for Dr. Cuthbert Graham

Heich upon muirlan girse they lie,
A linkit chine o fitenin stanes
Aybydan neth a shiftin sky;
Weird as a boorichie o banes.

The bluebells ring the girssy puil,
The nichts a-dirl wi whaup an gull
Lair'd on the seely braes o Coull,
The castle waa — a sichtless skull —

Stauns open, nyaakit, tae the whin,
The clash o day draps till a lull,
The yalla ragwirt tholes the win,
Rig-widdie Davan's dreich an dull.

Whaur sunlicht slips ahin the east
Stauns Morven, lichtit like a lowe,
Ower gentle Gellan, munelicht's reist,
The chill o gloamin cweels the howe.

I've seen the mist, unhaily wraith,
Ging jinkin Tomnaverie roon,
Fleerichan, eildrich ower the heath,
A will o wicked frae the tomb.

Whaun hoodies howl an hoolets mane,
Let them step blythely there wha may,
I'd leave yon sleepers weel alane —
Unyirdly fowk o yesterday.

Tomnaverie is a Bronze Age stone circle in Coull. The nearby ruined castle of Coull was built by the Durward family, and legend holds that prior to a Durward's death, the ghostly castle bell is heard to toll. It was destroyed by fire and, in Portrait of Aberdeen and Deeside, Dr. Cuthbert Graham quotes Dr. Douglas Simpson's vision of its fall:

"I for one can never visit these grey ruins set amid the purple hills without picturing in my mind's eye a wild night when the farmers of Cromar rose in their scores to expel the hated Southron." (Coull was garrisoned by English supporters).

The Middleton family have been tenant farmers in Gellan since 1622.