Garvock Hill & the Cannibal Laird
As you drive down the A90 you will pass a very unassuming hill on the left-hand side of Laurencekirk. Garvock Hill stands out in the landscape due to Johnstone Tower, a stone structure which is visible from the roadside. The summit of Garvock Hill is of some national importance due to the Bronze Age cairn on which the tower stands. However, this story is not about the tower, or indeed the cairn it sits atop, but a much more sinister event that took place on a site known as Sheriffs Kettle.
In the 15th century, the local baron of Kirktonhill and Johnstone in Mearns was a man named David Barclay. Barclay, a local landowner, was unimpressed by the Sherriff who he perceived to be abusing his authority. On a number of occasions, he had complained to King James II alongside other landowners about the Sheriffs behaviour. The King, becoming exasperated by the regular complaints, exclaimed to Barclay that he could not care what happened to Melville (the Sherriff) even if he was:
“sodden and supped in a broo”
On that, Barclay and four of his fellow landowners returned to the Mearns and hatched a plan which would see the King’s flippant words realised. In 1438, the men invited the Sherriff on a hunting party to a secluded location on Garvock Hill which at the time was covered in dense forest. In advance, they had ordered a large cauldron to be filled with boiling water. The Sherriff who was unassuming of the sinister plan joined the hunting party unattended and unarmed. When the men arrived at the cauldron (or kettle) they feigned surprise, and as they all approached the cauldron to peer inside the five lairds tumbled the Sherriff inside. Not satisfied with the horrifying death of the man, they then proceeded to draw out a horn spoon which they had brought along for the occasion and ‘sup’ from the ‘broo’.
On finding out that the baron had taken his words literally, James II, unimpressed by the grisly deed denounced Barclay and his conspirators as outlaws. As David Fraser, in his book ‘A Portrait of a Parish’ states he:
“swore a specially solemn oath that their leader David Barclay, would get peace to live neither onland nor sea for the rest of his life”
Legend tells that to avoid persecution Barclay retreated to his castle located on the end of a peninsula, and nearly inaccessible to the rest of the world, at the Kaim of Mathers. The ruin can still be seen to this day from the beach at St Cyrus.