Near by was Martena Castle, where Alderman Sjuck van Burmania once kept a crowd of assailants at bay by standing over a barrel of gunpowder with a lighted brand while he offered them the choice of the explosion or a feast.

Hence the excellent proverb, "You must either fight or drink, said Sjuck".
At Berlikum was the castle of Bauck Poppema, a Frisian lady cast in an iron mould, who during her husband's absence in 1496 defended the stronghold against assailants from Groningen.

Less successful than Sjuck, after repelling them thrice she was overpowered and thrown into prison.

While there she produced twins, thus proving herself a woman no less than a warrior.

"When the people of Holland glorify Kenau," says the proverb, "the Frisians praise their Bauck." Kenau we have met: the heroic widow of Haarlem who during the siege led a band of three hundred women and repelled the enemy on the walls again and again.
Near Roodkerk is a lake called the Boompoel, into which a coach and four containing six inside passengers, all of them professional exorcists, disappeared and was never seen again.