Baron Kitter, the story says, was a Norwegian who lived in a castle on Barrule in the days of King Olaf. He was a great hunter, and between him and his men they killed nearly every wild creature on the island. People began to fear that their own cattle and sheep would be next. They went to the witches for help.
One day, while Kitter was out hunting on the Calf, his cook Eaoch fell asleep over the dinner. A witch named Ada put a curse on the pot. It boiled over into the fire, and the blaze that followed burned the castle. The smoke was so thick that the hunters saw it on the Calf, ten miles away.
Kitter and his men ran for their boat and rowed hard for home, but in their hurry they struck the rock in the Sound, and Kitter and most of his companions were drowned. The rock has been called Kitterland ever since.
In Morrison's version the cook was blamed and chose to be beheaded with a legendary sword, which leads into a longer tale of Olaf, a smith and a prophecy. The drowning on Kitterland is the part that belongs to the landscape.
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