A vintage picture of the Glaisnock viaduct, complete with the Deil Stane, prompted memories with regular correspondent Dan Stillie.

He said: "We Wylie Crescent boys used to play football and even cricket on that flat piece of ground on the other side of the river. That was until Jock Gilmour chased us away, because his stressed-out sheep were nibbling the grass round the edge of the pitch, instead of feeding on the lush grass we were playing on, but the Deil Stane was always there.

"You see, it is not a standing stone. It is the top of what can only be assumed to be an enormous boulder buried under the ground. Possibly dumped there in glacial days or washed down when the Glaisnock Water was wide enough, deep enough and powerful enough to carve out the Glaisnock Valley.

"On the surface, it was six or seven feet long, three or four feet wide and about twelve to fifteen inches high I would suggest that its position in the picture is marked by that light strip on the field below the third arch in from the left of the picture. Possibly it is more grown over by now.

"Why was it called the Deil Stane? Nobody knew or even cared!

"Maybe in the past, because most of it is underground, people thought it covered a gateway to hell.

"If so, why would the Deil put it there? Could it be to keep out the water from a flooding river putting out his fires? This is only a guess!" William Neal from Cumnock also has memories of the stone.

He said: "I remember many years ago as a child walking with my father at the Glaisnock Viaduct and seeing the Deil’s Stane at that time.

"I was shown an indentation in the stone that looked like the mark of a cloven hoof which local legend said had been made by the Devil.

"Maybe the stone has become overgrown now and perhaps covered the mark."