History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

6 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
arched chambers being erased from it, and a common blue bottle,
of antique manufacture, found in the crevices, filled with wine
or other liquid.
This castle, according to tradition, was originally demolished
by the ancient lords of Dunlappie,* who, having been engaged in
the wars of the Crusades, found, on their return home, that
the lords of Edzell had taken forcible possession of their castle,
which stood on a bank immediately opposite, and commencing
a desperate reprisal, they demolished the castle, and pillaged
and burned the lands of their adversary. Such is the story —
whether true or false cannot now be said. But the antiquity of
the lands of Dunlappie are beyond all dispute, and, at the time
referred to, were in the hands of the great family of Abemethy ; f
but, so far as we are aware, no trace of their castle of PoolbrigsJ
(for so their residence was called) has ever been discovered, and
the incident, and name of the castle, are both unknown in history.
It is, therefore, apparent, since traces of so many old dwell-
ings have been found, not only on Drummore hill, but also on
that of Edzell, and in the still more immediate vicinity of the
burial place, that in old times the kirk had been rather con-
veniently placed for the great mass of the people — particularly
since the east side of the parish was provided with a chapel at
Dalbog. But, as the feudal importance of the great house of
Edzell declined, the occupation of its numerous retainers, who
Inhabited those dwellings, necessarily ceased, and several small
pendicles being thrown together, the stream of population natu-
rally sought a place more convenient for mutual labour, and
more accessible to merchants and markets ; and the hillside
becoming deserted, and the plain peopled, the village of Slateford
gradually increased until it assumed its present important and
burgh-like form, although the church was not removed thither
until the late period of 1818, when the old one was sacrificed to
furnish a few crazy materials to aid in its erection.
The old kirk and kirkyard were within the same delta as the
* DunJaipach, i. e. " miry hillocks."— (Dun also means " a fort.")
t Duncan, the fifth Earl of Fife, and fourth in descent from the murderer of Macbeth,
exeambied Dunloppie, and Balmadethy in Fearn, with Orem, the son of Hew of Abemethy, for
the lands of Balberny, in Fife, in Malcolm IV's time. — Douglas' Peerage.
X The Gael. PuUl-bruach (from its being so descriptive of the site of tho reputed castle) is
perhaps, the true etymology of " roolbrigs," and means " a bank or precipice in a bog."