X-Files from the Bog: Crag Lough

Crag Lough...a "Crucible of Myth"?

As you sink below the lapping waves of Crag Lough - a dark and brooding pool fast by Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland - you cross a threshold into another world. The Lough is natural, its surface a boundary. The Wall above is artificial, the construct of a Roman army centuries ago. Yet like the moat of a castle, the Lough somehow conspires to be part of that very construction.

Boundaries...the world is full of them. Some are artificial like the Wall. Others are natural like the gently skimming waves of the Lough whose surface you have broached. You sink down deeper, and settle calmly into the ooze at the bottom. It seems that you have crossed a boundary within a boundary only to reach a third. Perhaps no boundary is ever truly absolute and the Lough is a nested puzzle of the in-between, where reality meets illusion.

A crucible in which myths might be forged...

Sewingshields

Sewingshields Castle once stood to the east of the Lough, standing proud with the wall on a nearby crag, one of many fortresses to have been born of its fabric. Legend has it that the castle was once King Arthur's, and though the castle is no more, he sleeps somewhere in its hidden vaults deep within the mountain. King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and their knights sleep there until the country has need of their help. Beside them, lying on a table, are a horn, a sword in a scabbard, and a garter. To awaken the King it is said that one must draw the sword, cut the garter and blow the horn.

There is a local story of a man who found his way into the vault. He drew the sword and cut the garter, but failed to blow the horn. King Arthur awoke from his slumber momentarily and lamented:

O Woe betide that evil day

On which this witless wight was born,

Who drew the sword, the garter cut,

But never blew the bugle-horn...

The King then fell asleep again, where he continues in repose beside his Queen, somewhere deep within the mountain fastness of the Wall.

A mythical landscape

To the north of Sewingshields are two crags known locally as the King and the Queen. They overlook a number of "loughs" in the area, a dialect word for "loch" which is particular to Northumberland and Ireland. Could one of these loughs be the pool of water into which another mythical sword was returned - Excalibur perhaps?

Well, according to local tradition there is treasure to be found in Broomlee Lough, and this is the one closest to Sewingshields. Greenlee Lough is close by; both are serene and pastoral in comparison to the brute starkness of Crag Lough to the west. Either of these might be the "pool of calm, clear water" into which Sir Bedivere cast Arthur's sword.

Yet Crag Lough is nearest to the Wall. It sits at the foot of Steel Rigg; dark and forboding, the sheer drop to its moody waters fills every observer with awe. Follow the wall east and you soon come to Housesteads, perhaps the most famous and best preserved of the Roman forts. Due south lies Vindolanda, the encampent which has yielded so much evidence of what life was like for troops stationed there. Who knows what Crag Lough might contain, and who can speculate what history it might have seen? The rivers of myth are cast over this landscape, rolling on and on through the centuries and over the horizon, like the Wall itself.

So what's in there anyhow? Any bottles?

The easiest way to get into Crag Lough is from the eastern end. I parked the bottlemobile on the roadside and geared up. A walk of about half a mile along a farm track took me to the water's edge. The entry was shallow. I finned over towards Steel Rigg and sank down about 5 or 6 feet to the bottom. Visibility was not as bad as I thought it would be, 3 or 4 feet or so. A number of bottles were to be found, including some of reasonable antiquity and good condition. People had obviously made their way along the foot of the Rigg and sat there drinking before throwing the bottles in. My best find was an Ansell's Brewery bottle with an internally threaded neck, very solid and with a beautifully green hue. In my short dive I barely had time to cover twenty or thirty yards. Crag Lough is far too large to explore in a single dive, and I'm sure that there are many other excellent bottles waiting to be found in its oozy sludge.

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