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Burnswark

Sacred Hill

Folklore

The fairies here didn't like people much. They had a reputation for abducting young people to act as their slaves. They kidnapped a girl from Corrie [a settlement to the north of the hill]. Her family thought she was lying dead in her bed - but actually this was just a 'stock', or simulation, produced by the fairies - as her brother discovered when the real girl appeared to him in a vision (or a dream?).
She told him that to rescue her he would have to go to their barn the next night and wait until midnight. Then three figures would walk past, he was to grab the third (herself) and repeat some words she gave him. But when it came down to it he was too scared, and unfortunately the girl was stuck with the fairies Forever...

From Maxwell Wood's 'Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the Southwestern District of Scotland' (1911), noted in Bord's 'Fairy Sites' book (2004).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
23rd February 2005ce
Edited 23rd February 2005ce

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