Pre-history
Persons from the 7th Century
Persons from the Middle Ages
Some lesser mortals from the Middle Ages
Prior
Thomas de Melsonby
Local Rhyme
Booklets
Pre-history
This note concerns the Kirk Hill.
On the cliff face below the monastic site is a feature called the Deil's Elbow. Searching for the devil among the local names for parts of the cliff, slopes, rocks and inlets, it is likely that he had resided in Waimie Carr. This translates as 'belly rock'. Now it was the serpent that was cast out of the Garden of Eden and for ever made to move on its belly. The rock even looks like a snake.
It is surely significant that before the time of Ebba the settlement on the Kirk Hill was know as 'Colud's Fort' and taking this together with the modern word colubrid which can be applied to certain snakes, then the old name says the fortified settlement beside the rock that looks like a serpent.