Strathpeffer Biography
What of the signs of burning on the fort walls? From these arose the tale of how the giants went a-hunting to Nigg accompanied by their dogs, of which Finn’s favourites were Bran and Sgeolan (pronounced Scolaing). Garry, a dwarf (only 15 feet tall), was left in charge at the fort, much to his annoyance. He gave vent to his displeasure by storming at the women, and then, going outside, stretched himself on the grass and fell asleep. The women took advantage of the opportunity to peg the plaits of his hair to the ground so effectively that when Garry awoke he nearly scalped himself in trying to pull himself free. Now in a furious temper, he barricaded the women and children indoors and burned the fortress down. From afar the warriors saw the blaze and vaulted home on their spears. They caught the fleeing Garry and offered him the choice of death. The vindictive dwarf-giant chose beheading with his neck on Finn’s knees. Needless to say the ensuing blow not only killed Garry but mortally wounded Finn. So the desolate giants, bereft of wives, offspring and leader, realised that their rule had come to an end and decided to depart. Bearing the body of the mighty Finn to the Craigiehowe Cave at the mouth of Munlochy Bay, they entered, laid down their burden reverently, arranged themselves around and fell asleep. . .
Centuries passed. Then one day a shepherd chanced on the cave and, going inside, saw before him the giants and their hounds stretched out in all their barbaric grandeur. Above the door there hung a hunting horn which he tentatively took down and put to his lips. As he blew he noted with alarm that the giants’ eyes were now open but as otherwise they did not stir he risked a second blast upon the horn. With this the giants sat up resting on their left elbows. Unnerved, the shepherd fled with the anguished cry of the only half-liberated sleepers ringing in his ears: ‘Dhuine dhon dh’fhag thu sinn na’ s moisa na fhuair thu sinn.’ (‘Wretch, you have left us worse than you found us!’) An interesting feature of this tale is that while in Irish legend Finn’s life is terminated at the ford of Brea (Bray), in the Highland Scottish version this event takes place on the hill above the Brae Fiord or, as it is now known, the Cromarty Firth.
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Posted by drewbhoy
27th October 2022ce
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HAUNTING THE FODDERTY STONES, KILVANNIE HOUSE AND TULLOCH CASTLE
In about 2006, lots of curious tittle tattle was circulating around the Edinburgh LGBT Community about what might really be happening at Tulloch Castle. A young musician from Midlothian called Cameron. even said something about a Druidic circle. Following strange meetings in Edinburgh with Cameron and Walter Mitty (see below) in 2018, I'm inclined to believe Cameron and lots of other weird stuff he told me many years previously. But where is the Druidic circle? It certainly isn't in the grounds of Tulloch Castle.
A distinguished-looking Walter-MItty-esque friend of Cameron with an apparently appropriate apparent surname (who'd previously thought that he was head of the Samaritans and now thinks that he's an eminent professor) said that his family seat was in Tulloch Castle, added further to the mystery by setting me a strange puzzle concerning politicians being taken on trips to these climes, and sent me all sorts of weird documents and messages in Spanish, I was, however, never able to get to the bottom of it! A graduate in History and Politics called Jason from Stirling University had previously told me (in the Summer of 2000) about Edinburgh-SNP-organised 'hunting trips for prey' for politicians and VIPs to the Inverness area and I regard his information as reliable. Maybe these strands of information can be pulled together by considering my 2021 blogpost. In other words, have various politicians and VIPS got together for gay fun and frolics on the Fodderty Stones (not all of which are at Kilvannie House)
Thomas Hoskyns Leonard Blog
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Posted by drewbhoy
26th October 2022ce
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Just to warn you, if you see a horse here. Just leave it alone.The Seven Herds of Sallachie and the Water-horse.
Lang syne, when men, and flocks, and herds were plenty in Sutherland, there were seven herds watching their flocks by Loch Shin, and it was evening. They all quarrelled among the others. Said one herd to the other, "That is my father's horse." "No, it is my father's horse": and they fell to fighting (for the horse looked different to each of them). The first jumped up. "There is room for two," said the second, and jumped up also. The others were angry.
"It is a bonny horse, too," said a girl that came by, when they were all up but one. And she patted its shining skin, but her hand stuck to it.
"Oh! Annach," cried her brother,"will ye die with the others, or want your hand?" "Oh! take off the hand and let us run."
So he took the hand off, and they two ran home, and the seven herds of Sallachie were never seen again.
Mr Young, Lairg. It's a bit ghastly isn't it, with hands being chopped off and magic water horses willfully drowning people. Excellent.
From Miss Dempster's "The Folk-lore of Sutherlandshire" in The Folk-Lore Journal volume 6.
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Posted by Rhiannon
25th November 2017ce
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Dun Dornghil, erroneously called Dornadilla, is represented at the termination of this Chapter. It was, in the memory of man, about thirty feet high, but is now much dilapidated. Not a stone of this fabric "is moulded by a hammer, nor is there any fog or other material used to fill up the interstices among the stone; yet the stones are most artfully laid together, seem to exclude the air, and have been piled with great mathematical exactness."
The following verse concerning it, is repeated by the inhabitants.
Dun Dornghil Mac Duiff
Or an taobh ri meira don strha
Scheht mille o manir
Er an rod a racha na fir do Gholen.
Translation.
The Dun of Dornghiall, son of Duff,
Built on the side of the strath next to Rea,
Seven miles from the ocean,
And in the way by which the warriors travel to Caithness.*
* Rev. A. Pope, in Archaeologia, v. From 'The Scottish Gael; or, Celtic manners, as preserved among the Highlanders' by James Logan (first published 1831).
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Posted by Rhiannon
18th June 2017ce
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Aedh, the grandson of Shaw ‘Bucktooth’, settled at Tordarroch in 1468. Occupying a strategic site above the fort on the River Nairn, he and his followers became a powerful force in their own right, known as Clan Aedh or Ay. While the Shaws, or Clan Ay, were consolidating their power in Strathnairn, the chief of Mackintosh was murdered in 1524, leaving an infant son, William. To the outrage of the local chiefs, the Earl of Moray seized the boy, allegedly as his guardian. Clan Chattan retaliated against Moray, and Alan Ciar MacIain led Clan Ay in raiding the earl’s lands. Heavy fines forced Alan Ciar to sell the feu of Rothiemurchus to the Earl of Huntly.
http://www.scotland.org.uk/clans/clans/shaw-of-tordarroch
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Posted by drewbhoy
19th October 2016ce
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SLAGACHORRIE -- The Hollow of the Glenlet.
The term was anciently applied to a semicircular recess occurring among the hills, though such a depression only varied in shape with the local geological formation, but in all cases it was originally due to the disintegrating influence of some mountain torrent. Occasionally it means a whirlpool in the sea.
Some maintain that the name is Slochd a Corrie, the Ravine of the Kettle, and the following tradition is told in support of this view: --
On that tragic night in 1442, when the Comyn Family were unsuspectingly put to the dagger at their own table, in Raite Castle, by the Mackintoshes, whom their hosts had intended as the real victims, one of the domestics - a covetous young fellow - is said to have done a crafty deed. Coolly taking advantage of the terrible death struggle which raged in the great hall, he very stealthily entered the strong room and emptied the contents of the various coffers into an old kettle for his own personal use.
Soon after midnight he slipped away from the Castle, under the cover of darkness, and sped with his heavy burden across the Hill of the Ord. On reaching this lonely hollow, he hastily dug a suitable pit, in a secret cranny, and therein carefully deposited his ill-gotten gear - hoping to remove it at the earliest possible opportunity. But the Fates had decreed it otherwise; the lad never returned, and the kettle with all its precious treasure still remains undiscovered, even to the present day. From The natural history of a highland parish, Ardlach, Nairnshire' by Robert Thomson, 1900.
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Posted by Rhiannon
7th October 2016ce
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This is really such a superb part of the country and reading about it makes me want to go back. The cairn might not be the one in the story - I can't find one now known by the name 'Carn Glas' (although it's common enough). But it could be, it's right by the road and big enough at 50ft diameter and 6ft high to be noticeable. It's got a c5ft long slab, a hefty 8" thick, covering a cist.
The Labourer's Dream.
A labourer (navvy) was working on the road between Rhi-conich and Durness, in Sutherlandshire, about fifty years ago, and dreamed on a Saturday night that if he rose early on Monday morning, so as to be at Carn Glas at sunrise, he would see a crow sitting on a stone. Under that stone he would find the gold which was hid after the murder of a Norwegian prince.
The labourer was in so great a hurry to get the gold that he could not wait till Monday, but set off on Sunday evening, as he had a long way to go. When he reached Carn Glas, there was a crow sitting on a stone, but he did not know which was the right one, for there was a crow on every stone!
People who could interpret dreams said that this happened because he broke the Sabbath; he ought to have waited till the Lord's Day had gone past, and he would have been certain to get the gold.
From p373 in volume 9 of 'Folk-lore' (1898).
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Posted by Rhiannon
14th August 2014ce
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From "Domesday Reloaded 1986":Megstone is a huge boulder at the entrance to Belladrum farm beside the A833. The story about 'Meg's Stone' is that she was a witch, and when she died, two men were carrying her coffin to the graveyard. They stopped at the pub to have a drink. They were so drunk that they could not carry the coffin any further so they made a hole in the ground and put the coffin in the hole. Then they rolled a huge stone over it.
There is a piece of metal sticking out of the rock and there is a rumour that every night at midnight a metal cross rises out of the stone.
It is quite probable that the boulder was deposited by glacial action during the ice age, and most people now treat the story as no more than an interesting legend.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-248000-840000/page/10
The hamlet next to the stone is called Megstone.
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Posted by thesweetcheat
28th December 2013ce
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From Canmore:There are 'two huge granite boulders, situated on a shelving rock over an abyss on the Loch Avon side of Cairngorm, with hand-made cups on them about a foot wide and correspondingly deep - "sitting on which is said to be efficaceous in cases of barrenness" '. Pilgrimages have been made to them within living memory.
A Mitchell 1875.
Mitchell and Drummond, A and J (1875) 'Vacation notes in Cromar, Burghead, and Strathspey. Including notice of one of the supposed burial-places of St Columba', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.10
Page(s): 645
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Posted by thesweetcheat
10th October 2013ce
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