Latest Folklore

There is a curious tradition, concerning Tombeg, which, if founded on fact, may help to account for the state in which the circle is now to be seen. The Rev. Wm. M. Macpherson, D.D., on p72 of his History of the Church and Priory of Monymusk, says: “The granite used in the building is not the same as the common blocks in the fields, or in recently opened quarries. The tradition is that it was taken from Tombeg farm, and that the stones were passed from hand to hand down the hill.”

This may mean that the loose blocks found lying on the hill were taken, or it may mean that the stones were quarried there.

He suggests that workmen would much rather nick the stones of a circle than quarry some themselves, especially if they could despoil a ‘heathen temple’ at the same time. But then he spoils things by saying “the single stone now remaining would no doubt be left as a rubbing post, as has been done in so many other cases.” – which conjures a touching picture of the stone stealers caring about the comfort of itchy livestock. Hmm. Seems unlikely.

Still, the Rumour is the important thing, even if it’s not true.

From ‘Some stone circles in central Aberdeenshire’ by James Ritchie, PSAS 1917, volume 51, p30-47.

The RCAHMS record linked to below suggests that local people once knew the site as “The Covenanters Preaching Stones” (exact punctuation up to you I think) – the Covenanters, for historically ignorant sassenachs like myself, being 17th century Scottish Presbyterians.

But I wonder whether the stone(s) here is also the one in the following story:

One [tradition still floating about in the district] relates how, on one occasion, a brawny Highlander had occasion to pass the house [of Frendraught]. He was observed by the lady, who remarked to her husband that he was the prettiest man she had ever seen. This remark led to a quarrel, and her husband, filled with jealous anger, is said to have rushed from the house and followed the unsuspecting Highlander, whom he slew, and buried under a large stone near the hill top.

It seems likely, does it not. ??

From ‘Some stone circles in central Aberdeenshire’ by James Ritchie, PSAS 1917, volume 51, p30-47.

Clynnog Fawr and the church with its presumed stone circle underneath;

Reading around the history of Beuno in T.D. Breverton (The Book of Welsh Saints) there comes up the story of bull sacrifice that carried on until the late 19th century.
Half of the bull going to god the other half to St.Beuno. This story was told by John Ansters in 1589 ‘as the people are of the opinion that Beuno his cattell will prosper marvellous well‘
Breverton says that the cattle cult came down through the Northern celtic tradition, here the animal changes sex and becomes a cow, ‘Audhumula’ the primeval cow who suckled the great giant Ymir. So ‘sacred beasts’ with the mark of St.Beuno (a slit in the ear) were given to the churchwardens and the sale proceeds put in the ancient oak chest in the church.

He also goes on to say, ‘that the church and shrine stand on ancient megaliths, one of which can be seen in the nave floor, and others of which are in the foundations‘

“A similar tale is connected with a large block of quartz, known as the White Cow, near the parish church of Marnoch. The story goes that many years ago some local adventurers made up their minds to run the risk of removing the stone to reach the treasure. They did not manage to complete the task that evening, and on returning to resume their labours on the following day, they discovered their excavations filled in and the stone back in its former place. The work was abandoned.”

Folklore Of The Aberdeenshire Stone Circles.

1411 was the year when battle of Harlaw took place slightly to the north of Inverurie. This stone had stood for centuries until this mob disturbed it’s rest.

“Traditionally it was at this stone that the Laird Of Drum halted his men on their way to the battle of Harlaw. At this point he rested and arranged his affairs.”

Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries 1908.

A walk to the summit of Knocklead, one of the Aura mountains, close to Ballycastle, was not fatiguing in the true sense of the word.
...Seventeen hundred feet higher in the air than when I set out, I felt as if the elastic and buoyant spirit within had risen in the same proportion.
... My seat at this moment was the Cairn of the Three, a tumulus where, according to old tradition, three Danish princesses, after many wanderings and sorrows, found a final resting place.

This mountain is believed by the peasantry to contain in its bosom a reservoir of water, destined one day to rush forth, and inundate the country to the extent of seven miles around.
Such was the prophecy of Sheelah Dubhni Malone, the Black Nun of Bona Margy, who formerly resided in the Franciscan abbey of that name, and enjoyed a high reputation for her knowledge of futurity.

From ‘Ireland Picturesque and Romantic’ by L Ritchie (1838).

The NI Sites and Monuments record mentions that the cairn, ‘Carn An Truagh’, is at the junction of 10 townlands, that it is a whopping 7m high, and that it uses lots of white quartz. The enclosing kerb is visible on the south west side. They suggest it could actually be a passage tomb.

“The farm of Camiestone, in the parish of Kintore, derives it’s name from a standing stone similarly named, where the leader of an invading army of Danes is reputed to have been killed. On the neighbouring farm of Braeside is a stone cist, called Camie’s Grave, which the farmer opened. At his death he left a considerable fortune, and this was attributed to his having found treasure in the cist, though the wealth had a more prosaic origin in farming skill and hard work. The top ridge above his farm carries a number of cairns scattered irregularly, and one of these also is said to conceal treasure, though the difficulty of deciding the lucky cairn is solved with a touch of Scottish humour by designating it the “eastmost wastmost carn.”

Folklore Of Aberdeenshire Stone Circles

The story of the Rolls of Butter is that a woman in the locality stole the milk of her neighbour’s cows on May morning. She was making butter with the stolen milk when Saint Fiachna came upon her. The good Saint, being as adept at cursing as he was at praying, petrified (turned into stone) the butter rolls she had made. He then pursued the woman across a nearby river where she suffered a similar fate!

She still stands, as a large upright stone, in the townland of Gearhangoul, beside a bush that sprouted from a buairicín (wooden buckle) at the end of a short rope she carried for tethering the cows, intended by the Saint as a warning to sinners.

Taken from the Folklore and Legends section of the Bonane Heritage Park website

Even in the present day “Dermod and Grania’s beds” are associated with runaway couples and with aphrodisiac customs. Of this Dutton’s experience when in search of the Ballycasheen “bed” in Clare, is an excellent example. He relates that on inquiry from some country girls where this celebrated “bed” was situated, he was heartily laughed at for asking one of them to show him the way to it.
“After a long consultation with one somewhat older than herself- sometimes with very serious countenances, often with smiling ones, and the elder using a good deal of persuasion – she agreed to go with me, if she was certain I was a stranger, and she knew my name. As the conversation between them was in Irish, which I did not understand, and the evening was growing late, I became impatient, and very ungallantly rode away. When I had ridden a mile further I made the same inquiry from a herd’s wife, and at the same time told her how I had been laughed at by the girls. She said, ‘No wonder for them, for it was the custom that if whe went with a stranger to Darby and Grane’s bed she was certainly to grant him everything he asked.’ ”
Commenting on this, W C Borlace remarks that from anecdotes he had himself heard, as well as from covert jokes which he noticed, passing in Irish, between persons who had accompanied him to “Dermod and Grania’s beds,” he is sure that this reputation is still attached to these monuments. No doubt but that from Pagan times comes the widespread notion that these “Beds” were efficacious in cases of barrenness. Dutton remarks that if a woman “proves barren, a visit with her husband to Darby and Grane’s bed certainly cures her.”

From ‘Traces of the elder faiths of Ireland’ (p348-9) by W G Wood-Martin, 1902.

I put this story in here because Fedderate Castle is much nearer Culsh than Auchmaliddie. It is also near Brucklay House and Castle, Rhiannon has a story about a cup marked stone in the area and this would certainly explain why it’s proving difficult to find, so I wonder if these two stones are one and the same?

Fedderate Ghost Story.
From the Scrap Book Of New Deer 2009.
By the New Deer Primary School Pupils.
As told to them by the local historian Sandy Ritchie.

“There was a very large stone outside Fedderate Castle. William Crawford lived in the castle and was the strongest man in the area. One day a little man came to the castle, picked up the stone and threw it. William took it as a challenge and went outside to compete with the little man to prove that he was the strongest.

When William tried to pick the stone up he found that he couldn’t. Therefore the little man made scratches on the rock to assist in the lifting. Sadly, for William, the stone was still to heavy.

Then the little man disappeared, with his strength over men being proved. Locals at the time said that the little man was indeed the devil. The Crawford family left to live in Sweden and with them went the stone.”

There is also more in the book about the monument at the Culsh.

Thanks also to Julie Perkins.

Stow describes London Stone as:

‘’standing in Walbrook, on the south side of this High Street, neere unto the Channell, is pitched upright a great stone called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so stronlglie set that if cartes do runne against it through negligence the wheeles be broken, and the stone itself unshaken. The cause why this stone was there set, the verie time when, or other mermorie thereof, is there none. ”

Of Finnigirt Dr. Jacobsen says: “There are a few legends told about places along this dyke stead, and the spot where it terminates on the south side of the island has been of old a noted place for trolls.

From John Spence, ‘Shetland Folk-lore’ 1899. (Dr Jakobsen researched language and folklore on Shetland.)

According to Spence, whenever ‘Finn’ turns up in a Shetland place name it refers to a legendary race of beings, some of whom had descendants with extraordinary powers (such as being able to render themselves invisible, metamorphose into animals, and even understand the corbies – the ravens. They also had control over the weather at sea, and could find things lost at sea, and ride the ‘Neugle’ water horses.)

On Skipwith common are many conspicuous tumuli, which are by popular tradition connected with the defeat of the Norwegian army which ... landed at Riccall in 1066.

Sheahan and Whellan’s 1856 ‘History and Topography of the City of York...’ v2, p628.

After an excursion, causing mischief in the Vale of Blackmore, devouring several sheep, the Giant lay down on the hill to rest and digest his breakfast. On falling asleep the local people rivetted him down, killed him and then cut his figure in solid chalk.
Variations of this story can be found in:
Hutchins 1774 29292
Darlton 1935 p 80
Wightman 1977 p98

“Some years ago archaeological students, camping on the summit, were disturbed by the clash of metal, the sound of marching men and shouted military orders in a strange tongue. The camp is reported to have been abandoned in panic and one of the students suffered a nervous breakdown” (Wilks 1978, p66). There seems to be a stray member of this company, an old warrior with a twisted leathery face, gashed with wounds, who creeps up on people after dark, with a preference for scaring courting couples. The last sighting was in the autumn of 1977 (Coaster 12p5).
There is also a milder ghost, somewhat out of place amongst this archaic barbarity. The Dorset Evening Echo of 19 January 1979 interviewed a woman who had been walking on the site in the afternoon with her husband; he looked back and saw, standing on top of one of the banks, an old lady. “She wore a long blavk coat buttoned up the front and finishing in a little stand up collar. She wore one of those hats like Queen Mary used to wear”. The husband turned round to say that they should help her down the slope, but when he and his wife returned to the area they found no such lady.
These ghosts are interesting in view of the popularity of the Rings among the Blandford and Wimborne people as a centre for day outings, picnics and so on. The warrior ghosts who frighten the modern visitor are in part a projection of historical musings on the fort, comparing its bloody origins with present tameness:the past is scary. The black lady, by contrast, is a realistic ghost, since little old ladies are quite common at the site on a warm afternoon.”
Cuckoo Pounds and Singing Barrows – Jeremy Harte

The menfolk of the area were said to have to climb this stone in order to prove themselves worthy of marriage.

This is actually an Iron age ‘Defended Settlement’ – an unusual and distinctively northern type of prehistoric fort. It’s defended by the cliffs of Spindlestone Heughs on the south east. The settlement is rectangular and has two annexes, one on the north and one on the west.

The site features in the legend of the Laidly Worm:

An isolated pillar called the Bridle Rock stands out from the edge of the cliff on which tradition says that the Childe threw the bridle of his horse when he went to meet the Worm.

… it is more commonly called the “Spindle Stone” from its shape. .. Near it was the cave of the Worm, but the outer wall has unfortunately been quarried away, and all that remains is a blackened slab of stone forming part, it is said, of the inner wall. A few hundred yards in another direction is the trough which held the milk of the “seven kine” and from which the Worm drank. It is a hollowed stone, some six feet long, two wide and two deep, and now forms a drinking place for cattle.

From various sources, collected in County Folk-lore v4, Northumberland (1904).

There are two stones here, nine yards apart. Perhaps they’re natural, I can’t find a photo.

Hedgeley Moor was the site of a Yorkist/Lancastrian battle in 1464. The Lancastrians were led by Sir Ralph Percy. When Percy copped a mortal blow, well he was supposed to have leapt the distance between these two stones. One supposes on his horse, though how boring is that.

Sir Walter Scott measured the distance “and would have said and almost sworn that it was but eighteen feet.” There’s nothing like a bit of exaggeration – but perhaps a passing TMA reader should go and check.

Percy was supposed to have actually died across the road at the spot where ‘Percy’s Cross’ now stands.

(Mentioned in Chatto’s ‘Rambles in Northumberland’ (1835) p223, and Scott’s 1827 journal.)

Stoney folklore:

On the top of “Hedgehope,” the round-headed hill that is neighbour to Cheviot, there is a hollow in an incised stone, known as the “Bluidy Trough,” on account of the colour given to the water by the orange-red moss or lichen covering the stone. It is lucky to make a wish here, and drop in a crooked pin – a great number can be seen clearly, lying in the bottom of the hollow, in the water.

Contributed by Mr. T--., Belford, Northumberland, estate agent.

From ‘County Folk-lore’ volume 4, Northumberland, by M C Balfour and N W Thomas (1904).

... the high hill in the [Matson] neighbourhood was called Robins’s Wood Hill... There is another hill at Church-Down, about three miles distant, arising in like manner in the midst of the vale; and these two are called Robin Hood’s Butts.
ATKYNS, p 289.

From ‘Folk-lore of Gloucestershire’ – County Folklore v1, 1895.

[A] local tradition of King Arthur is told by Dr. Bruce: “To the north of Sewingshields, two strata of sandstone crop out to the day; the highest points of each ledge are called the King and Queen’s Crag, from the following legend. King Arthur, seated on the furthest rock, was talking with his queen, who, meanwhile, was engaged in arranging her ‘back hair.’ Some expression of the queen’s having offended his majesty, he seized a rock which lay near him, and with an exertion of strength for which the Picts were proverbial, threw it at her, a distance of about a quarter of a mile! The queen with great dexterity caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the blow; the stone fell between them, where it lies to this very day, with the marks of the comb upon it, to attest the truth of the story. It probably weighs about twenty tons.”

One would imagine the comb marks are those clearly seen at the top of the massive stone in Hob’s photo.

From the Denham Tract called ‘Border Sketches of Folklore’ – you may read the rest at
lib.rochester.edu/camelot/denhamtracts.htm

Near Camies Stone is Clovenstone Farm. Local legend, as well as the occupant at the farm, claim that “witches” were killed at the massive split piece of glacerial known as the Cloven Stone. Also a battle between the locals and some Vikings was mean’t to have happened here but no evidence has been found to back this up.

“To the Grinago Stone, near Oldmeldrum, attaches one of the somewhat obvious and usually absurd tales invented to account for a puzzling name. After the defeat of the Comyns at the battle of Barra in 1308, Bruce pursued the retreating army towards Buchan, whence it came. Having risen from a sick-bed to fight the battle, exhaustion compelled him to rest against this stone as he passed. To the appeals of his men that he should rest a while he gave blunt refusal; it was his but to “grin an’ go hence Grinago. The name, which Professor Watson regards as likely to be Gaelic, has become too seriously corrupted to be identifiable.”

Folklore of Aberdeenshire Stone Circles, 1926.

If you were travelling from Everleigh to Collingbourne Kingston, you’d come this way. You might well go through the strip of woodland between the barrows. But I hope you’d have a clear conscience.

You see, there was once a pair of highway robbers who terrorised the Bath road – they were no Robin Hoods and would take from rich and poor alike. That was bad enough, but when they killed an old farmer and his wife with an iron bar, and then set fire to the farmhouse to disguise their crime – well the local men had had enough. Everyone was after them and the murderers had to hide up by day where they could, moving on under the cover of night.

This night they were crossing the Downs between Everleigh and Collingbourne Kingston. Luckily (so they thought) there were some woods which they could take a rest in – but they forgot that nobody ever went that way after dark if they could help it – especially those with evil consciences. They heard the distant shouting of their pursuers and headed deeper between the trees. But – what was that strange green light ahead? Two green saucer-like eyes were watching them! They stumbled away down another path in panic – but there the eyes were again shining right by their shoulders.

Screaming they ran out of the wood and straight into the hands of the men – who took them straight to Devizes Jail. “We knew we’d get them when they ran down into the woods. All we had to do was wait and let the Black Dog send ‘em back,” the villagers said.

The robbers were hanged back in the eighteenth century, but it’s said the (crime fighting?) Black Dog was seen in the twentieth.

Story from ‘Forgotten folk tales’ by Ruth Tongue (1970).

Elsewhere (like the Wambarrows) Black Dogs are associated with barrows – so I don’t see why these barrows shouldn’t be his home.

It might be best not to speak to anyone you meet up here.

A long time ago there was a servant lassie, who worked for the Minister at Little Dunkeld. She was a quiet lass, who had no mind for dances and such follies, and she liked fine to go for long walks on Birnam Hill.
After a time she told the Minister that she had met a grand gentleman there, who used to walk and talk with her, and he was courting her.

The Minister thought he’d better meet this man, so he was asked to the Manse. He looked very grand, and spoke very nicely, but when the Minister looked down at his feet – the blood ran cold in his veins, ‘for he saw that he had cloven hoofs, and he knew that there was just one person that had that.’ The girl couldn’t seem to see them – she just saw a shiny pair of boots.

She wasn’t to be put off, and eventually they were to be married. The Minister was not very happy but got her to agree to one condition – that if they were to be wed, he would do the ceremony himself.

On the big day the Fine Gentleman turned up in his carriage drawn by six black horses. Everyone was very impressed but the Minister could still see his cloven hoofs as plain as anything. Before the ceremony the Minister got a candle and lit it at both ends – “Now when this candle is burnt out I’ll marry you, and not a minute before.” The bride and groom were most put out, but everyone stood there waiting. When it had burnt down to a couple of inches, the Minister popped it into his mouth and swallowed it – “Now it’ll never burn out and you’ll never be married!” Upon this theatricality the stranger gave an enormous shriek, leapt out the window and disappeared into the ground. They say no grass will grow on that spot to this day.

The story was collected by K M Briggs from a Mary Crerer who lived in Dunkeld in 1926. It’s printed in Briggs’ ‘Dictionary of British Folktales’.