OS1/13/113/4

Continued entries/extra info

4 Parish of Cupar Sheet 5

[Quotation] - Moot Hill -
" Along the banks of the Lady Burn a Sandstone Conglomerate prevails consisting consisting of large masses of quartz and other flinty ingredients and resembling a coarse puddingstone. Surmounting this rock and at irregular and undulating distances from the Lady Burn there runs a very singular mound Composed (when examined) of fresh water gravel. Beginning at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile from the point where the Eden and the Lady Burn meet this mound runs in a serpentine direction till it terminates as it rises abruptly in what is now called the School but anciently the Castle Hill. About the middle there is a peak of greater elevation than the rest which is called the Moot hill and on which according to tradition the Earls of Fife used to hold their councils of war and dispense the awards of justice. Were one to look to appearance or listen to report without attending to the magnitude of this mound, he might conclude as has been sometimes supposed that it is artificial, But looking to the size this supposition is instantly checked. And extending the view across from the Castle or School - Hill to the opposite side of the Eden and remarking the same serpentine and moundlike appearance continuing there is left no room to doubt that the mound is a natural deposit formed at some remote period and broken through as it now is by the action of the Eden. Above the mound and on the North and South sides of the Eden there is an immense bed of clay of a very excellent quality and peculiarly fitted for the making of brick and tiles for which it has been long used." New Stat. Acct. [Statistical Account] of Fife. p.3