The name gowk stane (English: cuckoo stone or fool's stone) has been applied to certain standing stones and glacial erratics in Scotland, often found in prominent geographical situations. Other spelling variants, such as gowke, gouk, gouke, goilk, goik, gok, goke, gook are found. [1]
Gowk in Scots means a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), but also a stupid person or fool. The word derives from the Old Norse 'gaukr', a cuckoo. Other explanations and origins for the term are also found. [2] The word derives from Anglo-Saxon (Old English) 'gouk' and was replaced in the south and central England by the French loan word 'coucou' after the Norman Conquest. The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the bird.
The Scottish Gaelic names for a Cuckoo are Coi, Cuach, Cuachag (poetical name) and Cuthag. [3] The Welsh for cuckoo is cog.
Celtic mythology in particular is rich in references to cuckoos and the surviving folklore gives clues as to why some stones were given the gowk name.
The term gowk is perhaps best known in the context of the old Gowk's Day, the Scottish April Fools' Day, originally held on April 13 when the cuckoo begins to call, and when children were sent on a gowk hunt, a harmless prank involving pointless errands. [4]
Gowk meant both cuckoo and fool; the latter were thought to be fairy-touched. The call of the cuckoo was believed to beckon the souls of the dead, and the cuckoo was thought to be able to travel back and forth between the worlds of the living and the dead. [5]
It was once commonly thought that the first appearance of a cuckoo also brought about a "gowk storm", a furious spring storm. [6]
Cuckoos were said to have the power of prophesy and could foretell a person's lifespan, the number of their children and when they would marry. [7]
It has also been suggested that the gowk or fool originated in the Dark Ages as a name for the Britons, given by the Saxon invaders, and carried some of the meaning of the Devil in the context of an arch foe, who is likened to the fool. [8]
In the Outer Hebrides a cuckoo's call heard when a person was hungry was bad luck, but the opposite was true if the person had recently eaten. [9]
The use of the term gowk at these sites suggests a link with springtime and some of the surviving legends associated with standing stones do have a link with the heralding of spring by the first cuckoo of that season to arrive. In the churchyard at Nevern in Wales is an old stone cross, carved with intricate knotwork. Villagers of Nevern would wait for their "harbinger of spring" and on 7 April, St Brynach's feast day, the first cuckoo of the year would arrive from Africa, alighting on the cross and singing to announce the arrival of spring. [10]
A local belief of the Gaelic-speaking community on the Isle of Lewis was that when the sun rose on midsummer morn, the "shining one" walked along the stone avenue at Callanish, his arrival heralded by the cuckoo's call. [11]
The cuckoo traditionally sends forth its first call in spring from the gowk stone at Lisdivin in Northern Ireland. [12]
A few cuckoo stones are present at sites in England and Cornwall.
The various gowk stones often had other functions, such as acting as boundary markers or meeting places in what may have sometimes been featureless landscapes. The gowk stone at Whitelee may have been used as a pulpit of sorts by ministers preaching at conventicles held on this remote spot in Covenanting times. [13]
Great Cumbrae is the larger of the two islands known as The Cumbraes in the lower Firth of Clyde in western Scotland. The island is sometimes called Millport, after its main town.
A menhir, standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large man-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found individually as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Menhirs' size can vary considerably, but they often taper toward the top.
Kilmaurs is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland which lies just outside of the largest settlement in East Ayrshire, Kilmarnock. It lies on the Carmel Water, 21 miles southwest of Glasgow. Population recorded for the village in the 2001 Census recorded 2,601 people resided in the village It was in the Civil Parish of Kilmaurs.
Stanecastle was a medieval barony and estate in North Ayrshire, Scotland, first mentioned in 1363 and now part of the Irvine New Town project. Its nearest neighbours are Bourtreehill and Girdle Toll.
There are many large stones of Scotland of cultural and historical interest, notably the distinctive Pictish stones, but also the other types discussed below.
Dunlop is a village and parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It lies on the A735, north-east of Stewarton, seven miles from Kilmarnock. The road runs on to Lugton and the B706 enters the village from Beith and Burnhouse.
The Portlethen Moss is an acidic bog nature reserve located to the west of the town of Portlethen, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Like other mosses, this wetland area supports a variety of plant and animal species, even though it has been subject to certain development and agricultural degradation pressures. For example, the Great Crested Newt was found here prior to the expansion of the town of Portlethen. Many acid loving vegetative species occur in Portlethen Moss, and the habitat is monitored by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
The Thurgartstone or Ogrestone is a prominent glacial erratic stone near Dunlop in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The Thurgartstone stands in a field at Brandleside Farm and is thought to have been a rocking stone at one time, but it no longer moves due to a build up of soil beneath.
The Dwarfie Stane is a megalithic chambered tomb carved out of a titanic block of Devonian Old Red Sandstone located in a steep-sided glaciated valley between the settlements of Quoys and Rackwick on Hoy, an island in Orkney, Scotland. The stone is a glacial erratic located in desolate peatland. The site is managed by Historic Environment Scotland.
A mounting block, horse block, carriage stone, or in Scots a loupin'-on stane is an assistance for mounting and dismounting a horse or cart.
The Grannie or Granny stone is either the only surviving part of a stone circle or a simple glacial erratic. It lies in the River Irvine below the Rivergate Centre in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The Grannie Stane is clearly visible when the water is low. The GPS co-ordinates are 55°36.768′N4°40.180′W.
Cronberry is a small hamlet situated north-east of Cumnock and one mile north-east of Lugar, in East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Little Cumbrae Castle sits on Allimturrail or Castle Island, a small tidal island, situated off the east coast of Little Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde. It is designated as a scheduled monument.
Stevenston Beach is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR), located between Stevenston and Saltcoats in Scotland. It is situated on the coast, west of the Stevenston Burn. The park covers an area of 12 ha, and consists mostly of sand dunes, with an area of coal mining spoil derived from Auchenharvie Colliery No. 5 pit which produced Ladyha' coal. It is ranked as the fifth most important sand dune system in Ayrshire. The dunes are also designated as a wildlife site by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
Shewalton House and estate were composed of the 'Lands of Shewalton' and the laird's dwelling, originally a tower castle and later a mansion house on the River Irvine in the Shewalton area, two miles from Irvine and west of Drybridge village, East Ayrshire, Dundonald Parish, Scotland. In 1883 the Boyle's estate of Shewalton was 2,358 acres in extent in Ayrshire and was worth at that time £2,708 a year.
The Chapel Well, sometimes known as Saint Mary's Well or probably erroneously as 'Saint Inan's Well' is located beside the River Irvine at the end of the Chapel Lane path that links to the Kirk Vennel in Irvine, North Ayrshire., Scotland.
A cattle rubbing stone is a stone allowing cattle to rub their skin without causing damage to field infrastructure such as fences and posts, or natural features such as trees. They were once a common sight in pastures in Britain, but many have since been removed to accommodate the needs of modern farming practices. Cattle are depicted on Pictish stones such as the Fowlis Wester stone; however, the requirement for rubbing stones mainly relates to the enclosure of fields in the late 18th century that held cattle within a confined area.
Lawthorn is a hamlet near Perceton in Strathannick, Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The settlement lies on the old Irvine to Stewarton toll road.
A Morthouse, or Deadhouse, was a specialised secure building usually located in a churchyard where bodies were temporarily interred before a formal funeral took place. These buildings date back to the time when bodysnatchers or resurrectionists frequently illegally exhumed dead bodies that were then sold for dissection as part of human anatomy training at universities, etc. Morthouses were alternatives to mortsafes, watch houses, watch towers, etc.
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