Beltan fires on St Peter’s Day at Loudoun

29 June · Loudoun, Ayrshire

No longer kept

The minister of Loudoun in Ayrshire told the Statistical Account of Scotland in 1792 that the herds and young people still kindled fires on the high ground in honour of Beltan. Beltan had once been kept at its old season, but in his parish the fires were now lit on St Peter’s Day. Moresin had written long before that the Scots ran about the hills and high places with lighted torches on the night of St Peter’s feast.

The custom still remains amongst the herds and young people to kindle fires in the high grounds, in honour of Beltan.

From Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 337. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Carrying off the flower of the wake No longer kept NorthumberlandBrand was told that about fifty years before he wrote, the people of Northumberland villages carried firebrands of some kind about their fields on the night of St Peter.
The fishermen’s St Peter’s Day at Gisborough No longer kept YorkshireAn old account of the lordship of Gisborough in Cleveland and the neighbouring coast describes the feast the fishermen kept on St Peter's Day, the day of the fishermen's saint.
St Peter’s Day at Sandwick No longer kept OrkneyThe minister of Sandwick in Orkney reported in the 1790s that his parish church had been dedicated to St Peter, and that the people still marked the saint's day, 29 June.
St Peter’s Day fair at Thurso No longer kept CaithnessOf the four yearly fairs granted to Thurso by its charter, only the one on St Peter's Day, 29 June, was still kept at the end of the eighteenth century.
Keys on the wrists on St Peter’s Night Lore and belief WalesOn St Peter's Night unmarried Welsh women tied a small key to each wrist, folded their hands in prayer in bed and repeated two verses from the first chapter of Ruth nine times.

Beltan fires on St Peter’s Day at Loudoun

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