Pottage crosses over the byre on Maundy Thursday

On the Thursday before Easter a cross cut on a stick and dipped in pottage was set over each sheep-cot, stable and cow-house. In Ross-shire this belonged to a second kind of Beltein: on 1 May the sticks were carried up the hill where the Beltein was kept, decked with wild flowers, and put back over the doors after the feast. Pennant added that such follies were now seldom practised, and in great secrecy, because the clergy discouraged them.