Scotlands History
Auld Brig O' Doon, Alloway
The Auld Brig O' Doon, Alloway. Image by vtveen
The 15th century bridge where witches chased Tam o' Shanter and his faithful horse Meg lost her tail...
‘Now, do thy speedy-utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stone o' the brig;
There, at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the keystane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!’
Robert Burns, Tam o' Shanter, 1790
In June 1790 Burns sent three stories of Kirk Alloway witches to Francis Grose. Burns told Grose of a Carrick farmer who had to ride past the Kirkyard in ‘the wizard hour, between night and morning’ so that he could cross the bridge over the river Doon.
The unfortunate farmer saw a witches’ dance in the haunted kirk and had to flee for his life with witches and warlocks close behind. He made for the bridge, knowing that fiendish creatures cannot cross running water.
‘I need not mention the universally known fact, that no diabolical power can pursue you beyond the middle of a running stream.
Lucky it was for the poor farmer that the river Doon was so near, for notwithstanding the speed of his horse, which was a good one, against he reached the middle of the arch of the bridge and consequently the middle of the stream, the pursuing, vengeful hags were so close at his heels, that one of them actually sprung to seize him: but it was too late; nothing was on her side of the stream but the horse's tail, which immediately gave way to her infernal grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning; but the farmer was beyond her reach.’
Robert Burns, Letter to Francis Grose, 1790
As Burns noted in a footnote to Tam o’ Shanter:
It is a well-known fact that witches, or any evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any further than the middle of the next running stream. It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveller, that when he falls in with bogles, whatever danger may be in his going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back.
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