Popping Stone

The Popping Stone was a curiosity in our minds and on our map until we visited on a wet autumnal day, when underfoot it was nowt but claggy!

Sitting on the border between Northumberland and Cumberland, it's such an enticing name, which conjures up all sorts of images and ideas about how it got its moniker.

Famed for its part in the nuptials of Walter Scott to his lady friend Charlotte Carpenter, the stone used to be one, but is now split into three sizeable chunks, after years of wear and tear, rushing river and people taking pieces as a prized possession. It was, in its day, a major tourist attraction, particularly for the working classes from Tyneside who'd board the train from Blaydon to take in the restorative waters of Gilsland Spa.

Close to the water's edge on a bank of the River Irthing, the biggest of the boulders is approximately 2.7 m long and 1.3m high, hugged up by two smaller stones around 70cm and 85cm in length. They are now close set but haven't always been this way. Solid sandstone, they probably now wibble about a fair bit when the Irthing is in spate.

It was a wet trek to get to The Popping Stone. We set off on a damp and dank day when the river was whooshing by and fit to bust. Crossing a slippy, leafy bridge with dogs running back and forth made us feel slightly unsteady underfoot. Had we known what was to come, we'd have probably turned back!

The journey to The Popping Stone was part of the adventure, as there was a lot of knee-deep clarts (It was October), but it was balanced with good 'shroom views of Fly Agaric and OliveOysterling. There was an intense use of walking poles to stop us from falling down rabbit holes!

After a couple of bridges, we were encouraged by a clear sign which promised a 'Footpath to the Popping Stone'.

It spurred me on to want to reach it despite my disappearing walking boots.

Thinking about Walter's mindset on his journey to The Popping Stone, proposing would have been the last thing on my mind as I marched through the mire. I was thinking that Walt and Lottie must've done a similar weekend trawl and hike around the region looking for places of interest as us on our Fabulous North hunts. Walter Scott was known to frequent places in the Borders and Northumberland to gain experience and insight for his writing. In his novel Guy Mannering, Gilsland was recreated as 'The Watering Place'.

In 1870, the stone was pictured as one large stone, but it must've seen some changes since Scott snogged Lottie.

When we arrived, the busy river was the backdrop to three large to medium-sized boulders that resembled different things from different angles; someone with a nosey nose, a pantless bottom, a hippo wallowing in mud...What can you see?

There didn't seem to be much romance to the boulders, but maybe we'd been swayed by the squelchy approach.

On his date, Walter obviously did not falter! The stone had no name in 1797. Rumour has it that the name came from the old English word for pebble stone - 'Poplestane'. Those with love hearts in their eyes prefer to think of it as being named in relation to Walt popping the question there. All references to The Popping Stone seem to hark back to romance and marriage proposals, possibly relating to an old gnarled hawthorn bush which stood close by until the 1940s, which was known as The Kissing Bush. It's possible The Popping Stone piggybacked onto the back of this in terms of its romantic belt notch!

The Victorians were drawn to this stone in their droves. There are records of old grainy photos of ladies in long dresses and fancy hats, and men in straw boaters, floating hand in hand across the land to sit, romantically perched to gaze into one another's eyes on the stone. An early report in the Newcastle Journal in 1853 references the popularity of the area and nods to the surreptitious visiting of The Popping Stone and the outcomes of what may occur!

Nowadays it's a collection of three stones. It was slightly underwhelming (and I'm a positive optimist!) Maybe in my mind I expected to arrive to a faun playing the flute, with rose petals strew across the approach, fairy lights, and a violinist softly stepping amongst the moss curled stones. It was beautifully situated in a bend of the Irthing, however, and it's easy to see how young lads and lasses may have made their way down over slightly forbidding land to have a bit of a pash in the bushes and boulders. It's out of sight and secluded.

There were remnants of limerant graffiti, an olden day version of Gretna's Love Locks! You must fancy the pants of someone to chisel it into stone. Those blistered palms would show commitment!

Historical images show that the stones would not always have been so rounded, but years or rushing water, combined with the tradition of chipping away a little bit of The Popping Stone for love and luck, have meant that the stones have altered over time. It was thought that if you slept with a sliver of The Popping Stone under your pillow, you would see in your dreams your future spouse!

The earliest written reference to The Popping Stone is in 1851 and appears as a footnote in Collingwood Bruce's book The Roman Wall. The stone is unnamed but clearly references the historical proposal, and it was known that Walter Scott was a sporadic visitor to Gilsland.

The Victorians loved ephemera, and it appears that local photographers made a muckle from the memoir of Scott and Lady Scott on the stone. Alfred Pettitt from Cumbria set up shop at The Gilsland Spa Hotel, taking photographs for holiday makers. There are many photographs which appear to be posed and set up, perhaps emulating the famous proposal, which may have given more clout to the quality of the popping of the question.

You left with a kiss, a ring and a photo! Local people would have been drafted in as hired hands in the background, helping to set the scene of incidental love and spontaneous proposal! Many faces appear repeatedly in different photographs. The Victorians were at it long before OK Magazine!

Still making the headlines, The Popping Stone was prone to scrutiny and outcry in 2021 when locals were outraged upon finding the stone vandalised, bulldozed and moved from its original position, shown here in The News and Star in April 2021. The land had been ploughed up by machinery, and the stones were pushed further towards the river.

The stone itself is not officially protected despite its significance; however, locals regard it as an undesignated heritage asset. It has since been moved back by landowners to resemble some semblance of its former glory.

Whatever your views are on old stones, this has a fascinating back story and is nestled away in a beautifully secluded and scenic spot, ideal for a snog should you so wish!

As we wandered back, we reckoned that Walter must've loved his lass. I tried to block out the constant singing of “I'm not your popping stone" to the tune of The Monkeys, I'm not your Stepping Stone, which, coupled with the hacky, clarty plodge I'd been taken, on we're making me consider divorce!