Abriachan / Obar Abriachan / Obar Itheachan

Walker (1887: 421) writes of a stone in an old graveyard called Killianan, located "at the mouth of the burn of Abriachan, which enters Loch Ness half-way between Inverness and Glen Urquhart"; this stone is a "finely carved slab, which is said to have been carried from Iona. Above and not far from it, amongst the bushes, lies a hollow stone basin, which is said to have been used by St Columba himself for baptism, when he visited King Brude in his castle near Inverness". Among the virtues of this stone, adds Walker, is that "the water it contains is said to have salutary effects in connection with child-bearing, and women are said to have frequented it in this belief till recently" Walker gives the measurements and then states his scepticism about the real origin and function of this stone, but adds that, although it failed in its claim to refill immediately after someone empties it when he personally tried it, "the indisputable fact, nevertheless, is that it is generally filled with water even in the hottest weather."