Better than the Devil's Pulpit

The Devil's Pulpit is in the Finnich near Drymen and about a 30-minute drive north of Glasgow. Since being featured in Outlander, the number of people visiting the Devil's Pulpit has rocketed and the atmosphere has been spoilt a bit. Fortunately, there are other places in Scotland where you can still capture the magic that the Devil's Pulpit once had. In this video, we show you Crichope in Dumfriesshire. It is a strangely eerie place rich with the folklore of Elves and the traumatic history of the Covenanters.

[@Fee212]

The Devil's Pulpit was commercialised by Outlander, and this brought a load of louts in football tops and see you Jimmy bunnets. 🙄 Or visitors saying how beautiful Scatland is. 🙄 This is breathtaking. ❤

[@WILLWALK]

Thanks for showing the beauty of Crichope. I like watching beautiful places far away from home. Greetings from Indonesia!

[@AA-xj1fr]

wow...a magical place indeed. Would love to visit once the lockdown is over.

[@ArranOfAlba]

Nice vid

[@JaimieJo]

Beautiful! Very magical indeed. Thank you!

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Thanks... it's a special place and all the old signatures in the rocks make you feel connected to the centuries of people who shared the same pleasure when they visited. Must admit I did feel a wee bit spooked at times too when I imagined how I would have felt as a Covenanter holed up here.

[@JaimieJo]

@@SecretscotlandTours Yes, imagine the many people that site has seen over the ages! If the rocks could talk!

[@FenjaWonderland]

Lovely video! Thank you so much, which I had seen it before going to the devil's pulpit! But I still don't know where to make it out? Maybe you like to meet up one day? Kind regards the Highland Witch Fenja Wonderland

[@JustOneKnight]

😲❤😊👍

[@lavona8204]

Finding a local that knows the lesser known areas is key

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Thanks, hope you liked the video.

[@lavona8204]

@@SecretscotlandTours I did, thank you

[@gee4967]

That "ice" is actually a type of fungus

[@SecretscotlandTours]

I checked up on this when I got home and it is called "Hair Ice". It is actually ice but it is a type of fungus found in rotting wood that facilitates the forming of the ice in these fine strands. Apparently, it only forms when certain humidity, temperature and low wind conditions combine. You can read more about here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_ice

[@gee4967]

@@SecretscotlandTours the more you know thank you for the link!

[@braininjuryproductions6150]

We used to see stuff like that in the Black Forest Germany, but I had actually forgotten about it since it was long ago.

[@derekgillan7314]

very interesting thx

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Thanks Derek. It's certainly worth a visit if you are ever in the Thornhill area, but it's not signposted until you get near it. Interesting how places like this were once such big tourist attractions but are now hardly visited.

[@Scotistani]

Great video. I am in Glasgow and make some videos. Can catch up sometime for a wee collaboration

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Hello, sorry only just noticed your comment. Thanks for the feedback. Certainly open to the idea of discussing a collaboration. I'm just off to look at your channel now.

[@Scotistani]

Secret Scotland That’s great.Thanks 🙏🏻 I had planned to travel to Isle of Skye in April and stop at places of interest to capture the beautiful landscape and historical sites, but unfortunately the pandemic happened.Once the restrictions are lifted it would be good to do a few collaborative videos exploring the sounds and sights of our beautiful country for the world to see. We can communicate via email if it’s convenient [e-mail]

[@halsinden]

thank you so much for this! it's of such enormous use in terms of potential location scouting that might mean being relatively undisturbed during a shoot.

[@louisasummer2298]

it looks great is steps easy to get down or not

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Easy enough but the path acts like a stream so expect it to be wet.

[@musicologox100pre]

Where is this .?

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Near Thornhill, in Dumfriesshire

[@seb-depp]

@@SecretscotlandTours Can you be a little more specific about the place to enter the steps? I found the Crichope burn but it's rather long... Thanks and lovely video.

[@WorldSurvivalist]

Robert burns has been to every cave in Scotland

[@SecretscotlandTours]

Well he did live just down the road at Ellisland Farm so there's a good chance that he really did visit this spot.

[@braininjuryproductions6150]

Refresh my memory please, who is Robert Burns?

[@iancampbell6925]

Not as many as Robert the Bruce,

[@lyndseymcmahon8941]

A Scottish poet

[@sandy-sx5zr]

If you watch KZbin HANGMAN1128, he's demonstrated for many years that these rock structures are giant trees petrified into rocks...great video 👍

[@johngibson1256]

The white growth on the wood is a fungi. If you join a facebook UK mushroom group they have experts that will identify the actual species.

[@SecretscotlandTours]

It is actually made of ice and is simply called "Hair Ice". But there is a type of fungus found in rotting wood that facilitates the forming of the ice in these fine strands. Apparently, it only forms when certain humidity, temperature and low wind conditions combine. You can read more about here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_ice

[@johngibson1256]

@@SecretscotlandTours so why does the headline say "Rotting fungus creates beautiful, glistening "hair ice" " asking for a friend. Lol. www.livescience.com/51633-fungus-driving-hair-ice.html

[@SecretscotlandTours]

@@johngibson1256 the fungus is on the rotting wood and it creates the conditions for the ice to start forming in these fine hair like strands. The stuff that looks like hair is actually made of frozen water not of a fungus.

[@johngibson1256]

​@@SecretscotlandTours To start with you asked the question what it was. I am a qualified Arborist (tree surgeon) and I gave you a sincere professional answer. You refused to accept that professional answer. I then provided an actual article on the fungus that causes the abnormal ice formation and asked a question. You side stepped the question and flipped factual reality on it's head because your ego will not allow for you to be wrong or to not have the final say. That toxic behavior in Buddhist studies and psychology is refereed to as a pathology. It's not about being correct or not for me and it is definitely not that I want to have the last say. Maybe you should take this chat transcript in it's entirety and go consult a psychologist and/or a psychiatrist. The facts stand on their own merit and do not need anyone's opinions to give them credence just like the symbiosis that the fungus has with water in the fungal/moisture/temperature anomaly that your original question was about. Nameste!

[@SecretscotlandTours]

@@johngibson1256 I'm a bit perplexed by the aggressive tone that you are taking. I've had others contact me to explain the science behind this. I've also read the article that you linked to and it continually refers to this natural phenomenon as "ice". The article that you linked to explains that a fungus on the wood creates the conditions for ice to form as thin strands of hair. To quote from the article: "The fungus helps the ice grow into thin hairs with diameters of just 0.01 millimeters (0.0004 inches), and helps to keep the strands in this shape over several hours at temperatures close to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius),". After studying the article, my understanding is that the fungus is necessary for the formation of the hair ice, but the hair ice is not a fungus, it is water that has frozen in thin hairlike strands due to the presence of a fungus. I've held the stuff in my hand and watch it melt. I'm not arguing with you, but you seem determined to find something to get angry about. Chill man... like the ice... chill.