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Coronation Road Page 8

36. Scone Palace with Moot Hill (tree-covered) to the right of the road.

Coronation Road terminates at Moot Hill (could it have been motte hill, motte being a castle mound or ceremonial burial mound. At least one illustration of Moot Hill shows men buried underneath it. For MacDuff the finale was played out on the Stone of Destiny (see photograph 37) as the new Scottish king was crowned.

37. Moot Hill with the reproduction of the Stone of Destiny below the left-hand window of the crypt.

End of narrative

Contacts

Web-master = michael@demaine.freeserve.co.uk

Murrayshall House Hotel, Scone Tel. 01738 551171

Perthshire Tourist Board,
Lower City Mills,
West Mill Street,
PH1 5QP
Tel: 01738 450600
http://www.perthshire.co.uk
e-mail: perthtic@perthshire.co.uk

Correspondence

(By e-mail unless otherwise indicated. Aliases are used throughout)

It looks like some of the features of Coronation Road fulfill Alfred Watkins criteria for a ley line for part of the route. If I remember correctly there have to be at least three identifiers to decide a ley line. For part of the route at least this seems to be the case. From Northlees through Deuchny Wood we have Northlees hamlet (lees meaning ley), so that is a name with ley in it, then we have a pool, we have the track itself (with a hill-fort to one side) and we have the Langley Burn (again a name with 'ley' in it) which follows the line of the track. Further on where it leaves the wood there is the track again, a hedge of ancient beeches and Langleys hamlet where the track crosses the road. It seems this would be a good area to dowse and see if we can add further to the accuracy of the route. (Alberto)

(Ed. I don't have any doubts about the route but you can dowse if you want to check up on me.)

The pool you call St Margaret's has been sacred to pagans for centuries, well before Christianity came to Scotland. It is associated with the fertility goddess. We bathe in the water at key times of the celestial calendar. Unfortunately it is getting choked with weeds in parts, which tickles a bit. I think it might be really dangerous for you to draw attention to the ancient track which was hi-jacked by the Christian nobility and royalty to legitimise their worldly rituals. It remains today the sacred road of the true King from the older times, on which we meet him and intercede with him to look kindly on the fair land of Gowrie. If the road becomes too well-known he may decide not to meet with us. (Sariah)

(Ed. I'll draw attention to what I like, it's not going anywhere - I mean nobody's going to steal it are they!.)

On the picture of the Coronation Road sign there are two butterflies. One is a Red Admiral and the other is a Clouded Yellow which is extremely rare in Scotland. Perhaps you would tell me the exact time of year that you took this picture. You say you have not interfered with the pictures in any way so I am very excited about this. (Stamp Collector)

(Ed. Actually it's a leaf)

I note that you say that the cross in the war memorial garden and the cross erected at New Scone to replicate the original at Old Scone were similar to each other. I can see you would wish to make this analogy so that it fits with your theory concerning the route of the Coronation Road. In fact they look nothing like each other if you examine them closely, even in your poor photograph, and it is entirely coincidental that they are placed fairly close to each other. (Gnome)

(Ed. Look - you have a cross-shape on top of a tall post in both cases, they are both made of whitish stone, they are of the same height and they are both in Scone, across the road from each other. I think that is too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. It's obvious that they mark an ancient trackway - possibly known only to the Council.)

Why did you include the findings of the man who dredged 'St Margaret's pool' in 1956? I have never read such a list of (not-so-)old garbage in my life. There is aboslutely nothing in the list of any possible interest to anybody. The only treasure he finds is a few coppers and as for 'Mac-bloody-Scaliber', - the 'sword' was a piece of corrugated iron wasn't it? As for the dog bones - I didn't think the Rev Jack bred his terriers during the first millenium. This is pure piffle. (Dr Watcher)

(Ed. Archaeology is frequently mundane, hoards of gold coins are not the norm. We have to include the boring data to maintain a journalistic balance, - but you're right.)

I am not sure that what the monk saw at St Margaret's pool was as he said. It was either a woman tickling trout or a heron fishing - possibly both but at different times with both events merging into one through a drunken stupour. It's my guess he'd been at his ale in a serious way. It was common at the time that the Fabulae Taui was written to drink ale instead of water, the water being a health hazard. The ale was also a health hazard but you didn't mind so much. (Noel)

(Ed. I prefer the monk's version.)

The Donkey and the Tortoise is typical of tales of the period, being outrageously vulgar yet full of humour and with a hidden morality. It's a pity that this is only a fragment of the original story which has survived from the pre-Christian era. It is of like similar to a Chaucerian tale of frivolous meter and language. It is however surprising that no Scottish dialectic encroaches into the story but that somehow adds to its attraction as a rarity. You may be interested to know that it has already become the subject of an undergraduate honours project. (Daphne).

(Ed. Sad ******!)

I don't think Druids had all that good an access to onions as is implied by your description of the rude goings on at the Greystanes stone circle. Nevertheless it is interesting that the ceremony resembles to some extent the voodoo rituals of west Africa. This bears out my own theory obtained from, nasal hair mitochondrial DNA evidence, of an early migration from Africa to Scotland in the seventh millenium BCE. (Sturgeon)

(Ed. It is possible the onions were actually garlic.)

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