The Heart of the Hare:
a Gathering of Bridie Sites
in Scotland

I am immensely grateful to Heather Upfield from Ayrshire in Scotland for permission to publish here the second edition of her gazetter of Brighid sites in Scotland. Heather writes:

In the spirit of the Oystercatcher, whose fluting call accompanies this journey, and in the guardianship of the Hare, whose amber eye sees all, I offer this work to Brighid.

In April 2009, Paul Williment kindly allowed his Brighid Goddess and Saint site to be the home of "In the Footprints of Brihde", my gazetteer of sites dedicated to Brighid/St Bride/St Bridget in Scotland. This list in the main, comprised sites recorded from the 80 or so OS maps of Scotland - hills, farms, rivers, ruins etc - which I painstakingly researched grid by grid in February/March of 2009. It was pretty basic: around 128 entries, with some arcane old Bridie Parish and Barony names - eg "Briddeburgh" and "Pitlumbertie" - which I found from my own small library and added to the list.

Over the summer, I began doing structured text and web-site searches, to find new information and to flesh-out the existing entries, during which the project took-off exponentially! It soared! I discovered 19 functioning Churches [a good number!] dedicated to St Bride or St Bridget (noted as 'Live' in the gazetteer) plus Briddeburgh and Pitlumbertie were sourced, along with over 60 new sites, including interesting detail of their history and origins. The current gazetteer now stands at 180+ entries and is much more detailed.

And the work goes on! I received new information in December of 2009, which will go into the next Edition, as there is much cross-referencing to be done, especially with decoding Mediaeval Parish names and deciphering different place names used by different authors. I also have the entire Canmore (The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland) Database to revisit, plus contact with local libraries, museums and history societies; I also need to update the map references. Additionally, many of the Kilbride and Kirkbride Farms and Steadings are now B&Bs, so I aim to add to the list, places where you can stay, while you visit Bridie sites! This is very much work-in-progress!

Over the year, as the list has developed, it has also changed. Although my working-title was originally "In the Footprints of Brihde", this no longer feels appropriate: some of the entries are historical data or sourced from legend and poetry. The title for Edition 2 has progressed to "The Heart of the Hare: a Gathering of Bridie Sites in Scotland". This follows a beautiful encounter I had with a brown hare, when I visited the ruined Chapel of Kilbride, at Lamlash on the Isle of Arran, in June 2009. While the Hare is not necessarily regarded as symbolic of Brighid, nor one of her totem animals, the hare's presence in the Chapel spoke to me with great clarity, of its guardianship of Brighid's sacred place.

I have taken this as my inspiration. This gazetteer is not done for myself (although I have derived such pleasure and enlightenment from compiling it), but to bring together in one place, the record of Bridie sites in Scotland: as a resource for those who love Brighid and to preserve the memory of the sites before they disappear from the map and collective consciousness. A guardianship, if you will, of Brighid's sacred places, and for this, the Kilbride Hare is most blest and most thanked.

Heather Upfield
January 2010
brihdein@live.co.uk

Download the text and gazetter here

The Heart of the Hare text