This graveyard is a very peaceful one, snuggling between the river and the old town of Callander, the Parish church is long gone. But there is a small building in the old graveyard wall, that tells a gruesome story. Not by day but by night. Callander old kirkyard once was haunted by very creepy... Continue Reading →
mortsafes in Logierait churchyard, Perthshire Considering things from a 21st century point of view it seems rather obvious: few things in life are as safe as a dead body. Who would want to steal a corpse? These days probably very few people. It is nothing really you can sell anywhere and where there is no... Continue Reading →
But what if it wasn’t?? This is the story of Donald Robertson who died at the age of 63 and was put to rest at Cross Kirk Cemetery in Eshaness on Shetland. So far there is nothing sinister or intriguing about the story. It was the year 1848, a time for fascinating discoveries in medicine,... Continue Reading →
Funeral rites are sombre, grave and placid; at least in most European countries they are. Scotland can be a very different matter when it comes to burying the dead. Funerals are sometimes full of humour, drink and the sharing of reminiscences with a smile. In Petty, just about 7 miles outside Inverness, the mourners would... Continue Reading →
Entering Inverness from the South, the traveller passes a small, wooded hill with a peculiar shape that rises steep behind the Caledonian Canal: Tomnahurich. A large burial ground with old graves on the hill and newer ones circling it. Nothing spectacular seems to hide behind the high gates of Tomnahurich. For those who do not... Continue Reading →
“Bar the door and burn the church down.” murmured the MacDonald through the sound of singing, that oozed through the walls of the little church. The sun was out, the wind forcefully as ever, making the long haired raiders look even more fierce. They held their weapons ready, at the back of the church, away... Continue Reading →
It was a cold and cloudy morning in the beginning of October 1942. Few men had remained in the village of Lower Breakish. The war wore heavy on the people of Skye. They did not know what waited for them at the beaches of the island. They did not know, what they would soon have... Continue Reading →
There is no trace of Kildonan on Google Maps to be found. If you know where to look (57.865564,-5.235921), you can see the outlines of what used to be houses and barns. Kildonan is gone because the people of Kildonan had to go. How hard and frugal their lives must have been. Cold and desolate... Continue Reading →
But when the melancholy fit shall fall Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all, And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Ode on Melancholy, John Keats (1795 - 1821), The Oxford Book of English Verse If you love Keats, Shelley and Byron you surely must love graveyards.... Continue Reading →
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