It's #FolkloreThursday! Went for a little explore this week in the footsteps of Bigla Comyn, or Matilda Cumming, who had a big old stone 'chair' in Deishar Woods near Boat of Garten. Found a suitably armchair-like stone in the right area, so reckon this was it! She would rest here on her way through the woods to the church at Duthil, which she is said to have founded, and also sat here to collect the rents from her estate. It was apparently also used as a 'loupin'-on stane' to mount horses. There's a second stone linked with Bigla in these woods, known for many centuries as Bigla's Key Stane, where she stashed her keys when they got too heavy to carry on her way to church. It was described as being circular with a hole in the middle - possibly a bit like a quernstone. Waded through deep heather to the north of Creag an Fhithich, Raven's Crag, but sadly couldn't find this one! But, given that Bigla lived in either the early 1400s or the mid-1200s, that's not really a surprise... There's some confusion over dates probably brought about by two ladies with the same name, centuries apart. Either way, it's a pretty old story. The motte or fort mound of Tom Pitlac just outside Boat of Garten is named after Bigla - the small rounded hill of Bigla - and otherwise known as Bigla Cumming's Castle. Just another (woman) character who made their mark on the Strath, whose traces we still find today. If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming short guided walk!
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![]() Map of Kinveachy from 1877, National Library of Scotland It's #FolkloreThursday! In the woods of Kinveachy, between Aviemore, Boat of Garten and Carrbridge, there lives a giant. He's a wise and wily giant, and, thinking that people may wish to kill him, removed his heart and hid it under a stone in Kinveachy Woods. As everyone knows, the only way to kill a giant is to destroy its heart. Now the only way to kill the Kinveachy giant would be if somebody laid their hat, or bonnet, on top of the stone where the heart was hiding. This stone became known as the Bonnet Stone. Easy enough! But the giant's heart was also wily, and whenever it saw somebody approach the stone it promptly hopped out to hide under another stone. There are many, many stones in the woods of Kinveachy so we can assume that the giant is alive and well to this day! Kinveachy means Head of the Birch Wood/Forest in Gaelic. If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming short guided walk!
It's #FolkloreThursday and time to return to rowan trees! Every Samhain, or Halloween, when the veil between the human world and the fairy world is thinnest, and winter is approaching, the wives of Strathspey would drive their animals through the trees to help ward off evil and protect them for the season ahead. They'd do the same at Bealtainn, the beginning of May. Rowan trees are seen as powerful protection trees, keeping away evil. They were sometimes manipulated to grow into an archway that people and animals could pass through - particularly at thresholds, like the entrance to a garden or piece of land. This incredible rowan in Aviemore (above) has not one but two archways, and is on an old croft site. The Gaelic name for rowan is beautiful - caorann - and comes from the word caor, which means blaze. This could relate to the bright red berries, or perhaps the colour of the leaves when they turn to a blazing fire in autumn. (Caor is also the name given to the the little broken bits of peat which blaze really quickly and easily.) So, if you're passing a rowan anytime soon (especially on Samhain!), make sure you pass through it if you can, and if you can't, circle it three times sunwise (clockwise) for good luck! If you'd like to hear stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming short guided walk!
![]() Balnahard farmhouse, from balnahard.com Was out in Colonsay last week, in stunning September weather, so wanted to share something from there! What could possibly link Rothiemurchus with a farmhouse on Colonsay? Why, brownies of course! The Highlands is full of fairy and spirit creatures of many kinds, including the helpful but mischievous sprites, brownies. They're also known as broonies in Scots and brùnaidh in Gaelic. Brownies live in large estate and farmhouses all over the Highlands and, while everyone sleeps, they help out with chores and general fixing jobs, including at Baile na h-Àirde farmhouse, above (now home to Colonsay Wool Growers, have a look! They dye yarn with plants picked from the island, including the by-products of the Colonsay Gin's distilling process). There's a stone nearby with a cavity where milk, or sometimes cream, is poured to feed and keep the brownie happy - though I didn't find it! Once you've poured in the cream for the brownie, you must not look back... This brownie was fed regularly right up until the early 1900s. Closer to home in Strathspey, the old Doune of Rothiemurchus also had a resident brownie, who made such a racket through the night, clattering pots and pans, that the laird became angry and shouted at the brownie, who took a huff and was never seen to help out again. Some years later the new Doune was built, a short distance from the old house. But, if you put your ear to the mound where the old Doune was, you may still hear the faint sound of clattering pots and pans. ![]() The Doune of Rothiemurchus, from rothiemurchus.net If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming short guided walk!
We're travelling a bit for #FolkloreThursday today. Here's Jaulian, a world heritage site at Taxila in Pakistan (took this pic almost exactly 10 years ago so #ThrowbackThursday too!). Jaulian is an ancient Buddhist monastery, and one of the earliest universities in the world. Here they found fragments of manuscripts written on birch bark, which was common practice across Gandhara, an ancient region which stretched across modern-day north-west Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Taxila was one of its capitals. A well-known example is the Bakhshali Manuscript, unearthed near Mardan in 1881 by a farmer, and was a collection of 70 sheets of birch bark, inscribed with the mathematical concept of zero - possibly the earliest written recording on the Indian subcontinent. It's been variously dated to somewhere between AD200-900. Not bad for a bit of birch bark! Himalayan birch (Betula utilis) is different to the species which grow here in the Highlands (usually Betula pendula and Betula pubenscens), but their bark can also be used for writing or inscribing on. Just love a bit of birch! If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms (and indeed more further afield!), join an upcoming short guided walk!
![]() Lochan Uaine in Ryvoan Pass, looking towards the Northern Corries © James Shooter/scotlandbigpicture.com It's #folklorethursday! Here's the well-known An Lochan Uaine, the Green Lochan, near Glenmore. You may have heard of the fairy hill overlooking the loch, and the fairies who wash their clothes there, turning the waters the stunning, mysterious green colour. Well. That was all invented by locals to disguise the fact there was illicit whisky distilling going on up the hill... the remains of the still are still there - and of course this is on the Rathad nam Mèirleach, the Thieves Road (noted last week at Loch Gamhna). Fairies or no, mischief was in the air! If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming wee guided walk!
It's #folklorethursday! Here's Loch Gamhna at Rothiemurchus with Loch an Eilein in the distance. Loch Gamhna, or Loch of the Stirk (yearling heifer or bullock) is so called after a group of cattle rustlers resting by the loch discovered their pursuers were hot on their heels. Tying stones to the cattle's horns, they drove them into the loch, hoping the poor cattle would drown and their indiscretions would go unnoticed. Unfortunately for them, just as they were explaining how honest they were, one of the stolen stirks swam ashore. Rathad nam Mèirleach, the Thieves' Road, runs right past both lochs and towards Ryvoan pass in the far distance... If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming guided walk!
It's #folklorethursday! The River Spey (Uisge Spè in Gaelic), unbeknownst to many of us, is home to a yellow waterhorse - and quite an unusual one at that. You'll find waterhorses, or kelpies, in many a loch or river across the Highlands, where they like to carry off young ladies, and sometimes appear in human form too, often in old-fashioned but fine clothes. Our resident Spè waterhorse however only carries off married couples... so beware if you're on the bank attempting to cross and get offered a lift! You may both be dragged down to one of the deeper pools... (PS - you might also like to have a listen to musician Hamish Napier's album The River, composed about the River Spey and part of his Strathspey Trilogy. The brilliant cover image by Somhairle MacDonald also features said naughty waterhorse.) If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming wee guided walk!
It's #folklorethursday! Rowan trees, caorann in Gaelic, are known as protection trees, keeping evil at bay (which is why you see so many of them planted in front gardens). It's considered terrible luck for men to chop down a rowan... and still to this day in the Highlands some men refuse to fell rowans 🙂 Here's a pretty special rowan tree that you can walk through... when was the last time you walked through a tree?! If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming wee guided walk!
It's #folklorethursday! Loch Morlich at Glenmore, near Aviemore, has been getting all sorts of the wrong attention lately - I wonder if the folks leaving litter and chopping trees and starting fires know about Red Hand, the ghost of a gigantic Highland warrior who marches up and down the beach?! Maybe if they did, they'd act a bit differently... He carries a sword, drawn and ready to use in his left hand, and his right hand is covered in blood. He used to challenge beachgoers to fights, but now apparently urges hunters and poachers not to leave maimed animals to die a slow death, and to take only what they need from the hills. Any who disobey him incur his terrible wrath... Perhaps we can apply this to current days, and the importance of acting responsibly and using only what we need. We don't want to tempt Red Hand! #leavenotrace #takithame If you'd like to hear more stories and folktales of Aviemore and the Cairngorms, join an upcoming wee guided walk!
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