Latest Folklore

The tradition of the Naveta dels Tudons and the Pou de sa Barrina (the well of the driller) is the most interesting of all the Menorcan traditions associated with prehistoric sites. Two young friends courting the same girl, who was undecided whom to marry, agreed on a wager to settle the matter for her. One would build a structure in the shape of an upturned boat (naveta) on the plain at Es Tudons, and the other would drill a well nearby until he struck water. The first to complete his task would marry the girl.

When the young man building the boat structure was on his way with the last stone he leaned over the top of the well and asked his friend how he was getting on. His friend replied that he had just struck water. In a fit of savage jealousy the builder of the navetathrew his last stone into the well and it killed his rival. The naveta builder was never seen again.

The earliest printed version of this tradition known to the writer is d’Albranca, the pseudonym for Francesc Camps y Mercadal (1910).

An attempt to date this tradition can take account of a good deal of circumstantial evidence. It is certainly not ‘tourist folklore’ or fakelore, as there was very little tourism in Menorca until the late 1950s, and the printed versions are nearly all in Spanish or Catalan and in publications of extremely limited circulation [...]

A glance at the Naveta dels Tudons, combined with a study of all known illustrations of it in elevation, dating from c. 1890, shows that since the late 19th century it has been in its present condition as far as its uppermost remaining course is concerned: only one slab of the top remaining course is in place. Unless the tradition originated when the top surviving course was more complete (in the writer’s opinion unlikely), the conclusion must be that popular tradition sees no significant difference between one stone missing from the top course and only one stone remaining of the top course.

Indeed, during a visit to Menorca in July 1981 the writer noted that at least one tourist guide told her party that the monument was completed all but for one stone; and the ‘average’ tourist seemed to accept this without question. This may become one of the first examples of fakelore to be produced for the Menorcan tourist trade.

From the esteemed L. V. Grinsell, in ‘The Popular Names and Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Menorca’ – Folklore, Vol. 95, No. 1 (1984), pp. 90-99.

Knockma Hill is topped with prehistoric cairns. But also it’s the home of the fairies.

The soft breezes that pass one in an evening in West Galway are called fairy paths. They are said to be due to the the flight of a band of the good people on their way to Cnockmaa (Hill of the Plain), near Castle Hackett, on the east of Lough Corrib, which is their great resort in Connaught. [...] A soft hot blast indicates the presence of a good fairy; while a sudden shiver shows that a bad one is near.

Notes on Irish Folk-Lore by G. H. Kinahan in The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. 4, (1881), pp. 96-125.

In Evans-Wentz’s classic ‘The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries’, his informant Mr John Glynn, the town clerk of Tuam, mentions that:

“The whole of Knock Ma (Cnoc Meadha) which probably means Hill of the Plain, is said to be the palace of Finvara, king of the Connaught fairies. There are a good many legends about Finvara, but very few about Queen Maeve in this region.”

“During 1846-7 the potato crop in Ireland was a failure, and very much suffering resulted. At the times, the country people in these parts attributed the famine to disturbed conditions in the fairy world. Old Thady Steed once told me about the conditions then prevailing, “Sure, we couldn’t be any other way; and I saw the good people and hundreds besides me saw them fighting in the sky over Knock Ma and on towards Galway.” And I heard others say they saw the fighting also.‘

Half a mile east of Kilquiggan, on the boundary of Aughowle and Mullinacuff, co. Wicklow, there is an old church alongside which is a bullan (stone basin), a baptismal or holy-water font. An English farmer named Tomkins took the bullan for a trough to feed his pigs, but had to bring it back again, as all his pigs died.

Notes on Irish Folk-Lore Notes on Irish Folk-Lore G. H. Kinahan The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. 4, (1881), pp. 96-125.

Turning to the south side of Dublin, in the grounds of “Mount Venus,” a domain on the top of the hills, seven or eight miles from the city, is a large stone, twenty feet long (in line about N.W. and S.E.), ten feet broad, and three thick, leaning against an upright stone, eight feet high, and from three to five feet broad and thick [...]
The old man who drove me to the spot intimated that the visit to it was likely to lead to a double increase of my family, and this, coupled with the name of the hill, seems to point towards a tradition of phallic rites in connection with it.

Notes on Some Irish Antiquities
A. L. Lewis
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 9, (1880), pp. 137-145.

A small bubble-burst regarding the Ethelbert story:

“Around AD25, the ramparts were raised and the huts rebuilt on the same layout. Then, as Roman power extended into the area in the middle of the first century AD, a grisly episode in the history of the settlement occurred. As the Roman army advanced, the ditch at the western entrance was hurriedly recut. Immediately afterwards, many battle-scarred bodies -some of which were decapitated – were thrown into the ditch and covered with a layer of soil. It seems the Romans, under Ostorius Scapula, attacked the settlement, massacred the inhabitants and pulled down the defences over them.

.....

Excavation has revealed no evidence of Saxon occupation to support the folk-tale that Sutton Walls was the site of one of Offa’s palaces. The story of Ethelbert’s bloody murder may represent a hazy folk-memory of of the actual slaughter which took place there many centuries earlier, though recent work has suggested that Offa may have had a palace at Freens Court, just below the ramparts of Sutton Walls*.”

From “Prehistoric Sites of Herefordshire” – George Children and George Nash (1994 Logaston Press).

*On the 1:25000 OS at SO521458 there is a “moat” near Freens Court Farm, not sure if this is relevant.

“The Lady Well

This well has now been tanked and there is a small reservoir. It is beside an old stretch of track on the footpath leading east from St Anna’s church.

The well is said to have been the source of water for Wall Hills hill fort. There was supposedly a secret tunnel from a pair of yew trees formerly on the edge of the camp all the way to the yew that still overshadows the well.”

From “The Healing Wells of Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (1994 Moondial).

The well is not marked on the OS 1:25000, but the work above gives the NGR as SO6262 5962.

“This parish [Staunton on Arrow] has one of the few chalybeate or iron-rich springs in Herefordshire. However, it is the stone-built well on Wapley Hill that is known as a holy well.

The well is within the Iron Age earthworks known as ‘The Warren’. This site supposedly belonged to Caractacus and his people, and is a perfectly situated ‘fort’ in a very beautiful spot. A footpath leads from Stansbatch through the Forestry Commission woodland, round Warren House, and up to the well. There was clearly a spring here which encouraged the well-builders to dig this deep shaft; and despite its position almost at the very top of the hill, it has never been know to dry up.

The Warren is believed to have been less a fort than a Celtic religious centre, and the well shaft may have been sunk early in the Iron Age as a ‘sacrificial pit’.”

From “The Healing Wells of Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (1994 Moondial) referencing “An Archaeological Survey of Herefordshire” vol II – Davies & Bevan (1897).

“Near the camp is Hill Hole or Hell Hole Dingle, locally Hello Dingle*. This is said to have been named after the holy well at Pencombe, whose water meets the Humber Brook near the spot, but it is more likely that there was a holy well at Hollywell or Hollywall Farm on the old Roman road above the dingle.”

From “The Healing Wells of Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (1994 Moondial).

*On the OS 1:25000 (2006 ed) this is shown as “Hill Hole”, at SO537542.

Some more on the well(s):

“Washing in the waters of St Ann’s Well is said to cure various ills, particularly eye troubles. The first bucketful of water collected after Twelfth Night was supposed to be the best, and was considered worth competing for. It is said that the water in the pool [St Ann’s Pool, to the NE of the well] bubbles up at midnight on this day, and is seen to emit blue smoke. However, this is of course according to those who had gone there in the hope of curing their bad eyes.

Presumably before the calendar reform, this was a Yule custom, although New Year’s Day was the favoured time for collecting medicinal waters at Dinedor Cross and elsewhere.

At the top of the field is a scrubby piece of woodland containing the Lady Well, a holy spring which is haunted by the ghost of a young woman who killed herself there. In another more elaborate version of the story she killed her lover, wrongly suspecting him of infidelity, then died of heartbreak; as a result both spirits haunt the well where this happened and where they often meet.

There is a local memory that this well is dedicated to St Catherine. ‘Lady Well’ is a common name for a well and it naturally usually be assumed to be dedicated to St Mary, as for instance at Bodenham. But if the well was pre-Christian, the ‘Lady’ would simply have been the local goddess, who in this part of Herefordshire was more probably Christianised as St Catherine.”

From “The Healing Wells of Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (1994 Moondial) with reference to “The Folk-lore of Herefordshire” – Ella Mary Leather (1912).

Nice to see that newspapers have always been a reliable source of information.

Whereas one of the Burroughs near the famous Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, was lately levelled, and very deep within the said Burrough or Burying Place was found an entire Humane Skelleton of an unusual Size, the Length thereof measuring full Nine Foot Four Inches. Theseare therefore to Advertize any curious Person or Persons, who may be inclined to purchase the said Rarity, that it will very soon be brought to Town and lodg’d at the Duke of Marlborough’s Head in Fleetstreet, and shall remain there some time before it is exposed to publick View.

From the ‘Post Man and the Historical Account’ of August 29th, 1719.

by C. I. Paton mentions in “Manx Calendar Customs (Continued)” that there is a well at The Braaid. It gets a little asterisk, which puts it in the category ‘Known to be “sacred” wells.‘

The visiting of wells for the cure of diseases was very general in the Isle of Man within living memory. The special days on which they were visited were Ascension Day and the first Sunday in August, especially the latter day, but the sick, or their friends, came also on other days for the water, particularly on Sundays “when the books were open,” i.e. during the time of Morning Service in the Parish Church. [...] Though the custome is even nowadays probably not quite extinct, yet in the greatly changed state of the Island the presence of a coin or a few pins in one of these wells would more probably be due to a feeling for an old custom than to any real belief in the efficacy of the well* – as likely as not it would be due to some holiday visitor who had come picnicking to the spot.

*Folklore is never authentic enough, you will notice. But who needs real belief – look how popular Christmas is amongst non-believers.

From Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1941), pp. 184-197.

Apart from crowds of holiday-makers, with whom the author is in the main sympathetic, the Isle of Man is a splendid place for the quiet tourist in search of health, scenery, and antiquities. The people invest their beauty spots with legends – few are without them – which make heavy demands on the faith that can remove mountains: thus “it is said that when the Cloven Stone hears the bell of Kirk Lonen ring, the two sides clap together.”

The pleasant places which cater whole-heartedly for amusements and “attractions” are not in total effect much spoilt, though it is perhaps time to protest when the names Weeping Rocks, Wishing Stone, etc., are painted up on their respective rocks. Here is sophistication in Arcady, but it is generally done “with such an ingenuous air that it disarms criticism.” Most of the island however is innocent of “attractions.” Beautiful and neglected glens and highways are many...

From S.E.W.’s cutting review of ‘In Praise of Manxland’ by M. Fraser, in The Geographical Journal, July 1935.

‘Stob’ perhaps refers to the stones’ stumpy appearance (those with a more violent imagination could create a story around the alternative meaning of ‘stab’).

Tradition has it that the Kings of the local Yetholm gypsies were always crowned here. This page of ‘The Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions, &c.’ describes the death of the former king, Will Faa, in 1847, and his successor’s riotous coronation.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=jQsIAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA64

A good amount of whisky was being drunk, and at one point the attendants accompanying the king on his white horse up to the stones thought it’d be funny to ‘tickle the horse behind’ and poor Charles the First ‘embraced his mother earth’, not ideal for a man over 70. But after a glass of whisky he was ok. Also on the way,

A hare was started, which being pursued by the Royal retinue, was quickly ran down. On arriving at the Stob Stone, the procession halted for a few minutes, when his Majesty dismounted from his palfrey, and mounted the huge block of stone, when he was decorated with the said hare, which was tied across his shoulders (his Majesty being a keen sportsman), as a trophy of game killed upon his own land, and which he continued to carry during the remainder of the procession.

Here, also, while seated upon the stone, his Majesty’s head was anointed with whisky, instead of oil, and his health drunk in deep potations of the same, amidst immense cheering. The procession then returned to the village, where his Majesty was loudly cheered.

Inevitably for this part of the country, the folklore relating to the Bowl Rock is giant-ish. The stone was used in the games of bowls (hence the name, nothing to do with soup or pudding) played by the giants who lived on Trencrom Hill.

From
Pobal Ailbhe: Archdiocese of Cashel & Emly – Christy O’Dwyer

“The tumulus at Lattin is most likely contemporaneous with the great burial mound at Newgrange”

pg 205

From
Pobal Ailbhe: Archdiocese of Cashel & Emly – Christy O’Dwyer

“According to local folklore in pre-Christain times druids worshipped the Sun God at the mound of stones on top ot Teampaillin, Temple Hill”

pg 159

“Stanford Bishop was probably named after the ‘stone ford’ at Jumpers Hole on the ancient trackway through the parish. Jumpers Hole in turn was named after a curious stone in the bed of the stream there, and the legend attached to it.

The stone at Jumpers Hole is on the north-west side of the crossing place, and it bears three very clear horseshoe-shaped dents, each about 7” long, and an oval hollow. The legend is that a witch stole a loaf of bread and fled on horseback*. As the horse jumped the brook, the loaf fell onto a stone; the impressions of the loaf and horse’s feet are miraculously preserved in the stone.

One version of the tale is that the bread was stolen from Stanford Bishop: presumably from the church, hence the miracle. Another says that the witch went to a cottage at the Dovehills to beg a loaf; when the cottager refused she stole the loaf, and cursed both the farm and (oddly) the gate near the brook”

As told in “Stone Spotting in Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (2000) Moondial.

*What self-respecting witch uses a horse. Surely a broomstick or simply disappearing in a flash of smoke would be more suitable if wanting to make a quick exit?

Regarding the location of the witch or eldern tree, there is a stone figure in the porch of the church at nearby Long Compton which local tradition asserts is the figure of a witch. The figure is actually heavily eroded and almost looks like one of the rollright stones.

“In his 1968 book, Murder by Witchcraft, Donald McCormick describes how the female figure has ‘an eerie and malevolent stare on her face that fixed one wherever one stood’. The author goes on to say that, even when moving back 20 paces from the figure, ‘the stare was still directly confronting me’...“. Mark Turner, Curious Cotswolds


“The feet of the stone figure appear to be resting on an animal, perhaps a cat or fox.It may this that has led to suggestions that the figure is that of a witch who was turned to stone, her familiar resting at her feet. In his book Murder by Witchcraft Donald McCormick suggests this figure has a malevolent stare, and his implication that it fixes any onlooker has helped to cement the folklore”.

“...in a field near the church can be seen some ancient earthworks. The field is called The Close. An old tradition is attached to it...It said a young man sold his soul to the devil there.” Mark Turner, Folklore & mysteries of the Cotswolds.


“Belief in witchcraft and the power of witches features prominently in Long Compton’s folklore.Rarely in fact does one find a village with such strong witchcraft associations.” mark Turner.Folklore & Mysteries of the Cotwolds.

“There are enough witches in Long Compton to draw a wagon load of hay up long compton hill ” – Old saying.

From THE HAUNTED COTSWOLDS by Bob Meredith:

“One warm summer afternoon a family from the Midlands, visiting the mound decided to picnic on top of it to enjoy the view. They laid a large table cloth on the mound and loaded it well with food and crockery.The day was still and warm without a breath of air about.During the course of the meal the table cloth suddenly leapt into the air, scattering food and the people.The family were so upset by the incident that they quickly packed everything away and hurriedly left.”

Some additional folklore:

There was a standing stone near the barrow*, which disappeared in the 1990s, which had the following associated with it:

“’when hanging was meted out to sheepstealers, a man was found one morning dead, leaning up against the stone, with a sheep tilted over the upper edge, with its four legs tied together for carrying’. The man had rested and the sheep to which he had tied himself had somehow slipped or struggled and strangled him. This was told to explain the bronze age cup marks on the stone, looking like imprints of a pair of sheep’s trotters.

The road is said to be haunted by the ghost of the man, with the sheep on his back; he crosses the road and disappears into a yew tree.”

As told in “Stone Spotting in Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (2000 Moondial)

*The stone was listed in “Herefordshire Register of Countryside Treasures” – E.C. Davies/County Planning Department (1981) published by H&W County Council:

“Standing Stone, St Weonards

A pillar of red sandstone lying N-S. 1m high with base section 0.6 x 0.3m. Two cupmarks discernable on the E side.

At roadside near to crossroads S of St Weonard’s on A466. (497235).”

I wonder if anyone has any pictures of this before it went missing?

A slight variation/addition to the folklore:

“at noon on Wednesday 16th February 1642 an extraordinarily strong wind dragged the upright Wergins Stone 120 yards away, making an 18” dent in the ground the whole distance, and carried the base stone 440 yards away through the air; a satanic black dog was seen running before one of the stones”

From “Stone Spotting In Herefordshire” – Jonathan Sant (2000 Moondial), referring to “Civil War in Herefordshire” – John Webb (1879)

Journal of the Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society Volume III 1897

Available to download at https://www.waterfordcountylibr[...]ejournals/jwseias/jwseiasvol3/

Pg 92 – Earliest Monuments in Cashel and Emly
by Rev R H Long, Rector, Templemore

“The remains at New Grange, near Drogheda, are considered to be tombs, and the similar mounds in the diocese of Cashel and Emly may be also. The most notable of these are two in Rathcool parish-one at Ardmayle, and one at Knockgraffon. There is no doubt that these mounds are hollow, and there is but little doubt that some day they will be destroyed. One of them had in recent years a narrow escape from a passing railway. I have been informed on good authority that some fifty years age certain workmen, while tilling the field about this latter, came on a subter-ranean passage in which they found what they described as two old swords and an old bucket, which, of course, they treated as rubbish.”

I was very excited when I found this paragraph.
It hints that the motte may be a passage tomb as I had suspected.

Journal of the Waterford and South East of Ireland Archaeological Society Volume III 1897

Available to download at waterfordcountylibrary.ie/en/localstudies/ejournals/jwseias/jwseiasvol3/

Pg 92 – Earliest Monuments in Cashel and Emly
by Rev R H Long, Rector, Templemore

“What a pity it is that a society is not formed now, e’er it is too late, to make a thorough photographic examination of those that remain, and deposit in our museum whatever articles may be found in them of historic value.
The fairies of our times are growing too merciful to mankind to be trusted any longer with those relics, and when they allow Paddy to get hold of them he does not care anything about them unless they are either gold or silver. However, it is probable that but few of these earth-works are sepulchral; those with a central mound are, I suppose, the only ones that may be.
The remains at New Grange, near Drogheda, are considered to be tombs, and the similar mounds in the diocese of Cashel and Emly may be also. The most notable of these are two in Rathcool parish-one at Ardmayle, and one at Knockgraffon. There is no doubt that these mounds are hollow, and there is but little doubt that some day they will be destroyed. One of them had in recent years a narrow escape from a passing railway. I have been informed on good authority that some fifty years age certain workmen, while tilling the field about this latter, came on a subter-ranean passage in which they found what they described as two old swords and an old bucket, which, of course, they treated as rubbish.”

The barrow appears to have had the name since at least 1777, when it was marked on Taylor’s Map of Gloucester as “Paul Aposd”.

“It has been suggested that an epistle was read there at the beating of the parish bounds, which run close by. In the mid 19th century, however, the name ‘Paul and the Epistles’ was sometimes used and was said to refer to the number of trees.”

From: ‘Parishes: Dowdeswell’, A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 9: Bradley hundred. The Northleach area of the Cotswolds (2001), pp. 42-69. URL: british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66462

Rather less religiously, it is also known locally as “Bull’s Pissel”!

Generally the fort is thought to originally date from the early Iron Age, with the single bank and ditch being doubled in the last couple of centuries BCE.

Huddlestone’s Table (information from “Cleeve Hill: The History of the Common and its People” – David H. Aldred 1990 [Alan Sutton Publishing Limited]):

Traditionally the stone is said to mark the spot where King Kenulf of Mercia took leave of various important guests after the 811 dedication of Winchcombe Abbey. In 1779 an article about the stone appeared in “Gentlemen’s Magazine” linking it in true antiquarian style with Druids and so on.