Please note that this series of caches will be archived on 31 December 2021 and the containers uplifted. Please complete any site visits before that date.
Munro's Adventure
It was five in the morning when wee Corbett the Coo was rudely awakened by his big brother Munro. “Come on! Get up! We’re going on an ADVENTURE!” Corbett rubbed his eyes. Munro helped him get ready. They ate a fine breakfast of porridge with honey and by seven am they were far from home, heading through a forest of tall pine trees.
“Wait for me Munro!” cried wee Corbett, chasing Munro along the muddy forest track. “You’re going too fast! I cannae keep up with you in this mud.” He stopped and looked down. All four of his hooves were caked in mud.
“Well hurry up then!” Munro mooed. “I want to see if it’s true.”
“If what’s true!?” said Corbett, peching behind Munro, catching his breath. “Whit are we doing charging about in a forest so early in the morning? Whit’s going on.”
Munro stopped and scratched his chin. The path split in two directions. “Hmmm which way.”
“Which way for what!?” demanded Corbett. “If you’re going to get me out of bed at five in the morning to go running around, at least tell me what we’re up to!”
Munro stopped and smiled at Corbett. “You know how Great Uncle Michty Moo was telling stories last night?”
“Yes,” pouted Corbett, “but I was sent to bed at eight last night. I missed most of them.”
“Oh well then you missed the best story! Apparently there’s fairies in these woods!” Munro grinned.
“Fairies!? He believes in fairies? Aye c’mon Munro. Naebdy believes in fairies... Do they?” Corbett sounded unsure.
“Well Michty Moo believes in fairies and after hearing his story last night, so do I. So that’s two of us.”
Corbett stared at Munro in disbelief. “Well? What’s the story?”
Munro chose the left path and they headed on. “Come on, I think it’s this way.”
As they went, he told the story.
“So there’s this grand house called Blelack. It’s about three miles north of the Dee near Logie Coldstone. The aene that’s there just now is about two hunner years old, but before then there was this other hoose! The Laird o Blelack, that’s the Scottish word for the lord of the area, had fairies living on his land at a place called “The Seeley Howe.” Well, a Scottish fairy is nae a nice fairy - not like in the story books we had when we were wee. So the Laird wants them off his land! But how dae ye go about getting rid o Fairies? Weel luckily there was this local wizard called John Farquharson and he wis able to call up the fairies using a spell and speak to them. Apparently the place where he called them up is just over the brow of this hill in amongst a wee circle of seven standing stones!”
“So whit happened!?” Corbett asked. They scrambled up the slope and peered down into the trees, looking for the stone circle.
“Weel the fairies telt Farquharson that they’d leave, but only if the Laird would give them a nice place to stay. So he telt them that they could bide on the Hill Of Fare – that’s that big hill over there” said Munro, pointing through the trees to the north.
“Did they go?” said Corbett
“Aye. But they didnae like it. It was windy and cold. So they cursed the Laird o Blelack and his hale family. They cursed Farquharson too!”
They ran down the slope, deeper into the trees. “Look.” Said Corbett. Deep in the woods was a circle of eight standing stones. Corbett counted them. “This can’t be it. There’s an extra aene.”
He looked up at Munro whose eyes were wide open in fear and wonder. “Ummm no. That’d be right. Apparently Farquharson returned to the spot to summon the fairies to apologise to them because he didn’t know Blelack was giving them a horrible place to live. They turned him to stone! That must be him” said Munro, pointing to the tallest of the stones.
“Blelack didn’t fare any better. The curse went ‘Dool Dool to Blelack, and Dool to Blelack's Heir, for Driving use fae the Seely Howe to the Cauld Hill O’ Fare” said Munro in an eerie voice. “He was injured in the Jacobite Rebellion fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie and Hanoverian troops burnt Blelack House down. Even his children were cursed – within months, all nine of them had died or fled the country.”
“That’s some serious cursing!” said Corbett.
Both of the coos stood in silence, gazing at the stone circle. “Munro,” whispered Corbett. “Can we go now? I don’t like it here.” Munro shivered and nodded. “Let’s go.”
They didn’t notice the little faces watching them from the trees as they left.
Please see the first cache in the series for parking waypoints.
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