The golden eagle has landed
Some ruder and more savage scene, Like that which frowns round dark Loch Skene, There eagles scream from isle to shore; Down all the rocks the torrents roar
THE screaming eagles around Loch Skeen in Sir Walter Scott’s have been silent for some centuries. Yet at the time of his writing, in the early 19th century, the Borders’ skies were still full of their cries. In 1800, there was a score of golden-eagle nests in Dumfries and Galloway alone, with six pairs in the hills around Moffat Water. Many place names in southern Scotland refer to the presence of eagles. Earn, the old English name for an eagle, and its derivations crop up, for example, in Earn’s Craig on Criffel; Bennyellary, or Hill of the Eagle, in Galloway; and Ern Cleuch—Eagle Gully—in Ayrshire.
