Jean Carr’s stone is a large conglomerate boulder left from the ice age 1,000,000 years ago and has probably lain here more or less unnoticed until the arrival of Jean Carr in the 18th century.
The story goes, although only pieces remain, that a young girl named Jean Carr was, to quote a sentence from old records, “ Fan she wis a lassie, she was chained in the hoose by her father, and fan he dee’t, Jean said there wis two prisoners relieved.”
After this she fled, took to the open road and led the life of a gypsy, becoming a familiar figure in the area between the Banff and Fochabers. She led this happy life under the stars until the birth of her child. The local authorities snatched the child and housed it for safety with the village nurse. In an attempt to recover the child Jean tore at the thatched roof of the nurse’s home, only to be arrested and put in jail. After this incident the child was never seen again, and Jean now childless took to helping herself to other people’s, becoming a known nuisance in the local towns.
Sometime later it was announced in the local paper that her son had died and Jean’s life was never the same again. At nights she would be seen disappearing into the countryside and for many years took refuge under this stone. She was still seen wondering the byways as an old frail woman until one morning she was found, wrapped in her tattered shawl, lying in her favourite place under the ancient friendly rock cold and dead.
She now lies in a pauper’s grave somewhere in Moray but her memory lingers on......
Jean Carr’s stone is a large conglomerate boulder left from the ice age 1,000,000 years ago and has probably lain here more or less unnoticed until the arrival of Jean Carr in the 18th century.
The story goes, although only pieces remain, that a young girl named Jean Carr was, to quote a sentence from old records, “ Fan she wis a lassie, she was chained in the hoose by her father, and fan he dee…
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