Rhiannon

The site of the old fortress of Conyers, at Bishopton, called Castle Hill, is hollow, if folk-lore be true, and the abode of fairies. The same may in truth be said of almost every circular mound in the north. A most notable specimen near Thirsk, a large tumulus, possesses the euphonious cognomen of Pudding-pie-hill, inasmuch as the fairies there were positively so good as to furnish pies and puddings for their juvenile votaries, who went for the the good things of the fairies of its palaces within. Moreover, they heard the fairies’ music, which thing may be believed, as they had to go so many times round the hill before they put their giddy heads to the ground to hear the strains of the little green people. The appointed day for all this condescension was Pancake or Shrove Tuesday.

Saint James’s magazine, v1 (1850), p 231.

The folklore of the axes is another subject beyond the scope of this work, but it may not be amiss to record here some opinions concerning these implements that were expressed in the hearing of Captain Francis du Bois Lukis on the occasion of a visit to Alderney in 1853.

In general these remarks support, of course, the common belief that the axes were thunderbolts, a belief that was on another occasion charmingly confirmed by a Guernseyman who had discovered that when the broken pieces of these bolts were rubbed together their origin was thereby demonstrated, in as much as one could ‘smell lightning’; he referred, of course, to the curious chemical phenomenon of an empyreumatic or ozone-like odour, accompanied by luminosity, that is often a result of the rubbing together of pieces of quartz, flint, and chert.

Only two people did not share this popular belief; one was a labourer who recognized the axes as implements because he had seen them taken out of the ‘Druids’ Vaults’ in Herm, and the second was a man who knew that axes were used by the ‘old people’ to throw at one another when fighting.

The following are examples of the orthodox belief: A labourer found a thunderbolt near L’Etac, and said that he thought these thunderbolts must hit the ground very hard as they were so often broken. Another man knew what a thunderbolt was, but he had never found one himself, although he had often seen the holes that they made in the ground. Another islander stated that he had found a thunderbolt that had actually knocked down his wall*; he had had the prudence, however, to cover it up at once with big stones to prevent it doing further mischief. This is a departure from the usual custom of preserving the axe in or close to the house as a certain protector against lightning.

In the same notes Francis Lukis also records a remark of an Alderney man about ‘cromlechs’, or megalithic monuments; this informant had told him that they were erected by the Catholics as sites for the performance of human sacrifice; but this was a long time ago, since his family, the oldest in the island, had no recollection of it.**

Another and different belief about stone axes was to the effect that they had been thrown to the earth by fairies and hobgoblins, and for this reason it was sometimes the custome, when an islander found an axe on his land, that he should immediately smash it to pieces upon a larger stone. This information is contained in some remarks by Dr. Frederick Lukis that were quoted by Lieutenant Oliver.

Collated in ‘The archaeology of the Channel Islands’ by TD Kendrick and J Hawkins (1928), v2, p59.

There’s a story about the hill in ‘The Vale of Strathmore – its scenes and legends’ by James Guthrie (1875). But it’s couched in the most outrageous language (’when the silvery moonbeams lovingly slept in dreamy beauty..’) and it’s too excruciating to copy out. Whether it’s even based on local tradition is a good point. But according to the RCAHMS record, the fort has a wall an impressive 8m thick and 5m high. So you’d think it’d capture local attention.

It seems the fairies had decided they couldn’t have any human beings building places to live inside the fort. So they did a deal with some evil spirits – if anyone tried to live there, their attempts would have to be ‘blasted in the bud’. Of course, soon someone turned up and started work. That evening, the demons did their duty and hurled all the stones into the vale below. The next morning the builder was a bit surprised but started afresh on some even more sturdy foundations. Rather meanly the demons allowed him to continue a bit longer this time. But then they demolished it all as before. Not learning from experience the man rounded up lots more workers and began again. But of course their efforts were all swept away once more. He was only pursuaded to get lost once and for all by the demons shrieking at him ‘Go build the castle in a bog, where it will neither shake nor shog!’ Hmm.

I rather wonder if the fort at Camp Hill is the site for the following folklore. There is a ‘Keys to the Past‘ page about the fort though it doesn’t seem much is known about it. I can tell from the map that you would seem to get to it by walking up Clayport Bank. And Swansfield Park is the name of the golf course in which the fort now resides. But maybe someone from Alnwick would know.

.. on moonlight nights these tiny folk trooped out of dell, and cavern, and mine, and from beneath the bracken, and from under green knowes, and out of other lonely places to hold their revels, with music and dance, in the Fairies’ Hollow at the top of Clayport Bank.

On one occasion, while visiting Alnwick, Mr. Tate pointed out to me the Fairies’ Hollow at the head of Clayport, and a series of steps, or rather little benches, caused by subsidences of the soil, rising in a gentle gradient to Swansfield Gate, which had obtained the name of the “Fairy Steps.”

From the Denham Tracts – the first paragraph he has copied from Tate’s History of Alnwick.

I found George Tate writing about the Fairies’ Hollow elsewhere. I can’t help thinking he’s writing autobiographically! as it’s curiously imaginative otherwise...

The fairies, it is said, have been dead and were buried at Brinkburn many a long year ago. This, however, will apply only to the Brinkburn community, for in other localities the belief in the “good folk” has lingered on even into the present century. Some forty years ago, or more, we had near to Alnwick, the Fairies’ Hollow, on the top of Clayport bank. At that period a boy who, having drunk more deeply than was perhaps good for him out of the wells of imaginative literature, stole away from his bed on a moolit night, and ensconsed among the rocks overlooking the hollow, waited and watched till the “witching hour of night” to catch a glimpse of the fairies tripping out of the caverns and hills. The grass waved to and fro by a gentle breeze, and the pale light flickered over the hollow, as fleecy clouds sailed over the moon; imagination was excited, aided, it may be, by the “foure-levit clover” hidden in his cap, and troops of green-clad tiny elves appeared to swarm over the hollow, and to join in the mystic mazes of the dance. Soon, however, darker clouds obscured the moon, and threw a shadow over the scene; the illusion was dispelled – the vision melted away – and the boy reluctantly returned home to his bed, to dream of fairy land.

Printed in the Border Magazine for July 1863.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2GcEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA294

And now we may make a brief reference to an old belief which has died out with a bye-gone generation. Half a century ago the fairies were supposed to have local habitations in our district [..] Brinkburn and Harehope Hill too they frequented. Old Nannie Alnwick, the widow of the last of the ancient race of Alnwick, the tanners, had faith in the good folk, and set aside for them “a loake of meal and a pat of butter,” receiving, as she said, a double return from them; and often had she seen them enter into Harehope Hill, and heard their pipe music die away as the green hill closed over them.

p 439 in volume 1 of George Tate’s ‘History of the borough, castle and barony of Alnwick’ (1866).

Harehope Hill has a couple of cairns on it on the current OS map. The Keys to the Past website suggests there would have been many other Bronze Age cairns up here too. Some swords were found here in the 19th century, which have been taken to mean that the hilltop was reused for burials in the Anglo Saxon period. The map also shows some shakeholes. And they’re a bit weird.

I think this curious story could well be about Kemp’s Cairn. First he talks about Knaughland and how on top of the hill there are the ‘faint indications of an old cairn’. Then:

Mr Cruickshank is between sixty and seventy, and remembers the removal of another cairn, much farther down the hill, in 1816. Part of it, however, had been removed a century ago, and a cist disclosed, which was allowed to remain entire till 1816, and of which the cover yet remains. He says the cist was built of small stones, and was about 1 1/2 foot deep, or high, and covered by the large stone yet remaining.

He mentioned a curious thing. The farm has been in their family two hundred years. In the rebellion, his grandfather, on the approach of the rebels, buried his cheese in the stone grave, raising the lid with a “pinch,” and letting it down again. He has heard him tell of it.

In 1816 the whole was removed by Mr Cruickshank’s father, and the cover only preserved. It is fully 6 1/2 feet long by 4 to 4 1/2 broad, and about 6 inches thick – like a strong flag.

He also mentions a suspected ‘Pict’s House’ (an underground chamber) and also a stone with 13 or 14 cupmarks – the RCAHMS record shows the latter couldn’t be found in the 1960s, but if you read the description it makes you wonder if it’s not so far from Conjure Cairn.

From PSAS v7 (1868), ‘Notes of Early Remains on the Farm of Knaughland, Rothiemay’ by James Hunter.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=h0wGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA572

Found you a little bit Chance, for your lovely carved stone. But sounds like whatever curses worked at the time they didn’t last enough to stop it being moved in the end.

Not very long ago the authorities of Geneva conceived the idea of carrying away, and placing in the Botanic Garden of the city, the great Druid Stone of Troinex, known as the Pierre aux Dames. The project went so far that a trench was dug about the block, rollers were on the spot, and the removal was about to begin, when the people of the neighbourhood raised such an outcry and besought the Council of State so earnestly to let the stone be, that the order was countermanded, and the Pierre aux Dames of Troinex still remains undisturbed where it has lain for unnumbered ages.

It used to believed in days gone by (and the belief probably still lingers in the remoter parts of the Pays de Gex) that the Pierre aux Dames, an the three Druid stones between Versonnex and Grelly, were thrown thither in sport by the giants who, according to tradition, once dwelt in the fastnesses of the Jura. Another legend has it that the giants placed the stones in their present situation to protect the treasures which are supposed to be buried at immeasurable depths underneath them. These treasures are further and more effectually guarded by the giants’ curse, which will pursue anybody who attempts to destroy or remove the stones; and it is a well known fact that evil has never failed to befall the reprobates who have dared to lay unhallowed hands on these mysterious relics of the past.

From ‘Tales and Traditions of Switzerland’ by W B Westall (1882).

Also there is a long-winded tale about a stone at Versonnex in the same chapter.

From Rhys’s ‘Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx’ (ch. 7):

Next comes the story of Llynclys Pool in the neighbourhood of Oswestry. That piece of water is supposed to be of extraordinary depth, and its name means the ‘swallowed court.’ The village of Llynclys is called after it, and the legend concerning the pool is preserved in verses printed among the compositions of the local poet, John F. M. Dovaston, who published his works in 1825 [..] How much exactly of the poem comes from Dovaston’s own muse, and how much comes from the legend, I cannot tell. [..]

Alaric’s queen was endowed with youth and beauty, but the king was not happy; and when he had lived with her nine years he told Clerk Willin how he first met her when he was hunting ‘fair Blodwell’s rocks among’. He married her on the condition that she should be allowed to leave him one night in every seven, and this she did without his once knowing whither she went on the night of her absence. Clerk Willin promised to restore peace to the king if he would resign the queen to him, and a tithe annually of his cattle and of the wine in his cellar to him and the monks of the White Minster.

The king consented, and the wily clerk hurried away with his book late at night to the rocks by the Giant’s Grave, where there was an ogo‘ or cave which was supposed to lead down to Faery. While the queen was inside the cave, he began his spells and made it irrevocable that she should be his, and that his fare should be what fed on the king’s meadow and what flowed in his cellar.

At this point the retelling gets very complicated. But basically the queen was actually an ogress on her day off and she wasn’t very happy at the interference. So she sank the town under water so all the miserable clerk would get would be slimy water and pike to eat. I don’t know if she was intending to get rid of her bored husband at the same time but that seems to have been the side effect.

The visitor will, Dovaston says, find [..] stories which the villagers have to tell of that wily clerk, and of ‘the cave called the Grim Ogo’; not to mention that when the lake is clear, they will show you the towers of the palace below, the Llynclys, which the Brython of ages gone by believed to be there.

This is not to do with this site necessarily – which is a small hillfort on a site previously occupied in the Neolithic – but does have links with the farm at its base, Bagbury. It struck me as odd to find a story about a strange and supernatural bull when there’s one about a strange and supernatural cow not so far away at Michell’s Fold. It even gets a bit of a stony connection, as the bull had to be contained by burying under the door stone of the church. It sounds awfully pagan vs christian – the bull ruled the area before the church turned up, and he even tried to destroy the building until he was firmly put in his place. I think Alan Garner would love it.

The story is in Collectanea Archaeologia (1862), in Thomas Wright’s ‘On the local legends of Shropshire’. He also tells the story of the Mitchell’s Fold stones and their cow.

There are quite a few versions in Burne’s ‘Shropshire Folk-Lore’:
https://www.archive.org/stream/shropshirefolkl00burngoog#page/n132/mode/2up and the following pages.

There are two large carneddau on the Carno mountain, where a sanguinary battle was fought between Ethelbald King of Mercia and Roderic Molwynog, a prince of North Wales, in which the latter is said to have been victorious. This bit of legend is offered in ‘A topographical dictionary of Wales v1’ by Samuel Lewis (1833).

I wonder how the site of the cairn might relate to its landscape. ‘Eglwys Faen’ means ‘Stone Church’ and is the name of a big cave in the limestone cliffs immediately below. There is an extensive cave system under here (and shake holes above) – you can read all about it here.

It is almost impossible to realise the extent to which the coast-line must have altered. According to tradition, a long spit of land once ran out from Sudbrook Point in a south-westerly direction, extending as far as the Denny, a rocky islet now lying in mid-channel at a distance of over four miles from Sudbrook.

Sudbrook fort’s certainly been nibbled away at by the Severn over the years. And there’s a lot of mud about. It’s a long way though!

In the 17th C. Camden described the erosion rather elegantly: The Church whereof, called Trinity Chappell, standeth so neare the sea, that the vicinity of so tyrannous a neighbour hath spoiled it of halfe the church-yarde, as it hath done also of an old fortification lying thereby, which was compassed with a triple ditch and three rampiers, as high as an ordinary house, cast in forme of a bowe, the string wherof is the sea-cliffe.”

From AE Lawson Lowe’s article on the camp in Archaeologia Cambrensis (Jan 1886).

A MONUMENTAL (?) STONE. -- On a small farm near Aberdunant, named Y Fach Goch, is to be seen a curious stone having a monumental appearance. The oldest inhabitant of the hamlet of Prenteg, Sian Griffith, who attained her ninety-fifth year in June 1886, tells a tale thereanent to the effect that it was talked of as having much gold beneath it when she was a girl. It was said that whoever should dig down to get it would raise such a storm of thunder and lightning as the world has never known, and that they would wish they were dead.
H.W.L.

From the 1886 edition of Archaeologia Cambrensis (p235).

There aren’t any details about this stone on its Coflein record. Maybe this unpleasant / unlikely story is about it. (Maybe it’s about the Gwern Einion stone but that, at 1m, would hardly seem to be towering anywhere.) Or maybe you know the stone it refers to. You’d hope it’d be safe if it was in a wall.

In the parish of Llanfair, on a small farm called Gwern Einion, is [a] cromlech, of larger proportions than those already mentioned [...]

Not far from this spot is a remarkably fine maenhir, built in the middle of a high wall; over which it towers, and presents a conspicuous mark against the setting sun. This stone, local authorities say, was originally dedicated to the sun; and when it was judged expedient to burn a human victim in honour of that luminary, the unfortunate sufferer was secured by iron chains to the stone. The lower part of the stone is now embedded in the wall, so it is not easy to make out the traces of the fire; which otherwise would, no doubt, be discovered, and believed by the peasants of the district. There is little doubt that many other monuments of the same character have once existed in this district, as here and there fragments of them may be found in the stone walls which divide the enclosures.

From ‘Cromlechs in North Wales’ by E L Barnwell, in Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 15 (1869).

About a mile from the Summer House, to which a pleasant path conducts the visitor, -- in the wood of Stanton Meend, stands a curiosity highly deserving notice, called BUCKSTONE.

This ponderous body of rock, on whose summit many persons might be commodiously seated, rests literally on a pivot so small, that is will scarcely be believed by the spectator, more especially when he is informed that it has remained so for ages. It is generally supposed to be a Druidical relique, of which there are many of the sort in this kingdom.

The Rev. Dr. Booker thus mentions it, in his Poem called the “Hop Garden:“--

The most perfect the Author ever saw, is in a fine wood, the property of Lord GAGE, near Monmouth, commonly called the ‘Buckstone;’ probably from the Deer having been accustomed to resort to it, both as ‘a shadow from the heat, and a shelter from the storm.’ The tradition that a BUCK, in order to escape from its hunters, when closely pursued, bounded upon the top of it, -- only merits a place among those marvellous legends which are received by idle credulity.

So exactly does this gigantic insulated Rock seem to equilibrate, that a spectator would almost suppose, he could dislodge it from its narrow base with the force of his single arm, and send it headlong down the steep declivity on which it stands. Such attempts, an aged villager informed the author, he had often seen made, by the united efforts of a number of stout young rustics; and that he had perceived it gently to move in a kind of rocking motion; but invariably settling on its ancient pivot, from which it is evidently detatched.-- Close by it is another Druidical relique, not unlike a small baptismal font, or rather Romish recess for holy water; used, most probably, for some sacrificial purpose.

Mr. KING, in his “Munimenta Antiqua,” certainly alludes to this stone:--
[...] “At a small distance, to the east, is a rock scooped into a kind of bason, with a channel, seemingly intended to let out the water after it is filled to a certain height. Whether this was a work of art or nature, may be doubtful; but the whole seems to indicate a Druidical superstitious designation.”

From the extravagantly titled ‘Descriptive account of the Kymin Pavilion and Beaulieu Grove, with their various views: also, the Naval Temple with new notices of Buckstone, a supposed Druidical relique, near it : to which is added, Lord Nelson’s visit to Monmouth, his speeches and conversation at the dinner table, his own remarks on his important victories, with his public reception at Rudhall, Hereford, and other places, on his tour’ by Charles Heath. (Hume Tracts, 1813).

Cdw o Frydain, (or Caw of North Britain,) and Lord of Cwm Cawlwyd, who then lived in Edeyrnion, or its neighbourhood, and had two sons; the eldest was the famous Gildas, the querulous historian, an excellent scholar; the second was Huail, a perfect libertine. Arthur becomes jealous of the latter’s having an intrigue with one of his mistresses; -- resolves to go privately armed, to watch his going to her house: he soon appeared; and after a short conversation, they drew, and fought. After a long conflict, Huail had the good fortune to wound Arthur terribly in the thigh: upon this, the contest ceased, and a reconciliation took place, upon condition that Huail, under the penalty of losing his head, should never upbraid the king with this advantage he had over him, &c.

Arthur retires to his palace, which was then at Caerwys, in Flintshire, to be cured of his wound: he recovered; but it occasioned his limping a little ever after. As soon as he got well, he fell in love with a lady at Rhuthin, in Denbighshire; and, in order to carry on his intrigue more privately, he dressed himself in female attirement; and, as he was dancing with her and her companions, Huail happened to see him, and knew him on account of his lameness; and said, “this dancing might do very well but for the thigh.” The king overheard him, and withdrew, and sent for Huail; and after upbraiding him with the breach of his promise and oath, ordered him to be beheaded upon a stone, which lay in the street of the town, which was, from this event, denominated Maen Huail, and which it retained in the author’s time. (It is still to be seen at Ruthin.)

Copied from Edward Lhuyd’s manuscripts, which was transcribed by him from a Welsh MS. of the hand-writing of John Jones of Gelli Lyfdy, in Flintshire, dated June 27, 1611.

Arthur sounds rather like a humourless double-standarded philanderer with no sense of proportion? And you thought he was noble and fair.

From ‘The Bardic Museum’ by Edward Jones, 1802.

Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden land flood, out of certain stones (that are like rocks) standing aloft in open fields near the rising of the river Kenet in this shire, which is reputed by the common people a fore runner of death. That the sudden eruption of Springs in places, where they use not always to run, should be a sign of death, is no wonder. For these usuall eruptions (which in Kent we call Nailbourns) are caused by extream gluts of rain, or lasting wet weather, and never happen but in wet years (witness the year 1648 when there were many of them) In which years Wheat, and most other grain thrive not well (for a plain reason) and therefore a dearth succeeds the year following.

From ‘Britania Baconica: or, The natural rarities of England, Scotland, and Wales’, written by J Childrey (1662).

In Saint Cleeres parish in Cornwall, there are upon a plain six or eight Stones, such as are upon Salisbury plain, which like them two will be mistaken in the telling; so that when they are told over again, they will be found over or under the first number. A thing, that happens (no doubt) meerly by their confused standing.

From ‘Britania Baconica: or, The natural rarities of England, Scotland, and Wales’, written by J Childrey (1662).

I assume this is the right location, it doesn’t seem unreasonable?

King James IV. in a frolick once joined a company of gypsies, who were here making merry, and when the liquor began to operate, the gypsies, as usual with people of their character, began to quarrel among themselves; upon this his Majesty attempted to mediate between the parties, but they, ignorant of the rank of their new associate, were about to handle him pretty roughly for his goodness, which obliged the King to discover himself; in allusion to this affair, the cave was afterwards ironically called the Court Cave.

From the Old Statistical Account for Wemyss parish.

There is a tradition that, upon a pretty high hill about a mile to the south-west of that town {Abernethy} called the Castle Law, in one of the three lochs or small round lakes upon the top of it; there is a golden cradle hid, in which the {Pictish} king’s children were wont to be rocked...

Carney-venn, which obviously appears to have had connection with this Castle Law, and is supposed to have been the place where the treasures or things of the greatest value were kept... The tradition in the immediate neighbourhood is that there were at some remote period, some golden keys found in a small rivulet or stream that runs past this place, which were supposed to have belonged to this Carney-venn; and the popular tradition of the country in general is very lavish respecting some treasure concealed
“Betwixt Castle Law and Carney Vase
As would enrich a’ Scotland ane by ane.”
(Small, pp. 142, 143.)

There is a legend which attaches to the small loch on the top of the Castle Law; and well do I recollect of having in my schoolboy days, an undeined feeling of terror in approaching too near its dreaded waters...

Note.-- The traditions is, that if you run nine times round the loch, muttering a spell --the words of which, however, are too modern to be genuine-- a hand will arise from a golden cradle, and pull you in.
(Laing, p.20.)

‘Small’ is the Rev. Andrew Small’s ‘Interesting Roman Antiqities Recently Discovered in Fife’ (1823), and ‘Laing’ is ‘Notice of the Ancient Ecclesiastical History of Abernethy and of the Condition of the Early Inhabitants of Scotland’ (1861). Collected by John Ewart Simpkins in County Folk-lore vol. 7.

I suppose this is right, but I can’t figure out the Carney Venn?

There’s also a cave called the Witches’ Hole in the steep north face of the Law.

At the date of my visit this cist had been emptied to a depth of nearly two feet. Possibly the spirit of research had been whetted by a tradition – well known in the district – that the cairn concealed a bullock’s hide filled with gold. Be that as it may, all that rewarded the searchers was a fragment or two of whitish clay.

[..] It is of interest to note that some of the pieces of clay bear distinct impressions of the finger .. no doubt made when the soft clay was pressed in position.
No one can fail to regret that this fine old cairn should have lasted through those untold ages – only to be plundered for road metal.

‘Notice of the discovery of a stone-age cist in a large cairn at Stroanfreggan, parish of Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire’ by John Corrie, in PSAS May 8th, 1911.

Another version:

Some eighteen years ago, while exploring the limestone caves at Llanamynech, on the English border of Montgomeryshire, I met with [this] story. A man playing the bagpipes is said to have entered one of the caves, well provisioned with Welsh mutton, and after he had been in for some time his bagpipes were heard two miles from the entrance, underneath the small town of Llanamynech. He never returned to tell his tale. The few bones found in the cave are supposed to be those which he had picked on the way.

From p34 of ‘Cave Hunting’ by W. Boyd Dawkins (1874).

On the summit of the hill we met two boys herding cows [...and] we were curious enough to ask them if they ever heard of Coinneach Odhar [the Brahan Seer] in the district, and if he ever said anything regarding the fort on Knockfarrel. They took us to what they called “Fingal’s Well,” in the interior of the ruined fort, and said that this well was used by the inhabitants of the fortress “until Fingal, one day, drove them out, and placed a large stone over the well, which has ever since kept the water from oozing up, after which he jumped to the other side of the (Strathpeffer) valley.”

There being considerable rains for some days prior to our visit, water could be seen in the “well,” but one of the boys drove down his stick until he reached the stone, producing a hollow sound which unmistakably indicated the existence of a cavity beneath it. ”Coinneach Odhar foretold,” said the boy, “that if ever that stone was taken out of its place, Loch Ussie would ooze up through the well and flood the valley below to such an extent that ships would sail up to Strathpeffer and be fastened to Clach an Tiompan; and this would happen after the stone had fallen three times. It has already fallen twice, ” continued our youthful informant, “and you can now see it newly raised, strongly and carefully propped up, near the end of the doctor’s house.”

From ‘The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer’ by Alexander Mackenzie (1877).

If one of these is the Clach an t-Seasaidh, as Postman suggests, then it’s got some gory folklore:

We have received various versions of the, as yet, unfulfilled prediction regarding Clach an t-Seasaidh, near the Muir of Ord. This is an angular stone, sharp at the top, which at one time stood upright, and was of considerable height. It is now partly broken and lying on the ground.
“The day will come when the ravens will, from the top of it, drink their three fulls, for three successive days, of the blood of the Mackenzies.”

Mr Maclennan’s version is:- “The day will come when the ravens will drink their full of the Mackenzies’ blood three times off the top of the Clach Mhor, and glad am I (continues the Seer) that I will not live to see that day, for a bloody and destructive battle will be fought on the Muir of Ord. A squint-eyed (cam), pox-pitted, tailor will originate the battle; for men will become so scarce in those days that each of seven women will strive hard for the squint-eyed tailor’s heart and hand, and out of this strife the conflict will originate.”

Mr Macintyre writes regarding these:- “The prophecies that ‘the raven would drink from the top of Clach-an-t’-seasaidh, its full of the blood of the Mackenzies for three successive days’, and ‘that the Mackenzies would be so reduced in numbers, that they would all be taken in an open fishing-boat (scuta dubh) back to Ireland from whence they originally came, remain still unfulfilled.”

From ‘The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer’ by Alexander Mackenzie (1877).

A tradition exists regarding the stone. It seems that some fifty years ago an old man who occupied the farm of Taendore carried the stone to his house, either from a belief of some latent virtue or for more prosaic purposes. For three successive nights after its removal the family were disturbed by loud, mysterious noises, which on the third night reached a climax. The sounds were intensified, cattle bellowed, dogs howled all over the valley, and a dread voice, in tones of thunder, exclaimed in distinct syllables, “Put back that stone!” Instant obedience was given by the terror-stricken inmates, and the stone has rested untouched since then, and its mystic guardian has been silent.

Whispers are not uncommon in the district, that the stone also possesses hidden virtues similar to those of the font at Killianan on Loch Ness and other stones, when childless women bathe in its cloud-drawn waters immediately before sunrise.

From p387 of ‘On cup-marked stones in the neighbourhood of Inverness’ by William Jolly, in v16 of PSAS (1881/2).

In reference to the circular lately received asking for information about boulders, I beg to forward a few particulars respecting four. They are all in the parish of Lunnasting, on the estate of Lunna, and the property of Robert Bell, Esq., sheriff of Falkirk.

No. 1. Height 22ft. 9 in.; length 36ft.; breadth 25ft.; shape, angular; direction of longest axis S.E. and N.W.; height above sea level 150-200ft.
No. 2. Height 19ft; length 34ft.; breadth 14ft.; angular; direction of longest axis N.E. and S.W.; height above sea level 150 to 200ft.
No. 3. Height 11ft. 4in.; length 8ft. 7 in.; breadth 8ft. 2in.; angular; direction of longest axis S.E. and N.W.; height above sea 150 to 200ft.
No. 4. Height 7ft. 10in.; length 8ft. 7in.; breadth 3ft. 2in.; wedge-shaped; direction of longest axis S.E. and N.W.; height above sea 300 to 400ft.

Nos. 1, 2, and 3 stand all near each other in the northern part of the parish, and not far from the sea. Nos. 1 and 2 are separated only by a distance of 10 or 12 feet, the intervening space being filled with large masses of stone which appear to have fallen from No. 2. No. 4 stands by itself, surrounded by deep moss, within a few yards of the highest point of a hill about four miles to the south of the other three. Its longest axis runs parallel to the face of the hill. It is known by the name of the “standing stone” of the south hill of Lunna.
No. 3 has no special designation.
Nos. 1 and 2 are known as “the stones of Stofas.” “Stofas” is said to be a corruption of stay fast, and the legend accounting for the name is that it was given to the stones from the circumstance that they were originally two giants passing through Lunnaness, and coverted into stone by some superior power who arrested their progress by pronouncing the words “stay fast.”

From the Eighth report of the Boulder Committee (oh yes) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1882.

The grid reference is for the South Hill of Lunna, stone number 4. I have not checked any old maps for sign of the others, but perhaps they’re still known locally?

This stone is just inside the graveyard here by Loch Rannoch. I found a photo of it here (a fuzzy photo of it apparently whitewashed and with added photoshop blood) on ‘El Vicente’s Homepage‘ where the folklore associated with it is retold in lively style (taken from ‘Tales of Rannoch’ by A D Cunningham). Well as lively as a story about dashing small children’s heads out on rocks can be I suppose. An extra long version is in this edition of the Celtic Magazine from 1887.

It’s not on the RCAHMS map at all. But could it still be old? Perhaps someone has seen it in person.

The cave in the story is in amongst the crags below the fort and above the river.

Of the cave (Ogof y Coed Cochion) I have fond memories. About twenty-five or thirty men can stand inside it. That will suggest to the reader the approximate size. It is undoubtedly an artificial cave on the ledge of a steep castellated rock, and neither man nor wild beast could well approach and commit depredations if the caveman and his family kept their eyes open. It is a comfortable dry room in the rock right opposite the farm Sarphle, and has a crevice about four or five yards long, opened out to the surface, to answer the purpose of a chimney.

I once dug a hole in the floor of the cave in “search of treasure”, or for pieces of brass left by the mythological smith who made the Brazen Head, the Pen Pres, as we call it. It was to this Ynca-fashioned high home in the frowning rock the farm-boys of the period crept from cliff to cliff on all-fours on Easter Sundays to boil eggs. To eat eggs on that day was a custom as sacred as those performed on Pancake Tuesdays and Hot-Cross Bun days. [..] It was a genuine traditional usage, and no wicked freak of servant boys given to steal eggs and eat them.

We quote Dr Phene’s narrative, given the form of a dialogue between himself and his guide, Mr. William Jones, an inhabitant of Llangollen, and the Doctor’s version of the legend:--

“We now approach Penbryn , the house of Mrs Phebe Hughes, mother to the poet John Ceiriog*. The house was placed near where the ridge terminated. It was just getting dark, and Mrs. Hughes was already preparing to retire, when Mr. Morris explained, in Welsh, my request that the tradition of the cave might be given me. The conversation was conducted in Welsh, and the narrative, which was evidently curtailed from the desire of Mrs. Hughes to retire, was as follows:--

” ‘In former times a man, who was a smith, lived in the cave which overhangs the river Ceiriog. This man was commanded, by some unseen powers, to make a head of brass. It was to be of great size, and to be made after a style described to him. The smith was not to sleep during the whole time he was making the brazen head, nor until it had revealed to him all the knowledge man could know. The matter became known, and as soon as it was found that the head would require weeks to make, persons were directed to keep the smith awake, by pricking him with needles and pins. This continued until the smith’s work was accomplished. This being so, the head began to speak, and, addressing its maker, stated:-- “I will tell you first three things, and then I will explain them, and give the knowledge to you. I know-- 1. What has been. 2. What is. 3. What will be.” The assembled people were so astounded by the sound of a voice from the head, that their guard over the smith was forgotten. This no sooner ceased than the wearied metallurgist fell asleep, and the head ceased for ever the statement it had begun.’ ”

Next it’s implied that there is a rock-cut chamber under the house (apparently with its own spring), and that’s where the cave-dwelling smith made the head. But that seems so unnecessary when you’ve got a nice cave. And then there’s an even more elaborate version of the story.

From Dyffryn Ceiriog Folk-Lore, by *John Ceiriog Hughes, in Collections Historical & Archaeological Relating to Montgomeryshire, v 17 (1884).

I don’t know if these really are the stones to which the story relates, but this site could certainly fit and is near Killala Bay. He’s not exactly the flamboyant storyteller and seems to have forgotten some fairly important details. But never mind.

Some few years ago, when staying in Co. Sligo, I met with rather an interesting legend [to do with stone circles] which is only very locally known. The stones are called “Mc.Dowd and his children.” This Mc.Dowd, it appears, was a fisherman, and when pursuing his occupation in Killala Bay, was in the habit of meeting with a mermaid. These meetings ended in their betrothment and in his finally taking here home; but on their way he perceived that she carried a wand which he felt some suspicion about, and after considering the matter over, he quietly arose during the night and hid it. When in the morning Mrs Mc.Dowd discovered her loss, she became almost disconsolate. Years passed over, the wand was at last found, and, returning into the house, she touched with it each of her children and Mr. Mc.Dowd, and they were at once turned into stone, and then she fled back to her old sea life in Killala Bay, which is close to where these stones may be seen.

From ‘Pre-historic remains in the Lake District, a paper’ by W. Kinsey Dover (1880).

I heard some folklore today, unprompted, and I hope the person who told it won’t mind me retelling it here. He said that when his father was young (this might be about 60 or more years ago) he lived on Skye for a while, and he’d gone on a long walk over the Cuilleans, accompanying a local man. It took them five hours to get across the mountains and his father then assumed they’d walk the flat way back, along the road. But he was very surprised when his guide said ‘well goodbye then’ and made to set off the way they’d come. It transpired that the short route home went past a green mound (where, my narrator said, there were, as we would say, fairies, but it was a bronze age burial mound) – and the guide was under no circumstances about to walk past it now that the dusk was falling. He would rather take the five hours back over the mountains in the dark. Which, according to the tale, he did.

The only hill, in this parish, is Couthboanlaw, now by corruption, called Quothquanlaw.-- The late Dr McFarlane, so celebrated for his knowledge in antiquities, was of opinion, that this hill derives its name from these two Erse words, Couth boan, which in that language, signify a beautiful, or smooth hill: And indeed, it is one of the most beautiful little hills, that is to be seen in any country. It is about 600 feet above the level of the Clyde, and is green to the very top. On this hill, the common people, to this day, point out, with much fond admiration, WALLACE’s chair, where he had his abode, and held conferences with his followers, before the battle of Biggar. The chair is a large rough stone, scooped in the middle.

From the Statistical Account of 1791-99, v2 p235 (Libberton and Quothquan, County of Lanark).

Geograph shows the hilltop in less than romantic style with its addition of a traffic cone. But hopefully if you find a common person they can still point out where the chair is. I do hope so.

Cairnsmore of Fleet has two summits, and there are (admittedly dilapidated) cairns on both. It’s very dramatic landscape though so I guess that doesn’t really matter.

In the side of this mountain, facing Dromore station, we believe there is a cave of incredible dimensions, which is said to have been at one time the safe retreat of the gipsy king and robber Billy Marshall, and his lawless followers, and the hiding-place of their ill-gotten spoil. In Blackwood’s Magazine we find the following amusing anecdote of Billy Marshall and this cave, stated to have been derived from “Black Matthew Marshall,” grandson of the said chieftain: –

“Marshall’s gang had long held posession of a large cave or cavern in the high grounds of Cairnsmore, in Galloway, where they usually deposited their plunder and sometimes resided secure from the officers of the law, as no one durst venture to molest the tribe in that retired subterraneous situation. It happened that two Highland pipers, strangers to the country, were travelling that way, and falling in by chance with this cave, they entered it to shelter themselves from the weather, and resolved to rest there during the night. They found pretty good quarters, but observed some very suspicious furniture in the cave, which indicated the profession and character of its absent inhabitants. They had not remained long till they were alarmed by the voices of a numerous band advancing to its entrance. The pipers expected nothing but death from the ruthless gipsies. One of them, however, being a man of some presence of mind, called to his neighbour instantly to fill his bags (doing the same himself), and to strike up a pibroch with all his might and main. Both pipes accordingly at once commenced a most tremendous onset, the cave with all its echoes pealing back the ‘Pibroch of Donuil Dhu’ or such like. At this very unexpected and terrific reception – the yelling of the bagpipes, issuing from the bowels of the earth, just at the moment the gipsies entered the cave – Billy Marshall, with all his band, precipitately fled in the greatest consternation, and from that night never again would go near their favourite haunt, believing that the blast they had heard proceeded from the devil or some of his agents. The pipers next morning prosecuted their journey in safety, carrying with them the spolia opima of the redoubted Billy and the clan Marshall.”

There are three mountains in the Stewartry named Cairnsmore, – the old rhyme
“There’s Cairnsmore of Fleet, and Cairnsmore o’ Dee,
And Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, the highest o’ the three.”
being, doubtless, familiar to most of our readers.

In ‘Rambles in Galloway’ by Malcolm McLachlan Harper (1876).

Also – ..amongst their wild rocks are pieces of beautiful spar found, termed by the country people Cairns-moor diamonds.

and elsewhere, that Tradition says, that no human eyes ever beheld the back side, or farthest extremity of this cave [the Co’ O’ Caerclaugh]; that a dog once went in at its mouth and came out at the door o’ Cairnsmoor, a place nearly ten miles from it; and when the tyke did come out he was found to be all sung (singed), as if he had passed through some fire ordeal or other.

(from the amusing and highly recommendable Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, by John MacTaggart, 1824)

Notes on Stones used as a Cure at Killerry, near Dromahair, and on certain Bullauns.

The ancient graveyard of Killerry is situated on the borders of Sligo and Leitrim, about two miles to the west of Dromahair. In it may be seen a rough horizontal slab, on which are set out seven smooth, rounded stones, ranging from 6 to 10 inches in diameter; at one side of the slab a small peg-shaped stone is fixed upright in the ground. The caretaker of the place, in pointing out the stones, stated that there was a spring of good water under the slab. As the latter lies on the ground, there is no sign of water, nor from its position is it likely to have much under it. The mention of water, however, is not without interest, as in many cases where collections of round stones occur they are placed in hollows or rock-basins, and these retain water to which useful properties are ascribed. In this instance there are no basins, and the assertion that there is water under the stone may be due to a general idea that water in some form should be associated with monuments of the kind.

The people of the surrounding district frequently resort to these stones for the cure of strained sinews. The procedure is as follows:-
A friend of the sufferer goes to Killerry and brings a piece of thread, which should in strictness be of unbleached linen, though this condition is not always adhered to. On arrival at the place, the thread is wrapped round the peg-like stone mentioned above; the round stones are then turned separately while a prayer is said; afterwards a thread left by some former visitor is taken up, brought to the patient, and wound round the affected part; the cure soon follows. This process is called ”Lifting a strain thread“; it is equally effective for the cure of horses or cattle.

A resident in the neighbourhood informed me that in his case the thread had been entirely successful; it was applied at night, and next morning he was quite well and able to go to work as usual.

The story told locally to account for this custom is that St. Patrick when travelling through the district was refused a passage at the ford of Sligo, and had to proceed round Lough Gill. In the rough ground about Killerry his horse strained a sinew, and the Saint then arranged these stones so as to cure the animal and avoid delay to his journey. When departing he blessed the stones, and left them ready to cure strains in men and animals for ever. These stones may be compared with the better-known ”St. Brigid’s Stone,” situated about twenty miles further east, near the old church of Killinagh, at Blacklion, in the County Cavan.

From Henry S Crawford’s article in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland v3 no.3, 1913.

As the weather and season favoured we came amongst pleasant corn fields on the farm of Sron- t-Soillear. [..] Before coming to the house a great circle was seen made of boulder stones, as all those of this district are. The stones are doubled irregularly on the west side. In Aberdeen and Kincardine the custom is to lay a great stone on the southerly side. [..] This circle, which remains entire, is 60 feet in diameter, a very favourite size, and one that seems to have been chosen for a reason. We saw it lonely among hay, itself enough to give interest to the whole valley even had the sun been absent.

A couple of fields off, after passing along graceful mounds and good grass, was seen Diarmid’s pillar (Clach Dhiarmaid or Carrach Dhiarmaid). And now we were in the very midst of a land of legends. No story is more persistently told than the story of Diarmid; no story has the places connected with every transaction more minutely give; but, unfortunately, some half dozen places claim the originals. [..]

[.. When Diarmid] was dying of his wound and nothing but fresh water could help him, Fingal pretended to bring some, but always spilt it, and Diarmid died. The account we got at Lochnell was that the magic water must be brought in the hands of the most beautiful women, to make the cure certain; but the ladies could not manage to bring any – the way was long and rough and the day was hot, so that before they arrived their hands were empty.

[..] Here at Lochnell is a pillar called after him and a grave beside it. The pillar is about 12 feet high, rough, and seems as if squared artificially. The grave or small stone circle has twelve stones – boulders. None of the farmers cared much for Diarmid, since all were strangers [newcomers]; but when some persons lately were looking for a stone kist in this place which is called his grave, a poor woman going by said, in great anxiety, “Oh, oh, they are lifting Diarmid.” He is not forgotten yet.

There are many names here connected with the great boar hunt [..] the farm next the pillar is Tor an Tuirc – the boar’s hill. A shepherd coming down the hill and asking for sheep was told in our hearing to take them up Ben Gulbain; so here is the classic name in common use. Up this hill is a well called Tobair nam bas toll – the well of the empty palms. This is a memory of the hands coming down dry to poor Diarmid. On the slope is Gleann nam Fuath – the glen of spirits. Fuath, in the singular, also means hate or spite, and Gleann na Fuath would be the glen of spite, referring to Finn’s conduct here: his proverbial nobleness did not shine at the death of Diarmid.

[..] It was thought well to walk up from the more interesting pillar of Diarmid to a knoll on the side of the hill, a place called Cleidh-na-h-annait. It is an old burial ground, walled round, and remarkable for having two small cairns in it, as if it were a meeting of heathen and Christian habits [..].

From ‘Loch Etive and the Sons of Uisnach’ by Robert Angus Smith (1879).

Possibly lost now, but maybe it’s there just under the surface waiting to be rediscovered, full of moss and dirt, waiting to twist your ankle?

Here (Fig. 19) is a representation of a Bullan situated, and almost buried, in the centre of a low earthen mound upon the northern side of Loch Drumgay. The material is red sandstone – diameter of basin, one ft. three in.; depth, eleven in. This mound has all the appearance of [a] pagan site. The spot is considered very sacred, though far apart from church or cemetry; and the usage is, that after the patient or pilgrim has prayed and laved, the rag used in applying the water to the eye or eyes must be hung upon one of the surrounding white-thorns. At the time of my visit, in December, 1874, several such tattered offerings yet remained, showing that the place had been still recently resorted to for cures.

On Certain Markings on Rocks, Pillar-Stones, and Other Monuments, Observed Chiefly in the County Fermanagh
W. F. Wakeman
The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland
Fourth Series, Vol. 3, No. 23 (Jul., 1875), pp. 445-474

A strange folklore snippet from ‘Excavation of a Horned Cairn at Aghanaglack, Co. Fermanagh’ by O. Davies, in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (March 1939):

The monument of Aghanaglack, though marked on the Ordnance Survey and alluded to by Wakeman, was first brought to the notice of the scientific world by Lady Dorothy Lowry-Corry [.. and] it is said to have been partially opened by Plunkett, though no account was published. I heard tales also of digging by local people, who were scared by the appearance of an enormous cat.

In December, 1927, Mr. Wm. McIlroy, owner of the farm on the edge of which stands this remarkable monument, had occasion to widen an entrance to one of his fields, and in doing so had to remove a protruding stone. He found it to be one of the top stones of souterrain, of which there were two chambers, with the passage of one or more others, blocked up. The souterrain presented no unusual features, being built in the ordinary manner with the side walls of the chambers corbelled inwards, narrowing towards the top, and kept in their position by the usual long stone slabs laid horizontally across, forming the roof [...]

The question arises, why did the builders not utilise the Hole Stone? Within a couple of hundred yards of it on either side are two souterrains with a hundred or more of these long stones used in the roofs. Here was a suitable stone immediately to hand, and yet they would not disturb it.

I can think of no prehistoric monument of whose written history we know nothing the use and purpose of which have been so well preserved by inviolable tradition as the Hole Stone. From times long prehistoric a ring was regarded as part of the ceremony of Arrhae or betrothal prior to the marriage ceremony itself. To this day, through all the changes of race and peoples that have occurred in County Antrim, particularly South Antrim, the tradition that the Holestone is a betrothal, if not a marriage token remains unbroken, and couples from all the district round still plight their troths by clasping fingers through the ring or hole in this stone. Here then appears the probability that the souterrain builders refrained from using the Hole Stone, because it was sacred in their pagan religion, if not actually a deity.

Well if you say so. From some ‘Tentative Deductions’ about the stone in The Irish Naturalists’ Journal, Vol. 3, No. 5 (Sep., 1930) by HC Lawlor.

In the shire of Inverness and parish of Ennerallen ther is an old ston-monument called the chappell of Tilligorum, alias, Chappell maakmulach, which is full of graves, and was within the memorie of his (my informer’s) father (who is a man of nintie six or ninetie seaven years) an ordinary place of buriall at least for poor people, and continues to be at this day for children who die without baptisme & for strangers.

From a letter to John Aubrey from James Garden, dated March 1693. Quoted in ‘The occult laboratory: magic, science, and second sight in late seventeenth-century Scotland’, by Michael Hunter and Robert Kirk (2007).

I think this is probably the right place, because elsewhere a ‘female brownie’, with a name suspiciously like maakmullach, is mentioned – for example in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1803), Sir Walter Scott says

“... that of Tullochgorm, by May Moulach, a female figure, whose left hand and arm were covered with hair .. [was] a familiar attendant upon the clan Grant.”

and Thomas Crofton Croker, in ‘Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland’ (1828) says:

Formerly ever family of consequence had its Brownie, but now they have become more rare. The two last that were known in the Highlands belonged to the ancient family of Tullochgorm in Strathspey: they were a man and his wife. The man, of a droll and merry disposition, often made game of people; he was particularly fond of pelting those who passed by with lumps of earth, whence he received the name of Brownie-clod. However, with all his good humour, he was rather simple, and was tricked by those whom he himself intended to trick. The best instance is an agreement which he was foolish enough to make with the servants of Tullochgorm, and by which he engaged himself to thrash as much corn as two men could do in the whole winter; for this he was to receive an old coat and a Kilmarnock cap, to which he seemed to have taken a great fancy. While the servants lay down in the straw and idled away their time, poor Brownie thrashed without ceasing: in short, before the agreement was completed, the men, out of gratitude and compassion, put the coat and cap into a corn measure in the barn. He instantly left off work, and said contemptuously, that as they had been simple enought to give him the coat and cap before the end of his task, he would take good care, and not thrash a single sheaf more.

His wife, on the contrary, instead of being the sport of the maids with whom she worked, was a sort of mistress among them. She was seldom on good terms with them, on account of the fidelity with which she acquainted her master with every neglect of their duty. She had a profusion of hair on her head, whence she was called hairy Mag (Maug vuluchd). She was an honest and able housekeeper, and particularly clever in waiting at table. The care with which she invisibly set out the table was a most entertaining sight to strangers; the thing asked for came as if by magic, and placed itself on the table with the greatest speed and nicety: she had no equal in the whole country for cleanliness and attention.

I can’t find a story for the hill of Knockdolian itself, but I was here in the summer, and it’s the most stupendous landmark, looking just like the nearby giant limpet-shaped island of Ailsa Craig from some angles. I liked the hill a lot and I imagine the views from the top would be marvellous. It’s topped by a ‘grass covered cairn .. composed of large and small stones, with rock outcrop protruding in places.. 2m high.. a few large kerb stones are visible’, according to the info on Coflein. But here’s some local stoney folklore:

An old family once lived in a house called Knockdolion, which stood on the banks of the Water of Girvan in Ayrshire. There was a black stone at the end of the house, and a mermaid used to come and sit on it, combing her hair and singing for hours on end. The lady of the house could not get her baby to sleep because of the loud singing of the mermaid, so she told her men-servants to break up the stone. This they did, and when the mermaid came on the night that followed she found no stone to sit upon. She at once flew into a rage, and cried to the lady of the house:-

Ye may think on your cradle-
I think on my stane;
There will ne’er be an heir
To Knockdolian again.

Not long after this the baby died. He was the only child in the house and when his father and mother died the family became extinct.

A harsh punishment but you mustn’t go messing with stones.

From ‘Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend’ by Donald Alexander Mackenzie (1917).

Canmore describes how there was a fort covering the summit of this hill – only the south side is easily approached because the other sides are so steep. It’s just over 200m NNE of the parish church, where there was once a stone:

A large stone, popularly called the “Witches’ Stone,” stood upright, near the church, in a field on Lodge-house farm.* The tradition is that a witch flying with it, to demolish Craigie Kirk, her apron strings gave way, and it fell down on the spot which it afterwards occupied. It was in all probability a druidical remain; probably a rocking-stone. It stood upon three stones, so high that a man could crawl under. It was destroyed in 1819, to build houses. The farmer’s wife, it is said, took some antipathy to it, and would not give her husband rest until he consented to have it removed. A person of the name of Jamieson, and an assistant, were employed to blast it, which was accordingly done. When broken up, it filled twenty-four carts. Such was the feeling of sacrilege occasiioned by the removal of the stone, that it was observed the farmer’s wife became blind, and continued so for eight years, when she died. Jamieson, who blasted it, never did well afterwards. He drank and went to ruin.

Further warning not to Mess With Stones.

*Now called Lodgebush, according to the Canmore record.

Also, the source of this (’History of the County of Ayr’ by James Paterson, 1847) next says:During the era of smuggling, Craigie hills are known to have been the depository of a large share of the contraband goods landed at Troon and other parts of the coast. The broken nature of the crags afforded many secure places of secrecy. The old worthies who took part in this exciting trade have scarcely yet all died out.

On both sides of the Shannon in this neighbourhood Christian tradition is busy with almost every stone, boher, and tougher, and close to this boulder, on the old boher which led to the Seven Churches of Clonmacnoise before the present road was formed, is a carn called Leacht-na-Marra, or the Monument of the Dead, where, to the present day, when a funeral approaches that famed burial ground, the coffin is laid down, and stones thrown on the carn. The tradition is that in the old times some of the “holy men” from the Seven Churches always attended here, and carried the corpse to its last resting place, about two miles distant, the laity not being allowed to enter the sacred precincts. The carn-raising, however, is the remnant of a Pagan tradition.

But I was distinctly informed that no Christian rite was ever performed at the Clonfinlough stone: on the contrary, the name by which it is known – “The Fairy’s Stone” – points to a Pagan origin. Two remarkable earthworks, no mean feats in their way, consisting each of a deep fosse and rampart drawn across the esker, not very far from this stone, are termed “The Witch’s Hollows.”

Another legend terms it “The Horseman’s Stone,” and tells that a horseman gallops round it at certain times. Mr T L Cooke, of Parsonstown – who is intimately acquainted with all the antiquities of the locality, and [..] some time ago kindly communicated to me a drawing of this stone [..]

He goes on to describe the boulder and its neighbours and their cup-like hollows and the carvings, comparing them to a sun with planets and the constellation of the Plough. He also mentions crosses, daggers, the resemblence of a human foot and representations of Irish ring-brooches etc. From ‘On a Boulder with Presumed Pagan Carvings at Clonfinlough, King’s County’ by James Graves. In The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society,
New Series, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1865), pp. 354-362.

A page at the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society summarises some of the local 1930s Folklore Commission reports:

This survey gives us a glimpse of how the people of Offaly treasured their monuments and how they perceived them and what social role they played in the minds of the local people. According to the folklore survey, the Clonfinlough stone had images in the form of cross-men and loop-men carved onto the surface of the rock. This image puzzled many antiquarians for years until one Abbe Breuil deciphered the image and concluded that it represented a fight to a finish between the Old Irish and the Milesians in pre-Christian times, 1300BC. The cross-men were charging at the loop-men who in return were retreating from the attack.

He told the locals that there were many such stones in Spain. The story went on to say that they believed it was the oldest stone in Ireland and described it as “A stone that before Our Lord founded his apostolic church lay there enjoying the glorious sunshine in Summer and the rain leaving it as pure and white as the lily, in winter”. Meanwhile, another story from the Clonmacnoise area records that there were two big rocks in a field which a local boy named Michael was continually playing around in the summer time. One summer day he was out playing as usual and he did not come in until dark. When he came in he began to tell his mother about a strange little boy he was playing with at the rocks.

He showed his mother a beautiful silver knife which he said he got from the little boy. When the mother saw the knife she was afraid to let him keep the knife and she made him go back to the rocks with her in order to return it. Michael left the knife on the rock and the next morning when he went out to play again, the knife was gone and he never saw the little boy again. It is said that the strange little boy was a fairy and he was trying to coax young Michael away. It is also said that another Michael will find the knife, and when he does he will find two big pots of gold under the rocks.

offalyhistory.com/articles/61/1/A-History-of-Offaly-Through-its-Monuments/Page1.html

This page in ‘Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland’ by W G Wood-Martin (1902) seems to show the same cross and base as Tiompan’s picture from Boho churchyard (about 500yds from the rock carvings). The book says: Men are reported to resort to this stone in cases where they have no children after marriage.

“The Witches’ stone,” near Antrim Round Tower, from its name evidently originally a cursing site, is a rock bullan. The tower, according to current tradition, was erected by a “hag” who, when it was finished, as the readiest way of descending, took a flying leap and alighted on this stone, situated about 120 yards from the base of the structure. She stumbled – little wonder – on landing, and struck the rock with one elbow and one knee, which accounts for the cup-like depressions seen in the illustration. These, as is usual, are stated never to be without water. The largest cavity is 15 inches long, 12 inches wide and 9 inches deep; the smaller depression is 6 inches wide by 3 inches in depth. The rock itself is 6 feet long by about 4 1/2 feet broad. It lay originally by the side of a brook, but many years ago the stream was diverted, a wall was built between it and the stream, and the enclosed area converted into a garden.

From ‘Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland’ by W G Wood-Martin (1902).

Perhaps after the two inscribed bullans just noticed, the ten holed example of which I furnish a faithful drawing, is the most remarkable in Ireland. It stands on the shore of Upper Lough Macnean, and close to the ancient ruined parish church of Killinagh. The basins, which average about ten inches in diameter, are of various depths, and each is nearly filled with a somewhat circular or oval stone. There is a holy well close at hand, dedicated, like the church, to St. Brigid. The bullan is populary known as “St. Brigid’s stone,” or altar. A lady, who from infancy has resided in the immediate neighbourhood, was good enough to inform me that she had been told when a child by her old nurse, who was a native of the district, that many years before this curious monument was known amongst the people as the “cursing stone.“*

I heard the same story from a very old man who had lived all his life almost in sight of the time-stained gables of the neglected and mouldering cill. It was the custom, he said, when any of the neighbours bad a grudge against a real or supposed enemy, and wished him harm, to proceed to the “altar” and anathematize him, at the same time turning the stones deposited in the basins. This practise, however, was not carelessly or lightly to be indulged in, as the curses, when undeserved, were sure to descend in full force on the person or property of their utterer.

‘On the Bullàn, or Rock-Basin, as Found in Ireland; With Special Reference to Two Inscribed Examples’ by W. F. Wakeman, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy vol. 1 (1889-91).

* when a child she was not unfrequently brought to the spot by an aged nurse, who there performed devotions of some kind. – same author, ‘On Certain Markings on Rocks, Pillar-Stones, and Other Monuments, Observed Chiefly in the County Fermanagh’, from the Journal fo the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland (Jul 1875).

HAILY.-- This place is supposed to have had its name from Helle, a pit or burial place; as here a vast tumulus had been erected over the bodies of the slain, as thought, at the Battle of Largs. It was only discovered, however, about 40 years ago, by Mr. Wilson, when searching for stones to enclose his lands. It was till then known by the name of Margaret’s-Law, and was supposed to be natural. It had long been overgrown with rank herbage and brushwood. In the centre of it were found five stone-coffins, or square apartments formed with flat stones set on edge; two of them containing five sculls each, with other human bones, and several earthen urns. The earth and small stones at the bottom were calcined. It is supposed that the sculls and other bones within these coffins were those of the chiefs; whilst the bodies of the common warriors had been thrown promiscuously over them, and then stones, in vast quantity, heaped over all. These amounted to upwards of 5,000 cart loads -- whilst the quantity of bones, which on exposure, soon crumbled into dust, was immense.

A Topographical description of Ayrshire, more particularly of Cunninghame, by George Robertson (1820).

... when the waste or common lands were enclosed by act of parliament about [thirty years ago], most of the stones of which this remarkable monumental curiosity was composed were blown into fragments by the power of gunpowder, and employed by the inhabitants in erecting rude stone fences [...]

The quality of these stones is a species of granite, reddish, and full of large white shining specks of spar-like appearance. When polished, some of them are veined, and have an ornamental appearance. There is no regularity in their shape, and few of them present sharp angles; indeed for the most part they seem from their rounded forms to have been long subjected to the action of water.

This species of stone is called by the country-people thunder-stone, but upon what authority seems a matter of much doubt. I have heard the inhabitants assign two reasons – one, that the stones have fallen from the clouds during thunder-storms; and the other, in consequence of their giving out sparks of fire when struck against each other, at the same time emitting a faint smell of sulphur. But in fact the great majority of the people would not be able to assign any reason for so singular a name, not trougling themselves to inquire into the origin of names.

From ‘The Druid Stones near Shap, in Westmoreland’ – from a Correspondent in vol 9 of The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1840).

Outside the burial ground is a perfect curiosity; – a natural rock of a tabular form with five basin-like hollows on the surface, of four or five inches in depth, and about a foot in diameter. These are severally filled with water, and in each is a stone of a long oval form fitting the space fully. The whole forms a petrified dairy – the basins being the “keelers,” the ovals the rolls of butter.

The history of this strange monument is, that, in ancient times, a woman lived here, who, not respecting the commandment against thieving, at night milked the cows of her neighbours, and transferred the milk as well as the butter to her own dairy. Suspected at length, the hue and cry was raised against her; and Saint Fiachna, who led a holy life at the church we have referred to, resolved to punish the culprit. He mounted his horse to visit her, but she flet. The Saint as he passed turned her dairy to stone, and then descended the hill towards the river in pursuit of her. In crossing the stream his horse left his hoof-marks on a stone in the centre of it; this we did not choose to wet ourselves to look at, but we were assured by several that it was there.

He then drove up the opposite hill-side, where, about midway, he overtook the criminal of whom he was in chase, and instantly turned her into stone; and there she still stands, the Irish “Lot’s Wife,” – not, however, a pillar of salt, but a goodly dallan of six feet in height; yet still holding a resemblance to the original lady. The tree beside it grew out of the “kippin” of the spancel which she carried in her hand, and with which she was accustomed to tie the cows’ legs at milking. And see what a goodly picture it now makes as a blooming hawthorn! It is a singular and striking object, standing, as it does, in the midst of a mountain of solitude.

From ‘A Week at Killarney’ by Mr and Mrs S C Hall (1850). The drawing in the book doesn’t have the pointy stone in its doughnutty stone and it’s not mentioned either.

The Irish Megaliths website
irishmegaliths.org.uk/kerry.htm
mentions how the ‘butterlumps’ are (were?) turned as part of Easter rituals at the nearby church.

Upon the West Side of this Isle, there is a Valley with a Declination towards the Sea, having a Rivulet running through the Middle of it, on each Side of which is an Ascent of half a Mile; all which Piece of Ground is call’d by the Inhabitants, the female Warrior’s Glen.

This Amazon is famous in their Traditions; her House or Dairy of Stone is yet extant, some of the Inhabitants dwell in it all Summer, though it be some hundred Years old; the whole is built of Stone, without any Wood, Lime, Earth or Mortar to cement it, and is built in the Form of a Circle, Pyramid-wise towards the Top, having a vent in it, the Fire being always in the Centre of the Floor; the Stones are long and thin, which supplies the Defect of Wood. The Body of this House contains not above nine Persons sitting; there are three Beds or low Vaults that go off the Side of the Wall, a Pillar betwixt each Bed, which contains five Men apiece;

at the Entry to one of these low Vaults is a Stone standing upon one End fix’d, upon this they say she ordinarily laid her Helmet; there are two Stones on the other Side, upon which she is reported to have laid her Sword: She is said to have been much addicted to Hunting, and that in her Time all the Space betwixt this Isle and that of Harries, was one continued Tract of dry Land.

There was some Years ago a Pair of large Deers-Horns found in the Top of Oterveaul Hill, almost a Foot under Ground; and there was likewise a wooden Dish full of Deer’s Grease found in the same Hill under Ground. ‘Tis also said of this Warrior, that she let loose her Grey-hounds after the Deer in St. Kilda, making their Course towards the opposite Isles.

There are several Traditions of this famous Amazon. But I shall trouble my reader with no more of them.

In this isle are plenty of excellent fountains or springs; that near the female warrior’s house is reputed the best: it is called Tou-bir-nim-beuy, importing no less than the well of qualities or virtues; it runs from east to west, being sixty paces ascent above the sea: I drank of it twice, an English quart each time; it was very clear, exceeding cold, light and diuretic; I was not able to hold my hand in it above a few minutes for its coldness; the inhabitants of Harries find it effectual against windy cholics, gravel, and head-aches; this well hath a cover of stone.

p13 of ‘A Voyage to St. Kilda’ by Martin Martin (1749). I wonder where he means by ‘Oterveaul Hill’. The RCAHMS record hints that this strange place could be iron age... or at least, its construction has much in common with ‘wheel houses’ of that period.
canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/3959/details/st+kilda+hirta+gleann+mor/

Many of the country do say, that in the larger round [of stones] the sun, and in the lesser the moon, was worshipped by the old pagan inhabitants of these isles.

From Brand’s ‘A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness’ (from I think 1701 originally, but I found it in ‘A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels in all parts of the world’, which was put together by John Pinkerton in 1809 – you can read it on Google Books.)