Seligor's Castle welcomes you.
to take a trip around the World with Sara.The Lonely Rock
This
little story was written in a book called "The Children's Treasury, of
pictures and stories in 1893." Wow that is now 120 years old, which
makes our little story over a hundred and seventy years old at least..
Title: The Children's Treasury of Pictures and Stories.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, London
Publication Date: 1893
In one of the Orkney Islands, far beyond the north of Scotland, there
stood out a rock, called the Lonely Rock, very dangerous to sailors.
One night, long ago, there sat in the fisherman's hut ashore a young
girl, toiling at her spinning wheel, looking out upon the dark and
driving clouds, and listening anxiously to the wind and the sea. At last
the morning came, and one boat that should have been riding on the
waves was missing. It was her father's boat; and a half mile from the
cottage her father's body was found washed up upon the shore. He had
been wrecked against this Lonely Rock.
That was more than fifty years ago. The girl watched her father's body
according to the custom of her people, till it was laid in the grave;
then she laid down on the bed and slept. When the night came she arose
and set a candle in her casement as a beacon to the fishermen and a
guide.
All
night she sat by her candle, trimmed the wick and spun her yarn. So
many hanks of yarn as she spun before her daily bread she spun more
still, and one hank over for her nightly candle.
And from that time to the time of the telling of this story (for fifty
years, through youth, maturity, into old age) she has turned night into
day. And in the snow - summer, through the storms of winter and in the
serene calms of summer, through driving mists, deceptive moonlight, and
solemn darkness, that northern harbour has never once been without the
light of a small candle. However far the fishermen might be standing out
at sea, he had only to bear down straight for the lighted window and he
was sure of a safe entrance into the harbour. And so for all these
fifty years that tiny light, flaming thus out of devotion and self
sacrifice, has helped and cheered and saved many lives as it guided the
fishermen tossing in their little boats upon the sea.
The known history of Orkney spans over 8,800 years, dating to Mesolithic times. ... indifferently against their own Norway and the coasts and isles of Scotland),
Although
I have searched for a reference as to whether this Lonely Rock actually
existed I have not as yet found any reference apart from this little
story.
ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS AS TO WHERE IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
Here is another little story about a Lonely Rock.THE LONELY ROCK
Once there was a rock.
As far as the rock knew, it was alone in the world one rock sitting
quietly by itself on a grassy field that spread out as far as the eye
can see. But this rock had no eyes and it saw nothing, so it did the
only thing it knew how to do, it rolled. It rolled through days and
nights and rain and fog until it bumped up against another rock.
The two rocks enjoyed one anothers company so there they stayed until
they were bumped by a third rock and three was even nicer than two so
they cuddled up for a very long time until along came another, and maybe
a year later another, and another, and so on. After a more days than
even I know how to count, where there had once been one rock in a field, there was now a great pile of rocks.
Birds came and made their nests on the pile and grass grew up around the
edges and the rocks forgot they were rocks and today they speak with
one voice when they bother to speak at all, because they are happy
bunch, happy to have found one another in such a wide world, happy to
have found their place. And today they call themselves a mountain.
This is Moel Fammau, (in English Mother Mountain,) for she is the highest peak in the Clwydian Range.
I am lucky to be able to see this mountain from my village every day of the year. xxx
The Lonely Rock - Moel Fammau