YOUR story regarding James Barclay of St Cyrus and the boiling of a Mearns sheriff misses out the most interesting part ("Former home of the Cannibal Laird on the market", The Herald, February 4).
At that time the Mearns was was weil trachled by an over-zealous sheriff and many complaints about him were made to King James I by a deputation of local lairds. But the king did nothing to help. At the last fateful appeal, the King, in exasperation, told the local lairds: "Och, awa ye go and beil yer sheriff."
So James Barclay and company took the King at his word and lured the evil sheriff to a small depression near Garvock Hill, where they set upon him, killed him and made a soup of his remains from which all gathered supped. This act made them all complicit in the murder and ensured they were too many lairds involved for all to be executed. As a result they were exiled - in Barclay's case to Kaim of Mathers Castle, the ruins of which can be seen from St Cyrus beach.
The hollow where the murder took place is known to this day as The Sheriff's Kettle.
Ian M. Forrest,
Dalveen,
Garvock Road,
Laurencekirk.
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