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White Caterthun

Hillfort

Folklore

.. acording to tradition, the stones were brought from the West Water, or from the still more distant hill of Wirran [..]

..local tradition at once solves the mystery [of the use or gathering together of these stones], and says, that the place was merely the abode of fairies, and that a brawny witch carried the whole one morning from the channel of the West Water to the summit of the hill, and would have increased the quantity (there is no saying to what extent), but for the ominous circumstance of her apron string breaking, while carrying one of the largest! -- This stone was allowed to lie where it fell, and is pointed out to this day on the north-east slope of the mountain!
There follows a description of an incident "threescore years" before, from Tigerton. A child had become sickly and some people were convinced that he'd been swapped by the fairies, who "had carried [him] away by stealth to their invisible chambers about the hill of Caterthun." The only way was to stick him over a 'blaze of whins'. They craftily did it while his mother was out - and his screams soon determined that he was human after all. Which makes a change in such stories (unless, in this case it serves to underline how silly the peasants are).

From p267 of 'The history and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns' by Andrew Jervise (1853) - digitised on Google Books.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
28th October 2007ce

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