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This is wild and woolly moorland and good footwear is essential. Depending on your starting point it can be steep and slippy. However if you plan ahead you can follow an easier route up the hillside. Occasionally sheepy mehs are on the hill so keep a good hold of doggies lead until you are sure the sheeps are elsewhere.(A large cat like creature was also spotted here) Muggles should not be a problem although I have been surprised on occasion by a low flying paraglider.
The cache is a tupperware container in a green bag. Chock full of swaps. There are numerous parking spots depending on your intentions....but Cornalees is probably best. If the centre is open the Ranger will have tea and sandwiches on the go. If its shut nip over to the fishery hut and scrounge a bite from the fishhunters. Or, bring your own and spend the day caching in the area. Now before you venture forth into this spooky area, read the history and then look at the photo. Old Dunrod was there watching us place the cache.(and I’m not joking) OK Here goes......Fire up the GPSr...enter the co-ords...and whoosh! Of ye go. Nae counting , nae windaes, nae tunnels....just open moorland and fresh air and views. Once at the cache site sit down and listen! Dominus De Dunrod - The House Of Dunrod “The Lindsays of Dunrod, a wild and warlock race, flourished for centuries in power and affluence and their history is a dark and stormy one.” - Lives of the Lindsays The Lindsays The Lindsays were an Angus clan, said to be descended from the uplanders and, while there are many important branches of the family, most notably that of Edzel and Balcarres, here we are primarily concerned with those in residence at Dunrod, near Inverkip. The Lindsays of Dunrod took their name from Dunrod Hill, the impressive summit which lies directly behind Cornalees Bridge Centre. The family were directly descended from Sir James Lindsay, Robert the Bruce’s accomplice in the murder of Red Comyn, and it was James’ successor, John Lindsay, who obtained the baronies of Kilbride and Dunrod from Robert II in recognition for the family’s loyalty during the Wars of Independence. The family remained influential in Scotland for many years, intermarrying with the families of Eglantine, Semble and Elphistone, growing into one of the most powerful landowners in the country. Auld Dunrod In the late 16th century, Alexander Lindsay succeeded the family’s lands of Dunrod and Kilbride. For twenty years, Alexander enjoyed the trappings of a wealthy man, dwelling in splendour and going nowhere without being accompanied by a troop of twelve attendants on pure white horses. One story speaks of Dunrod’s arrogance and indolence: A man named Crawford had committed some wrong against the landowner, and Dunrod had the man sent out onto the middle of a frozen pond, where a hole was cut around him. Crawford dropped into the icy water and perished, and to this day the spot of his death is known as Crawford’s Hole. Apparently, along with his affluence, Dunrod had inherited his family’s involvement in an age-old feud between the Cunninghams, the Montgomeries and the Maxwells. The feud stemmed from the fact that, in 1366, Hugh Eglinton was appointed to the office of Bailey of the Barony of Cunningham. However, his office was contested by the Cunninghams. The feud had continued in many forms until the year 1528, when the Cunninghams had attacked the manor house of the Eglintons, who were allies of the Lindsays and the Montgomeries of Skelmorlie. This brought many more of the powerful families of Renfrewshire into what had been a private battle. These matters came to a head in 1584, when Montgomerie attacked and killed Maxwell of Stanley, and in return the Maxwell ambushed and killed Montgomerie and his son. Dunrod’s personal revenge for this crime is best recounted in Crawford’s famous ‘History of Renfrewshire’: “....Alexander of Dunrod, having some way or another become engaged in that dreadful and long lasting feud between the Cunninghams and the Montgomeries, killed out of the window of a farmhouse of his own, at Hayton hill, near Glasgow, Alexander Leckie of that Ilk, who was brother in law to Patrick Maxwell of Newark, a great hero and a very bloody man on the side of the Cunninghams.” Up until this time, Dunrod had been spending a great deal of time away from the family estates in Inverkip; however, after the murder of Leckie, he returned to the family home. It has been stated that Dunrod’s subsequent problems were a kind of divine retribution; God’s revenge on a murderer. All that can be said is, for earthly reasons or otherwise, the next twenty years saw Dunrod’s personal fortune dwindle and his lands shrink. It was during this time that Dunrod turned to the black arts. It was rumoured that Dunrod became involved with witches living on his remaining lands in Inverkip, gathering with them at Dunrod’s Seat, located on the slope of Dunrod Hill. Further rumours suggested that he entertained the Devil himself at his castle. It is worth noting the possibility that Dunrod had inherited his connections to the practice of witchcraft from the Lindsays; it is now thought in some circles that members of the nobility at that time were involved in a highly organised cult which they used for their own means. The image of Dunrod as a dark and powerful Warlock is a far cry from the man he was at the end of his life; he was a penniless hermit, his lands having been seized by the Kirk in recompense for his evil deeds, selling charms and potions to any who would entertain him. Dunrod died soon after in a barn on his former lands in East Kilbride. The Dunrod Legacy “Peace has a bower by still Chriswell, But dark Dunrod conceals a witchcraft spell.” Very little remains today of the infamous Castle Dunrod. Some large stones, standing at the bottom of a gorge by the road to Shielhill; a poor legacy to a family with a powerful, if shadowy, past. However, Dunrod is remembered in another way, being one of the most infamous characters in Inverclyde’s history. As recently as a century ago, parents enforced children's' bedtimes with the chilling promise that ‘Auld Dunrod’ would get them. Thus, this larger than life character has become woven irrevocably into the folklore of the area, celebrated in numerous tales passed from generation to generation, and most famously in two anonymous poems commemorating his dark deeds. The first of these, The Ballad of Auld Dunrod’ is thought not to have been written down until more than a century after Dunrod’s death, and was probably composed while Dunrod was extant. Presented in its fullest original form, the poem chronicles his black deeds, and ends rather cryptically with Dunrod flying on his broomstick to the Bogle Stone; this, in turn, gave rise to the second poem. This second piece, The Vision of Auld Dunrod, was composed a good many years later than its companion, and gives an account of a mystical vision Dunrod experienced at the Bogle Stone, concerning Inverclyde’s past, present and future. The Bogle Stone itself has long been associated with strange occurrences, and earned the local parish a skeptical and superstitious reputation. In the nineteenth century, a minister attempted to destroy the stone using explosives, succeeding only in shattering it. Superstition subsequently came into play, and the stone was fitted back together, and an inscription attached: ‘I am the far-famed BogleStane By worldly priest abhorr’d But now I am myself again By Auchenleck restored.’ The stone still stands in Port Glasgow, a memory to the ghost who, it is said, haunts the stone still. And who knows - perhaps the ‘Bogle’ is the spectre of Dunrod himself, continuing his evil legacy into a new age. Well there you have it. There are suspicions that a coven still meets on Dunrod Hill and certainly at Celtic Festivals strange lights have been seen on the hill.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va Gur Jnyy.
74* Zntargvp sebz Gevt cbvag gb gur pnpur
40* Zntargvp sebz pnpur gb arnerfg gryrcubar znfg.