Coille Dhubh

Also known as:
Cat Stone, Clach Tagnairn nan Cat and Demon Stone
Nearest town:
Aberfeldy (14km ENE)
OS reference:
NN711478
OS sheets:
51, 52
Latitude:
56° 36' 15.51 N
Longitude:
4° 6' 0.15 W
Added to TMA by

Articles

Coille Dhubh

BigSweetie
BigSweetie Nov 16, 2003

As anyone who’s familiar with the Glen Lyon road through Coille Dhubh will know, there are a lot of lumps of rock beside the road. One of them may well be the “tall upright Clach Taghairm nan Cat” described by Archie McKerracher, but I couldn’t be sure. I will try to find out his source for the story, and see if the present road was always the route into Glen Lyon, and then return for another look.

Folklore

Coille Dhubh
Standing Stones
BigSweetie
BigSweetie Nov 15, 2003

“Beside the road in the Black Wood of Chesthill stood the tall upright Clach nan Tagnairn.” Every Hallowe’en wildcats would come and walk in circles around the stone, to welcome a huge black cat which sat on top of it. In 1838 a traveller is supposed to have stumbled on this ceremony and was attacked by the cats. Fighting them off as he fled, when he reached Woodend House a dead wildcat was found still clinging to his back.

“Opposite” the Cat Stone was the Stone of the Demon, where Macnab of Carnban Castle met a sticky end. He apparently forced a girl work naked in the fields, so her mother cast a spell on him, and he was thrown from his horse at this stone, his neck broken.

Sites within 20km of Coille Dhubh

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