Sheriff's Kettle

On an eminence bordering with Benholme and Garvock, called Kinchet, or, more properly, King's Seat Hill, there is a large cairn or heap of stones, where, according to tradition, a king once sat in judgment. Among other
complaints, many were lodged against Melville of Allardice, at that time sheriff of the county, for his oppression. The royal judge, either wearied with the complainers, or enraged with the offender, said, probably in a peevish humour:

“I wish that sheriff were sodden and supped in brose.”
Such was the savage barbarity of the times, that the barons, who were little accustomed to the formalities of a trial, laid hold on these words, and put them literally in execution. The place wlsere the deed was perpetrated lies at the bottom of the hills, on the side next Garvock, is not unlike the cavity of a kiln for drying corn, and still retains the name of the Sheriff's Kettle.

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