Scottish town of Dunoon
The Scottish town of Dunoon is on the west side of Scotland north of the Firth of the Clyde river, on the Cowal Peninsula. About the end of the fifth century Scots colonizers came over from Ireland, ousted the rough British tribes who inhabited the area, and settled around Loch Fyne. Earrha Gael, "land of the Gael" they called their new won territory, from which came the later name Argyll. Gaelic was the language of our ancestors and indeed was the language heard most at Dunoon until the mid nineteenth century. The Gaels gave names to hills, rivers and townships. These names have survived. Nearly all these names were descriptive. According to one linguistic interpretation, the meaning of the word from which the modern name Dunoon derives is "Hill by the Water". The hill stands just above the Dunoon Pier. A few crumbled stones are all that remain of the castle around which Dunoon developed. No doubt several more primitive strongholds stood on this hill before the last castle was founded early in the thirteenth century.
Scottish Clan Campbell of Argyll
The Denune/ Denoon names are septs of the Clan Campbell of Argyll. This Campbell sept derives it's names from the town of Dunoon located in the Highlands, on the Firth of the Clyde River. In 1294, Sir Arthur de Denoon's name appears on a charter relating to the Monastery of Pais. To aid their escape from justice, two Campbell brothers of Lochow, who had fled to Ross-shire, changed their name to Denune, their mother's maiden name. As Scotland developed as an agrarian economy, the geographical divide between the Highlands and the Lowlands became a fundamental force dividing the nation. The thin soil of the Highlands made even subsistence farming difficult, contrasting with drier weather and more fertile soil of the lowlands. Psychologically the Highlander was inhibited by the tortuous coastline that provided a westward vista to no known promised land. Through many harsh centuries the Highlanders functioned within a clan system that generally provided basic humanitarian and economic benefit to tenants, often living in isolated glens. When law and order became widely enforced through the Highlands, some clans were unable to provide enough food to support all their tenants. The insufficiency provided one spark , that would combine with many others, to fire the disintegration of the clan system.
Favorite Links, Tourism
Holiday Cottages near Dunoon
http://www.chasethewildgoose.com/
Dunoon Scotland, 1999
http://www.thistlegroup.net/dunoon/
Tour of Dunoon
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3499/dunoon.html
Cowal Highland Gathering