The whole Tayside region abounds in legends. There is, for instance, an interesting Arthurian legend associated with Meigle, where Queen Vanora (also known as Guenevere and Wander) is said to be buried under a mound in the churchyard.

According to Sir Thomas Malory, King Arthur’s nephew, Modred, carried off the queen when King Arthur was at war on the continent. Modred was later defeated by the Picts and Scots, and they imprisoned Queen Vanora in Dunbarre Castle (on Barry Hill, Alyth). Later, she was killed by wild dogs, and buried at Meigle.

The Aberlemno district is steeped in legend, but the legend of Jock Barefut comes from nearby Careston. Jock rashly cut a stick from a famous Spanish—chestnut tree in the court of Careston Castle, near Brechin. The “Tiger Earl” had him hanged from the same tree for his misdeed. Thereupon, strange to say, the tree began to wither and decay. And afterwards Jock’s ghost walked the road between Careston and Finavon. He was a sort of ‘Robin Goodfellow’ or ‘Puck,’ and went in for tricks and roguery.

At Carmyllie there is a legend of a crock of gold and a buried castle. These lie somewhere on Cairnconan. The crock can be located from a distance when the sun shines, but the road leading to it has not so far been found. Another Carmyllie legend concerns the Cauld Stane o’ Crofts. Apparently, when the Cauld Stane hears a cock crow it will turn round three times! This stone (like others elsewhere), slipped from the Deil’s belt as he strode over Carmyllie. Another version says that a witch dropped the stone from her apron.

Kinfauns has an old tale of a gold cradle lost in a loch nearby, and never so far found. Evelick Castle has its romantic story (and song) of Bonnie Leezie Lindsay and her Highland lover.

Right below Dunsinane Hill is the Lang Man’s Grave— marked by a long­shaped stone at the roadside. Incidentally, Macbeth’s Castle on the hilltop here is not a Norman structure as often represented pictorially; it is an ancient hilltop fort or “dun.” The Stone of Destiny is believed to have been hidden on Dunsinane Hill at one time.

To the west of Windy Ghoul (Kinnoull, Perth), there is a cave called the Dragon’s Den—so named since the sixth century when Brude, the Pictish king, slew a dragon there as a sort of friendly gesture to St. Serf. In the 16th century great numbers of people used to assemble here on the first of May to celebrate a festival, distinctly pagan in character, but it was eventually forbidden by law.

The legend of the brave Hays of Errol, and how their gift of land from a grateful king was fixed in extent by a falcon’s flight, was a tale known to Shakespeare.

Tales of Sir William Wallace are always full of action. He was often at Kilspindie in his youth, and it was there he fled (resting on the way at Longforgan) after slaying young Selby, son of the English Governor of Dundee. Kilspindie also has a tale of a Green Serpent, and a bridge that is haunted by a ghost.

Invergowrie is a very old village—one of the most ancient in the Carse of Gowrie—and it claims to have had the first Christian church on the north side of the Tay. Apparently, the Devil was so enraged by this “slap in the face” that he began hurling stones across the Tay at the new building. Two fell short and became known as the “Goors, or Yowes, of Invergowrie.” A third over­shot its mark by half a mile, and is now known as the Deil’s Stane.

Thomas the Rhymer has a prophecy about these stones:

When the Yowes o’ Gowrie come to land
The Day o’ Judgment’s near at hand.

With so many historic castles, abbeys, chapels and so on, Tayside has its fair share of traditional ghosts. Ladies dressed in either green, grey or white seem to predominate. Usually they haunt (by moonlight) the precincts of some building of long history, singing or wailing softly and with great sweetness or melancholy.

Stonehaven has its Green Lady. Lethnot and Kilspindie have White ones. The ghost of Ethie Castle (near Inverkeilor) seems to change her dress with every appearance. She is said to walk the high-walled gardens of this castle, and at one time was believed to warn the head of the family of an approaching death. The ghost of Cardinal Beaton is also said to haunt a narrow, tortuous stone stair which leads by a secret doorway into the ‘Cardinal’s bedroom.'

The legends of Red Castle and Black Jack’s Keep rival those of Sir Ralph the Rover and the Inchcape Bell.

The tale of Tam Tyrie tells of a piper, accompanied by his wife and dog, taking shelter in a cave on the coast about three miles from Arbroath. He was never seen again, but the droning of his bagpipe music was heard for for several
days afterwards under the hearth of Dickmontlaw farmhouse, which lies well inland from the sea. This may well have been a tale :put out by smugglers for the purpose of frightening people away, for at one time there was a good deal of smuggling hereabouts, and no doubt the caves were used for hiding goods and as boat-houses. Ethiehaven was another smugglers’ haunt; it was also called Torrenshaven, and some have associated it with early Scandinavian raiders and their god Thor.

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