Inspiration for this cache came from 'New Stray Conkers' in Harrogate, Yorkshire and the Humber.
Auchencrow is a small old village which is most famous for its association with witches. Mentioned in several poems going back to the seventeenth century Auchencrow was a prominent place in witch hunts. This trail also leads to Billiemains a place burnt by Henry VIII in the ‘rough wooing’ of Scotland in the mid-sixteenth century. Etymologically the name ‘Auchencrow’ is most probably erroneously said to derive from Gaelic (this language was never spoken this far south) and is in fact probably a contraction of a personal name ‘Alden’ + place-marker ‘grove’.
I stood upon Eyemouth fort,
And guess ye what I saw?
Fairnieside and Flemington,
Newhouses and Cocklaw;
The fairy fouk o' Fosterland,
The witches o' Edincraw,
The rye-riggs o' Reston –
But Dunse dings a'!
Bourtrees, Bees, and Bairns,
Are rife in Auchencraw,
Where in the days o' auld lang syne,
The wives were witches a',
And Jamie Bour the auld gley'd carle,
Was warlock in yon raw.