In the Hunter Household we call them Sunday Adventures, or sometimes Sunday Misadventures as we have been known to occasionally get lost. Today, we ventured to the village of Aberfoyle in Stirlingshire for a woodland walk, which took in the grave of Robert Kirk who died on the nearby Doon Hill, or did he? That is the question. Did he die, and was buried in the graveyard, or was that the body of a “changleling”? If so, one legend says that his soul is imprisoned inside a tree on Doon Hill as a punishment for revealing the secrets of the fairies or the “Good People” as they were otherwise known.
Why did he deserve this punishment? Well, Robert Kirk lived from 1644 to 1692, and he was a minister, but he was also a Gaelic scholar and folklorist. According to some he made the mistake of writing a treatise on fairy folklore, revealing their secrets, in a book called “The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies”, and while myth and legend have concentrated on his mysterious death on Doon Hill, it shouldn’t be forgotten that it also covers topics such as ghosts, witchcraft and second sight – a gift, or curse, that some people had that gave them the ability to foresee the future, an ability common in “Highland Seers.”
Kirk is buried in the old graveyard at Aberfoyle and it is a fascinating place with the remains of the old church still standing – just. But, given Kirk’s association with the fairies, some of the nearby graves have little fairy signs hanging from them, and at the entrance to the church are two mortsafes, a device used to prevent the bodies of the newly dead being taken away by body snatchers or resurrectionists, or the “sack ’em up boys”.
Our walk started from the car park in Aberfoyle, over the old bridge and along the road, passing the graveyard on the left. It was a circular walk, but you can veer off to the right and up Doon Hill where there are various “clouties” or offerings to…the gods, saints, nature spirits, fairies, whoever, or whatever, for good luck, good fortune, or as part of a healing ritual. I’ve came across clouties before at the Cloutie Den at Dunino in Fife where there are offerings tied to trees, or pressed into crevices in the walls of the Den. At Dunino graveyard before the Den there is a flat gravestone with coins lying on top. At Doon Hill we encountered a wooden mushroom with coins pressed into it.
There are various off-shooting paths to be encountered, trailing off through the trees. However, the main circular walk takes you back down from Doon Hill and up a slight hill. There aren’t really any viewpoints on the walk, so no handy benches to sit on to have your lunch, but we found a sheltered spot just in the trees with some handy toppled tree trunks to sit on. The path returns back down towards the river where the riverside path becomes the cycle path and back into Aberfoyle. You return to the village at the opposite end from the graveyard where the body of Robert Kirk lies, unless his spirit is imprisoned in a tree, or he is really down below, serving as minister to the Faerie Queen.