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Airthrey: Latest Posts |
Previous 10 | Showing 11-20 of 24 posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
Pathfoot Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
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Posted by winterjc 3rd February 2002ce |
Pathfoot Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Miscellaneous |
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This stone disappeared for a while during the 80's/90's. The stone has been re-erected in a concrete base on an embankment at the side of Hermitage Road and has been clumsily patched up, also with concrete - it looks as if it broke into 3 pieces along natural fissures in the stone. Its difficult to tell if the Airthrey Stone, which stands 800m to the east, was visible from the Pathfoot Stone (and vice versa) before the 5-stories student blocks were built just accross the road to the east. I restudied an 1898 map and a modern map and I think the stone has been re-erected pretty much in the original spot - certainly within 5 metres (god I'm getting sadder- it took me ages to work this out, imperial, metric, angles etc.) The stone was the focus of the growth of the village of Pathfoot and this was the site of a large, annual cattle tryst (market) in the 18th century. The estate owner in the early 19th century, 'discontinued the village', rehousing the inhabitants elsewhere and knocking down the buildings. There is no trace of the village today. |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
Pathfoot Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes |
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At the other side of the man-made Loch Airthrey from the Airthrey Stone (about 800m W of it) stands the Pathfoot Stone. This 11 ft giant sits on top of an embankment at the side of Hermitage Road close to the Stirling University student blocks. When you stand at the bottom of the embankment, the stone imposes itself over you with trees behind it. It really has a huge presence. Despite it being a bit patched up with concrete and the surrounding university building and landscaping(see misc.), its a great place to just come, sit, chill out, people watch and have your lunch, as I've done a few times before. |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
Hill of Airthrey Fairy Knowe (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes |
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I've been up here once before , in November 2000. I walked up through the old copper mine wood from Bridge of Allan. The old copper mines possibly made this whole place a place of added power during the bronze age. The cairn sits at the edge green 11 of the Bridge of Allan golf course. It is a lot smaller than it used to be according to Faechem's Prehistoric Scotland - a lot of the stones were removed for the usual dyke building. I think there were some goodies found by the victorian robbers, although I'll update this when I get Faechem's book from the library again. The view sitting on the cairn is amazing - the hills rise up slowly from the other side of Strathallan and then further away to the NW the higher highland mountains are THERE. The Forth Valley and Stirling town are spread out down to the west. I made my way back down to Bridge of Allan, following the old cattle droving road. I'll be back here with a camera. 03/02/02 And back I came. Well worth the climb from Bridge of Allan. |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
Hill of Airthrey Fairy Knowe (Cairn(s)) — Links |
Karl Long's home pageI found this while searching for stuff. Karl Long has used Fergusson's 'The story of the Brownie' for his [split] personal[ity] homepage. Karl's presentation has given the story a cosmic reverence (well almost). You really have to check out the rest of his site - go on - trim the address bar back and check it out. |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
TartansStrange Scottish history thing which has stuck one of the stories which Fergusson adapted, 'The King of the Fairies' |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
Hill of Airthrey Fairy Knowe (Cairn(s)) — Folklore |
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There have been many 'fairy' stories surrounding this site throughout the ages. A local writer, R. Menzies Fergusson wrote a collection of stories which were first published in 1912, called 'the Ochil Fairy Tales'. This book contained some tales from his own imagination, and some stories which were adapted from previous local folklore. One of the stories which he adapted from existing lore went roughly as follows. Sometime before the union (pre 1707) a man named David Rae ,a farmer from Tullibody fell in love and married a local woman, Janet Cokley. Janet was vain and flirtatious and gained a reputation in the small village, to David's dismay. David met a fairy while working one day, and he confided in the wee guy re. his marital strife. The fairy (named 'Red Cap') told him to put a magic stone into her broth which would change her ways. David tried this but Janet found the stone and threw it out the door. The following Halloween while returning from a party near the hill of Airthey, David met his wee friend again and explained that the stone plan had went to pot. Red Cap told Dave he'd arrange that if Jan didn't change in the next year, he and his wee pals would escort the dirty whore off to fairyland the following Halloween. Jan didn't change and the powers of the local kirk became involved in the whole thing and Jan became ostracised. The next Halloween, instead of going to one of the local parties, Dave persuaded Jan to go to bed early. The next morn Jan was gone and Dave discovered that the front door was still barred. Local folk who'd been to parties the night before, told Dave that they'd seen a funny little cloud with Jan on it, moving toward Dumyat Hill (monkey style?!?) and on to the Fairy Knowe. Fergusson reports that there were actual church records in Stirling and Dunblane proving the existence of Janet, which worries me. This woman was by all accounts only flirting. *John, I'm only dancing, she turns me on, but I'm only dancing, she turns me on, don't get me wrong, I'm only dancin'* Was it the fairies?, or the presbytery? or poor (paranoid, jealous) Dave who arranged for her removal? Hopefully, for 15th century Jan, it was the fairies. Fergusson adds that this story has long been a warning to 'those wives who were tempted to forget their home duties and obedience to their lawful husbands,' an example of how our lore was used to control and possibly to cover up truths which people didn't want to tell or hear. Another story,'Wee Tommie', tells of a lost child, who was rescued by the fairies and was taken through a secret opening in the side of the mound into a cavern in the knowe where he was looked after by the fairies before being returned safely to his parents. I've added a couple of links for another 2 of Fergusson's adaptations. |
Posted by winterjc 15th January 2002ce |
Airthrey Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes |
| I was a student at Stirling in the mid 90's before the recent unnecessary developments around Airthrey stone (which I didn't know about until reading about it on this site). The arable land that surrounded it then was a really quiet place way away from the bustle of the campus and I often tramped up there after mind numbing lectures to chill or with friends to take in the atmosphere. I recall approaching it for the first time with my cosmic mate (Steve Moffat where are you now?) during one frosty starry autumn night and stopping in our tracks, such is its presence. I hope other students can still appreciate its magic as my friends and I did. |
Posted by Mr B 21st December 2001ce |
Airthrey Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Miscellaneous |
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Until earlier this year, the area of land immediately surrounding the Airthrey stone was a grassy, gently sloping and undulating field, which was outside the develoed area of the university campus on the edge of a golf course. Two years ago, the University lodged an application to develop this land into rugby pitches. The original plans did not even refer to the stone. After protests, the plans were altered and the stone was to be "protected" inside a tacky, fenced off, platformed viewing area. Thankfully the platform didn't happen. What did happen though was that, because of the sensitive nature of the site, the local council referred the plans to the Scottish Executive and then after a few months, and without any public announcement, the work to flatten the land started earlier this year. Thousands of tons of earth and rock were spirit-levelled in the land around the stone, irrepairably taking this monument's immediate landscape from it. Now it stands, fenced off between the ironed flat pitches on one side and a golf course on the other. Stirling University has both a history and an environmental science dept.!!? What do you do when your spirit has been levelled by the hard, cold, yellow bastards (and I dont mean the JCB's)? You do what the Airthrey stone does - keep standing! And it does, all of 15ft high and 9 ft. wide. It still has the Abbey Craig to the south and the Ochils on the north east for support - and the sun and the moon and the stars - and us. |
Posted by winterjc 21st November 2001ce |
Airthrey Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Folklore |
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It is believed by some historians that the Airthrey stone played a part in the birth of the Scottish nation around 860AD. Kenneth MacAlpin is believed to have gathered his west coast, celtic army at the stone, before defeating a north eastern Pictish army. This was the most important in a series of battles, in a power struggle which ended when MacAlpin was crowned the first king of the new, united Scotland. Other stones in the area were reported to be used as standard, or gathering points before important battles at different times. (The Randolphfield stones during the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and the Sherriffmuir stone row, before Wallace's Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 and the Jacobite Battle of Sherriffmuir in 1715). |
Posted by winterjc 21st November 2001ce |
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