Tag: folklore
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The Legend of Oswy’s Well
The ghost footpath post last week got me thinking about Roseberry Well, tucked near the summit on the northern side. It has been a fair while since I last went up — or rather down, since the best approach is from above — though it is not the sort of thing likely to have wandered…
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The Devil’s Leap
The Devil, it turns out, once lost an argument and dropped a boulder in a strop. That is the sort of local history we deserve more of. Walk along to Roulston Scar and you are standing on a summit 1,246 feet above the level of the sea, with the Vale of York and the Vale…
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A Northern Harr Brings Fine Weather From Far
I tend to avoid Roseberry on Sunday mornings but those that made the effort today might have witnessed two seasons colliding. The summit sat in sunshine. Below, the vale of Guisborough disappeared under a slow grey tide rolling in off the North Sea — a sea fret, and it has been catching the Yorkshire coast…
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Ling Ness
Our last day on Shetland. It started wet, because of course it did, then turned rather nice — because Shetland seems to do exactly as it pleases. A tad breezy, mind. Those wind turbines on the Hill of Flamister stood completely still on the horizon, shut down to stop themselves tearing apart. The very thing…
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Vallafield — Where the Trows Lost Their Tune
The name tells you everything. Old Norse: ‘völlr’ for level ground, ‘fjall’ for hill. Between a craggy ridge and sea cliffs sits a narrow platform, barely a kilometre wide, which is precisely what you get. The name nowadays though is usually given to the high point on the ridge, the second highest on Unst. Now…
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Muness Castle: Power, Corruption and Impunity. Sound Familiar?
Two Shetland ponies graze in front of Muness Castle, Unst, on a grey June afternoon. The castle has looked like this for quite some time. Laurence Bruce built Muness Castle in 1598. He was half-brother to the Earl of Orkney, sheriff of Shetland, and by most accounts an absolute tyrant. The Privy Council found him…
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Burra: In Search of the Kraken
We went in search of the kraken today, a lap of Kettla Ness, the southern tip of the island of Burra. The weather was a tad breezy, and it was not hard to imagine this Atlantic edge in the early 1800s. It was off the coast of Burra that a crew of fishermen spotted what…
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The Noggle’s Playground: Folklore of the Horizontal Mill
Beneath a wide Shetland sky, a line of stone ruins follows the Burn of Clumlie toward the sea. These are “clack mills” — what is left of a row of nine horizontal water mills along a 450m stretch of the burn that once ground grain for local crofters north of Troswick. The engineering is rather…
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Fire, Seaweed and a Green Lady: The Legends of Dunnottar Castle
Some places earn their legends. Dunnottar Castle, two miles south of Stonehaven on Scotland’s north-east coast, is one of them. Perched on a sheer clifftop above the North Sea, it has been collecting stories for over fifteen hundred years — and frankly shows no sign of stopping. It starts early. A chapel here is said…
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Skinningrove: Facebook History and Other Unreliable Gossip
Yesterday’s descent of Hummersea Cliff into Skinningrove. Terraced houses cluster around Kilton Beck where it meets Cattersty Sands. Rocky breakwaters hold back the North Sea, which is doing its level best to reclaim the shore. The wooden shoring in the foreground is losing an argument with coastal erosion. Will this be the first instance of…