On Thursday we took a walk up Doon Hill which is a modest hill just outside Aberfoyle. It has a spooky history associated with it and a reputation of being a place frequented by the fairies. The story goes that Robert Kirk a 17th Century minster in Aberfoyle wrote a book collecting together folk tales about the fairies. He was said to be a 7th son with the gift of second sight himself. One night he climbed Doon Hill (pictured below) to commune with the little people.
That night he dropped dead on the hill. A few days later as the village gathered for his funeral his spirit appeared to them at the grave yard. His ghost explained that he wasn't really dead but his book about the fairy folk had angered the fairies so much they had spirited away his soul to the fairy kingdom and left behind his body.
They say that his soul is still trapped in the gateway to the fairy realm in the large tree on the top of Doon Hill pictured below.
Since Kirk's day the site has been associated with a more positive side to the fairy folk and has become a fairy well or clootie well where people hang rags and ribbons with wishes written on them to be granted by the fairy folk. As you can see in the picture above many of the trees are festooned. Someone has placed bells and chimes in the branches which jingle in the breeze.
It was a very peaceful spot indeed. But my favourite picture of the day is the one below.
We came across this happy pig on our way up to the hill, not far from the Rev Kirk's now ruined church. The seen of the pig munching happily under the blossomed tree seemed utterly timeless to me.
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