{"id":6178,"date":"2020-10-21T11:06:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6178"},"modified":"2020-10-21T11:09:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:09:27","slug":"fwd-episode-145-legend-of-the-skeoch-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6178","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 145 LEGEND OF THE SKEOCH NAME"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 145       THE LEGEND OF THE SKEOCH NAME<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Oct. 2020<\/div>\n

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The Battle of Bannockburn IN 1314 was a bloody affair that seemed  to favour the English until their war horses  and soldiers  got mired<\/div>\n
in the muddy swampland at Bannockburn.   <\/div>\n
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Before the battle of  Bannockburn a priest presided over the saying of mass as shown  here.  The Scottish soldiers bent their knees<\/div>\n
and  surrendered themselves to their God.  The English recon troops thought this was surrender to the English.  Bad error.  The priest<\/div>\n
above carried  with him religious relics of St. Columba, the Irish saint who converted the Scots \u2026 and also  dedicated the church of <\/div>\n
St Skeoch near Craig and the chapel of St. Skeoch at Bannockburn.  One source  stated that the battle was fought on the Skeoch steading<\/div>\n
(Skeoch farm) .<\/div>\n

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This painting is useful in that it shows  civilians on the battlefield helping the wounded.  Also a young boy who seems lost.<\/div>\n

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Robert the Bruce fought with a battle axe as  pictured above.  With that axe he killed one of the English leaders .  TURNED THE BATTLE<\/div>\n
How wold  you like this battle axe planted  in your brain?<\/div>\n

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I , ALAN  SKEOCH, SURRENDER\u2026.<\/div>\n

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I give up.  Surrender.  My search for St. Skeoch has numbed  my brain.  You may have more<\/div>\n
strength than  I do  but I wager you do  not.  Try reading 502 pages filled with Scottish saints.<\/div>\n
And that was not the end of the book.  It took 502 pages to find St. Skeoch who is briefly mentioned<\/div>\n
under the heading \u2018obscure Irish saints\u2019.   A few years ago my good friend Ed Jackman who is<\/div>\n
a Dominican priest offered to search  for St. Skeoch in some book of the saints.  He never found<\/div>\n
her.  Yes, she is  female.   Now I understand why.  Scotland  is full of saints.  Seems to me that<\/div>\n
every well in Scotland has been dedicated to a saint.<\/div>\n

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I have spent so much time searching for the old girl, St. Skeoch, that Marjorie fears I am becoming celibate.<\/div>\n
No fears.  I have put down the book of saints.  Leave it for a better person.  Maybe you.  Consult James <\/div>\n
Murray  Mackinlay, M.A., Folk For of Scottish Lochs and Springs,  Ancient Church dedications  in<\/div>\n
Scotland, published in 1914.  It is on the internet word for word.  Hours and hours, three days off and<\/div>\n
on.  What did I find?   On page 502 I hit pay dirt\u2026sort of.  Yes, Page 502!  \u201cOne of St. Columba\u2019s companions  from Ireland (in 12th century) to Iona bore<\/div>\n
the name \u2018Echoid’.  Bishop Reeves thinks that it is  represented in a corrupted form in the name<\/div>\n
of the ancient Forfarshire parish of St. Skeoch or St. Skay, otherwise Dunninald,  now included in <\/div>\n
Craig.  Its church, which no longer exists, stood\u201d near Elephant Rock north east of  Edinburgh.<\/div>\n
And there was a St. Skeoch chapel at  Bannockburn.<\/div>\n

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Makes me tired  just putting this in print.  And it probably bores you, the readers,  silly.<\/div>\n

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Why am I writing this?  Because of the legend\u2026truth or myth about Skeoch origin.<\/div>\n

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THE LEGEND OF JOHN AND  JAMES SKEOCH<\/div>\n

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I think it was aunt Greta or maybe Aunt Elizabeth that first told me the legend.<\/div>\n
To them it was  truth I think.  The story came down through the family <\/div>\n
orally.  Nothing firm.  Hearsay.  Let me put the story forward in as brief a<\/div>\n
way as  possible\u2026using hypothetical dialogue.<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlan, our name dates back to the Battle of Bannockburn\u20261314\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAfter the battle ended  two young boys were found alive on the battlefield.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow young?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo one knows.  But young enough that they did not know who they were \u2026very young.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho found them?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo one knows\u2026likely Scottish  soldiers combing the blood strewn field for weapons or<\/div>\n
things of value.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat happened to the boys?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey were taken to the chapel of St. Skeoch\u2026chapel was at Bannockburn\u2026boys taken there<\/div>\n
as orphans.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho was at the chapel?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo one knows now\u2026maybe a priest.  Chapels were smaller than churches usually<\/div>\n
and were places for prayer.   Tiny building likely.  The boys were taken there according to the legend.<\/div>\n
And given names.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNames?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey must have been very young if they did not know their own names.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOr they were renamed.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe new names\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNamed James and  John Skeoch.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIs this true?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe story has been passed down through the family.  And the names James<\/div>\n
and  John have  been passed from Skeoch parents to their first born males\u2026through<\/div>\n
the  centuries.   In 1846 the two boys that travelled to Canada from Scotland were<\/div>\n
James and John Skeoch.  Your grandfather was  James Skeoch\u2026he was the son<\/div>\n
of the little boy who travelled to Fergus in 1846.  His son was James Skeoch, killed<\/div>\n
in World War I..\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIf this is true, then why am I not named James,?<\/div>\n
\u201cMom probably did not know the story, she was English,  and Dad did not really care.”<\/div>\n

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(aunt Elizabeth named  her eldest boy James\u2026as seems  to have been the tradition)<\/div>\n

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\u201cLet me get this straight.  Two little boys were found on the Bannockburn battlefield<\/div>\n
in June, 1314.  They were placed  in the chapel dedicated to St. Skeoch which was<\/div>\n
near the Battlefield.  Whoever took them in renamed them James and John Skeoch.<\/div>\n
And that is  origin of our surname.\u201d <\/div>\n

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FINDING THE KERNEL OF TRUTH<\/div>\n

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There is no record to confirm the story of James and  John Skeoch.  Nothing except<\/div>\n
hearsay.  But there are a few facts that give a bit of credence to the story.<\/div>\n

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1) The Battle of Bannockburn was fought on the \u2018Skeoch steading\u201d (Skeoch farm)<\/div>\n
2) There was a  chapel dedicated to St. Skeoch on the Banncokburn field<\/div>\n
dating back to the 12th century and St. Columba.<\/div>\n
3)  St. Skeoch was a sixth century Irish saint.  <\/div>\n
4)  St. Columba dedicated a  church to St. Skeoch near Craig in Scotland\u2026the chapel<\/div>\n
at Bannockburn also it seems.<\/div>\n
5)   Skeoch is  a place name \u2026 i.e. Skeoch Wood on the Isle of Cute, <\/div>\n
village of Skeoch at Bannockburn,  Skeoch Hill in Lowland Scotland.<\/div>\n
6)  St. Skeoch is also known  as St. Skay<\/div>\n

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I have tried to keep this Episode as  short as  possible because I know many<\/div>\n
readers will not give sweet goddamn about the Skeoch  name.  This is my<\/div>\n
fifth version of the story.  I cut out the whole battle of Bannockburn other than<\/div>\n
the date.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Oct. 2020<\/div>\n

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post script:    A  researcher named  Adrian Dyack recorded the following<\/div>\n
information on May 13, 2018.  Rather interesting.  I wonder if  he plowed<\/div>\n
through the Mackilnay book of saints as  I did.<\/div>\n

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Discussion NO 7153<\/div>\n

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Saint Skeoch Church or \u201cchurch of St. Doninad\u201d was first mentioned in the written record of 1161 when it<\/div>\n
was given by Ing Malcolm IV to Restenneth Priory.<\/div>\n

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Saint Skeoch, or Saint Skae, as it is locally pronounced, appears to have received its name from a saint <\/div>\n
of that name. St. Skae was given to the parish and to the chapel with its burial ground at the landward<\/div>\n
end  of the Rock of St. Skae.   At present the Rock of St. Skae is more usually known by its descriptive<\/div>\n
name of the Elephant Rock.  <\/div>\n

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The Church of St. Skeoch seems to have been suppressed for some time as in 1576 it was written that<\/div>\n
\u201cSanct Skae or Dinnynum needs nae reidare\u201d (Reader).   The church appears to have been restored about<\/div>\n
1587, as in that year Andrew Leith had  “a gift of life\u201d of 3 chalders, 12 bolls meal yearly out of the<\/div>\n
bishoprick of Brechin for his services at the Kirks of \u201cMarytoun, Inchbrock, Lunan and St. Skae\u201d.<\/div>\n

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The parishes of St. Skeoch or Dunninald were united  with Inchbrock or Craig in 1618 to form the new<\/div>\n
parish of Craig.<\/div>\n

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Who was St. Skae?  A.J. Warden, writing in 1885, said that St. Skeoch is supposed  to be one of the twelve <\/div>\n
disciples of St. Columba and a northern saint. There are three  saints of this name in the Irish Calendar.<\/div>\n

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Dr. Reeves considers the word a corruption of Echoid or Eochaidh, which is found under the name of St.<\/div>\n
Skeoch in some of the south-western districts of Scotland.\u201d <\/div>\n

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Norman Atkinson, Senior Servies Manager for Cultural Services, Angus Council and a former Curator<\/div>\n
of Montrose Museum has informed me, in recent correspondence that the church  was dedicated to St. Scaith<\/div>\n
known as Skae or Skeoch, who was one of the three maidens  Munster.  She lived in the early sixth century<\/div>\n

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There is another Scottish church or chapel dedicated to her at Bannockburn and this is mentioned by<\/div>\n
Professor Geoffrey Barrow in his book of Robert the Bruce.  This Irish virgin\u2019s feast day is usually <\/div>\n
the 6\u2019th of September but why she was commemorated in the church by the Rock of St. Skae is<\/div>\n
not known.<\/div>\n

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The only ancient artefact which appears to be linked to the site was a small bone pendant with Celtic carving<\/div>\n
but this was removed from Dunninald and has never been photographed or recorded.<\/div>\n

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Adrian L. Diack, MA<\/div>\n
Posed by Adrian Diack on St. 25 May, 2013<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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EPISODE 145       THE LEGEND OF THE SKEOCH NAME alan skeoch Oct. 2020 The Battle of Bannockburn IN 1314 was a bloody affair that seemed  to favour the English until their war horses  and soldiers  got mired in the muddy swampland at Bannockburn.    Before the battle of  Bannockburn a priest presided over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}