We're back from our wee trip away - boring work stuff and sensible parenting dictating that a day at home tomorrow, to rest, would be good for the kids before they get back to school and all that. It's been a busy few weeks and the earlier sunrises now aren't helping. I'll do a separate post on how my celebrations for Bealltainn went (are going, really), I just wanted to make a post about the continuing threat hanging over Gleann Cailliche and Tigh nam Bodach while my photos from our trip finish uploading...
The last time I checked, over 50 objections had been lodged and published on the council planning page for it, and now the controversy has been noted by the newspapers (in good timing, of course, for the Cailleach and her family to be taken out of their shieling for the summer):
THEY have watched over the high moors of Glenlyon for thousands of years as part of a ritual that goes back to pagan Scotland.
And local legend has it that "strange and terrible" things will happen to anyone who disturbs the peace of the three ancient carved stones at Tigh nam Bodach.
But a development company has now been warned that it risks invoking the curse of the Cailleach - the old woman and protector of the glen - if it pushes ahead with plans to build a hydro-electric power station in one of the remotest parts of Highland Perthshire.
I have to say, I can't help but think that had they gone for emphasising the heritage angle instead of the curse (duh duh DUH), it might have helped garner more support from people who might otherwise dismiss all this as the stuff of a few fringe, possibly tree hugging, loonies. But then, that wouldn't be half so entertaining to read now, would it?
One interesting bit, though - I'd heard one of the stones had been removed once, some years ago, and then returned with reports of strange experiences prompting its return. I had no idea it was Anne Ross!