MENMUIR-ARCHEOLOGICAL TRACES. 327 mêlée had extended as far west as "'tween the Blawart Lap and Killievair Stanes," and the sepulchral traces which have been found in this quarter may belong to that engagement. It is worthy of notice that the most important of these traces were found about thirty years ago in the vicinity of the Blawart Lap. Of these the discoverer gives this account:"While engaged improving a piece of waste land," he writes, “including a grassy mound, called by the old people in the district, the Gallows or Law of Balrownie (where, it is said, the lairds dispensed feudal justice), it was found, on excavating this mound, that it had been originally raised as a monument and place of burial. A dike, or circle of rough stones, apparently gathered from the adjacent muir, was arranged round the bottom. This circle was one hundred and twenty feet in circumference. Within, it was filled with earth, brought from the banks of Cruik Water (distant about one hundred yards), and raised about six feet above the surrounding surface. It contained a stone coffin, constructed with two long pavement-like stones on each side, and a half round one at the head—the whole covered by a heavy slab of whinstone. From the inroads of vermin and insects, the coffin was completely filled with mould, mixed with small particles of bones, and none of them could be distinguished from each other, excepting a small portion of the skull. The head was placed exactly in the centre of the mound, and the body laid due south." Old people remember when three or four stones stood on the same spot, but no record exists of the circle having been complete, though there is reason to believe that it had once been so. The remaining stone is about four feet above ground, upwards of eight feet in circumference, and tops a knoll northwest of the farm-house of Barrelwell, in the parish of Brechin. It was also here that Baliol did penance to Edward in 1296. The church anciently belonged to the Chapter and Cathedral of Brechin, and St. Braul's Well is in a field adjoining the church, to whom (as St. Rule) the kirk had likely been dedi. cated. (See Jervise, Epit. ii. pp. 236-45, and Campbell, Lect. on Brechin District, pp. 16-7, 30-1.) A stone coffin with an urn inside, was found adjacent to it, about the beginning of this century. The most remarkable antiquarian features of Menmuir, however, are the mountain forts of White and Brown Caterthun. These hills are of the same class as Duneval and Dunjardel, in Inverness and Nairn shires; but that of White Caterthun is accounted the most remarkable of any in the kingdom. Huddleston calls White Caterthun a Druidical erection; but other writers, on perhaps better grounds, suppose both ramparts to have a native origin, coeval with British posts, and to have been raised for the protection and retreat of the wives and children of the ancient inhabitants, during the repeated invasions of their country; and, instead of assuming the name to signify "Camptown" or "City Fort," according to Pennant, they derive it from the likelier source of Caderdun, a hill-fort.1 The rampart and intrenchments of the Brown or Black Caterthun are nearly circular, and entirely composed of earth -hence its distinctive name. It occupies a lower site and less space than its fellow, from which it lies about a mile eastward, commanding an extensive view of the eastern and southern portions of the valley of Strathmore; while White Caterthun, whose height is nine hundred and seventy-six feet above the sea, commands the western parts of the Strath, and a great part of its southern and northern boundaries. The former has been formed by the levelling down of the top of the mountain, which, in a physical aspect, is altogether different from its fellow; for, while stones abound on all parts of the White Caterthun, comparatively few are to be found on the Brown-so that whether the stones had been carried from the latter to erect the former, or whether, by scooping out the trenches, White Caterthun had afforded materials for its own rearing or whether, as fixed by tradition, the stones were brought from the West Water, or from the still more distant. 1 Chalmers, Caled. i. p. 89; and Prof. Stuart, Essays, p. 87. MENMUIR-THE CATERTHUNS. 329 hill of Wirran (to which provincial geologists say the stones of this fort are peculiar)-is all a matter of uncertainty. But, about twenty years ago, a large boulder was discovered at the north-west corner of the White Caterthun, and upon the two large fragments a series of cup-markings is distinctly traceable; but there is nothing to elucidate their meaning or the special use to which the boulder had been applied;1 one of the fragments is rolled a considerable distance down the hill. Caterthun has been frequently engraved and described, particularly in Roy's Military Antiquities, and is agreed on all hands to have been singularly well constructed for purposes of security and defence. The fort was not, however, as some descriptions of it would lead the stranger to believe, an erection which had been held together by mortar or other cement, but was composed entirely of loose stones. These have fallen from their original position, and the breadth of the wall, in its present state, is presumed to measure about a hundred feet at the base, and between twenty and thirty feet at the top. It rises little more than five feet above the inner area, which is of an oval form, measuring about five hundred and thirty-four feet in length, by two hundred in breadth. The well is within eighty feet of the south-west corner, and although much filled up, still represented by a pit of about eight feet in depth, and forty feet in diameter at the top. Beyond, and surrounding the whole citadel, there is a succession of strong ramparts and ditches, mainly composed of earth, and stretching far down the hill. Although now much filled up, these trenches vary in depth from eighteen to twenty-four inches, and the whole structure, as has been frequently remarked, is one of the most extensive and elaborate ancient citadels in Great Britain. It may be observed that, although the dikes and intrenchments of Brown Caterthun are quite in the same style and condition as those of White Caterthun, there is no 1 The stone is figured by Miss Maclagan, Hill Forts, etc., Plate xi. is appearance of any well upon it except on the south-west slope of the hill, near the Geary Burn. Like that of the vitrified site of Finhaven, the real history of Caterthun is veiled in mystery; but, perhaps, since the place has never been properly investigated, something may yet be found among its ruins to throw light on the manners of its possessors, or the purposes of its erection. It was visited by an anonymous writer upwards of a century ago, who speaks of having found stones upon it with hieroglyphic characters, bits of broken statues, and old coins; but as none of these have been seen or heard of, save through the columns of a contemporary magazine,1 the assertion is generally questioned. The late Mr. D. D. Black, author of the History of Brechin, cut through a portion of the wall some years ago, but found only a few remains of charred wood and burned bones.2 But, as may be expected, though the learned of every age have failed to satisfy themselves regarding the use or gathering together of these stones, local tradition at once solves the mystery, and says that the place was merely the abode of fairies, that a brawny witch carried the whole one morning from the channel of the West Water to the summit of the hill, and would have increased the quantity (there is no saying to what extent), but for the ominous circumstance of her apronstring breaking, while carrying one of the largest! This stone was allowed to lie where it fell, and is pointed out to this day on the north-east slope of the mountain! This tradition, it may be remarked, however outré, is curious from its analogy to that concerning the castles of Mulgrave and Pickering in Yorkshire, the extensive causeways of which are said to have been paved by genii named Wada and his wife Bell, the latter, like the amazonian builder of Caterthun, having carried the stones from a great distance in her apron! But the same 1 Ruddiman's Mag., August 31, 1775. 2 On hill forts like the Caterthuns and Finhaven, see Prof. Daniel Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, ii. pp. 85 sq. MENMUIR-SUPERSTITIONS. 331 story is to be met with in many different places, and with only the slightest variation. Perhaps the fabled occupancy of Caterthun by fairies had the effect of preserving a superstitious credulity, both in Menmuir and Lethnot, for a longer period than in the neighbouring districts. We have already seen its effects in the latter place; and it is a notorious fact, that at no distant period demonology and witchcraft survived in Menmuir with much of its original vigour. Nay, apart from tradition, it is recorded that in the memorable 1649, when a vast number of native Scots are said to have been burnt for witchcraft, the clergyman was prevented from preaching the Word of God to his parishioners upon the 2d and 23d of December, because he had to attend "the committee appoynted by the provincial assemblie for the tryal of witches and charmers." What the pastor of Menmuir and others began, their brethren of Tannadice and Cortachy appear to have finished, for both were absent from their parochial duties on certain Sundays, because of having to attend the burning of "ane witche"! Such cases, however, were far from rare; even Knox, one of the most enlightened men of his time, not only attended the execution of these martyrs to popular ignorance and superstition, but actually on one occasion preached; for Melvill says that the first execution he ever beheld was that of " a witche in St. Androis, against the whilk Mr. Knox delt from the pulpit, sche being set upe at a pillar before him!” 1 But the barbarous doings of old times are not so much to be wondered at, when some of the "living chronicles," even in the district under notice, remember of burning peats being dropped through the infant's first shift, to counteract the power of diabolical agency 2-of the husband's unmentionables being laid at the feet of the labouring wife, and the fairy club placed athwart the door-sill, to prevent her being carried away by 1 Diary, p. 58. 2 Ross describes this superstitious process in his Helenore. |