OS1/1/13/60

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 60
Parish of Chapel of Garrioch

[continued]

*each other. Upon an appointed day, the young people set off together
when their flight being immediately communicated to the Laird of
Balquhain, he pursued them, a rencontre took place in which the young
lady was unfortunately killed. Afterwards this stone was erected
to her memory, and from hence called the Maiden Stone.
It might also have had some connection with the Maiden Causeway
on the hill of Benochie." (Statistical Account.

Another tradition, equally absurd is connected with a Maiden, who on her bridal day and engaged in baking bread, was
inveigled into a wager with a stranger, that she would bake a firlot of meal before he would make a road from
the bottom to the top of Ben-a-chie, or if she failed, she would become his own. Ere her last bannock was ready, the
road was made: on seeing which she fled to the wood of Pittodrie, pursued by the stranger, who was the Devil. He
was in the act of reiping her when she was turned into the Maiden Stone, and the part of it which has been broken
out of one of the sides, disappeared in the grasp of the Demon.-
The word "Maiden" frequently occurs in the Topography of Scotland, and it's etymology has been discussed in
the Name Book of "Oyne" Parish, quod vide. -
This stone is a hard granite but of a coarse grain, and the figures through exposure, are in some parts very indistinct.
The 3 animals above the Centaur at the top can only be seen in a particular light. A trench was lately made
round the stone, but no Sepulchural remains were found, and it was subsequently discovered that the Stone had probably
been removed a few paces westward from its first site, when the adjoining road was made. This Stone was then found
as has been found in the case of many other similar pillars, to extend only a few feet into the soil, and that it was not placed in a
base of stone.

O.S.O [Ordnance Survey Office]
17th June '67 [1867]
[signed] EH Courtney
Capt RE [Captain Royal Engineers]