Rhiannon

According to the OED, ‘Hallion’ or ‘Hallyon’ is “A term of contempt: A low or scurvy fellow; an idle, worthless fellow,” and is dialect from Scotland and the north of England.

The Reverend James Raine (who edited the memoirs mentioned below) didn’t want to go for the Druidic explanation, and dug out a copy of the Newcastle Courant of 9 October 1725 in an effort to dispel the myth:

It appears from this authority that upon the marriage of Sir William Blackett (a while before) “Shaftoe Vaughan, Esq. caused Shafto Craggs to be illuminated in the night,” and “a large Punch Bowl was cut in the most elevated rock, which was filled with such generous liquor as was more than sufficient for the vast crowd of neighbouring inhabitants,” &c.

As far as I’m concerned it’s the ‘a while before’ that gives this away – sounds like just another folklorey explanation for the ‘Punch Bowl’ if you ask me.

To add to Paulus’s post about the mound, Mr Watkins obviously thought this part of a ley:

Motoring into Linton, Herefordshire, I found the road sighted through that church to May Hill in the distance. On the map this alignment lay on a stretch of ancient road called The Line, with a house on it called The Line House. Sighted backward, the alignment goes through the edge of Lynders Wood, on to a sighting mound standing at the end of Capler Camp, from which I had noted that May Hill was a prominent object. Not far away was a place called Lea Line. [..]

.. It is curious that sceptics accept that fact when the sighted line over points was made by the Roman race, but refuse to entertain any possibility of other races having preceded them in such work..

From Notes and Queries, p62, July 28, 1928.

The Bawdstone is mentioned in ‘Twilight of the Celtic Gods’ by David Clarke and Andy Roberts (1996).

In the past, the stone was the focus of an extraordinary procession on the morning of 1 May, the festival of Beltane, which marked the beginning of summer. Dozens of people, some helping sick and infirm relatives, would follow a well-worn path from the market town of Leek and villages round about, travelling by foot many miles to the rock escarpment. Here they would crawl beneath the Bawdstone ‘to knock the Devil off their backs’.

The authors’ contact knew a man in his 80s who’d visited the stone in secret when he was sick. The big gatherings ceased at the turn of the century.

They also say: “In 1879 a writer.. described how the boulder was always whitewashed ‘with some ceremony’ on the morning of 1 May.” The farmer who owned the land continued the tradition until the 1920s.

About a mile and a half from [Stoke Edith] Mansion, on the south-west, and ocupying the summit of a commanding eminence, is St Ethelbert’s Camp, said, by popular tradition, to be the spot where Ethelbert pitched his tents when on his journey to the Court of King Offa.*

p590 of ‘The Beauties of England and Wales’ v6 (1805).

The Herefordshire on-line SMR says that the Ordnance survey first changed the name on the map to ‘Backbury’ in 1926. Landslides have obscured the defences in places.

*Sadly that was where he met his fate, at Sutton Walls.

About four miles north-eastward from Hereford, is Sutton Walls, celebrated as the Palace of Offa, King of the Mercians, where the unsuspecting Ethelbert was treacherously murdered..

Giraldus Cambriensis, in his life of St. Ethelbert, speaks of this place by the name of King’s Sutton, and South-town Walls, and mentions some ruins of a Castle which he saw here. Leland also notices the “notable ruines of some auncyent and great building, sumtyme the mansion of King Offa, at such time Kenchestre stood, or els Herford was a begynning.”

Sutton Walls comprehends a spacious Encampment on the summit of a hill, surrounded by asingle rampart, with entrances to the north and south. The area includes about thirty acres, and is nearly level, excepting towards the centre, where there is a low place, called Offa’s Cellar: in digging on this spot, a silver ring, of an antique form, was found some years ago.

Sutton is included in the extensive manor of Marden, which was an ancient demesne belonging to the Crown, but given by King Offa to the Canons of Hereford.. in expiation of the murder of Ethelbert. Marden Church was built over the spot where Ethelbert was first buried, and where a well, which still exists, and is called St. Ethelbert’s Well, is said to have miraculously sprung up. This edifice was dedicated to his memory, and stands within forty yards of the river Lugg. This neighbourhood abounds with good orchards, and the cyder is particularly celebrated.

The Beauties of England, v6, by John Britton etc. (1805)

The original Celts, or axes, are of polished stone, shaped something like a wedge. These are found of all sizes, some seeming intended for felling trees, and others for warlike purposes; and others again so very small, that they could only be designed for carving or dividing food..

They have been found in considerable numbers in the Shetland Isles, which were evidently first settled by the scandinavians. The natives suppose them to be thunderbolts, and account the possession of one of them a charm. Mr Collector Ross of Lerwick presented the author of this Introduction with six of these weapons found in Shetland. It is said the stone of which they are constructed cannot be found in these islands. The natives preserve them, from a superstitious idea that they are thunderbolts, and preserve houses against the effects of lightning.

page vii in vol 2 of ‘The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland’ by Walter Scott, Luke Clennell and John Greig (1817).

The cave is also connected with Fingal:

Fion-gal is said to have made Arran his resting-place when en route to the assistance of his allies in Ireland. He landed with his followers in a few rude birlings in the fine natural harbour of Mauchrie, and resided in the cave of Drumidoon.

On his return from Ireland he spent a considerable time in Arran roaming through its forests with his favourite dogs. It was about this time that a son was born to him in the Doon cave. A straight groove is shown in the sandstone, of about two feet in length, which is believed to have been the exact size of the child’s foot the day after his birth. From this infallible datum, the Rev. Mr Headrick has computed that Fion-gal must have been from seventy to eighty feet in height, and his wife from sixty to seventy!

The gigantic proportions of Ossian’s hero are futher attested by the tradition, that he formed a bridge of stepping-stones between his cave and the opposite coast for the convenience of himself and his followers.

p97/8 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

The next fort we meet in our ramble is that of Tor-Castle – Castle Hill – a little to the north of Slaodridh [..]

It is said that a battle was fought long ago around the Tor-Castle, between the natives of Arran and a band of marauders from Kintyre. The Arran men were encouraged to victory by the cheers of their wives and children, who crowded the Clappen Hill to witness the conflict. After a desperate struggle the invaders were repulsed, and forced to seek safety in their ships.

Tor-Castle is further remarkable for the existence of ancient plough-marks, popularly known as elf-furrows, which are clearly traceable over it summit. Tradition relates that the rich black mould of the mound tempted the natives to reduce it to cultivation. This was many years ago, when the old rig system of farming obtained in the Island.

The lands of the neighbourhood were partitioned between twelve families, each of which claimed a rig of the Castle Hill. The mound was cleared of the rich verdure which mantled its surface, and drills of cabbages were planted within the ruined walls. But a signal retribution followed the commission of this daring sacrilege. Before the year closed, the children of the hamlet were fatherless, and eleven new graves were seen in the little church-yard of the district.

The villager who escaped had been called to another part of the Island when the old building was being turned into a household garden, and thereby avoided the doom which befell his companions. The people of Arran still regard the old fortlet with a superstitious dread, and he is thought to have a bold heart who will venture to disturb its ruins or visit them after nightfall.

p82 of ‘The antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

In Arran, the belief in fairies still lingers in the minds of the older inhabitants, and many curious stories are told of the pilfering habits and cunning tricks of the wee-folks, who held their midnight meetings within the stone circles and old forts of the Island.

Many of the minor relics of the stone period have been found beneath the moss and heath of the Arran glens and hills, but few of them have been deemed worthy of preservation. Arrow-heads of stone and flint are frequently picked up by the natives whilst digging peat in the moors [..] They are called elf-shots by the Islanders, and are supposed to have been used by the fairies long ago.

[..] As we find the little flint arrow-head associated with Scottish folk-lore as the elfin’s-bolt, so the stone hammer of the same period was adapted to the creed of the Middle Ages. The name by which it was popularly known in Scotland, almost to the close of the last century, was that of the Purgatory Hammer [.. so the inhabitant of the burial cist could] with it thunder at the gates of purgatory..

McArthur also talks of the highly polished stone balls found in cists and the “Baul Muluy” (the stone globe of Saint Monlingus): a goose-egg sized stone of jasper, which could cure diseases. People swore solemn oaths on it, and “even during the present generation it has been consulted by the credulous Islanders”. Curiously it could remove ‘stitches from the sides of sick persons’ and if it didn’t cure you and you died, “it moved out of bed of its own accord.”

St Molingus was said to have been chaplain to the McDonalds, and they carried the ball with them into battle for good luck. It was next held by the MacIntosh family as a hereditary privelege, but “this curious relic was lost a few years ago by a gentleman to whom it was entrusted, who partook too much of the scepticism of the present age to appreciate its value.”

A final bit of related folklore: “The perforated pebbles of the British barrows [..] are still known in the Scottish Highlands by the name of Clach Bhuai , or the powerful stones, on account of the inherent virtues they are believed to possess.”

From p68-71 of ‘The antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

The superstitions of the Arran people are deeply imbued with the legends of fairy mythology. The perforated column of “Fion=gal’s Cauldron Seat,” on the Mauchrie Moor, was believed to contain a fairy or brownie, who could only be propitiated by the pouring of milk through the hole bored in the side of the stone.

p67 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ (1861) by John McArthur.

John McArthur says in his 1861 ‘Antiquities of Arran’, that

“At Kingscross, on a hillock near the shore, there is a monolith which marks the spot from which King Robert the Bruce embarked for the Carrick coast; and in a neighbouring field, there is an unhewn block of sandstone, believed to be the sole relic of the rude cot in which the king resided, on the eve of his departure from the Island.”

The RCAHMS record won’t commit itself, mostly because the stone has become surrounded by a cairn of stone. The Name Book of 1864 suggests the stone stood alone at 6-7ft high, but now (or at least, in 1977) only 80cm shows out the top of a cairn. “It is possibly a Bronze Age standing stone to which a later tradition is attached, but in its present state this is conjectural.”

An interesting group of stone circles may be seen in the Mauchrie Moor, near the farm of Tormore, in Arran. Tradition relates that Fionn-gal and his heroes were hunting the boar in the woods on the neighbouring glens, when a fleet of Norse galleys was seen approaching the shore. Scarcely had the marauders succeeded in effecting a landing in the Mauchrie Bay, when they were attacked by Fion-gal and his followers, and driven back to the ships. A few of the Vikings whose retreat had been cut off were chased over the Island, overtaken and slain near the old fort of Dunfiun – Fion-gal’s fort. The Fingalian heroes who fell in the conflict were buried in the moor where they fought and died, and the huge stone columns, now half-concealed amid the tall heath, were raised in circles around their graves to the mournful song of the bards.*

*Local tradition.

From p50 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

Maybe this isn’t the right spot – I’m assuming it is because it’s high ground near Shiskine, and a fort is the right kind of place for fairies to hang out being antisocial.

Once upon a time a bevy of faeries met on the summit of Durra-na-each, near Shiskin, and proceeded to amuse themselves by throwing down pebbles amongst the trees of the Mauchrie forest. The “rules of the game” required that the stones should be thrown from between the finger and thumb. Many centuries have passed since then, and the giant oaks of the Mauchrie have crumbled into dust, but over the moor may still be seen the pebbles of the faeries in the gray monoliths and stone circles which lie buried in the moss and heath.

p40 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

Near the celebrated stone circles on Mauchrie Moor, Arran, there is a cairn, partly demolished, which Fion-gal, the hero of Highland tradition, is said to have used as his justice-seat; and the stone, beside which the culprit stood – a huge block of red sandstone, is pointed out as the “Panel’s Stone.”

p30 of John McArthur’s ‘Antiquities of Arran’ (1861).

I wonder which monument this applies to. It can’t be Fingal’s Cauldron Seat, surely, as simultaneously dishing out justice would give you indigestion. Perhaps this is the Panel Stone?

This place sounds very interesting. It is a cave on the coast in a sandstone cliff, and is full of carvings – animals, concentric circles, cup and rings, serpents, a coat of arms.. The RCAHMS record says “an Iron Age date is suggested for the animal figures” (this is a comment from 1961).

It gets a mention in the ‘Statistical Account of Scotland’:

There are several natural caves, the principal, and which excites the curiosity of strangers of all ranks, is [..] called the King’s Cove, because, as tradition affirms, King Robert de Bruce and his retinue lodged in it for some time, when taking shelter in retired places, before his defeat of John Baliol, and accession to the throne of Scotland [..]

The cave is so spacious, that sermons have been preached in it to some hundreds of hearers at different times. About 2 miles south from it is another cave, which could contain 200 persons; but nothing else is remarkable about it.

Ah it’s the carvings that pull in the crowds you see. The RCAHMS record mentions that Pennant in 1772 called the cave ‘Fingal’s Cave’, maybe suggesting that the folklore about Robert the Bruce is actually later? confusingly though, the cave is at the foot of a mountain called Torr Righ Mor – which means`big hillock of the king’.

Amongst the carvings are ogham inscriptions and a cross – traditionally the caves were supposed to have been used by early Christian hermits.

There’s a LOT of carvings, from every era up to the present day. It’s not obvious what’s currently believed about the I. A. date. Lots of description here:
lmid1.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.details_gis?inumlink=39229
I’m most surprised it doesn’t have its own website?

On the bank of the Slidry stream, to the south of Arran, there is an elongated, ship-like cairn, exactly similar to the celebrated currach mound of Iona. It is thirty feet in length, with a smaller ridge attached, measuring nine feet. The sides of the tumuli are trenched with flat, flag-like stones, and at each end there stands a large monolith of red sandstone, encrusted with lichen and moss.

This monument is supposed to mark the grave of one of Fion-gal’s heroes, about whom many strange stories are told. An anxious treasure-seeker who dug into the larger mound, is said to have found a huge bone, into the hollow of which he thrust down his foot and leg as into a boot.*

*Headrick’s Arran, p148.

Headrick was writing in 1807: a book called ‘View of the Mineralogy, Agriculture, Manufactures and Fisheries of the Isle of Arran’.

It sounds like the cairn suffered a lot in the 19th century. The RCAHMS record suggests remains still exist (though the name “couldn’t be confirmed locally” in 1977).

At Torlin, on a green bank near the shore, there is an interesting specimen of the “elongated” chambered cairn. It is intersected from east to west by a row of vaults, consisting each of six unhewn slabs, from five to eight feet square. These vaults or chambers were filled with human bones, some of which, we were informed, were cleft as if from the blow of an axe or hatchet.

This cairn was partially removed some years ago by a modern Goth, who rifled the cells of their contents, and strewed them over his field. With daring irreverence, he selected one of the largest skulls from the ghastly heap, and carried it home with him; but scarcely had he entered his house when its walls were shaken as if struck by a tornado. Again and again the avenging blast swept over his dwelling, though not a sigh of the gentlest breeze was heard in the neighbouring wood.

The affrighted victim hastened to re-bury the bones in their desecrated grave, but day and night shadowy phantoms continued to haunt his mind and track his steps, and a few months after the commission of his rash deed, whilst riding along the high road towards Lag, he was thrown from his horse over a steep embankment, and dashed against the rocks of the stream beneath.

This tradition is well known in Arran, and has tended to deepen the feelings of superstitious dread with which these monuments are generally regarded.

It was with some feelings of trepidation, after listening to this fearful tragedy, that we proceeded to remove the stones and earth which filled the rifled cells of this ghost-haunted cairn; but a few marine shells, mixed with the small delicate bones of birds, were all we could discover to repay our labour.

p23 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

The traditions.. which float around this class of the Arran grave mounds [chambered cairns] are associated with the fierce raids and clanish feuds of early times; and it is said that the ghosts of the buried dead were wont to rise from their graves and renew the combat in the shadowy folds of the evening mists.

From p22 of ‘The Antiquities of Arran’ by John McArthur (1861).

A little bit more on the boltstone:

In the midst of enclosures, and remote from public view, stands that curious vestige of antiquity, The Bolt, Baston, or Battle-stone, in the language of tradition, The Giant’s Thunderbolt; supposed to have been hurled from its native rock, the Edge, about a mile distant, by gigantic prowess..

..Dr. Plot* describes the pillar as “of a square figure, tapering a little towards the top, two yards and one inch high, and nearly four yards about,; having two clefts in the top, so that at a distance it appears like a triceps; its site in a leasow near to the Comptons.”

On personally surveying this relick, 1818, it appeared to be about five feet above the ground, a by-stander observed, that it was three times that depth in the ground, and that no effort had succeeded in attempting to loosen it.

p337 in Stourbridge and its vicinity, by William Scott (1832).

Three times. Let’s go for something believable, please.
The Rudston stone (and doubtless many others) has a similar subterranean rumour.

*From Plot’s 1686 ‘Natural History of Staffordshire’.

Dowan’s Hill is a fort with double ramparts. It gets a mention in Robert Burns’ poem “Halloween”:

Upon that night when fairies light
On Cassillis Downans dance
Or owre the lays in splendid blaze
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the rout is ta’en
Beneath the moon’s pale beams;
There up the cove, to stray and rove
Amang the rocks and streams.

Burns wrote in a 1787 letter: “In my infant and boyish days too, I owed much to an old maid of my Mother’s, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity and superstition. --She had, I suppose, the largest collection in the county of tales and songs concerning devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches, warlocks, spunkies, Kelpies, elf-candles, dead-lights, wraiths, apparitions, cantraips, giants, inchanted towers, dragons, and other trumpery.
--This cultivated the latent seeds of Poesy; but had so strong an effect on my imagination, that to this hour, in my nocturnal rambles, I sometimes keep a sharp look-our in suspicious places; and though nobody can be more sceptical in these matters than I, yet it often takes an effort of Philosophy to shake off these idle terrors.”

found in Robert Burns’ Satires and the Folk Tradition: “Halloween”
Butler Waugh
South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 4. (Nov., 1967), pp. 10-13.

Remarking to a gentleman, that I had gleaned up some anecdotes relative to Oswald, he asked me, if I had seen Old Oswestry, where he assured me the town formerly stood? I, with a smile, answered in the negative.

He told me, with a serious face, “that the town had travelled three quarters of a mile, to the place where it had taken up its present abode.” This belief, I found, was adopted by all I conversed with...

.. I could not pass this place without as strict an examination as could be expected from a man of seventy-four, who was to climb and descend a number of ramparts, each thirty or forty feet high, while up to the chin in brambles..

.. when I had made my observations, I retreated to the possessor, to collect what traditionary knowledge I was able. He told me that they had found something like a well in one place, where, he supposed, they hid their treasure; a pavement in another, which, he concluded, was to prevent the horses injuring the ground; and pieces of iron, which, he supposed, were pieces of armour.

That, about thirty years ago, as much timber was cut down from the ramparts as sold for seventeen thousand pounds, which proves them to be extensive; that the proprietor could trace two falls prior to this, which must take up the compass of perhaps five hundred years; but how many before these, were hid in time.

p45/46 of ‘Remarks upon North Wales’ by William Hutton (1803).

Lilla Howe is said to be the grave of King Edwin of Northumbria’s minister, Lilla. An assassin had been sent to kill the king, but loyal mate and Christian, Lilla leapt in front of the poisoned sword blade. He was buried where he fell. Edwin renounced his heathen ways and became a Christian. A cross – Lilla Cross – was erected on the howe.

Really Lilla was around in the 8th century, whereas the cross is thought to be 10th century – and of course, the mound was originally built in the Bronze Age. But don’t let this distract you from a good story.

Whatever, it’s been an important part of the landscape and the way people interpret the landscape, for a very long time. It’s on the junction of two medieval packhorse tracks, and also marks the boundary between four medieval parishes.

The cross has been moved about, but this is its original spot – it was mentioned in a 11thC manuscript as a boundary marker. The barrow itself was reused for burials in Anglo Saxon times and finds from that era have turned up in excavations.

(info largely from the sm record on Magic).

Saint Carannog had had a busy time in Ireland, “converting districts of Irishmen against the wishes of the companies of magicians”, after which he went back to Ceredigion. He lived at Llangrannog – you can see his cave, and apparently there’s a chair-like rock there called ‘Eisteddfa Carannog’. He was very busy doing miracles there too, “which no-one can enumerate”, so Jesus gave him a present:

.. an honourable altar.. the colour of which no person could comprehend; and afterwards when [Carannog] came to the Severn to sail over it, he cast the altar into the sea, and it went before him where God wished him to go.

In those times, Cato and Arthur lived in that country, dwelling in Dindrarthou; and Arthur went about that he might find out a very powerful, large, and terrible serpent, which laid waste twelve parts of the land Carrum; and Carannog came, and saluted Arthur, who rejoicing, received his blessing from him.

Well, Carannog asked Arthur if he’d seen his altar anywhere. Arthur was remarkably cheeky and said he wanted paying for it – Carannog should fetch the sepent first. So Carannog had a pray and “immediately the serpent came with a great noise, running as a calf to its dam.” It bowed its head humbly. Carannog popped his robe round its neck (which was the thickness of a seven-year-old bull’s) and the serpent trotted along with him to the castle – “it did not raise its wings or claws.”

The people in the castle wanted to kill it – but Carannog wouldn’t let them, as he said it showed the power of God to them. There’s a touching scene at the end, like something off Animal Hospital: “And afterwards he went without the gate of the castle, and loosed it, and in its departing, he commanded that it should hurt no one, nor return any more; and it injured none as God had commanded.”

But back to the altar – which Arthur was trying to use as a table! “But whatever was put thereon, was thrown off to some distance,” so it was no use anyway. Carannog was allowed to build a church where it had landed, and then he popped the altar back in the sea, where it sailed off to Guellit, and he built another church there.

Carannog gets lots of variation in his name – St Carantoc, for example. And so does Dindraithou, Din Draithou, Caer Draithou, Caer Ddraitou.. this is said to be Dunster. But surely, SURELY this would be Bats Castle. Because Dunster castle was only built in Norman times and as any fule kno, King Arthur was around long before that.

Quotes from ‘Lives of the Cambro British Saints’ by Thomas Wakeman and William Jenkins Rees (1853) p398-99, which is online at Google Books.

On the lands of Monaltry, and on the north bank of the river Dee, in a narrow pass where there is not above sixty yards from the river to the foot of a high, steep, rocky hill, stands a cairn, known by the name of Carn-na-cuimhne, or cairn of remembrance. This is the watch word of the country. In former times, the moment the alarm was given that danger was apprehended, a stake of wood, the one end dipped in blood, and the other burnt, as an emblem of fire and sword, was put into the hands of theperson nearest to where the alarm was given, who immediately ran with all speed, and gave it to his nearest neighbour, whether man or woman; that person ran to the next village or cottage, and so on, till they went through the whole country; upon which every man instantly laid hold of his arms and repaired to Cairn-na-cuimhne. The stake of wood was called Croishtarich. At this day, were a fray or squabble to happen at a market or any public meeting, such influence has this word over the minds of the country people, that the very mention of Cairn-na-cuimhne would, in a moment, collect all the people of this country who happened to be present, to the assistance of the person assailed.

From the Statistical Account of Scotland, v14, p351-2.

Ghostly drumming, from Gordon’s History of Scots Affairs, from 1638 to 1641, vol i, pp56-68 (1841):

That country is hilly and mountainous, and there is a hill, distant about a mile westward from the manor place of Eycht: the hill bears the name of Duneycht, (or, to write it truly, Dun Picte). Up on the top of this swelling hill.. there are to be seen old ruined walls and trenches, which the people, by a received tradition, affirm to have been built at such a time as the Picts were masters of Marre.

Upon the top of this said hill of Duneight, it was, that, for the space of all the winter [of 1637/8], almost every night, drums were heard beating about four o’clock, the parade or reteering of the guards, their taptoos, their reveilles, and marches, distinctly. And ear witnesses, soldiers of credit, have told me that, when the parade was beating, they could discern when the drummer walked towards them, or when he turned about, as the fashion is for drummers, to walk to and again, upon the head or front of a company drawn up. At such times, also, they could distinguish the marches of several nations; and the first marches that were heard there was the Scottish march; afterward the Irish march was heard, then the English march.

But before these noises ceased, those who had been trained up much of their lives abroad in the German wars, affirmed that they could perfectly, by their hearing, discern the marches upon the drum of several foreign nations of Europe, such as French, Dutch, Danes, etc. These drums were so constantly heard, that all the country people next adjacent were therewith accustomed; and sometimes the drummers were heard off that hill, in places two or three miles distant..

Some gentlemen of known integrity and truth, affirmed that, near these places, they heard as perfect shot of canon go off as ever they heard at the Battle of Norlingen, where themselves, some years before, had been present.

And from ‘Douglas’s Description of the East Coast of Scotland’, p254 (1782):

..over [the Barmkin of Echt] which if tradition may be believed, many armies were seen, many drums heard, adn many an aerial bloodless battle fought, before the troubles in King Charles the First’s time.

These are quoted in the notes of ‘Illustrations of the Topography and Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff’ By Joseph Robertson (1847), which is on Google Books.

Kinver Camp is an Iron Age hillfort in a naturally defended spot – its univallate bank and ditch were only necessary on two sides because of the steep slopes elsewhere. Apparently (according to the EH record on Magic) univallate forts are unusual in this part of the country – they are mostly found in Wessex and other parts of southern England.

The landscape around here seems full of folklore. The excellent Sabine Baring-Gould recorded it as part of his novel ‘Bladys of the Stewponey’ (1897).

Kinver village occupies a basin in the side of the great rocky ridge that runs for many miles through the country and ends abruptly at the edge, a bluff of sandstone crowned by earthworks, where, as tradition says, King Wulfhere of Mercia had his camp. So far is sure, that the church of Kinver is dedicated to his murdered sons, Wulfhad and Ruffinus. The place of their martyrdom was at Stone, in Staffordshire; but it is possible that their bodies were removed to Kinver.

Kinver takes its name from the Great Ridge, Cefn vawr[..]

This isolated rock of red sandstone, on and about which Scotch firs have rooted themselves by the name of Holy Austin Rock[..] Although the local tradition is silent relative to a saintly denizen of the rock, it is vocal relative to a tenancy of a different kind. Once it was occupied by a giant and his wife, who with their nails had scooped for themselves caves in the sandstone. The giantess was comely. So thought another giant who lived at Enville.

Now in this sandstone district water is scarce, and the giant of Austin Rock was wont daily to cross a shoulder of hill to a spring some two hundred and fifty yards south of the Rock to fetch the water required for his kitchen. The water oozed forth in a dribble, and the amount required was considerable, for a giant’s sup is a drunkard’s draught. Consequently he was some time absent. The Enville giant took advantage of this absence to visit his wife. One, two, three. He strode across country, popped his head in, kissed the lady, and retired before her husband returned with the pitchers.

But one day he tarried a moment too long, and the Austin giant saw him. Filled with jealous rage, he set down the pitchers, rushed to the summit of the rock, and hurled a large block at the retreating neighbour. The stone missed its aim; it fell and planted itself upright, and for many generations bore the name of the Bolt Stone. In 1848 the farmer in whose field it stood blew it to pieces with gunpowder.

You can read it at the Online Books pages:
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp11522

The latter stone is mentioned in Britton et al’s “Beauties of England” (1801 -v13 pt2), which describes it. And I wonder, is it a bolt to do with lightning or arrows or what?

Just below the camp appears a tumulus or barrow, surrounded by a narrow ditch.. near it is also a large stone of a square figure, and tapering towards the top, about two yards in heigh, and four in circumference, having two notches on the summit. This stone is called Baston of Boltstone.

And in case you were wondering – (courtesy of SB-G again):
“[On the shoulder of the hill is] a strip of deep red in the sandstone, the colour of clotted blood. Here, according to tradition, a woman was murdered by the Danes, who had ascended the Stour and ravaged Shropshire. From the day of the crime the rock has been dyed blood-red.”

There are caves cut in the soft sandstone of the Edge, but I can’t find any mention that these date back to prehistory.

We inquired of several persons in the neighbourhood as to the origin of the name “King and Queen,” as applied to these rocks of oolitic conglomerate, but could get no information, or hear of any tradition concerning them.

An “old inhabitant” of Eckington, however, told us that a manorial court had been formerly, but was not at present proclaimed at the spot, and further said, that he remembered that it used to be a custom years ago for the stones to be whitewashed previously to the holding of the court. This, Mr Lukis thought, was a vestige of the ancient lustration or consecration of them, which might have taken place annually.

There does not appear to be any mark of sculpture upon the stones; but as there is a fissured passage between the “King and Queen,” and between the “King” and the adjoining mass of rock on the other side, it is probable that there may have been some superstition in connection with the passing through of these cavities.

p177 of ‘Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Region Around the Malvern Hills and Vale of Severn’ by Edwin Lees (1856). Online at Google Books.

In1405 the troops of the “wild and irregular” Glyndwr, with a body of French auxiliaries, invaded the borders, burned the suburbs of Worcester, and then retreated into Wales, followed by the army of Henry IV. Tradition asserts that Owen Glyndwr then occupied Woodbury Hill, where for eight days he skirmished with the king’s soldiers without much advantage to either side, though in the various scrimmages two hundred men were killed.

p160 in ‘Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Region Around the Malvern Hills and Vale of Severn’ by Edwin Lees (1856). Online at Google Books.

At the edge of the wood under the Beacon is a clear but small piece of water, called Walm’s Well, once much frequented for bathing by the people of the neighbourhood, but now altogether neglected. This well, or rather bath, was formerly in estimation as a cure for cutaneous diseases; and there was a wooden hut for bathers,-- now removed.

The OS map shows the well to the west and beneath Shire Ditch at SO760392.
From p25 of ‘Pictures of Nature in the Silurian Region Around the Malvern Hills and Vale of Severn’ by Edwin Lees (1856). Online at Google Books.

About a mile from Braich-y-Ddinas is Y Meini Hirion, one of the most remarkable relics of Druidical times. It is a circle, eighty feet in diameter, consisting of ten erect stones, enclosed by a stone wall; and there are, besides, several smaller circles, one of which surrounds the remains of a cromlech.

This tract has certainly, at some period, been much inhabited, for in all directions may be discerned the remains of small rude buildings in great numbers. Tradition says that a sanguinary battle was fought here between the Romans and the Britons, and that the cairns were raised over the bodies of the Britons who were slain.

p501 in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1860.
The Cambrian Archaeological Association held their fourteenth annual meeting in Bangor and got up to a whole week of archaeological field-tripping.