Strichen to Dencallie

Looking over Strichen  Market Place to the white horse, the gorse round the horse  would normally be in flower by now. A photograph posted a year ago this week shows a sea of gorse round the horse and the start of new leaves on the trees.

Beyond the railway bridge, the now disused Mormond Parish Church. There  are still very few signs of spring along the Line, we expected violets on the banks but found only a few celandines.

Dencallie from the Line

Before Strichen had a graveyard of its own bodies were carried over Mormond for burial at Rathen. a track along the hill was used to avoid the undrained marshy ground below. Some of the lych stanes where the coffins were rested may still be seen along the route and the 'Font Stone' marks  the half way point where the Rathen minister would meet parents with infants for baptism.A large cairn possibly dating from the Bronze Age known as the Resting Cairn, is above Decallie which derives its name from the Gaelic for the Den of Rest. 

Thomas the Rhymer, a 13th century prophet from the Scottish Borders made two predictions about Mormond, both of them involving Dencallie. The first that 'Mormond Hill should be carried to the sea' is said to have been fulfilled when in the 18th century a huge waterspout carried huge quantities of turf and heather from the den above Dencallie to the Ugie and eventually into the sea at Inverugie. The second prophecy stated that 'Dencaldie's Den (sic) should run in bluid' this had a clause which said that 'should the price of salt rise above the price of oatmeal this prediction would fall to the ground'. Fortunately disaster was averted by a steep rise in the price of oatmeal in the 18th century.