Simon Taylor of the Aberdour Cultural Association went into the Primary School to tell stories of old Aberdour. The children made tapestry panels that will be displayed as part of a new Aberdour banner. The fifth is the Devil’s Spadeful.
Dunearn Hill is the big hill between Aberdour and Burntisland. At the top there is a small loch called Dunearn Loch. At the bottom of the hill there is Stenhouse Reservoir and in the middle of the reservoir there is a big island. The island is called the Devil’s Spadeful.
How did it get this strange name?
Well, one day the Devil was looking around for something bad to do and he saw the lovely hill called Dunearn. ‘That’s a lovely hill,’ he said to himself. ‘I’m going to flatten it’. So he picked up his spade and started to dig. He dug deep into the top of the hill, making a big hollow that filled up with water – this became Dunearn Loch. But there was too much earth on his spade and the spade broke and all the earth landed at the bottom of the hill. Now that his spade was broken, the Devil couldn’t flatten the hill any further, so he went off to make mischief somewhere else.
And that’s why Dunearn Hill is still a hill, and that’s why there is a big island at its foot called the Devil’s Spadeful.
Today we rarely talk about the Devil, we believe in God but do we also belive in the Devil? (Ed).