The cowherds’ Beltan at Logierait

The minister of Logierait told the Statistical Account of Scotland that a festival called Beltan was held every year in the parish on the first of May, Old Style. It was kept chiefly by the cowherds, who gathered by scores in the fields to cook themselves a dinner of boiled milk and eggs. They ate it with cakes baked for the day, with small lumps like nipples raised all over them, which the minister guessed might once have been offerings.