Funeral rites are sombre, solemn and restrained – at least in most European countries. Scotland, however, can be a very different matter when it comes to burying the dead. Funerals here have sometimes been accompanied by humour, drink and the sharing of memories with a smile.
In Petty, just seven miles outside Inverness, mourners once did something rather more unusual: they ran as fast as they could – with the coffin on their shoulders.
Nearby stands Castle Stuart, completed by James Stuart, 3rd Earl of Moray, in 1625. Abandoned not long afterwards, it lay derelict for some 300 years before eventually being restored and turned into a luxury hotel, with a golf course nearby. Just over a mile from the old baronial tower house lies the graveyard of the parish of Petty.
And this is where the people of Petty used to run with their dead.
Castle Stuart, Petty
A custom that nearly ended in disaster
The custom survived until 1841, when it was finally abandoned after the bearers nearly dropped a coffin – reportedly that of an old woman who had been feared as a witch.
Until then, though, the people of Petty ran. They ran sweating and breathless, carrying their coffins towards the graveyard.
The custom became known as the Petty Step.
Why the mourners ran
Behind it lay an old belief: the spirit of the last person buried in the graveyard was condemned to haunt the place until the next funeral arrived. Understandably, nobody wanted such a fate for a relative or friend.
Then one day, there were two funerals in Petty at the same time.
Two coffins were being carried towards the graveyard. One funeral party began to quicken its pace. The other tried to keep up – and then to overtake. The first party hurried even faster.
Before long, a funeral procession had turned into a race.
Neither group wanted its dead to arrive second. Neither wanted their loved one to become the spirit left guarding the graveyard.
No one seems to know which party won.
When time ran out for Petty
Today, nobody runs to Petty graveyard anymore. The old church and the neighbouring mausoleum of the Mackintoshes stand neglected and inaccessible.
Time, it seems, has finally run out for Petty.
Enjoyed this story?
You’ll find many more strange, fascinating, funny and sometimes dark tales from Scotland’s past in my book Scotland for Quiet Moments. Collected over years of researching Graveyards of Scotland – often with the help of wonderfully peculiar 18th- and 19th-century travel books – these are stories of murderers and poets, fairies and wolves, forgotten places, famous Scots and people history has almost left behind.
Not every story takes place in a graveyard. But somehow, they all seem to end in one.
Discover Scotland for Quiet Moments on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/06Rch8v9
Graveyards of Scotland 
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