hand side of the present view; see NS4174 : Dumbuck Hill: detail for a closer view of it, showing some columnar jointing. The first-edition OS map shows Wallace's Cave beside the eastern crag, and Rhymer's Cave on the western side of the western crag (the map does not pinpoint their locations exactly). In connection with Rhymer's Cave, it should first be pointed out that Dumbuck is sometimes known locally as the Sleeping Giant, a name that well describes its appearance from certain angles: see, for example, NS4372 : A Field, in which view the "head" is at the left, and the "body" from the centre to the right (the resemblance remains when viewed from the other side).

At the bottom of the precipice on the west, there is a projecting portion forming a covering or cave beneath called the "Rhymer's Cave" which is said to have been a fav[ourite] resort of Thomas the Rhymer & prophesier of Eichyldoun. This is adopted upon the same authorities as given for Wallace's Cave & both names are well known.

Local tradition had certainly associated Thomas with Dumbuck Hill by the early nineteenth century: in May of 1824, a traveller on the River Clyde had the hill pointed out to her as the place where Thomas would appear on his return from Fairyland. The traveller in whose diary this incident is related was Mrs Mary Ann Watts Hughes, and the tradition seems to have been widely known by that time (as seen by the fact that someone else made the same observation to her about the hill shortly after the incident noted above). However, without earlier documentary evidence, there is no way of knowing how old the tradition is. See also pages 129-130 of "The Athenaeum: an Original Literary Miscellany" (1830) for further contemporary notice of the association of Thomas with Dumbuck Hill. [Lairich Rig]

"The Clyde District of Dumbarton" (1886), by Donald MacLeod, ... recounts there a legend rather similar to the one about Thomas the Rhymer, except that it is set in the time of the Roman occupation: a band of native warriors disappear into an opening in the side of Dumbuck Hill; the opening closes after them, and the warriors are said to be sleeping in a huge cave in the hill, until the time when they will be called to a final battle. MacLeod was also aware that there was a "Rhymer's Cave" on the hill: he mentions it by name, but makes no further comment on it. [Lairich Rig]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: c. 1802, Sir Walter Scott included "Thomas the Rhymer" in the first edition of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, where it appears in the second volume. At this point, he attributes it to a lady living near Erceldoune. By 1824, his popularity was at its highest and it would be common for his tales to be relocated to other areas by locals wanting to associate the tales with their areas. The location given by Scott is near Arthur's Seat - a small knoll SE of the Eidon Hills in the Scottish Borders, NOT the more famous version near Edinburgh.

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None