Rowan Tree

Bill Macpherson

What is your object and how did it come to be in your possession? 

In Scotland the Rowan has many associations with magic and witches. There was a strong taboo against cutting a Rowan down in Scotland. A Tree Surgeon I know was trained by highland foresters. Any tree near a Rowan was safe from being harvested as the foresters wouldn’t fell a tree near a Rowan in case the Rowan was damaged.

The wood was seen as the most protective part and was used for stirring milk (to prevent it curdling), as a pocket charm against rheumatism and also used as divining rods. The protective power is thought to come from the berries, as red was thought to be the best colour for fighting evil.

The stick is a piece of a branch from a Rowan tree that was growing in Griamachary, Kildonan in Sutherland and was planted by a Great-Great-Uncle of mine, know as ‘John of the Rowan’. His story is thus:

“The first thing John Macpherson did when he and his wife and seven children moved to their new home at was to plant seven Rowan saplings in the garden. As he straightened-up after firming in the last tree with his boot, John smiled at the family, who were looking on: Willie, Margaret, Davie, Cathie, Annie, Tom, and Hugh. “That’s one for each of you,” he said.

The four boys and Cathie each claimed a tree planted in front of the house. Margaret and Annie said their trees were the two at the end of the path, on either side of the gate.

As the years passed, the children, and the trees, grew tall and straight. Then Tom marched off to World War I. He was killed in action-and a strange thing happened. His rowan tree in front of the house mysteriously withered and died.

A few years later Cathie died at only 30. To the family’s astonishment, her Rowan tree died. And when Hugh died, his tree withered away, too.

It was uncanny the way the lives of each of the Macphersons seemed to be bound up with the tree their father had planted.

There were four trees left now two in front of the house, and two at the gate. They flourished. Every autumn they were loaded with scarlet berries. But Willie and Davie were both old men now. Annie and Margaret were also getting on in years. Some time ago Willie died at 82. A year or two later David followed him, aged 80. Yes, shortly after each passed on, their trees died, too.

Then Margaret died in 1972 and her tree died. There was but one tree left standing. The remaining Annie had a stroke and was paralysed down one side. Later that year the last Rowan was blown over in a storm and half of it continued to grow, half died off. When Annie died in 1975, her tree had to be cut down because it was unsafe.

The picture of the tree is a Rowan growing at Griamachary in the 1990s. Maybe a descendent of one of John’s trees?

I was given the Branch by a cousin who lived in Caithness and took some of the wood from the last tree.

Why have you chosen this object for the Macphersoniana project? 
It is a direct link with my forebears and brings together Highland folklore and the Strath of Kildonan (the scene of one of the worst of the Highland Clearances).

Why is this object important to you and what does it mean to you?
It is a unique and irreplaceable piece of family history

What does this object tell us about what it means to be a Macpherson?
Nothing I don’t think. It tells us a lot about the unknown and peoples beliefs and the link that Scots had with the natural world.