Filling in the story of the Glen Kinglas Hermit or ‘Fairy Man’

Reader Sheila Young has sent us this photograph of the hermit’s hut on the old road through Glen Kinglas, a little west of the Dunoon road end. She says that it will have been taken some time between 1956 and 1964.

The photograph is the first we’ve had taken from the south side of the road and shows the location of the hut with the western slope of Beinn an Fidleir above and to the left of it. It also adds considerably to the detail of the hut – known locally, according to John Stirling, as ‘Drummond Castle’.

We now know from John Stirling of Dunoon’s Castle House Museum that the ‘hermit’, sometimes also known as the ‘fairy man’ was Alex Drummond, a forestry worker  at Fernoch, near Taynuilt, in the 1920′s and 30′s who left after a disagreement.

Readers have added information on other locations he moved his hut around between this end of Ardkinglas and the eastern end of it at Butter Bridge and near the site of ‘the heart of Argyll’ close to the Hells Glen road whether it empties on to Loch Fyne.

The chain of short articles and photographs as information on this man has been collectively put together is below; and at Sheila Young’s suggestion, we are passing these on to the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh.

From the most recent to the first, other piece published on the hermit are:

• Castle House Museum completes the story of the Glen Kinglas hermit
• More information on the fairy man of Rest and Be Thankful
• ‘The Fairy Man’ caught on camera
• Reader request for information on ‘The Fairy Man’