“Newly married couples would walk round the stone in order to ensure good luck and fortune in their marriage. This was also done at the Granny Kempock Stone at Kempock Point near Gourock. This is a six foot tall stone and, traditionally, couples and fishermen would walk round it seven times, carrying a basket of sand. It was believed that this would bring good winds and catches for the fishermen and success and happiness for the newly weds. In 1662 Mary Lawmont (or Lamont) was accused, with other women, of attempting to throw the Kempock Stone into the Clyde as part of a charge of witchcraft. Some of the women confessed that they intended to destroy boats and ships by this act. The women were not successful, and were most likely executed.”
Stones
by Joyce Miller.