DURING the great battles of Scotland’s struggle to free her people, the soldiers would take a stone from their home when they left to fight. These men knew well they might come back injured and unable to work, if they came back at all. They were courageous indeed.
The idea behind the stones was that before the battle each man would drop their stone in a pile and retrieve one afterward. Therefore if you had 1000 stones before the battle and 20 were left afterward, a quick estimate of the dead and seriously wounded could be gained. It is said the pile of stones at Culloden was 20ft high. This is symbolised by the cairn on the battlefield.
Your front page on Saturday reminded me of this. It has long been a desire of mine to see every person who marches for independence carry with them a single item for the local food bank. A can of beans, bag of nappies, sanitary products etc. These could be collected for the needy at the end. It would give an easy and accurate indication of numbers who attended. Let’s see the BBC tell us that 16,000 delivered 120,000 items to local charity.
We are the side that cares for Scotland and all its people. We should not be shy to show it.
RJ Bulloch
Shawlands
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