The church at St Trinian's was built, the story goes, to fulfil a vow made by a man in danger at sea. The walls went up without trouble. The roof was another matter. Each time it was nearly finished, a buggane came up out of the ground inside the church and tore it off, with a great roar, and threw it down.
A tailor called Timothy offered to settle it. He made a wager that he would sit inside the church and sew a pair of breeches before the buggane could stop him, and he began work one evening under the newly finished roof. As he stitched, the floor split open and a great head came up through the flags. It asked him whether he saw its great head, its large eyes and its long teeth. Timothy said he saw them, and kept sewing. The buggane rose higher, showing its shoulders, its arms, its body, asking each time whether he saw them. Timothy answered yes to every question and never looked up from his needle.
He put in the last stitch as the buggane pulled its feet clear of the ground. Timothy ran for the door and out into the churchyard as the roof crashed down behind him. The buggane chased him, but could not follow on to consecrated ground, so it tore off its own head and threw it after him. The head burst on the ground near him and did him no harm. Timothy won his wager, but nobody has put a roof on St Trinian's since.
Moore dated Waldron's version of the tale to around 1666. The church itself is older: it dates from the fourteenth century and was probably left unfinished for far more ordinary reasons. The buggane is said to have lived on Greeba mountain, which rises behind the church.
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