The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Granny Todd’s ‘hoose’
“I was interested in the recent item about Montreathmont Cottage,” emails Grant Birse. “My maternal grandparents, John and Marion McGregor, and family lived there for more than 20 years until the early 1960s, all having happy memories.
“Previously it was the home of John and Margaret Todd and their large family. Margaret – who was known locally as Granny Todd – died in 1939 aged 86, but her memory was kept alive long after, as her cottage was always referred to as ‘Granny Todd’s Hoose’.
“It stood as an unspoiled reminder of a bygone era until the mid 1980s when it was sympathetically renovated and extended. It has recently undergone a further upgrade and extension
“Granny Todd was known to frequent and tend to the famous Battle Well on the moor. Noted not only as a healing well, but also for having the purest of water, full even in the driest of seasons. Sadly it is now virtually lost due to the dense forestation of the area.
“Montreathmont Moor has no doubt seen many a conflict over the centuries, but tradition tells of a battle fought here between the Picts and the Romans; perhaps giving origin to an old version of the place name ‘Monrommon’ Moor of the Romans; and that the blood of the fallen flowed in the Battle Burn as far as Fithie, near Farnell.
“The battle legend is supported by the discovery of a severed human wrist bone near to the well in the late 19th Century by local historian D.H. Edwards.
“Hereabouts can be found numerous burial mounds called the ‘battle cairns’, although most are likely to pre-date any recorded history of the area. Along with the Battle Burn there is a ridge known as the ‘Battle Drum’, the ‘Battle Dykes’, a former avenue called the ‘Battle Ride’, all in an area around the Battle Drum Wood.
“These remnants of ancient woodlands within Montreathmont Moor, which was once a royal huntingground, have been engulfed by mass coniferous plantations over the last century.”