There a fantastic bird noise between The Roman Antonine Wall sites much further North than Hadrian’s Wall and nearby The Carriden The Witches Stone
There really was.
There is a bird flying Centre Dark on Bright Right to Left at 22 Seconds.
This film was shot between the two outcrops of The Roman Antonine Wall in sight of The Firth of Forth much further North and Hadrian’s Wall and nearby The Carriden The Witches Stone.
Title in description is, “There a fantastic bird noise.”
Title in film, “There was a fantastic bird noise.”
Both are correct, one is issued more emphatically than the other. If you like one better then that is the title that works for you. If the titles do nothing for you then who needs a title, to this presentation?
This day was a slice of beauty and history with intricate involvement with Sun and Sky, Woods and Birdlife galore.
Marion Lillie, the
Ringwoody Witch was burnt here in 1698.
The stone is reputed to
stand on the site of the burning of the last witch in the South of
Scotland.
Near to this site the
Birley Tree stood, under whose branches the local Birley Court was
held.”
The Witches Stone is said
to mark the spot where Marion Lillie, known as the Rigwoody, or
Ringwoodie Witch, was burned at the stake in 1698 and serves to
commemorate Marion Lillie and the plight and deaths of many others
that were executed for witchcraft. The site outside the current
village is thought to have been used as a place of trial, punishment
and execution. The term, “Rigwoodie,” is an old Scottish word
used to denote someone thin and bony. With many terms involved around
the persecution of witchcraft it might be that the term is being
recorded in to indicate both an improper sexual allure through magic
and to add sexual allure to the telling and retelling of the story.
Some authors record that many witches were burnt on the top of,
“Spott loan”, in 1705, seven years after the death of Marion
Lillie in 1698 which if accurate would reveal that Marion Lillie was
not the last witch to be burned in the South of Scotland.
To this day the very harsh
nature of times gone by including religious punishment can be seen at
Spott kirk. An iron chain and neckbrace, or the 'Jougs' are displayed
on the external wall near the kirk door. Contemporary locals keep a
tradition of placing a coin on the Witches' Stane when passing so as
to avoid bad luck. The now fenced off monument attracts other
offerings too. The outcast and the persecuted are better remembered
over time and there is a greater acceptance of witchcraft than before
whether in the past it was anything like we often now think of it
with it being a popular theme in contemporary culture.
It is noted that the area
around Spott was notorious for its witch burnings in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. East Lothian has been made infamous due
well publicised witch trials, with records detailing allegations,
trials and convictions around Haddington, Tranent and North Berwick.
The Iron Age hill fort on The Chesters, not far to the south west of
Spott was also linked to witch burnings. From early drawings it is
possible that the current stone is the last survivors of several that
were a part of a megalithic monument. The current monument attracts
good attention for the right reasons and it serves for commemoration
of society being inhumane which is something that we all need to
struggle against and to succeed in fighting. To witches and to all
that society would seek to silence there is a potential for full
re-evaluation unfortunately all too often after terrible costs of
life.
A rough block of stone
about 22 inches across both ways but almost entirely covered with
road scrapings, lies at the root of the hedge on the southern side of
the road some 3/8 mile south-west of Spott Church and 90 yards
north-east of the junction of the road to. Little Spott. This stone
is placed near the spot where Marion Lillie the Ringwoodie Witch was
burnt. At the western corner of the junction of the road to Little
Spott stands the Birley Tree, an ash tree, 12 feet 4 inches in girth
6 feet from the ground, which marks the place where the Birley Courts
were held in olden days.
Some 500 yards east of the
dwelling house on Innerwick Farm and nearly 200 yards south of the
public road, in a field called Single Knowes field, is a slightly
rising piece of ground known as the Witches Knowe, on which a number
of witches are said to have been burnt.
About 80 years ago, while
foundations were being prepared for the old hot-houses in Spott House
gardens, the skeletal remains of a number of men with fragments of
their accoutrements, including broken swords and buttons, were found,
no doubt relics of some of the Covenanters who fell at the battle of
Dunbar. All the remains were re-interred in the Kirkyard of Spott, 26
feet from the north-eastern corner of the church and some 5 or 6 feet
east of the line of the wall of the church.
