Folklore

Sgarasta
Standing Stone / Menhir

On the top of a high stone in Scaristavor parks, the raven will drink its fill of men's blood [..]

This stone is about ten ft. high, and is one of the three fragments into which a larger stone, used by an old woman of former days as a hammer to knock limpets off the rocks (ord bhairneach) was broken. Of the other two, one is in Uigh an du tuath, and one in Tarnsa Islet. At a spot from which these three fragments can be seen, there is hidden an urn of silver and an urn of gold (croggan oir's cr. airgid). It is easy to find a place whence one can see two, but when about to see the third, one of the first two disappears. Five or six yards make all the difference. A herdsman once found the spot, but when digging for the treasure he happened to see a heifer that had fallen on its back in a stream. He ran to its rescue, and never could find the place again.

From p274 of 'Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland' by John Gregorson Campbell (1900).

archive.org/stream/cu31924029909896#page/n297

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