Historic Skye: The Burn of Sorrow Traditional Geocache
Historic Skye: The Burn of Sorrow
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The Burn of Sorrow
Another cache in the Historic Skye series
The Allt na Dunaiche is variously known as the ‘Burn of Sorrow’, or the ‘Burn of Misfortune’, alluding to a tale of seven girls and a young boy who went to spend the summer in a shieling up above the waterfall.
One day, the girls went out to a wedding, leaving the boy alone. During his lonely vigil, the shieling was entered by seven large cats, who seated themselves by the fire, and talked. The boy watched, spellbound. Then the cats arose, took all the goodness from the butter and the cream, leaving but the appearance of goodness, and vanished.
When the girls came home, and the terrified child recounted the story, the girls, seeing what appeared to be butter and cream in plenty, laughed at him, saying it was a dream.
Next night, back came the cats, and by dawn light all the girls were dead. Later that day, when their mothers came to fetch the butter and cream, as was customary, each, as they entered the shieling and saw the dead girls, cried out ‘Airidh mo dunach’ (the Shieling of Misfortune).
There is a forestry car park just to the south of the Allt na Dunaiche bridge.
Permission to place caches on this land has kindly been given by the John Muir Trust.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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