Annan Riding of the Marches Principals visit ancient town sites

Annan’s Riding of the Marches principals immersed themselves in tradition on Sunday, visiting two of the town’s most ancient sites – the Beltedstane and Alter Stane.

The Beltedstane is a granite boulder near Creca, where folklore tells of fairies dancing round the stone, while the Alter Stane lies on the muddy sand of the Solway, off battle hill to the south of Annan.

The Riding of the Marches principals visited Creca in the morning, with no recorded sightings of magical, dancing figures.

With the tide high at 1pm, the cornet, Ewan Murray, his lass, Kirstin Kerr, and the standard bear, Jennifer Park, left their horses stabled and boarded a small boat.

They braved surprisingly choppy waters as the wind whipped along the coast.

Ewan, in particular, should have been at home on the Solway – he’s from a fishing family on his mother Arna’s side.

And his grandfather, George Willacy, who first haafnetted as a 16-year-old in 1956, was at Annan harbour to wish him well and regale him with stories of flotillas past heading out to inspect the most southerly point of Annan’s Marches.

Trepidation was replaced by thrills as their craft bounced along the shifting waters between Scotland and England, where the alter stane (the word alter may be a dereliction of the word outer) lies.

The principals returned to dry land to draw breath before a fortnight of activities.