In the centre of the glen stands Clach-na-Ossian--"Ossian's
Stone"--which tradition held to cover the mortal remains of Scotia's
early bard. When the Government troops under General Wade were engaged
in carrying a highway through the glen, they found it necessary to
shift the position of Ossian's Stone. The detailed narrative of what
took place is as follows:--

"I have so lately mentioned Glenalmond, in the road from Crieff,
northward, that I cannot forbear a digression, though at my first
setting out, in relation to a piece of antiquity which happened to be
discovered in that vale, not many hours before I went through it in one
of my journeys southwards.

"A small part of the way through this glen having been marked out by
two rows of camp-colours, placed at a good distance one from another,
whereby to describe the line of the intended breadth and regularity of
the road by the eye, there happened to lie directly in the way an
exceedingly large stone, and, as it had been made a rule from the
beginning to carry on the roads in straight lines, as far as the way
would permit, not only to give them a better air, but to shorten the
passenger's journey, it was resolved that the stone should be removed,
if possible, although otherwise the work might have been carried along
on either side of it.

"The soldiers, by vast labour, with their levers and jacks, or
hand-screws, tumbled it over and over till they got it quite out of the
way, although it was of such an enormous size that it might be matter
of great wonder how it could ever be removed by human strength and art,
especially to such who had never seen an operation of that kind; and
upon their digging a little into that part of the ground where the
centre of the stone had stood, there was found a small cavity, about
two feet square, which was guarded from the outward earth, at the
bottom, top, and sides, by square flat stones."[2]

"The people of the country," says Newte, who travelled through the
district in 1791, "venerating the memory of the bard, rose with one
consent, and with bagpipe music carried the sacred dust away by force,
and buried it on the top of Dunmore, in the centre of his father's
fort." Burns visited Ossian's grave. Writing to his brother, on his
return to Edinburgh from the North, he says--"Being warm from Ossian's
country, where I have seen his very grave, what care I for fertile
plains and fishing villages?" Whether the dust of Ossian s