drewbhoy
When parking for visiting the Bell Knowe, hear Rhynie, there is a hut that contains three Pictish stones each with beautiful carvings. On the back of the tallest, called Rhynie 5, there are numerous cup marks suggesting that the Picts were recycling stones used by their Neolithic forebears. The stone is connected to the wall with an iron rod making the taking of photos very tricky indeed. As I’ve said elsewhere the wooden shack covering these stones is a disgrace and hardly gives the stones any protection!
Visited 23/11/09.
Leave Rhynie via the A941, Cabrach/Dufftown, and stop at the Mains of Lesmoir a couple of miles west. Plenty parking space here. Then walk further, 100 meters west, along the road where a track can be found heading south over the hill. This is also necessary as the Lesmoir Burn is in spate and this is the only bridge this side of the hill. (This could be found by walking thru Templand to the south, Wheedlemont, Upper Ord etc.)
The cairn can be seen quite clearly between two hills which are covered in rocks and hut circles perhaps. At 19 meters wide and 3 meters high the grass covered cairn has views that are magnificent with Tap O Noth clearly dominating the area. Originally used for burial the cairn was used as a Gallows in feudal disputes. The cairn is still known as Gallows Hill. Today it was peaceful and the sun was out. But not for long!
Visited 23/11/09.
The Giants Stone is much nearer Newseat Farm than Scardargue it’s alternative name and the footprint is very weathered. This was found on the way to the Newseat Cairn heading west from Rhynie on the A941, Cabrach road.
Visited 23/11/09.
Cheers Rhiannon!
The Bell Knowe, a Bronze Age cairn, is slightly to the south of Rhynie on the A97, eastern side. Best to park the Rhynie grave yard, complete with Pictish stones (one with cup marks). The cairn is unmissable. However at the moment walking to the cairn is impossible as the surrounding land is owned by the manse, as the occupant at Coach House said. By this he mean’t the Church of Scotland and is open between April and October. The site is surrounded by a deer fence and several padlocked gates. There was a lot of ribbons and such like attached to the fence, votive offerings perhaps.
Visited, nearly, 23/11/09.
“The large stone here is associated with St Margaret and was visited by women who hoped to concieve or sought a successful birth. The eight-foot high stone is said to mark the resting place of St Margaret when she journeyed between Queensferry and Dunfermline. Margaret had eight successful pregnancies and probably needed to rest quite a few times on her travels!”
Places Of Interest.
Joyce Miller.
“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.
Just south of Glenbarry, on the A95, take the road east indicated Edingight/Sillyearn. Then take the next minor road left until Knockbog farm is reached. Paths up the Knock Hill are here. Use the path until after the second wooden bridge and jump the fence in front and go north. The stone can’t be seen at this point. Keep going over the next ridge , the stone will be above. This is a land of heather, ferns, moss and bogs. With all the recent rain very boggy. (emphasis on very!!)
This large rock which has been used for various things isn’t white, it has been painted in memory of a sheep dog called Trimmy. One thing it does have is tremendous views to the south, east and west. Fortunately the weather was fairly clear during my climb unlike all the streams and boggy bits which I seemed to find with great ease.
Visited 16/11/09.
Leave the A95, heading south, after Glenbarry (alas a closed pub) turning left on the Edingight/Sillyearn road. Knock Hill is to the north and clearly visible as is the White Stone on it’s western flank. Take the second left, then a right on these twisty minor roads. Go up the hill to Oakenknowes Farm, the road from hell leads to that farm. The occupants at this house are very kind and allowed me to park.
Walk up the hill until another road is met. This is the historic Bowman’s Road, more of which in it’s site, turn left until the road/path runs out. This is when the fun begins. Jump the stream and climb the hill, half way move out of the wood and into the clearance. I followed a tree forester machines tracks, I don’t know how I didn’t manage to break my ankles. Keep going over the hill down the other side heading to the tree line. Turn right for about 1/2 mile and look to the top of the hill eventually the cairn comes into view.
This, I would think, might be another cairn that will vanish without trace. However at the moment tree stumps with yellow ribbons indicate the ancient monument. Canmore are optimistic saying 15 meters wide, but the height of 11/2 meters is close. It is made up of white quartzs and earth, it’s centre has been dug out but there it remains in what would be beautiful place if not for the forestry. Treebeard would not be pleased!!
Being short of time I decided to take a more direct route back down. This plan was quite good for a while until I walked into a Christmas tree wood. Drenched within seconds, the next 1/2 mile or so was hellish, falling into boggy bits, branches in the face and for good measure several little streams to jump. However help was at hand as the occupants gave me dry track suit bottoms and socks, inviting me in for a cup of tea plus more info about the Bowman’s Road. Hurrah and heat!!
Visited 8/12/09.
“Another skill that fairies could transmit was prophecy. Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas – whose real name was Thomas of Ercildoune – was a thirteenth-century poet and seer. It was said that Thomas met the Queen of Fairies on the Eildon Hills near Melrose. Thomas followed the queen after kissing her on the lips, and he had to serve her for seven years. While in the fairy realm, the queen gave Thomas a magical apple, which was the source of his ability to predict the future honestly – hence his second epithet, True Thomas. Although Thomas of Ercildoune is credited with writing “The Romance Of Sir Tristam”, he was better known for his prophecies. It is said that Thomas predicted the crowning of Robert The Bruce in 1306 and the defeat at Flodden in 1513. Since many of the prophecies do not appear in print it is, therefore, very difficult to prove their authenticity. It is interesting to note that Andrew Man, in his confessions about his association with the fairies, described meeting both Thomas The Rhymer and James IV, who was killed at Flodden, as ghosts at a fairy meeting. Although he did not say when this meeting occurred, it was presumably in the mid- to late-sixteenth century.”
Magical Spirits
Joyce Miller.
Mr Hogan’s notes are extensive so my notes will be brief. At the moment the fields are so saturated with the recent rain getting there is like swimming in a mud bath. He’s right about the views. As well as Cairn Lee the cairns at Fisherie and Balgreen are nearby. Windy, soaked and caked with with mud, great fun!!
Visited 14/11/09.
Here comes the rain again, again, again, again.........
Image credit: drew/amj
If you go down to the woods today.................
Image credit: drew/amj
“East Lothian has a rather dubious reputation for having had a large number of witch trials in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Spott was one of the centres of accusations in 1662. The stone is said to be near where Marion Lillie, the Ringwoodie Witch, was executed, reportedly in 1698. One story is that she was the last of those accused of witchcraft to be burnt in Scotland, but this is unlikely to be true as there are (unfortunately) later stories from Dornoch and Crieff. Recent reports have coins, candle wax, and the remains of incense being found at the stone.”
Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland
by Joyce Miller.
“The impressive standing stone at Strontoiller is a rough-cut pillar, standing some thirteen feet high, which was used in healing rituals. It is said to mark the grave of Diarmid, the mythical hero. The adjacent cairn was excavated and some cremated bone was found. Quartz chips and pebbles were found under the kerbstone: quartz is often associated with burial sites in the west.”
Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland
by Joyce Miller.
“There is an extremely unusual hexagonal vaulted chamber, adjacent to the present church, known as St Triduana’s Chapel or Well. It is comprised of the lower parts of a two-storey building, and water still flows from a spring here under the floor. Requests to use the water are still being received today.
Triduana’s shrines were supposed to help blindness and other eye complaints and conditions. Triduana was an early convert to Christianity who was the object of desire of a Pagan prince. The prince particularly admired Triduana’s eyes and, instead of being forced to marry him, it is said that Triduana plucked out her own eyes and presented them to him on a thorned branch. There is a similar story attached to St Medana, (although her eyesight was restored; Triduana’s was not) as well as other examples from Ireland and the Continent.
The church, which is dedicated to St Mary and The Trinity, was founded as a collegiate establishment by James 111 in the 1460s, although it is a much older site.”
Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland
by Joyce Miller.
“The standing stone is said to mark the site of Kate McNiven or MacNieven’s, sometimes known as the witch of Monzie, execution. The story goes that she was put in a barrel and rolled down what is now known as Kate MacNieven’s Craig on the north side of the Knock of Crieff before being burnt. Kate had been the nurse to the Grahams of Inchbrackie, and was accused of witchcraft, including turning herself into a bee. Graham of Inchbrackie tried to save her but to no avail, but as she was about to die it is said that she spat a bead from her necklace into his hand. The bead -a blue sapphire- was turned into a ring and it was believed that the ring would keep the family and lands secure. She did, however, curse the laird of Monzie, although whether this worked or not is not known. MacNiven or Nic Niven was also believed to be the name of the Queen of Fairies.
Indeed it is not clear whether Kate MacNiven was a real person or is a conflation of stories. There do not appear to be any contemporary records of her execution at or near Crieff, and dates for her unpleasant death are variously given as 1563, 1615 and 1715.”
Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland
by Joyce Miller.
“The Eildon Hills, near Melrose, have many stories associated with them, not least that Thomas the Rhymer disappeared to fairyland here for at least seven years after meeting the Queen of the Elves at the Eildon tree. The famous wizard, Michael Scott, is also said to have gained his powers in the hills, and to have instructed the famous Evil Lord Soulis of Hermitage Castle.
The summit of Eildon Hill North, the largest of three peaks, was occupied since at least the Bronze Age. Some of the 300 or so houses (represented by house-platforms) date to the late Bronze Age but others are Iron Age.”
Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland
by Joyce Miller.
This cairn overlooks the villages of Pitmachie and Old Rayne along with the busy A96. As can be seen it is grass covered, sometimes cow covered, and is 9 meters in width, half a meter high. It wasn’t a day to look about but there are a few rocky outcrops, it would be good to do a Tiompan, Cian etc...
When leaving Pitmachie on the A96, going north, turn left at the telephone exchange. Follow the track until the quarry, the remains of the cairn are on the hill behind. This ground at the best of times is boggy, so maybe it’s better to follow the tree line to the hill top, then walk north (climbing one fence) on firmer ground.
Visited 25/10/09.
“Just a little further on and we moved from history to prehistory at the superbly sited standing stone. This twelve foot high stone goes back 3,000 years before Somerled, to the Bronze Age. Of the men who carried it here we know little. Strangely, it is in Jura that traces of the very first men in Scotland have been found – flint arrowheads uncovered in the sand dating back over 9,000 years. Perhaps the proliferation of the caves, large and small, made Jura a natural island for colonisation by the first shore-dwelling people looking for a place to settle.”
Jura In The Sun, from
Tom Weir’s Scotland, published 1980.
“Cross, on foot, a large plain of ground, seemingly improvable, but covered with a deep heath, and perfectly in a state of nature........After a walk of four miles, reach the paps (mountains in the centre of Jura): left the lesser to the south-east, preferring the ascent of the greatest, for there are three : Beinn-a-Chalaois, or ‘the mountain of the sound’; Beinn Sheunta, or ‘the hallowed mountain’; and Beinn-an-Oir, or ‘the mountain of gold’.”
Tour Of Scotland 1772
Thomas Pennant.
The energetic Pennant climbed Beinn an Oir, the highest of the Paps Of Jura, but he mentioned its near neighbour, Beinn Shiantaidh. This translates as the “Enchanted Mountain”, or more precisely “the Mountain Defended by Enchantment”. No archaeological information exists to confirm or deny its use as such, but the name strongly suggests that the mountain was important in the beliefs of the prehistoric peoples of lived on Jura. As Pennant notes, it is one of three grouped close together, and triplicity was thought to be spiritually powerful in the ancient world. And high places seemed to attract those who felt it was important to be near their sky-gods.
Alistair Moffat “Before Scotland”
Studying Pennants Tour Of Scotland 1772.
Originally this had been a much larger cairn perhaps treble it’s current size, which Canmore says is 14 meters, I measured 9 but who’s arguing. It is set in surreal surroundings in amongst hills that look like mottes. Beyond is the Mill Of Brux, the River Don and the Lang Stane.
Leave the A97 after the Kildrummy Kirk, cross and follow the River Don stopping at Brux. A track leads from the mill, follow this until the quarry turning south and uphill at the fence. (If you walk straight on a ruined cottage is at the roads end) Follow the “path” which leads over the two of the “mottes” and straight to the cairn. There are several field clearance cairns on the hillside.
Visited 19/10/09.
(After taking the wrong road I noticed two dogs running in a field, sheep dogs in training I thought. Wrong, as an irate and frankly muscle bound shepherd appeared and gave me a screaming match for letting my dogs run amok. He was quite right except for the fact...I don’t own any dogs! However when he saw somebody shouting on the dogs....................)
Follow the directions to Cairn Ley then walk to the top of the hill. Fichlie is on the ridge of Glaschul Hill on the tree line. Once again superb views of the Don valley even on a misty/rainy day.
The cairn is 24 meters wide and some 21/2 meters in height. As can be seen in the images the centre has been hollowed, due to an excavation during 1880. It also looks like several shelters have also been made.
Lovely location, lovely site!
Visited 19/10/09.
This wonderfully positioned cairn has tremendous views of the Don valley and was of considerable size, at it’s widest 33 meters, 3 meters in height. However time hasn’t served it well as it has been robbed then field clearance has been dumped on it.
Cairn Ley can be found up the Glaschul Hill opposite Ley farm, it can be seen from the road, a good 600 meters or so. Take care behind the cairn as it is badly drained and marshy.
Leave the A97 after Kildrummy Kirk, taking the Brux road. Take the second road in a south westerly direction. Enough room for parking at the entrance to Ley Farm.
Visited 19/10/09.