In the Celtic community the Druids were an elite class, second only to royalty in privilege and status. Combining the functions of priest, judge and sage, they exercised considerable power and influence.

Druids, it was thought, could communicate with the spirit world that formed the basis of Celtic beliefs; many practised magic. They officiated at the various ceremonies and rituals, usually staged in a sacred grove of oak trees, that made up the Celtic calendar. Druids ran centres of scholarship and healing, called "hospitals", where they dispensed learning as well as medicine and cared for the sick. According to Celtic law, a hospital had to have four doors and be sited near a stream of running water.

The remote and sheltered Lour glen, with its "chattering burn" flanked by mighty oak trees, had all the hallmarks of a Druid settlement. In such surroundings the twin worlds of the Druids - the natural and the supernatural - could exist in perfect harmony.

Oral Tradition.