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The Fairy Minister |
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What seems to have happened is that Kirk suffered a fatal heart attack and died on then hill. However the locals attached a deeper significance to his fate and the legend quickly spread that the “Sithe”, or fairies, had kidnapped Kirk and taken him to Fairyland leaving a “stock”, or double, behind.
Even then, according to the legend, Kirk had the chance to return to Earth – it was said that his ghost would appear at the christening of his unborn child, and, if his cousin, Graham of Duchray, was to throw his dirk over the head of the apparition, the spell would be broken and Kirk would be returned to Earth.
However, Kirk’s cousin took fright at the sight of the apparition and the moment passed – Robert Kirk would forever remain a prisoner of the fairies. On Doon Hill, a tree – the only fir tree on the hill – is said to hold Kirk’s spirit for eternity.
Your comments
1 louis stott from aberfoyle - 16 January 2004
"You tell the story of Robert Kirk well, but there is at least one minor inaccuracy and there are a number of emphases with which one might disagree.
Kirk's father died in 1658 and, in 1660, Daniel McVicar succeeded him as minister of Aberfoyle. Robert Kirk was admitted in succession to McVicar, sometimes known as Boyle, in June 1685.
Kirk was an Episcopalian, although, in common with many others, he was rather like the Vicar of Bray. His life, together, for example, with that of many Roman Catholic priests, suggests that it was not necessarily true to say that religious intolerance was quite so characteristic of most of seventeenth century Scotland as you imply it was. Indeed many of the superstitions then held by ordinary people are only outlandish when looked at from a twenty-first century point of view. In The Secret Commonwealth Kirk was, perhaps, simply recording the genuinely held beliefs of his parishioners rather than seeking to undermine them or to undermine the "fairy world";, which he had begun to describe.
If Kirk is held captive in fairyland (as we may suppose he is) he would, by his own lights, be held underground, within a Fairy Hill. Doon Hill might be the hill concerned, but it might not be. Thus the Minister's Pine on Doon Hill may symbolise Robert Kirk but it is not directly connected with him, or with his captivity in Fairyland.
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