I’ve been wanting to try and find this rock outcrop for some time (a bit of intel from John, thanks). Armed with a grid reference, I parked at Hob Hole and climbed up to the Skinner Howe Cross Road on a wintry morning.
The outcrop was easy to find, a large overhang which has been walled up as a shelter. It reminded me of the shelter at Low Cable Stone in Tripsdale. A better shelter, not really a bothy, but if you were forced to overnight here it would be a tad uncomfortable although providing a sanctuary from the elements. The Gaelic have a good word for this type of shelter ‘fraon‘. I like that.
On top of the rock outcrop, I found the real reason for visiting, a Latin(?) inscription.
PER ADVER
AD. ASTRA
It looks like Latin and I’m not so sure about that ‘.’ after the ‘AD’. See for yourself:
Google struggles to translate this, and my ‘O’ level Latin is a little rusty. It has some similarity to the RAF motto ‘Per ardua ad astra‘ which translates as ‘through adversity to the stars‘.
‘Ad astra‘, ‘to the stars’ is a phrase that has been attributed to Virgil.
As for ‘per adver‘, Google translates that as ‘the adversary‘, although ‘per‘ as the preposition ‘through’ does sound better to me.
So we come back to the RAF motto. Is there a subtle difference in the meaning? Any help appreciated.
And that is things to do in Lockdown, number 42.
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