Published: Wednesday, 18th March, 2009 12:30pm

THREE SISTERS MYSTERY MASONIC LINK?

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This week, Know Your Largs looks into the secrets behind the 'Three Sisters' in a script which could come right out of 'The Da Vinci Code' while arguments raged about the discovery of mysterious human remains on the same hill.

Mr Charles Kidd, a former manager of the Clydesdale Bank in Largs dating back to the 1950s, investigated the historic Three Sisters landmark which were built by Sir Thomas Brisbane exactly 200 years ago in 1809.

Another archaeologist, Dr Phene, speculates on the original significance of the Green Hill on which the pillars are built and on the significance of the pillars themselves, which appeared in "The Times" of London in the 1870s.

The area was also once given the name 'Moot Hill' and is believed to have served as a high and mighty area for conducting trials before villains of the period were sent to the gallows of Gallowgate.

On Green Hill surrounded by bungalows and semi-villas, stand the "Three Sisters" - vertical pillars of stone, not more than ten feet high, 150 years old and already in a state of decay.

They were built by Sir Thomas Brisbane on a site a few miles removed from his home Brisbane House, now, alas, demolished. Originally the central and largest pillar was capped with a stone triangle in which two holes were bored; the western pillar had two narrow rectangular stones on top; with a shallow cottage-roof shaped stone inbetween; the eastern pillar had a similar rectangular stones, and an iron ring supported by two iron round bars.

Historians are convinced that the pillars built during the Napoleonic War, were nothing more than a vantage point on which a flag or beacon could be erected to warn the good people of Largs that an invasion by Bonaparte was imminent, and certainly there were scares enough around our coast at the time in spite of the glory of Trafalgar.

Mr Kidd stated: 'News travelled slowly in these days and the possibility of a surprise attack was constantly in the minds of civilians. The hill had been put to similar use before and little imagination is required to picture anxious eyes scanning the Firth from such a raised plot for the first glimpse of the dreaded Viking longships as they sailed in what was to be their last voyage of pillage and plunder.

'There is a legend that the lost secrets of Freemasonry lie buried within a hundred miles of the Mother Lodge, No.0 Kilwinning, Sir Thomas, may well have been of the Craft, and it is suggested that he knew the answers to those secrets, and erected his pillars as a kind of jigsaw puzzle to be solved at some future time; that until an interpreter came to read the riddle, his pillars would stand as an emblem of his faith and his belief in the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

'The most popular theory springs from Brisbane"s undoubted knowledge of astronomy. Green Hill used to be called "Astronomer"s Hill", and was described as such on most picture postcards of Largs before the first world war.

'The pillars were visible from his observatory at Brisbane House and experts who have surveyed them declare that construction measures up to the standards of what is known as the "Great Law" based on astronomy, and being in fact an elaboration of an ancient geometric design, is supposed to have only been understood by a few men of genius down the ages.

'Its mathematical application regarding angles and distances is easily recognisable to those who have studied the subject. It is further claimed by such men, that surveys of The Canals of Babylon, The Great Pyramid of Ghizeh, the Harbour of Carthage, The Acropolis and Stonehenge, conform to the 'Great Law'. So the 'Three Sisters' would appear to be in distinguished company.'

As for the origins of Green Hill itself, it was suggested by one archaeologist to go back to Viking times. The mound was based near the old church and was discovered in the 1800s to be a burial ground.

Mr John S.Phene, an enthusiastic antiquarian in prehistoric remains in Scotland, gave the results and his opinion in 'The Times' of 26 December 1873.

Mr Phene seems to have satisfied himself that it was the Burial mound. On cutting into, the first first day"s work produced appearances of charcoal of oak with small lumps of clay. When the centre of the mound was reached, bright green flakes were found which were believed to be remnants of copper or bronze plates or fastenings, probably remnants of armour, and some "hard white and soft browning grey substances" taken to be bones, while some teeth were also found.

However, the true origins of the bodies discovered in the Green Hill raged on with one letter-writer in the Ardrossan Herald of 1874 suggesting that they might have been the remains of a guilty party, condemned and executed by sentence pronounced the the Court held on the hill itself.

Indeed, it was pointed out by historian Timothy Pont that it was likelier that Vikings may have been buried on one of the Cumbrae Isles. He said: 'In 1813, some remains were found by a party in an area north of Little Cumbrae not very far from the chapel of St Vey and Mr Phene reports another discovery a few years back of a large accumulation of arms and the remains of familiar works of art were discovered in an area called 'The Lady' in Greater Cumbrae.

'Had the Norwegians deposited the dead bodies along with their armour, they would have given them a more Christian-like burial, and one more aking to what sea warriors might call natural rather than a roasting on the shore of Largs.'

According to the Norwegian chronicle, the day after the final conflict at Largs, the Norwegians returned in their boats to pick up the bodies of their fallen countrymen, when 'King Haco ordered his dead to be carried to church.'

Mr Pont added: 'It would have been much more likely that they should have carried the bodies across either to the chapel of St Vey in Little Cumbrae, or to that of St Columba in Meikle Cumbrae, of both of which they had in their possession, than they should have chosen to bury them at Largs, in the face of and subject to harrassments of a victorious enemy. That the dead received a Christian burial maybe safely concluded, as there is distinct mention made of several of the chief men who died during the expedition, and lastly of Haco himself, having been buried according to the rites of the Church.'