Kyla Hislop tells us about the Yird Swine at Walla Kirk
The Earth Hound or Yird Pig (yird is the Doric word for earth) are a curious animal indigenous to possibly one kirkyard in Aberdeenshire, known as Walla Kirkyard (although more stories and locations were alluded to). Walla Kirkyard is near the village of Glass and is quite remote. It supposedly plays host to a rather disturbing animal that, according to Walter Gregor, in his 1881 book 'Notes on the Folk-lore of North-east Scotland' the animal is "a mysterious dreaded sort of animal, called the "Yird swine"... and believed to live in graveyards, burrowing among the dead bodies and devouring them”. They are supposedly a cross between a rat and a rabbit.
Peter tells us a bit more about Walla KirkWall-a-Kirk or Walla Kirk is located on the banks of the River Deveron at Glass, right on the boundary between Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. It is a traditional north-east kirkyard lying at the end of a long path through a farmer's field. It is a beautiful spot. It is a fascinating kirkyard and includes an enclosure to the "Spanish Gordons". This family of Gordons were the lairds of the magnificent mansion Wardhouse between Kennethmont and Insch as well as also owning Beldorney (nearby at Glass) and Kildrummy. At the end of the eighteenth century, some of the Wardhouse Gordons went out to Spain and became involved in the sherry trade in Jerez and eventually married into the Spanish nobility, and thus becoming the Counts of Mirasol. So, the Gordon enclosure records many Spanish names such as Rafael Gordon y Aristegui, Count of Mirasol and Laird of Wardhouse. It was restored by Maria Isabel Gordon y Sanchiz, the Marquesa de Pescara and other descendants about twenty years ago. Nearby, can be found the grave of Alexander Geddes, a local loon made good in the United States and who returned to build the nearby Blairmore House. Geddes was the great, great grandfather of former Prime Minister, David Cameron. |