Looking north on St Cyrus beach, you can see the waterfall to the left, the hen rock straight in front and the Kaim of Mathers (slightly out of focus, sorry!) on the right.
As I was growing up I thought the village of St Cyrus was just a quiet and sleepy coastal village. It is wasn’t until I was researching Ecclesgreig castle I came across a number of stories and legends about the surrounding area. I suppose it shouldn’t of surprised me considering the age of the village and parish, but it did. It made me realise just how much history and stories every place contains. This blog post will contain 3 stories of St Cyrus that I discovered and was fascinated by.
The blind piper
The cave on St Cyrus beach that the Blind Piper is supposed to of entered.
Every village has a ghost story and St Cyrus is no different. This story involves a blind piper, his dog and the local sea cave. Towards the north end of St Cyrus beach there is a sea cave that fills with water as the tide comes in. Legend has it that this cave stretches all the way from the beach to below a local castle, Lauriston castle. One day a blind piper with his dog wandered into the cave and promptly got lost. He wandered for many hours without finding the way out and to raise his spirits played his pipes. The sound of his pipes echoed throughout the cave and could even be heard under the kitchen hearth of Lauriston castle. For many days the pipes could be heard, but steadily getting weaker and weaker until eventually the sound stopped. Eventually bleached dog bones and human remains were discovered in and around the cave. Ever since that day, there have been reports that people passing the cave entrance have sworn that they could here a piper playing and a dog barking.
One thing I absolutely love is exploring castles. I’m an avid fantasy reader, and the mystery and romance of castles really attract me. They are truly a symbol of our living past. Every time I enter a castle, my imagination takes off. What was it like to live there? What history have these walls seen? So it amazes me that St Cyrus has 3 castles. I’ve already written about one of them, Ecclesgreig castle, the next two stories involves the residents of the other castles of the village, the Kaim of Mathers, and Lauriston castle.
The cannibal of St Cyrus.
Taken with my phone’s camera, the Kaim is the remains of a stone building on a rocky peninsula at the very centre of the picture. It is there, honest!
In the 15th century, the local lord of the area now known as St Cyrus was David Barclay. He was a courtier of King James 1st of Scotland and would often frequent the court where he and other local Lords would express their displeasure with the sheriff, James Melville of Glenbervie, to the king. The king, so exasperated with their constant complaints, declared ” that for all he cared they could go and make soup of their sheriff and sup him.”. With that endorsement these Lords laid their plans. Upon returning home they set their plan into motion, they prepared for a hunt on the hill of Garvock which all their lands joined. They found a secluded gully where they could do the deed without being observed, and filled a large cauldron with water from the local stream. On the appointed day they invited the unsuspecting sheriff to a hunt. They led him to the hidden gully, and threw him in the pot where one by one they supped of him as the king had commanded. Even today this gully is known as the Sheriff’s Kettle. When report of what had been done reached the king, he was furious. Refusing to accept that he had sanctioned their actions, he denounced all the Lords as outlaws and swore an oath especially against their leader David Barclay. To defy the king, David Barclay built the Kaim of Mathers for his home. It towered above the sea on a narrow spur of land, virtually impossible to get to from sea or land and for the rest of his life the cannibal of St Cyrus lived there in exile.
The martyr of St Cyrus.
Lauriston Castle was the home of the Straitons. What remains of the original castle can be seen on the left.
St Cyrus became the scene for part of the reformation in Scotland. This story involves the younger brother of the laird of Lauriston, David Straiton. He is regarded to of been a hard working and forthright man who owned some fishing boats and the rights to fish at the mouth of the River Esk. The story is that the vicar of Ecclesgreig demanded the tithe owed to the church from him. To which he responded that the church obtained its tithe where he got its stock. To this end he ordered his fishermen to throw every 10th fish back into the sea so that the church could claim its tithe for themselves. Needless to say the church did not find this funny at all, and brought David Straiton up on charges of heresy. Although in this case, David managed to escape the charge and he attempted to keep a low profile for the rest of his life. Sadly this did not happen, he became involved with the Protestant movement in Scotland and was eventually brought up on heresy charges again. He was charged for saying that there was no such thing as Purgatory, and that the Pope was not a Bishop but Antichrist, and had no jurisdiction in Scotland. This time there was no escape, in August 1534, he was hung at the gallows, and his body was burnt at the stake.
It is strange to think that the sleepy boring village I grew up in, that was 35miles away from any decent shops or a cinema is so rich in history and has so many fascinating stories surrounding it. There are other stories I could of told, the tale of high adventure upon the River Esk that almost ended in a diplomatic incident with France, or the tale of the Eskimo curse and the grave without a body in Ecclesgreig, or even the tale of unrequited love that resulted in the suicide of a local poet. What I have learnt from this is that everywhere we go there are stories about that place. The sleepy little village has been there, done that and has the story to prove it.
Tremaine's World 