Popping Stone

The Popping Stone is a group of three rounded boulders in the Irthing Gorge near Gilsland, England [1]. Historical photographs from before 1870 show that the site originally featured a single, much larger stone that was drastically altered sometime after this date [1]. The site is renowned for local traditions linking it to courtship and marriage proposals, centered on the legend that Sir Walter Scott proposed to Charlotte Carpenter at this location in 1797 [1]. A nearby ancient hawthorn tree known as the Kissing Bush once stood as a companion feature until it was cut down in the early 1940s [1].