Scotland roads, ancient and perhaps the most intriguing.

Scotland has many ancient roads, and perhaps the most intriguing are the coffin Scotland roads.

The coffin Scotland roads were often just rough tracks through glens and mountains, but they were vital for transporting the bodies of the deceased from remote locations to consecrated ground for burial.

Some can still be traced today, one such road is St Edderens way, which traverses Aberdeenshire’s Mormond Hill between the villages of Strichen and Rathen.

The corpse were transported over the hill from Strichen to Rathen, as Strichen did not have a kirk or cemetery when it was built. Mormond Hill itself is a place steeped in myth and legend, one one side is a giant white horse made of stone, on the other side a giant white stag https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormond_Hill.

On top of the hill stands the ruin of a hunting lodge, the date stone bears the legend “Rob Gibb commands 1779” Rob Gibb was Charles the Second’s court jester and it’s thought the inscription is a veiled Jacobite toast to the Stuart dynasty.

On the coffin road are many ancient sites of interest, in particular the Resting Cairn, where the coffins of the deceased were rested on the stones until the pall bearers felt refreshed enough to continue their journey.

Perhaps the greatest enigma of a Mormond Hill is that some historians have theorised that it may be considered as the site of the fabled battle of Mons Graupius between The Picts and the Romans.

I make no such claim, Mons Graupius has been attributed to locations all over Scotland !

All the photographs are Kenny Bruce.

Author Kenny Bruce