1390 to 1433 - Henry Preston and Tammas the Rhymer

The Lairds of Fyvie, in common with other owners of estates in these times, periodically re-tendered their lands to the Crown, and were either freshly granted the same lands again, or the lands were re-granted in the name of their son or successor. Such transactions occasionally took years to complete, and this appears to have been the case for Sir James Lindsay.

So, we find that on September 28th 1390, Robert III consented to a charter conferring the Castle and lands upon Sir Henry Preston, brother-in-law to Sir James and the husband of Lady Elizabeth Lindsay.

Of Sir Henry, who was the owner of Fyvie for over thirty years, little is known. His family was considered to be honourable and one of the most ancient in Scotland, and he himself was regarded as a person of great consequence by his contemporaries (this emphasised by the fact that he shared in the money sent over from France to be distributed among the principal Scottish nobles for war with England). We are told he was held in high esteem by Robert III, to whom he became related by his marriage to Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, and like his brother-in-law Sir James, Sir Henry distinguished himself at the battle of Otterburn, and finally passed away in 1433.

He is remembered today for two things – one is that the oldest tower at Fyvie Castle still bears his name – he is credited with having built the Preston Tower, with its massive walls six to eight feet thick and twenty four feet square, which remain today in perfect preservation. However, different opinions suggest that either Sir Henry built the tower entirely (and that there was no part of the present Castle of Fyvie older than circa 1400); or that he didn’t build it at all but it was named after him because he occupied it during his ownership of the Castle; or that he partially rebuilt the tower on some existing portion of the older building which preceded it.

Sir Henry’s name comes up again in connection with the Preston Tower and a legend that has come down through the times about the ‘three weeping stones’ and a curse put on the Castle by one Tammas the Rhymer.  One is said to be within the build of the Preston Tower, still untraced………..

Between the years 1210 -1220, there is said to have been born a poet, Thomas of Erceldoune, commonly known both to his contemporaries and through the legend as ‘True Tammas’ or ‘Tammas the Rhymer’. He was a real person, although the many prophesies attributed to him were no doubt invented after the events they were alleged to predict, and he has been immortalised in legend and superstition, as well as by the unsolved mystery of his eventual disappearance. He appears to have been a prophet of gloomy foreboding, who invariably foretold stormy weather, general disaster, or torrents of blood; like all prophets he cautiously uttered his predictions with a studied ambiguity, and seems to have had a predilection for cursing most of the ancient Houses in Scotland.

A popular tale was that Thomas was carried off to Elfland at an early age, where he was instructed by the Queen of Elfland for seven years, before she returned him to Earth, where he carried out her work until she recalled him. While the mysterious disappearance of Tammas gave countenance to the idea of his return to Elfland, some credence was given to the rumour that he had retired to a monastery, but it seems more likely from a tale handed down, that a sinister fate overtook the gloomy prophet. Late one evening, it is said, Tammas entered a hostelry while on his travels, and while resting he rashly let it be known that he was on his way to see a friend at Lauder Castle to whom he was conveying a considerable sum of money. From the moment he left the hostelry that night, he was never seen again, alive or dead.

The tale of the stones, like everything connected with Tammas, is lost in a hazy tradition from which it is difficult to disentangle any distinct facts, but it is related that Fyvie had been expecting a visit from ‘True Tammas’, and apparently to conciliate that alarming prophet, the gates of the castle had been left open in welcome for an unprecedented time – tradition says seven years and a day. When he did appear, he was accompanied by a violent storm of wind and rain that stripped the surrounding trees of their leaves, and blew the Castle gates shut with a loud crash. But, while the tempest was raging on all sides, it was noticed that close by the spot where Tammas stood, there was not ‘wind enough to shake a pile of grass or a hair of his beard’.

And in the midst of that nerve-shattering hurricane, Tammas, according to his invariable custom, pronounced a curse – the generally accepted version goes:

            Fyvyn’s riggs and towers,

            Hapless shall your mesdames be,

            When ye shall hae within your methes,

            Frae harryit kirks lands, stanes three;

            Ane in the oldest tower,

            Ane in my ladie’s bower,

            And ane below the water-yett,

            And it ye shall never get.

Now the ‘methes’ are stones or lines indicating a boundary. This, and the expression ‘harryit kirks lands’ seem to confirm that the stones in question were in truth some boundary line between the Church lands and the lands of the Laird in the parish of Fyvie. It is even possible that the alleged position of the three mysterious stones in the Castle may, in some subtle way, indicate the direction of the violated property.

Another suggestion is both plausible and arresting – if Tammas had lived through the ‘harrying of Buchan’ and witnessed the cruel violence and destruction that took place, he might have been cursing stones taken from the ‘harryit kirks lands’ and used in the reconstruction of the Castle of Fyvie, which may have sustained considerable damage after it was supposed to have afforded shelter to the defeated followers of Comyn?

The interpretation of Tammas’s remarks has been that until the three stones were together again, some mysterious doom would hang over Fyvie, and this was accompanied by his assurance that the stones never could be put together! Yet the verses actually state that so long as these three ominous stones are within the boundaries of Fyvie, ill-luck will ensue, therefore their expulsion not their acquisition, is needed.

Of what the threatened doom consisted, however, the prophet wisely refrained from hinting, and his malediction has therefore been explained in various ways:

One version is that no heir shall ever be born in the Castle, and for five hundred years this is said to have been fulfilled. Another is that Fyvie will never pass in direct succession for two generations, or from a father to his eldest son; and the fact that it remained so long in the gift of the Sovereign, no doubt gave credence to the supposition, while in the case of Sir James Lindsay and Sir Henry Preston neither had any male heir. The fate of the Setons and the Gordons served to perpetuate the belief.

All three mysterious stones are said to be ‘weeping stones’ – at times they are dry and at times they emit moisture. It is said they weep when any ill threatens the Laird of Fyvie, and today one stone, un-traced, is said to be built into the Preston Tower, one lies unclaimed beneath the waters of the Ythan, and only  one can be located – perhaps it was once in ‘my lady’s bower’ but it now resides in the Charter Room at Fyvie Castle, where at times it is bone dry and at others exudes enough moisture to fill the two bowls in which it lies.