The Myth of the Woman's Apron

 

Written by Alexander Gunn, A Native of Badbea, and published in the Northern Ensign, August 17, 1882. Part D

“There was a part of this Traifhad which presented a very strange appearance. It was composed of the roughest and most unequal surface I ever saw. The face of the rock, which was not very steep from the braehead down to the edge of the sea at low water, was one confused heap of detached rock, varying in size from a few tons in weight to that of hundreds of tons, as if they had been hurled down from the braehead by the power of some mighty giant. They extended, perhaps, to the breadth of a couple of hundred yards right down, as already said, to the sea, the face of the rock on each side of this avalanche, where they terminated abruptly, having no connection with this strange phenomenon”.

 

 A series of photos of the Traifhad rocks taken in 1910

 North of Badbea, 3.2 km. south-west of Berriedale, Caithness. Typical coastal scenery of Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) age rocks. In the foreground, the cliffs are composed of the Middle Old Red Sandstone Badbea Breccia transgressing the gently folded Ousdale Mudstone Formation of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. A large landslip and great block-screes occur in the middle distance. The 122 m. cliff in the Berriedale Sandstone shows the steep seaward slope of the glacial or pre-glacial contour, in the distance.  httpgeoscenic.bgs.ac.uk

“Hugh Miller speaking of them says – “Near to Badbea there is an enormous heap of stones. Most of them weigh many tons. These were said to have been collected in a woman’s apron, and carrying them along the braehead, the apron string broke, and the stones tumbled down the face of this rock.” This place is known by the name of Clach-an-garabh". 

 

Hugh Miller

"There is a legend something like this in circulation among the Albanians, whose country is almost all covered over with high rocks and stones. Their story is “that when the great Creator finished the earth, he went out with a sack full of stones to scatter over the nearly-formed earth, and in passing over Albania, the sack burst, and all the stones fell there.”

A NATIVE OF BADBEA

(To be continued)

My Comments:

Hugh Miller (1802 – 1856) was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer. He has been called the “David Attenborough of his day”. Apparently one of his interests was to merge geology with local history and folklore and we have a fine example of that here.

https://www.thefriendsofhughmiller.org.uk/hugh-miller-a-brief-history.asp

Hugh Miller also wrote a geological series called The Old Red Sandstone (1841).  

 

The Badbea cliffs are not the only place where the myth of the Devil's apron – or in this case a woman’s apron  - was said to be associated with stones. There is a place in Lancashire called Apronfull Hill.

 

Apronfull Hill is reputed to be the place that the devil filled his apron with stones and threw them in the direction of Clitheroe and one knocked the hole in the keep of Clitheroe Castle. The stones lying around are what he dropped when his apron split.

 

The Devil's footprints (or fingerprints) Lancashire

https://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/out-about/walks/sabden-and-apronful-hill-walk-1-5553894

Irish folklore also has stories of a woman (this time described as a hag or a witch) with an apron full of stones that get dispersed as she flies around.