Chester found by research that after the Reformation the last Prior of Pittenweem, an old man, had been driven out, hidden at Newark Castle and Balcomie, sheltered in Kinkell Cave and finally taken in at the house, where a night of shots and shouting ended with him never being seen again. Nieces saw the old man as kindly, like Father Christmas, while servants had their bedclothes pulled off and their bells rung.
The house is not named and Linskill says it was later pulled down, so the pin is only for the town. The account is second hand, told through an old officer Linskill met abroad, and its historical detail about the Prior is loose, so it is a single report rather than a tradition. Linskill's book mixes older local legend with anecdotes told through narrators who have comic names, so the individual eyewitness scenes should be read as storytelling rather than testimony.
Comments