• Forums Software Updates

    The forums will be undergoing updates on Sunday 10th November 2024.
    Little to no downtime is expected.
  • We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
19,406
The page also contains lots of links off to other articles about these and related topics (and nifty resource):

The Grail, Jesus's children and Stone Age lasers: Scotland's madder myths

DIANE MACLEAN



SCOTLAND is a wonderful and unique place. Its majestic mountains and dramatic seascapes thrill the heart and capture the imagination.

However, the imaginations of some have attributed unique wonders to this land that those in the mainstream would shy away from.

For instance, did you know that Jesus Christ was Scottish? And Pontius Pilate? And King Arthur?

And, no, I am not referring to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which has its denouement in Scotland.

We Scots are not a boastful race. Reticence is spoon-fed to Scottish bairns along with their morning porridge. Which makes our propensity to make outrageous claims for our country somewhat bewildering.

So let's take a look at some of the more fantastic suggestions. You have two choices: Take everything you read with a pinch of salt (on second thought, make it a barrel) or suspend disbelief and go with it.

(All these theories have been graded with a probability factor between one and ten. This is purely an invention of scotsman.com, and we welcome any comments from people who disagree with our rating.)

King Arthur was a Scot

King Arthur (if he existed and wasn’t a composite of every heroic early medieval Lord), traditionally hailed from Cornwall or Wales. Didn’t he? Well, perhaps not. It could be that England’s saviour, who lies sleeping ready to wake in times of need, was actually a Scot.

Decide for yourself, with a look at the evidence:

Placenames: From Edinburgh's Arthur’s Seat and Stirling's Round Table to Falkirk’s Arthur’s Oven, hills, wells, waterfalls and valleys are named after Arthur. This must surely point to his being a Scot?

Battles: Nennius, the 8th century historian, called Arthur the "Duke of Battles", and specifies 13 fights where he appeared. There is a body of evidence that suggests that these battles took place in the north. The only properly documented battle occurred in Celidon, a Scottish wood.

Supporting cast: Sir Lancelot may have been a Pictish warrior, the son of the King of the Lothians. Equally, Gareth and Gawain, Knights of the Round Table, could have been the sons of the Earl of Orkney. Perthshire has a number of connections to Guinevere, or Guanhamara, a Pictish Queen.

Language: In the early part of the first millennium after the birth of Christ (of which more later), Edinburgh and the borders spoke P-Celtic, like the Welsh, not Q-Celtic like the Celts in the north of Scotland. Some scholars believe that in the 8th and 9th century several P-Celtic tribes from the Scottish Lowlands and Strathclyde migrated to Wales taking their memories of Arthur with them.

Merlin: The Borders are rife with Merlin placenames and mythology. There is a historical reference which places Myrddin (Merlin) in a 6th century battle – Arderydd, or Arthuret near the Solway Firth in 573 AD. It is implied that Merlin "went mad" from losing family and friends so fled to the forest. He lived there for the rest of his life, only emerging to prophesise and advise Arthur.

scotsman.com rating
3/10 - Well, gosh, it seems a bit circumstantial. Where's the body? We remain unconvinced on Arthur, bowing to the greater amount of stories in Welsh, but we concede there may be a chance that Merlin was a Scot.

The Stone of Destiny, aka Jacob's Pillow, is Scottish

Genesis, chapter 28, relates that Jacob rested his head on a stone and dreamt of the glory of God. When he woke he said "this stone, which I have set up as a sacred pillar shall be a house of God". This is the origin of Jacob's Pillow, or Jacob's Pillar.

There is a strong oral tradition in Irish that tells of the meeting between Moses and Gathelus, a Greek architect and husband of Scota, one of Pharaoh's daughters. Nennius (yes, him again…) writes of Gathelus's 42-year journey from Egypt to Ireland, bringing the stone with him. (A journey described in the Declaration of Arbroath.)

Later, when the Irish king Fergus travelled from Ireland to Argyll to help the Scots fight the Picts he took the stone with him, where it remained until it was snatched by Edward I. It remained in London until it was returned in 1996.

However, there is a persistent "rumour" that maintains the stone taken by Edward was not the right one, that Scots did not really try very hard to get it back and that the real stone of destiny, that rock-hard pillow of Jacob's, lies hidden somewhere in readiness for a time when it's needed.

scotsman.com rating
2/10 - We agree that the Stone of Destiny was brought over from Ireland. We also accede to the greater knowledge of the Irish medieval historians and their tracing of the stone to Gathelus. Our sticking point is the part where Moses gives Jacob's Pillow to Gathelus. We need a bit more convincing on that one.

Scotland is the Lost City of Atlantis

According to Comyns Beaumont's 19th century book Britain, the Key to World History, the Lost Civilisation of Atlantis is not in the Mediterranean, but right here in Scotland. His theory is complex and detailed, marrying the Bible with oral histories from around the world.

He looked at Homer, Plato and Heroditus as well as analysing "Flood Myths" around the world and came to the conclusion that Noah's flood and the catastrophic flooding that sunk Atlantis were one and the same.

Furthermore, Beaumont challenged the accepted placing of Atlantis. He maintained that Scotland was "the original domicile of the sons of Adam, who were the Titans or giants of classic fame as well as being the Atlanteans of Plato."

His theory is incredibly detailed but the main reasons for his conclusions are:

* There is no evidence of flooding in the Middle East.
* Geologists have found a massive lake under the Sea of Caithness – Shetland – possibly the one-time lagoon Lake Triton.
* In 584 BC land broke away from Norway causing a tsunami that submerged some of Scotland's east coast. This was, he claimed, the submerging of Atlantis.
* The Caledonian forest was home to boars, lions, bears and great white oxen called aurochs. A forest and these beasts are mentioned by Heroditus.

Beaumont's theory depends not so much on land evidence (although he offers plenty), but on a radical re-interpretation of the placing of Biblical tribes. Via a vastly convoluted route he claims that the most ancient race of men, the Phoenicians or Chaldeans or the "bronze" or "red" Aryan men, lived near Mount Atlas (Ben Mhor). They came from Scotland and travelled east only after the "great Catastrophe". So, for instance, the Faroes (itself an Erse word Faragh meaning chieftain) ended up in Egypt as the Pharaohs.

scotsman.com rating
2/10 - Beaumont gains two credibility points in recognition of the intricate research, inclusion of (possibly) verifiable land masses and overall for his stupendous turning around of known history, for example that far from outsiders populating Scotland after the big ice age, Scots (or Chaldeans, Phoenicians) actually left Scotland in the wake of the ice age/tsunami/disaster and populated the world. Awesome!

Jerusalem is actually Edinburgh

Old Comyns didn’t just stop at suggesting that Atlantis equalled Scotland, but by extension also went on to prove that Jerusalem was Edinburgh. How did he do this? Well he started off by taking as a given that Atlantis was Scotland, and for his supporting evidence claimed that the Palestinian Jerusalem simply did not conform to how the Bible describes it. Unlike Edinburgh, with its Mount of Olives (Arthur’s Seat), City of Zion (Edinburgh Castle) and port at Joppa.

The Catrail Wall was not built by the Picts, but by the Romans to keep the Jews in Edinburgh.

Furthermore, he looked at a number of Roman texts written at the time of the Jewish revolt against the Romans that show commanders from York being dispatched to quell the Jews. Surely, asks Comyns, this is simply untenable if Jerusalem really were in Palestine? It makes sense, however, if Jerusalem was only up the road in Edinburgh.

He supports his theory by proposing that the Catrail Wall was not built by the Picts, but by the Romans to keep the Jews in Edinburgh. He further maintains that when the Jews revolted again, Hadrian gave orders to destroy them and their city completely, leaving no trace. Later, when Constantine needed to resurrect a "new Jerusalem" for his own political reasons, he chose to locate it in Palestine.

scotsman.com rating
1/10 - We don’t know where to go with this. Having failed to accept the Atlantis theory we can’t easily embrace this one. And, yet, who amongst us hasn't driven through Joppa and wondered about its funny name?

Pontius Mac-Pilate

Another twist to the tale of re-appraising Biblical history comes with a story out of Fortingall in Perthshire. There is a strong oral tradition that Pontius Pilate, the man who sat in judgement on Jesus Christ, was actually born in Scotland. Unlikely? Well, as they say in the adverts: "Here’s the science bit."

Back in 10 BC Caesar Augustus was busy sending envoys across the Roman Empire trying to promote his latest great idea, the Pax Romana. Having successfully engaged with the British, according to one ancient chronicle, "ane short tyme eftir, the samyn ambassiatouris came to Metallanus, king of the Scottissmen" bringing jewels as the carrot to tempt the Scots towards peace, and soldiers as their stick.

So that’s the "science", now here’s the legend.

Metallanus, who resided at Fortingall, took his time to decide whether to adopt the Roman Peace. The Roman troops occupied themselves consorting with local women, one of whom became pregnant and later gave birth to a son, Pontius Pilate.

And that’s not all. Archie McKerracher in his book Perthshire in History and Legend makes a case for Pontius Pilate returning to Fortingall to die. He places Metallanus’s son, Mansuteus, in Rome at the same time as Pilate was living there after the Crucifixion. Wouldn’t it follow, posits McKerracher, that when the two met, Pilate was persuaded to come home to Scotland? How else do you explain the ancient burial stone in Fortingall bearing the initials PP?

scotsman.com rating
1/10 - Edzooks, what’s with all this oral history malarky, it strikes us as a bit thin. If we started a rumour today that Obi Wan Kenobi actually lived in Greenock, and told enough people about it, would that necessarily make it true? We don’t think so. We gave it one point in recognition that there are some facts mixed in there.

Jesus’s head, heart, blood, etc, are in Rosslyn Chapel

Unless you’ve slept through the furore surrounding the Da Vinci Code you must surely know the "mystery" surrounding Rosslyn Chapel. You ought to be familiar with that intrepid band of warrior knights, the Templars, and their productive digging underneath the Temple of Solomon. During their nine-year excavations of the temple their spade-work uncovered either:

* The Holy Grail (complete with drops of Christ’s blood).
* Jesus’s head.
* Documents which showed that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and she went on to carry their child/children.
* Dirt (but this doesn’t make for a very good novel).

Templar lore says that when they were rounded up by that greedy old King Philip IV of France some escaped with their treasure/knowledge to excommunicated Scotland - and to Rosslyn Chapel to be precise.

It is easy to see why Rosslyn has such enduring appeal for Grail hunters. It is a veritable cornucopia of grail symbolism. The most intense grail symbol is the rose, and boy does Rosslyn have roses.

For a start, it may sit on one of the telluric ley lines that criss-cross Scotland known as the "Rose Line". There are roses on the Apprentice pillar, there are roses pointing to the underground vault, there are roses round the Princess pillar.

Code-crackers spend hours, days, weeks staring at the carvings inside the chapel trying to work out what it all means. And they have come up with the following conclusions:

* The least bananas theory sees the remains of the "One True Cross" hidden in the vaults of Rosslyn.
* Dr Keith Laidler in his 1998 book The Head of God claims that Jesus's head is hidden in the apprentice pillar.
* Assorted grail-hunters have the Holy Grail hidden in the Apprentice pillar.
* And then there's the bloodline, a theory favoured by Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, which holds that all the intricate stonework is leading inescapably to the conclusion that the secret of Mary Magdalene and Jesus’s children is hidden within the very structure of the chapel.

scotsman.com rating
4/10 - We know that the evidence is half-baked, and we know that it seems unlikely, but …. scotsman.com is prepared to entertain the Gnostic Scrolls, and their positioning of Mary Magdalene at Jesus’s right hand, and maybe admit the conceivable possibility that she was married to Christ. And so we can squeeze out a tiny bit of sympathy to the idea that there is a bloodline and that the secret is encoded somewhere. We might be more willing to accept that the Templars brought something with them. And if it has to be anywhere, then why not this extraordinary and complex building?

Jesus holidayed in the Hebrides

Bible scholars have often asked: "What happened to Christ during his lost years?" Just where was he and what was he doing, because the Bible seems to have a big gap in its chronology? It has been suggested that he went to India where he is recorded as the Prophet Isa. And then there is the oral evidence that points to him visiting ... South Uist and the Isle of Skye. This is the theory put forward by Barry Dunford in his book The Holy Land of Scotland.

Henry Jenner, a keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum in London wrote in 1933 of a journey he took to the Hebrides. Jenner found it very curious that "there are a whole set of legends of the wanderings of the Holy Mother and Son in those Islands." He also came across an island off Skye known as the Isle of Isa – or the Island of Jesus. And as everyone knows, place names were given in response to real events.

On the surface it looks like a slim possibility, but perhaps if you put it in a much wider and older context it reveals itself as a possibility. There is a body of thought that believes Jesus's ancestors may have been of Celto-Hebraic origin, the early roots of which belonged in Caledonia. This theory rather intruigingly has Druidic thinking impacting on Christian practice. Central to this theory is the Island of Iona, which had been known as the Island of the Druids and was to find fame as a centre of Christian spiritualism.

If, then, the theory concludes, Jesus's forebears came from Scotland, isn’t it quite within the bounds of possibility that he returned to see where his great-great-great-great uncle was born?

scotsman.com rating
0/10 - This whole theory seems as thin as extra-thin, thin crust pizza, that has been cooked very thin. It is hard to believe that the ancient Scots were busy sailing around the world sharing religion and genes when back home everything seems so, well, primitive. Wouldn’t Scotland have been a very different place if we were indeed being subject to such a wealth of world culture?

Jesus's children were born in Iona

So then, Mary Magdalene, "the close companion of Jesus", escaped Jerusalem after the Crucifixion and ended up with Joseph of Arimathea in Britain. From there Mary is rumoured to have wandered up to Scotland. (Perhaps retracing the steps that Jesus took in his "holiday"?).
Stained-glass image of a heavily pregnant Mary. Kilmore Church, Isle of Mull. Picture: Courtesy <a href="http://www.buyimage.co.uk">www.buyimage.co.uk</a>

Stained-glass image of a heavily pregnant Mary. Kilmore Church, Isle of Mull. Picture: Courtesy www.buyimage.co.uk

To reach the conclusion that she had her child in Scotland, you need a great leap of faith (and not the sort of faith the Church would approve), because all of the evidence is based on the rich imagery in and around Scottish churches, some of which show Mary heavily pregnant. You also have to refer back to Rosslyn and embrace wholeheartedly the idea that it is a gigantic crossword puzzle leading to an explanation of the Davidic bloodline.

And why Iona? William Sharp wrote in his 19th century treatise The Isle of Dreams of an old prophecy that "Christ shall come again under Iona". This same prophesy suggests that Mary Magdalene would also be visiting the island, but as the "Bride of Christ".

scotsman.com rating
3/10 - We are not convinced about the whole Sinclair Clan being the line of Christ. But we are strangely perturbed by the church artwork that shows pregnant angels and a pregnant Mary. Pause for thought we think?

Ancient Scots had Weapons of Mass Destruction

When Arthur C Clarke was interviewed by the Guardian in 2004 he was asked what he thought was the biggest mystery that he had encountered. He replied: "The oddest thing is these vitrified forts in Scotland. I just thought, how the hell? After all, lasers were not common in the Stone Age."

There are around 100 vitrified forts around the world, with over half in Scotland. They were built on strategic locations, and the stones were heated to such high temperatures that they fused together.

When Clarke’s team tried to recreate the vitrification process they concluded that the amount of heat needed to vitrify rocks was equivalent to an atomic bomb.

The ancient Indian epic, The Mahabharata, gives very precise details of "flying machines" that were used by the Indians thousands of years ago. They travelled great distances, and tellingly, these flying machines were said to possess incredibly powerful firearms.

The epic explains a hideous war that took place between the Indians and the Atlanteans, possessors of flying machines. They both used weapons of destruction, The Mahabharata notes: "[the weapon was] a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death."

In other words, they had firearms with the power of an atomic bomb. Enough to vitrify stones. Is it possibly that the vitrified forts of Scotland are the remnants of some cataclysmic war between the Indians and the Atlanteans, a war that wiped out all traces except for the remains of the forts?

scotsman.com rating
9/10 - That’s it, we’re converts! It all makes sense! We believe in the forts - if Arthur C Clarke says it's amazing, we believe it - so by extension we also buy Atlantis/Scotland. We believe in it all!


-----------------------
This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=41772005

Last updated: 14-Feb-05 12:10 GMT

Source
 
lovely peice and yes we realy do claim alot of these stories are true.

As a young child i was deeply confused about how a Scotsman would be centesing Jesus :)
 
my spelling again...

I remeber the King Arther one doing the rounds too but obviously not at home as ours was a fundamentalist Catholic household ;)
 
Thu 2 Jun 2005

Beasties, banshees and behemoths

DIANE MACLEAN

SCOTLAND holds a deep attraction for strange creatures. They may be impressed with the scenery or perhaps they relish the sometimes dour temperament of the locals. Whatever the case, you would be forgiven for thinking that Scotland’s mountains and glens are filled with a monstrous pot-pourri of beastliness.

Giants, it would seem, have roamed our countryside for thousands of years. A large number of place names are associated with these greedy, boastful and altogether disreputable fellows. Achaglachgach in Fetlar, Shetland Islands, boasts giant graves, and they are also thought to be buried beneath Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian.

Indeed, if you buy into the whole giant thing, then you will not be surprised to hear that the standing stones on the Isle of Lewis are not ancient neolithic ruins, but actually giants turned to stone by St Kieran in the sixth century. (This would make a more convincing story if St Kieran had actually visited Lewis or indeed even set foot on Scottish soil.)

Our next candidate in our rogues' gallery of ghastliness may be a giant or could be something altogether different. The Grey Man of MacDhui our very own yeti - or big-foot - can be found striding the hilltops of Ben MacDhui in the Cairngorms scaring the daylights out of climbers.

Although there have been whispers of something big in the hills for centuries, the first properly recorded sighting was by a Professor Norman Collie from the department of Organic Chemistry at the University of London – clearly no flipperty-gibbet sees spooks in the shadows type. While he was out walking in 1891, Collie heard footsteps following him. Not any old footsteps either, but judging by the time-span between footfalls, a colossus. He saw nothing but was overcome by a sense of terror.

This feeling, along with the sound of footsteps, has been felt by many a walker on the lonely hills. An actual figure was seen by the mountaineer AM Kellas, whilst the Honorary Sheriff George Duncan insists he saw the Grey Man in 1914, curiously wearing a top hat and a robe – much like himself. So it's not possible the sheriff just saw his own shadow then is it?
So how exactly did the Callanish standing stones get on the Isle of Lewis - by very tall men?

If huge giant things roaming the Scottish hills were not enough, we have also had to contend with huge dragon things too. If you had been around in the 12th century you could have visited the Linton Worm who lived in a hollow outside Jedburgh on Linton Hill in the Scottish Borders (still called Worms Den to this day). The dragon terrorised the country, eating cattle and generally making a nuisance of himself. He was finally dispatched at the point of a peat-coated lance by a courageous - some would say reckless - lad called Sommerville of Larison. There have been no more dragon-sightings since. Well, for now.

Bringing up the rear in our tale of terrors is an assorted bag of hags. They can be best described as wild women and old crones who roam the countryside with mayhem in their wake.

There is the banshee with her one nostril, projecting front tooth and webbed feet, who wails and laments as she sits by the river washing the clothes of a man doomed to die. Then there is the Baobhan Sith, an evil spirit who appears either as a hooded crow or as a beautiful girl who quite sensibly wears a long flowing green dress in order to hide her deer's hooves. If you're male and you meet this young lady, then you will be in for a mixed bag of pleasures as she first dances you off your feet (great!), then sucks your blood (not so great!). Oddly, given their penchant for blood, they are not overly keen on iron.

So if you are still minded to go traipsing over the heather of an evening, then you'd be well advised to carry something metal. Or eat a lot of spinach. That would leave them with a nasty taste in their mouths.

This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=605112005

Last updated: 02-Jun-05 12:19 GMT
 
Thu 9 Jun 2005

The Corryvreckan whirlpool

DIANE MACLEAN

IT WOULD be amusing to draw a map of Scotland in the style of an ancient 16th-century cartographer. Pen and ink sketches would indicate where fairies and giants live. Lochs would be home to monsters and our seas filled with mermaids. To top the whole thing off you could even draw a great big swirling whirlpool showing a ship being dragged down into its watery depths.

Whilst there are few people who would suggest that fairies and monsters exist outside of this rather fantastical map of Scotland, you may be surprised to learn that everyone - even the Royal Navy - acknowledge the existence of one of these ancient mysteries. Because, on the west coast of Argyll, just off the Isle of Jura is a terrifying natural phenomenon.

You can hear the Corryvreckan whirlpool from ten miles away. Among the largest whirlpools in the world, it is caused by the intersection of tidal pathways which collide undersea round a 200-metre pinnacle of rock. Water rushes upwards causing enormous waves to rise up in the middle of the Sound of Jura and, if conditions are right, the whirlpool bursts into action. The Royal Navy considers it to be one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the British Isles and it is alleged to have taken many lives, including that of the man the whirlpool is said to be named.

Legend has it that a young Viking prince named Breacan asked for the hand in marriage of the Lord of the Isles's daughter. To win her hand, the young man had to hold his boat steady in the whirlpool for three days, in true "Once upon a time" style. He asked his father's wise men for advice and was told to gather three ropes - one of wool, one of hemp and the other woven from the hair of the pure maidens of the village. As our young hero was something of a looker, the women rushed to his aid.

The wool rope broke his first night in the whirlpool. The hemp rope went on the second. And disaster struck on the third night when the hair rope snapped too. It transpired that one of the young maidens who had donated her hair had previously forsaken her honour. For the want of her virtue, Breacan was drowned.

Further reading

"George Orwell: A Life" by Bernard Crick; Little, Brown and Company, 1980

Whilst the story of poor Breacan cannot be verified, one sailor has had his encounter with the whirlpool witnessed and recorded. In 1947 Eric Blair was on Jura writing a novel. Tiring of the rigours of fiction writing, he decided to go for a sail with his nieces and nephews. Having just sailed out, they ran into an angry Corryvreckan. The boat was tossed about and the outboard motor was ripped off. Fearing for the lives of his young relations, Blair grabbed the oars and struck out for land. When the oars were lost and the boat was sucked under, he battled to reach a small rocky island, barely managing to rescue his three-year-old nephew as the boat flipped over.

Fortunately they were rescued by a lobster boat. Had they perished then Eric Blair - or George Orwell as he is better known - would never have returned to Jura and completed his novel 1984 and Big Brother would have remained unwritten.

Since then there have been some rather grand claims made on behalf of the whirlpool. Some writers in recent times have been troubled with the setting of Homer's epic novel The Odyssey. A couple of startling re-appraisals of Odysseus's travels have re-set the voyage far from the Mediterranean and nearer the North Atlantic.
Water on the seabed is forced upwards when it hits submerged rocks, causing huge waves</br> Picture: Gemini Cruises

Water on the seabed is forced upwards when it hits submerged rocks, causing huge waves Picture: Gemini Cruises

Edo Nyland, in his book Odysseus and the Sea People, lines up an impressive list of sources to give weight to his theory that all the action was far west of Greece. Plutarch, Tacitus and Dante are just a sample of the big-hitters he calls on to pitch for his theory that the journey was set in Ireland and the west coast of Scotland. Integral to our story though, is his conclusion that if you follow Homer's tale to where Odysseus was bewitched by Siren songs (Hebridean women waulking the heather on Iona, according to Nyland.), he reached the whirlpool of Charybdis. Nyland looks at tides and charts, cliffs and dimensions of all sorts of technical matters and concludes that Charybdis is no more, nor less than Corryvreckan.

Such a revisionist theory of a Greek classic needs looking into, or would if any academic thought Nyland's whirlpool theory held any, well, water. But it seems unlikely to gather serious research, if Dr Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart at Edinburgh University is anything to go by.

"Brilliantly mad", he says, before heading off laughing to reconsider his classics degree.

--------------------------------
This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=630222005

Last updated: 09-Jun-05 11:19 GMT
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Scotland is home to some weird places

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1692272005

It's strange but true: Scotland is home to some weird places

MICHAEL BLACKLEY


SCOTLAND is home to some of the weirdest phenomena in Britain, according to
a magazine devoted to strange and mysterious occurrences.
With a history of Celts, fairies, standing stones, ghosts, mermaids and a
host of other phenomena, Scotland is the ultimate place to satisfy curiosity
about the paranormal, says the Fortean Times.
The 600-year old Rosslyn Chapel, six miles from Edinburgh, was identified as
one of the most mysterious places in Scotland, achieving even greater
prominence since the release of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel The Da Vinci
Code.
Among the other favourite weird places are the Flannan Isles lighthouse, off
the Western Isles, where the unexplained disappearance of three keepers
inspired a classic Wilfrid Wilson Gibson poem and an episode of Doctor Who;
Munton in Benbecula, where it is believed mermaids reside; and Bonnybridge,
now twinned with Roswell in New Mexico because of the number of UFO
sightings at both.
Gordon Rutter, who researched weird phenomena for the magazine, said:
"Scotland is definitely weirder than some of the other places in Britain.
For Scotland, it was really difficult to choose what to include because
there was so much."
Rosslyn Chapel has already seen visitor numbers almost double in one year,
to over 68,000 in 2004, and visitors could flock in even greater numbers
when it is turned into "the Cathedral of Codes" in the film version of
Brown's book, starring Tom Hanks and due to start filming in September.
The magazine also features the famous Electric Brae in Ayrshire, where cars
left in neutral appear to roll uphill; Glamis Castle in Grampian, reputedly
home to a shape-shifting lizard; and the city of Edinburgh, with its wealth
of ghosts.
According to Mr Rutter, more locations in Scotland could take advantage of
the benefits of a spooky past.
Edinburgh hosted its first ever ghost festival earlier this year, and ghost
walks are always popular.
Mr Rutter said: "There are some beautiful and romantic locations in
Scotland, and often there are equally beautiful and romantic stories to go
along with them. There's little doubt that ghosts are big business."

Gordon
 
going to isle of whithorn at end of august-anything interesting in the area?
 
Nanny Ogg said:
going to isle of whithorn at end of august-anything interesting in the area?
Well come August there will be a sighting of Nanny Ogg - a very Fortean event itself and one not to be missed!
It's jolly close to Wigtown which should be checked out for it's masssive range of bookshops, also close by are many locations used in the making of the Wicker Man.
The church contains the body of Saint Martin, the ruined church stands close to the the site of the first Christian church in Scotland sometime at the end of 4th and start of 5th century. This early church was founded by St Ninian and his cave where he used to go an think is signposted.
Claims to be most southern village in Scotland as well as the longest continually inhabitated area of Scotland! The castle is one of the last built in Scotland and is still occupied.
Former site of lots of smuggling.
Various info here www.isleofwhithorn.com
Enjoy
Gordon
 
Re The Corryvreckan whirlpool, as posted by Emps. above

This curious story about Blair alias Orwell is a nearly exact replica of the events at the climax of Michael Powell's film "I know where I'm going."

The fiction appears to have prefigured the facts, since the fillum came out in 1945. Still, I'm not inclined to believe anything about Orwells or Blairs at face value. :?
 
Mysterious Perthshire

Dec 5 2006


LUNCARTY author Geoff Holden launches his new book, ‘The Guide to Mysterious Perthshire’, in the AK Bell Library, Perth, this evening.

The book is a guide to matters supernatural, paranormal, eccentric, interesting and odd about Perthshire, illustrated with the author's own photographs. The 192 pages include an introduction to many of the county’s archaeological curiosities and religious symbols, plus tales of ghosts, fairies, freak weather and strange deaths.

The launch at 7pm will include the premiere of the video of the same name by Geoff, who two years ago wrote and produced a popular six-part series, Mysterious Scotland, for ITV.

The event will feature Geoff talking about his top 10 weird places to visit in Perthshire, and there will be an opportunity to quiz him about all things peculiar and paranormal.

The paperback, The Guide to Mysterious Perthshire, is published by Tempus, priced £14.99.

For launch tickets call 01738 477016 or e-mail [email protected]

Source

www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Mysterious-Perth ... 75244140X/
 
Loving this thread!

I have often wondered how I ended up so--well, odd. ;) Now I think I have my answer.

It's all them Scottish ancestors of mine.

Mad as hatters LOL! :lol:

P.S. Anything surpassingly strange about the Isle of Arran--home to some of said Scottish ancestors? :p
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
The event will feature Geoff talking about his top 10 weird places to visit in Perthshire, and there will be an opportunity to quiz him about all things peculiar and paranormal.

The paperback, The Guide to Mysterious Perthshire, is published by Tempus, priced £14.99.

I'm up there at Crimbo, I'll watch out for the book, there's quite a few stone circles and a cursus up there, and I'd bet the Birnam Oak gets a look in. Wonder if he covers the Devil at Dunkeld manse folk story....
 
Me and my friends are thinking of exploring Lawers this Christmas after reading the article in the most recent FT, it should be good fun and I believe that's in Perthshire. I'm definitely going to pick up that book, although I live nearer to Glasgow now ;)
 
Eynhallow. My favourite story of strange Scotland

"On Saturday, July 14, 1990, an outing, organised by the Orkney Heritage Society and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, landed a number of ferry passengers on the uninhabited island of Eynhallow for a short visit.

As usual the crew counted the number of passengers upon disembarking. Eighty-eight visitors stepped from the boat and onto the soil of the once magical island.

According to the evidence from the crew, only 86 returned.

These two missing passengers sparked off a massive air and sea search. Men from the local police and coastguard scoured the island as well as the coastlines of the islands nearby.

To no avail. In the air a helicopter dispatched by the Shetland Coastguard swept the area with their heat-sensing equipment but nothing was found.

Needless to say the whole incident was blamed on the ferry crew miscounting the number of passengers but at the time the Chief Inspector of the Kirkwall Police was not so sure. "We have corroborative statements from the crew Members...it's a strange one." he said."

From here
 
Moooksta said:
Eynhallow. My favourite story of strange Scotland
...
As usual the crew counted the number of passengers upon disembarking. Eighty-eight visitors stepped from the boat and onto the soil of the once magical island.

According to the evidence from the crew, only 86 returned.
From here
i've worked on pleasure/ferry boats, and on occasion we had to count passengers to ensure we weren't exceeding our permitted numbers - we had a little 'clicker' for the purpose.

no doubt errors could be made, but i still find this story fascinating.
 
The Eynhallow story reminds me of one that I read several years ago about some lighthouse men disappearing from a remote island off the Scottish coast and that the island was considered a cursed or otherwise uncanny place. I cannot remember the name of the island or many of the other details, has anyone else heard of this?
 
Back
Top