The Long Man's Grave View all content for The Long Man's Grave

Stuart McHardy, in his 2005 'On the Trail of Scotland's Myths and Legends', says that the Lang Man was a "weel-kennt and successful horse trader who regularly visited the annual fair held in the glen." He cut an imposing tall figure but "one of the great delights of the fair was [to have] a dram with the Lang Man." One year the Lang Man disappeared and when the fair finished, his tent was still there with his horse tethered up next to it. No one knew what had happened to him and people felt scared and suspicious. Was it witchcraft? No-one wanted to take down the tent and gradually it deteriorated over the years in the wind and rain. "The tale began to spread that he had been murdered for his poke o gowd and buried beneath the great stone lying by the road." The stone has been treated with reverence: "for many years the roadmen cleaned the small gravel bed surrounding it." McHardy says "perhaps we will never know if anyone lies in the Lang Man's Grave, but its proximity to Dunsinane and the reverence shown to the stone have led to suggestions that this is where the original Stone of Destiny was buried when it was taken away from Scone at the approach of the English army in 1296."

Posted by Rhiannon 25th August 2005ce

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