Old Harestones

Old Harestones is a small stone circle in Kirkurd in Peeblesshire. Curiously, it is located in a private garden, the proprietor kindly extending permission for visitors to traipse across his lawn and endanger his snowdrops in order to inspect this relic from the bronze age. In their prime, these stones would have commanded fine views of the surrounding hills and valleys; now, enclosed by hedges and boundaries, one can barely see from them the dramatic backdrop which their original builders intended.

Some have suggested that the peculiar name has connotations of shape-shifting, whereby witches or spirits change into hares and back again. It is of course a foolish notion, though the scriptures speak of Satan masquerading as an angel of light, while elsewhere referring to him as a serpent, a dragon and an airborne prince. Certainly, there are human fraudsters adept at swapping from one persona to another. We live in a world in which certain men delight to dress up as women, and women as men.

Thankfully, in Christ, we become the people God orginally intended us to be. We do not need to shapeshift, re-identify, or pretend to be something we are not.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4, AV