The fascinating folklore around a ‘cursed’ Plumbridge bush

IRELAND is steeped in tales of cures, curses, and wild folklore, much of it hidden in the rural landscape.

While many of these legends are well documented, one story has almost faded from collective memory, even as it continues to grow quietly on the outskirts of a Tyrone village. A singular, unassuming bush along Ballykeel Road near Plumbridge is said to possess both healing and sinister properties.

Known locally as the ‘Boutry Bush’, this foreign-looking plant is easy to overlook, yet its reputation in local lore is anything but ordinary.

Local photographer and history enthusiast Kenneth Allen recently revisited the mysterious plant after recognising it during a walk.

“A local showed me the bush along Bradkeel Road,” Kenneth explained.

“I scanned it using a plant ID app on my phone, and it identified the species as a European Black Elderberry. I’d heard the name years ago from older country folk, but I wasn’t sure of the spelling. After some digging, I got a reply from a botanist in County Antrim who knew it by the name Bourtry.”

Further research led Kenneth to references in medieval Gaelic folklore.

According to the University of Glasgow, bourtreebuss – a variation of elder tree bush – was used in historical texts, often associated with poor-quality land.

In Scots and Ulster-Scots, the elder tree was commonly known as the boutry.

The elder tree has long been a staple in traditional folk medicine.

Its berries were used to make wine, while its leaves, bark, and twigs were believed to hold curative powers.

Elder was once prescribed to treat everything from blindness to epilepsy.

Leaves gathered on May Eve were thought to heal wounds, and warts could allegedly be removed by rubbing them with a green elder stick and then burning it – symbolically destroying the wart as the stick rotted away. In Denmark, a cure for toothache consisted of placing an elder twig in the mouth and then sticking it in a wall, with the user having to say, ‘Depart thou evil spirit!’ as part of the cure ritual.

However, Kenneth also explained that whilst it may warn off evil spirits (and toothaches!), the bush is believed to have negative religious connotations.

“One of the old traditions claims the elder tree was cursed because it was used in the crucifixion of Jesus,” he said. “There’s a rhyme that goes:

‘Bourtree, bourtree, crooked rung, Never straight and never strong; Ever bush and never tree,

Since our Lord was nailed to ye.’

“However,” Kenneth added, “some believe planting a boutry bush in your garden can ward off the Devil and even offer cures for certain ailments.”

In some parts of the British Isles, the elder bush is less feared.

In Scotland, it was second only to the rowan in warding off evil and witchcraft. Elder crosses were hung in barns to protect livestock, and coach drivers carried elder-wood whips to fend off malevolent forces.

There is also a curious belief which claimed that bathing your eyes in elder sap would allow you to see fairies and witches.

The elder tree also plays a role in stories about the legend of Saint Patrick. It’s said that his staff, used to banish snakes from Ireland, was made from boutry wood.

But the bush also carried warnings: Ancient lore claimed anyone who fell asleep under an elder tree would be plagued by nightmares and awaken in a state of delirium.

Many of the Irish superstitions that surround the bush’s evil nature surround the combustion of it branches and twigs.

In ancient practice, the elder tree was never to be burned.

Cutting or burning its branches was said to anger a protective deity known as the ‘Elder Mother’, who would seek revenge.

Some even claimed that burning the wood would summon the Devil himself. While modern science attributes the ill effects of burning elder to the plant’s mild toxicity, such beliefs fed the aura of danger surrounding it. Whether the boutry bush is a source of healing or a harbinger of misfortune, the lore surrounding it continues to blur the line between fact and fable.

Yet along rural backroads and sparse fields, they remain a fascinating force of nature.