The Lass o’ The Lecht

The Lecht area is steeped in history.  There follows below a poem about Margaret Cruikshank detailing one of the infamous wintry storms at the area, from 1860.

The Lass o’ The Lecht
Margaret Cruickshank (1860)

Ye Cromdale people, both young and old,
Pray hear the tale I now unfold,
It will make your very blood run cold
To think upon that morning.

A blooming lass in her eighteenth year,
Across the Lecht her course did steer,
The way was rough and wild and drear
Upon that winter's morning.

Soon the storm came down with fearful force,
It beat her sore without remorse,
And in blinding drift she lost her course
On Ernan's hills that morning.

Beyond the reach of human cry,
No earthly help nor shelter nigh,
She fell exhausted down to die
By Ernan's banks that morning.

Her master soon did anxious grow,
He raised the country high and low,
And to the hills at once did go
Five hundred men next morning.

Hardy lads from Corgarff, Stradown,
Fair Avon's sides and eke Glen Brown,
Upon the Lecht assembled round
To seek for the corpse that morning.

Glenlivet and Glenconglass, too,
Turned out in number not a few,
To search the mountain passes through
Her corpse to find that morning

Chapelton lads did not neglect,
Through drift and snow to face the Lecht,
And each and all won great respect
In the search for the corpse that morning.

The Tomintoul men deserve great praise,
They bravely toiled the lost to trace,
And sorrowing friends for many days
Will recount thir deeds that morning.

The Reverend Glennie, a priest of fame,
God bless for aye his honoured name,
Refused to rest or stay at hame,
But sped to the hills that morning.

Farquharson of Invercauld, I trow,
And Forbes, the honoured laird of Newe,
Did bed and board to all bestow
Who sought her corpse that morning.

Afar and near the searchers went,
With two blood-hounds from Invercauld sent,
But all in vain, though keen of scent,
They failed in their quest that morning.

From each hillside the smile of May
Had chased the winter's snow away,
When there exposed the body lay
Till the Resurrection morning.

May we who hear this tale to-day
Take heed to ever watch and pray,
Lest unprepared we're called away
To meet our doom some morning.