Ha’ Hillock

Nearest town:
Cullen (4km N)
OS reference:
NJ5086662745
OS sheet:
29
Latitude:
57° 39' 7.82 N
Longitude:
2° 49' 24.14 W
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Ha’ Hillock

stolinskie
stolinskie Jan 30, 2025

I’ve been meaning to check out this mound a while and today was the day. After long deliberations, I decided that the layby just by the bridge down from Nether Blairock farmhouse was ok to park in since it’s not a passing place. I def think about these things too much, but on the flipside I’d also be mortified if I parked somewhere that was in the way.

I went under the bridge and up the burn, coz I do loves a bit of stream exploration. Underneath it’s obvious that the bridge is doubled, presumably from when they widened the turnpike. Half stream walking, half following the deer tracks, I ended up at the base of the mound next to a badger latrine.

The mound seen up close is impressive and certainly man-made. It’s steep climb to the top, although not a long one because it’s only 8m high (3m from the field beside it). Did people live there? It seems small for that, but Dunadd also seemed small and that was centre of a kingdom back in the day! Now sitting peaceful in the trees beside the B-road, the mound would have had a commanding position over the turning to Kirkton of Deskford. In 2019, a core sample was taken and it was dated to between 386 BC and 206 BC.

A colleague suggested that the people who lived here then moved on to build Inaltry Castle, I’m not sure about that because there’s also Davie’s Castle (a hillfort) nearby and this place seems more ceremonial than a defended citadel. It’s also pretty close to the Deskford ritual centre, where the carnyx was found. In any case, it proved a lovely short visit which cheered me right up on a crispy October day in 2024.

Folklore

Ha’ Hillock
Artificial Mound
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 30, 2025

I don’t think it’s wholly stupid of me to think he was referring to this place?

The belief in fairies was once common all over the country. That interesting race seems to have died out in this part of the country. At least in all my wanderings I have never seen a fairy or spoken to any person who had seen one. Though I have conversed with one very old woman, who died about 40 years ago, upon the subject, and remember having listened with amusement, not unmixed with awe, to the wonderful tales she told us of encounters some of her early acquaintances had had with the green-coated fraternity.

But, if we have no fairies, we have still some of the relics of them. On the occasion of our late visit to Deskford, Mr Cramond pointed out to me a clump of trees, which contained a ‘fairy hillock.’ We did not stop to examine it; but, I suppose, it resembles those green round mounds, which are rather common in this part of the country, and of which I intend to have something to say on some future occasion.

He then goes on to tell a tale of fairies in a hillock in the ‘lonely range of Gromack’: I see Grumack Hill is also in Moray.
From the Banffshire Journal, 17th May 1887.

Sites within 20km of Ha’ Hillock

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