Haunted Scotland
Authors: Roddy Martine
Tags: #Europe, #Unexplained Phenomena, #Social Science, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Travel, #Great Britain, #Supernatural, #Folklore & Mythology, #History
HAUNTED SCOTLAND
This eBook edition published in 2012 by Birlinn Limited West Newington House Newington Road Edinburgh
EH9 1QS
Copyright © Roddy Martine 2010
The moral right of Roddy Martine to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-84158-740-0
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
For Nick and Tania
And in memory of Swein MacDonald,
The Highland Seer (1931–2003)
CONTENTS
8 To Triumph in Glory with the Lamb
10 For Those in Peril on the Sea
13 The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of
17 The Landscape over the Fireplace
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank the following for their invaluable help and advice: Alison Campbell, Ronnie Cox, Elizabeth Fenton-Barnes, Ian Fraser, The Reverend Dr Richard Frazer, Graham Hopner, Martin Hunt, Ewan Irvine, Christopher James, Malcolm and Avril Kirk, Jim and Mary
Lamb, Ian Logan, Colin Lindsay McDougal, Alison Milne, Fraser Morrison, Lady Norreys, Luisa Ramazzotti, Paul and Louise Ramsay, John and Carol Steel, Andrew and Helen Murray Thriepland, Jennifer
Washington, Gail Young.
My thanks in particular to Hugh Andrew, Andrew Simmons and Kenny Redpath of Birlinn; to Helen Bleck for so methodically copy-editing the text, and, of course, to my agent, John Beaton.
INTRODUCTION
‘We Scotch stand . . . highest among nations in the matter of grimly illustrating death.’
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes
(1879)
The writing of
Supernatural Scotland
, my first venture into the realms of the spiritual and paranormal, was an immensely stimulating personal epiphany. Although I had
always been intrigued by tales of the inexplicable, I have usually balanced my interest with a healthy dollop of scepticism. Not so much now.
During my research I encountered so many intriguing situations, and so many unlikely sources, that a subconscious pattern soon started to evolve. Almost everyone I interviewed over that period
had a story to tell. Two out of every five recalled occurrences that they were logically at a loss to explain and, as I talked to them, I ruthlessly hoovered up their reactions without bias. With
so much material to draw upon, it soon became apparent that there was definitely something going on here.
Yet in almost every case there was a universal nervousness as to how friends and families might react. The majority of those I talked to were anxious not to be identified. Ancient taboos and
social niceties prevailed. Nobody wanted to be thought of as entirely bonkers.
Then, once
Supernatural Scotland
was published, something rather peculiar began to occur. Associates whom I knew to have deep religious convictions avoided eye contact with me. Strangers
started to confide in me as if they felt it safe to trust in my discretion.
The outcome of all of this is
Haunted Scotland
, a compilation of the material I have accumulated over the past five years. Some of the stories have evolved through the mists of time; some
of those from the present, in my opinion, are equally unsettling and, probably because of this, some of the characters concerned insisted they remain anonymous.
In the global world of the internet, anything becomes possible. While scientists never cease to astonish us, the more answers they provide, the more questions they pose. I should ask you to bear
this in mind as you absorb the contents of this book.
‘We shine because we are made of electricity,’ announced the New Zealand-born Professor Gerry Gilmore of Cambridge University in the course of a discussion on dark matter with the
astrologer Sir Patrick Moore. This observation was made during the 666th episode of the television series
The Sky at Night.
What Professor Gilmore was, in fact, emphasising is that nobody
really understands the translucent content of space any more than any of us can begin to comprehend the creation of the universe or the so-called Big Bang theory. Quantum physics accepts the
existence of inaccessible parallel universes, but this is still a work in progress. We might like to think that there is a scientific answer for everything, but clearly, as yet, there is not. After
centuries of debate, no clear understanding of vitalism, the life force explored in Mary Shelley’s epic novel
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
, has been reached.
Bewildering as this sounds, the majority of us sensibly prefer not to go there. Few of us feel comfortable with the concept of nothingness after death, and therefore many of
us welcome anything that gives us some hope of an afterlife.
Surely, our brief existence cannot be all that there is? Given the powers to understand the extent of our lives, there must be some vital purpose in the great scheme of things. For the majority,
the answers lie with a belief in God the Creator, the ultimate supernatural force that fills this void. Yet many faiths, while celebrating the divine, remain uncomfortable with the paranormal.
Why?
Because simple truths are explicable and therefore easier to subscribe to. So long as planet Earth keeps turning, the death of winter is followed by the rebirth of spring. Everything physical
rises out of and reverts back to the compost heap of nature. We know that for fact.
But where does the electricity go? Where does the soul, that sense of existence which is embodied in all human beings, shelter? It would be too trite to introduce the supernatural as the obvious
answer at this stage, but let us never forget that manifestations, mostly invisible to the human eye, have been around since the beginning of recorded experience.
Nothing tangible is entirely permanent in the scope of mankind’s brief sojourn on this Earth. Global warming, sudden changes in climate temperature, tsunamis, floods, plagues, earthquakes,
all natural disasters are integral to the millennial clock and chemical mix of our planet. But who or what primes that engine?
Where does our spark of life come from? Before claiming that a god does not exist, non-believers should first attempt to imagine infinity, then explain why, how and where the universe began, and
why, how and where it will end.
The subject is altogether too vast for the average human disposition to comprehend, although it will always remain open to
conjecture. Two thousand years or more into
mankind’s quest for knowledge, and we are still incapable of answering the big questions. Nor are we willing to concede that which we fail to understand: the opening of a door when it was
clearly locked; the sound of voices in an empty room; the time-slips of the mind.
There are simply too many cyclical, everyday coincidences for us to be able to dismiss the unexpected as implausible. Being closer to death in their everyday pursuits, our long-ago ancestors,
despite their primitive naivety, shared a far greater understanding of such phenomena, and often with a sophistication that leaves us in awe.
They followed the sun, and the moon and the stars at night, as do the tides, the wind, and the seasons. In recognition of this, they created and raised the Callanish Stones on Lewis; the Ring of
Brodgar on Orkney; Stonehenge in England; the Stone Circle of Almendres in Portugal; Vottovaara in Russia; the Konark Temple in India, and the giant stone statues on Easter Island in the Pacific
Ocean. The list is as infinite as the speculation surrounding them.
The ancients, in their wisdom, had no fear of death; instead, dying was seen only as a change of state, the transition from the physical through the release of the spirit. Accordingly, they paid
homage to their ancestors and allowed them to guide them. At the risk of sounding increasingly pretentious, I believe they knew exactly what they were doing. The moment we reject such conduct as
mere superstition, we surrender the possibilities. Yet miracles do happen.
In Scotland, land of mountains and big skies, mists and rain, our cities, towns and villages subject to long nights and winter chill, it is too easy to repress the imagination for fear of
becoming a laughing stock.
Perhaps that is why the ghosts that we hear about tend generally to be associated with the violent deeds of a distant past.
Scotland’s turbulent history certainly
provides us with plenty of examples to draw upon, but hauntings are not exclusive to the long ago or to acts of violence. They can relate to relatively mundane incidents as immediate as yesterday.
All that is required to glimpse them is a receptive mind. Centuries come and go. Our tenancy in this world is a mere blip in time. Or is it? Are we around for a lot longer than we are encouraged to
think?
As with
Supernatural Scotland
, many of those whom I interviewed feared public ridicule. On that basis, I had no option but to promise anonymity. However, there were others, more
comfortable in their skins and less susceptible to derision, who had no such reservations. To each and every one I extend my thanks.
1
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.
Arthur C. Clarke,
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968)
All places of antiquity harbour shadows from the past. You have only to acknowledge the relentless passing of the centuries to be aware of the doors opening and closing, and to
sense those silent footsteps in the hallway. Whether we like it or not, our mortality is short and transitory. In numbers, the spirits of the departed infinitely outnumber the actuality of the
living.
However, that still does not mean that they are at our beck and call. If anything, it makes them all the more elusive, and, although paranormal investigations and ghost festivals have become
globally ubiquitous, seldom do they satisfy our insatiable need to believe in an afterlife. Have a look at all of those paranormal databases listed on the internet and you cannot fail to grasp the
urgency.
To this end, or should I say beginning, the medium Ewan Irvine has been investigating paranormal phenomena throughout Britain and Ireland for over twenty years. Tall, with ink-black hair
and an intense physical presence, he certainly looks the part, and when I was invited to join a group to explore a derelict Edinburgh orphanage known as the Ragged School, it
was an opportunity not to be missed.
The Ragged School is situated in Ramsay Lane in the Old Town of Edinburgh, and adjoins the Camera Obscura Outlook Tower, close to the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. Established in 1847 by Dr
Thomas Guthrie, a preacher and reformer, it began by providing food and shelter for up to forty-five of the Old Town’s most destitute children. Homeless boys were taught carpentry and how to
make shoes, while girls were prepared for a suitable marriage. Dr Guthrie died in 1873, but the Ragged School continued well into the twentieth century, closing after the Second World War.
Thereafter, the building lay empty and largely forgotten until the Camera Obscura, itself founded in the Victorian era, was expanded. This would be our last chance to explore the building before
the renovation work began.