The Voice at Dabbie Dancie, Strathaven

The diary passage as quoted is short and does not say what the cowherd did. It is the sort of fragment that survives from a much larger body of river lore. The rising water in the story fits the kelpie tradition, in which a water horse or spirit is bound up with dangerous fords and spates. The diarist himself treats the belief as old superstition, and the rock's exact position is only given as roughly a mile south of Strathaven, so the pin here is approximate.