Michael Coy
THIS has to be one of the strangest Spanish stories of them all.
In the third week of August each year, beautiful little town of Teba (east of Ronda, ten miles north of Ardales) is invaded by a tartan army.
The “Douglas Days” is a festival which, as the name suggests, massively involves Scotland’s Clan Douglas. What’s it all about?
Well, something happened here on 25 August, 1330.
At the time, Teba was an Islamic community, but the Reconquest was in progress, and King Alfono XI and his Christian army had the town surrounded.
When you visit Teba (and you should), you’ll see that it’s not an easy place to besiege, sitting as it does high on a rocky shelf above the central Andalucian plain.
And this is where the Scottish connection begins.
Sir James Douglas (probably better-known as “Black” Douglas) was on his way to the Crusades. He had a small army of Douglas clansmen with him.
Black Douglas had fought at Bannockburn 16 years earlier, when charismatic Scottish king Robert the Bruce had beaten the English under King Edward II.
In 1329, when plans for the Douglas boys to go off to the Crusades were under way, Robert the Bruce died.
His heart was cut out and placed in a silver casket (of course it was).
Black Douglas decided to take it with him to the Holy Land, because the heart of a Scottish hero would motivate the Christian troops (of course it would).
Douglas and his men were passing through the Ronda area on their way to the Holy Land (not, perhaps, the most obvious route: some readers may recall the 1978 World Cup, when some Scottish fans set off for Argentina in a navy surplus submarine).
The Scottish warriors offered their services to King Alfonso outside Teba. The offer was accepted.
What happened next is a little sketchy, but apparently there was a cavalry skirmish – Scots on one side, Arabs on the other. At the height of the fighting, Black Douglas threw the silver casket at the Arabs.
He supposed that the heart of Robert the Bruce, flying towards the enemy, would spur his men on (of course it would).
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The casket made it out of the melee, but Black Douglas unfortunately didn’t.
Robert the Bruce’s heart was taken back to Scotland, where his son (King David II) ordered it interred in Melrose Abbey.
During an archaeological investigation in 1996, a metal casket was discovered in Melrose Abbey.
Someone had attached a written message, dates 1921: “We found this, and it contains what’s left of a human heart, but we have no idea whose heart it could be.”
The obvious answer, which escaped some functionary of the Ministry of Works back in 1921, is that this was the Teba Heart. It was re-buried, with honours, in 1998.
So now, every August, Teba turns Scottish.
A four-day festival offers whisky, bagpipes and men in kilts. There is also a medieval market, a special festival for children, costumed re-enactments and much else besides.
