Selfish act robs village of priceless heritage
Sir, – Until now I have never felt the need, or indeed had any inclination, to write to your esteemed newspaper. However, all that changed after I took my dog for a walk to the South of my home village of Aberlour, up a brae past what is known locally as the Fairy Hill.
To my shock and dismay, I found the access to said hill completely blocked by a wooden fence which would give the old Berlin Wall a run for its money. To say I couldn’t believe the sight before me would be an understatement.
I know this sounds really daft, but I had to touch the fence with my hand to confirm what my disbelieving eyes were trying to tell me, which was that one of Aberlour’s most iconic landmarks had been fenced off and incorporated into the garden of a nearby residence.
To the majority of Aberlour’s population, the Fairy Hill needs no introduction. It is marked on the 1:50,000 scale Ordnance Survey map as a tumulus, a feature more commonly known as a barrow.
As a gardener, my knowledge of barrows of the wheeled type is pretty good, but unfortunately it’s not so good on the historical type, but I believe them, in layman’s terms, to be ancient burial mounds. This seems to be what many locals think the Fairy Hill actually is.
Whether the Fairy Hill really is a barrow or not will probably always be open to question, but what is not open to question, and never will be, is the great affection so many people have for this magical, mysterious wee hill.
It has brought such a lot of pleasure to so many people over the years. Whether that has been young kids visiting it on school walks, or going there on Easter morning to roll their eggs down it (not this year, though!), or just the many people who, like myself, enjoy a walk past a favourite landmark.
If anybody who reads this letter feels the same way as I do about events at the Fairy Hill, could I humbly ask you to make your feelings known? Hopefully if enough public concern is voiced, maybe with some help from the fairies, this selfish act can be rectified and consigned to history.
Please, please don’t sit back and allow this priceless, sacred part of our heritage to remain defiled! – Yours etc,
Kevin Stronach,
Inveran, Mary Avenue, Aberlour.
