Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Quite tricky this week but near as I can figure it, the most likely answers seem to me to be:

Q1. Erraid

Q2. Sir Hugh Fraser

(N.B. for question two, if you do a search for businessman and Iona, the engine can come back with Rev George Macleod and Sir John Macleod, businessman (George's father). Rev George Macleod helped reconstruct some of the buildings on Iona and created the Iona community, so that can cause some confusion as to the identity of the beneficial businessman but Hugh Fraser's 'Fraser Foundation', gave the island to the national trust for Scotland, in memory of his father, Lord Fraser of Allander and is a much better fit for the answer)

The initial clues place us on the island of Iona, in the Hebrides, the main drag there is called 'The Street of the Dead' or 'Sraid nam Marbh' in the local tongue, mainly because they had to track coffins along it to bury people at the graveyard near Iona abbey, at the small church of St Odran (feast day 27th Oct). According to some references, St Odran may have been a victim of what is known in the trade as 'foundation sacrifice' ie he was whacked by saint Columba and buried in the foundations of what was to be his own church, as an offering, to make sure that it didn't fall down. Some texts claim that he came through the walls and frightened the bejaysus out of the congregation and had to be quicky re-buried after telling the punters that there was no heaven or hell (a likely story, sounds a bit like the bad ass barrow zombie (Glam) that haunted Grettir on Iceland, after he 'acquired' some valuable grave goods).

The graveyard at St Odran's is alleged to have 48 Scottish kings buried there, among them a Constantin Mac Cinaeda (Constantine I, a son of Kenneth Mac Alpin) who was buried there c876ad. Some of the references I looked at claimed that he died in 878ad but historians are always arguing about dates and who did what to who. A king, who some sources claim reigned c1093/94 and who died in 1094 and might be buried on Iona, is Duncan II. A saint who was abbot of Iona and whose mother was called Ronnat, was Saint Adamnan.

Travelling south west along the main drag until you reach the end, brings you to a point where looking south south/east you may be able to see the tidal island of Erraid (around two miles distant on some of my maps). This island was featured in a book called 'Kidnapped' by Robert Louis Stevenson (published c1866) and featured the exploits of a good ol' Jacobite rebel called Alan Breck Stewart (gawrd bless 'im) and David Balfour (loyal to the upstart Hanoverian pretender). They had to leave the ship they were travelling on, after becoming involved in a bit of a fraicas with the crew and subsequently striking the Torran rocks. Balfour ends up being washed ashore on Erraid. Erraid is about one square mile in area and does indeed seem to have mica on it.

Heading west from the viewpoint, brings us to a trail which meanders in a south westerly direction past loch Staoineig and thence to the bay where saint Columba came ashore c562ad (wearing a dishevelled raincoat and smoking a cigar). Columba, in many accounts, seems to have had a bit of an anger management problem and had to flee from Ireland after what started out as a dispute over intellectual property rights, resulted in an armed conflict with the deaths of an estimated three to ten thousand people ( battle of Cul Dremhne). 

If you turn northwest from the end of the road, that leads to the highest point on the island, a cnoc known as Dun l (which according to ordnance survey, is 100 meters or 328 feet high in old money). The businessman who is largely responsible for preserving the natural beauty of the island was a guy called Sir Hugh Fraser, who's 'Fraser Foundation' donated it to the national trust for Scotland, as a memorial to his father, Lord Fraser of Allander.