Just wizard! I’ve discovered Merlin’s grave ...in Dunipace
HE is one of the most colourful characters in Arthurian legend, as close to the King as his Knights of the Round Table.
While many assume the wizard Merlin is a mythical figure, others argue he is rooted in historical fact.
Now, after years of studying ancient texts and poring over maps, Scottish advocate Adam Ardrey has reached a startling conclusion – that Merlin’s final resting place may be a peaceful Scottish hillside.
He believes excavation of the site in Dunipace, Stirlingshire, may solve a mystery which has endured for hundreds of years.
Mr Ardrey said: ‘Historians have not been able to find the historical Merlin because they have been looking in the wrong place. They resolutely refuse to consider the evidence that Merlin was of Scotland.’
In his book Finding Merlin, Mr Ardrey, from Bothwell, Lanarkshire, previously argued that Merlin was not a wizard from Camelot but a scholar from Partick.
He concluded that, around 600AD, Merlin lived in countryside since swallowed up by the city of Glasgow, in what is now Ardery Street, Partick.
At that time, he traced his remains to an underground tomb which he believes ‘was the grave of the man called Merlin’ and that his bones may have been reburied at Dunipace after that tomb was destroyed.
The mythical Merlin is variously said to have been a demon’s son, to have built Stonehenge, and even to have helped the conception of King Arthur with a spell.
But many believe he is based on a real person, with both Scotland and Wales claiming him. He is said to be buried in France, Wiltshire and Wales, as well as Drumelzier, near Merlindale in Peeblesshire.
A 12th Century text, the
Vita Merlini
Silvestris, says Merlin was murdered in ‘fields near Drumelzier Castle’, and buried ‘30 miles distant from the city of Glasgow’.
Mr Ardrey, who began writing about Merlin and Arthur after finding his surname was linked to both, concluded Drumelzier was too far from Glasgow.
He then found another Drumelzier, near Dunipace,
and 22 miles from Glasgow, where workmen found human bones in a hidden hill tomb around 1838.
The hill, destroyed during the 19th Century work, was ‘smackbang next to Drumelzier, where I had already concluded Merlin had been killed and buried’.
Mr Ardrey’s research suggests the remains were reburied and his search led him to a local feature known as The Grave, a mossy flat stone, 2ft by 4ft.
He said: ‘The stone was heavy in the extreme. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to place it. I don’t know what is in The Grave, maybe the remains of Merlin, maybe nothing. But at least it should be looked at.’