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Can anyone give me instances of sites where interfering with stones has brought (apparent) bad luck - either documented, or within the realms of folklore.

Long Meg was supposed to have been 'attacked' once, and then a thunderstorm broke? Any more?

Wasn't there a skeleton at Avebury which was attributed with one of the stones killing its 'owner'?

Men an Tol in Cornwall, and Scottish Clava cairns have been mentioned to me by an off line friend; also crossing 'The Fair Folk' springs to mind.

Quick replies much appreciated,

thanks

Tim

Hi Tim,

As regards the skeleton at Avebury; are you thinking of the "barber surgeon" (so named coz of the instruments found buried with him) - the story was that he was helping to bury the "pagan" stone when it collapsed on top of him, killing him.
I read somewhere that they had recently re-examined the skeleton, and that there was no sign of fatal trauma, suggesting that he had died in a more conventional manner before being buried (for whatever reason) under the stone.

There was a good poem on the "megalithic poems" thread about a man accidently hanging himself on a standing stone.

Burl writes about the fellas employed in the removal of three of the four stones within the Mayburgh Henge.
"One of the men employed in the work having hanged himself, and the other turning lunatic".

There's loads of stories about farmers removing stones and having to replace them because of bad luck. I'll try to find a few Irish ones for you.

not sure if this counts, but whilst breaking into and sheltering in MAes Howe, 2 vikings went mad:

"Earl Harald set out for Orkney at Christmas with four ships and a hundred men. He lay for two days off Graemsay, then put in at Hamna Voe on Mainland (Stromness), and on the thirteenth day of Christmas they travelled on foot over to Firth. During a snow storm they took shelter in Maeshowe and there two of them went insane, which slowed them down badly, so that by the time they reached Firth it was night-time."

From "The Kenward Stone " on this site...Dr J.P. Williams Freeman was told by a "native" in 1915 that the carvings(?) represented a man's entrails and the holes were made so the stone could be moved with ropes "but the horses fell down dead".

From here,
http://www.isleofavalon.co.uk/GlastonburyArchive/ndlstone/05needle.html
Paragraph above the apt Dod cartoon.

"This idea that the energy of thunderstorms might somehow be locked up or stored until some kind of reservoir reaches bursting point brings us back to the idea of barrows as energy-stores, and to an interesting piece of archaeological folklore. There's always been a folk-superstition that some kind of 'divine retribution' follows the 'desecration' of ancient sites, particularly barrows. If you look back through the records, you'll find that this superstition has a basis in fact, for in the case of some barrows a thunderstorm followed within hours or minutes of the opening of the barrow.[19] The same coincidence still occurs from time to time, as happened when a barrow on Parliament Hill in north London was opened recently; and I've heard that it is apparently a respectable piece of professional lore among present-day archaeologists. What is not respectable is to suggest that there might be a causal link between the breaching of the barrow and the thunderstorm that followed."
[19] See Barry Marsden, The Early Barrow-Diggers; the relevant sections are quoted in Janet and Colin Bord, The Secret Country, pp.205-9, along with some similar examples of apparent weather-control.

It's not just stones and barrows that have the retribution lore attached, some trees do too, I think there are a couple of instances in Ireland, one road goes around an ancient thorn as there was so much concern about retribution if it was felled, although i think someone did damage it greatly after the road was diverted but it's sprung back to life.

"Rejoin the N18, and follow the signs for Ennis. To your left, a few kilometres before the village of Clarecastle, you'll notice that a new stretch of road curves around a small tree. Local tradition associates the tree with the fairies, or 'little people'; supernatural beings believed to inhabit the Irish countryside. Irish folklore is replete with tales of the grim fates which befell people who damaged or interfered with 'fairy-trees'. Older Clare people will talk of the spate of accidents suffered by the builders of Shannon airport, after they damaged a 'fairy-tree'. Whoever supervised the laying of the road outside Clarecastle was taking no chances, although the 'modification' added tens of thousands of pounds to the cost of the project."
from here
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2588112-limerick_tours-i

Rune

my half a story as usual, but i believe the removal of one of the whispering knights (closeby to the rollrights in oxfordshire) to use as a crossing over a stream for a farmer.

it took huge amounts of effort (something like 3 horses) to drag it down to the stream, but after much bad luck, the farmer decided to return it. whereupon it was really easy to do with only 1 horse.

When the Saxons attempted to build a church on the slopes of Ilkley Moor, beneath the Hanging Stones, they returned each morning to find their previous day's work undone. Eventually they gave up and built the church in the valley where Ilkley now stands.

There is much Fairy folklore attached to the nothern slopes of Ilkley Moor and the Hanging Stones themselves are sometimes known as the 'Fairies Kirk'.