A Curious Discovery at Loch’s Cave
By Professor Fergus Clockmannaan
For many years, scholars of the Onionshire tradition have debated whether the Great Onion was ever anything more than a legend passed down through ancient manuscripts.
Last autumn, beneath the ancient stones of Loch’s Cave, I discovered a chamber that does not appear on any of the maps I have been able to consult.
It was cold, damp, and covered in a layer of dust that appeared not to have been disturbed for decades. At the far end of the chamber lay the object that is the subject of this article.
It was an onion.
But not an onion like those we know.
Its appearance was ancient, its colour faded violet, and its outer layers seemed to have dried without ever actually rotting.
I took notes, made a sketch, and collected several fragments of soil from around it.
I cannot claim that it was the Great Onion described in the oldest accounts of Onionshire.
But there was something about that chamber that made me wonder whether the old accounts were perhaps not as fanciful as we had once chosen to believe.
I returned three days later.
The chamber was still there.
The onion was not.
Prof. Fergus Clockmannaan
Expeditionary Scholar & Independent Researcher
Loch’s Cave, 1897
