Scottish birds of the Devil feature prominently in folklore where nature and the infernal blur. While many birds were cast as divine messengers, others were marked by a darker inheritance. Across Scotland, these Scottish birds of the Devil were believed to carry a...
St Donan stands as one of the most violent and haunting martyrdoms in early Scottish history. His death, recorded in early annals and later tradition, reveals a rare moment when missionary work in Scotland met brutal resistance. As a result, his story belongs firmly...
The Scottish Clearances still haunt the landscape and memory of Scotland. As a student, I travelled to Bettyhill in the far north on a residential field trip. It did not take long before locals began sharing stories of McKenzie’s Ghost. The restless spirit was said to...
Drummossie Moor, otherwise known as Culloden Moor, is a cold, desolate place. A relentless cold wind tugs at the flags which delineate the battle lines on the site of the last pitched battle to be fought on British soil. It is a cold wind which seeps deep into your...
Saint Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney, is an old building. By 1919, it was in urgent need of some restoration work. On the 31st of March 1919, the renovators discovered some ashlar stones were loose on one of the pillars in the South Choir Arcade. They...
The haunted castles of Caithness stand on Scotland's far northern coast. Here, salt, wind, and isolation join forces with bloody history, unrequited love, and violence. On the clifftops of Caithness, life existed in the raw. Death was never far away, and in some...