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Maggie Wall's Everlasting Paint-Job

Spookdaddy

Spookdaddy

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This monument was mentioned in FT 155. I was reminded of the story when I read in Timothy Taylor’s book The Buried Soul that Myra Hindley had been photographed posing next to it. According to the article, which is lifted from The Scotsman, the “white paint is fresh, and it will remain so. A photograph taken 100 years ago shows the lettering already there. A wreath is regularly left with a card and has been for as long as anyone can remember. No-one in Dunning seems to know who is responsible…”

Does anyone know anything else about it. I’m fascinated by stories like this which imply the continuity of a particular activity over a long period of time. It reminds me of another thread somewhere about Poe’s grave.

I am prepared to be disappointed though. The Scotsman also reported a few years back on the alleged photograph of a ghost peering out of a window in Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh which, if they had bothered doing the exhaustive couple of minutes research which I did, they would have found out was in fact a bust sitting on a window ledge.
 
Although most references I can find imply that the monument was built to commemorate Maggie Wall I suspect that it was actually there well before she was executed.
 
I've the snap of Hindley sitting on the stones. It's fenced off now so it would be a little harder to ghoulishly repeat the pose.

............er.......... :oops:

Not that such an idea ever crossed my mind.
 
This reminds me of a local story I heard a few years ago about a ruined house and gardens in the Derbyshire Peak District. I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember where this is exactly, or the name of the hall, but apparently, the story goes, one of the sons of the family married a mysterious Spanish woman, in the 1800's, whilst on 'The Grand Tour' of Europe - obligatory for the sons of gentry back then. He brought her home to the family seat where she is said to have pined away from unhappiness and homesickness. There is also some mention of a buried scandal - an affair, or illegitimate child - I can no longer remember details.

The local legend goes that, after the unfortunate woman died, the husband married again. His first wife was laid to rest in the family graveyard, which is actually within the grounds of this abandoned ruin, and to this day, someone (nobody knows who) lays fresh flowers on her grave on a regular basis.

We often used to walk the grounds, as it's a great place to explore, and the terrain is extremely challenging in parts. The rhodedendrons now run utterly wild, some as huge as trees, and it is very easy to lose one's bearings. You stumble onto the graveyard quite unexpectedly, and it is quite an atmospheric place. Someone must have a very strong attachment to the Spanish woman who lies buried there, as to actually reach the spot takes quite a feat of walking and scrambling these days

Of course, it may merely be an urban legend, but it's a pretty one......
 
Hecate. You might be thinking of the ruins of Erwood Hall which are about six miles from where I'm writing this. If you are, the story of the Spanish Lady is a lot more mundane than the one you remember. She was actually a very well-loved governess who died and was buried in the family cemetery.

Having said that the atmosphere and landscape at Erwood give the whole place a mysterious air and it's not surprising that stories get made up or exaggerated to suit the surroundings. I walk over those moors a lot and I have seen flowers in the deserted cemetery. When I was younger the story was that one of the family was buried in a glass coffin. The family name was Grimshaw - a very suitable name for a Victorian ghost story.

Incidentally Alan Garner used the overgrown grounds of Erwood Hall in The Moon of Gomrath.
 
Spook; Of course! That was the name of the place!! Many thanks for reminding me!

This is what makes urban legends so fascinating though, the way a story becomes subtly different with each telling, with little details added (or overlooked) That was the way the story came to me, but I'm glad there was a modicum of truth in there somewhere!

It's ages since we spent time in the Peak District, and we've always found it a very atmospheric place - Shining Tor and The Winking Man are two places that spring to mind. We intend to try and get back there this summer, taking the bicycles to explore a little more of the Tissington Trail!
 
The link in Post #1 is long dead. Here is the caption and the image from the originally linked webpage.

The Witch
Whilst travelling from Dunning to Gleneagles on a side road at the northern foot of the Ochil Hills, we came across this simple monument to the unfortunate Maggie Wall.
The fresh white paint on this pile of stones reads "Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a Witch". I know nothing else of the events that lead up to this burning but it is nice to see that this simple monument has been erected and maintained so that Maggie's name lives on, whilst her Persecutors lie forgotten except for their ignorance.
Click to expand...

witch.JPG

​
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050321062815/http://www.scottishscenery.org.uk/witch.html
 
I've gone past this memorial at least a couple of times every year for the last 4 decades.

Key Fortean factoids include:

- there is no known contemporary record of a witch named Maggie Wall ever having been burned at the stake (and I understand that records from that era, counter-intuitively, are quite accurate; for the whole of Scotland)

- some authorities claim that there are no records of this marker existing (as marked) prior to the early 1900s (or later- I will try and provide more details on this point)

- opinions differ as to whether the periodic repainting is really being done by an unknown agent in the night, or is just an overt action on the part of an adjacent (and appropriate) local citizen

There are further aspects of note, which I'll try to trawl from my own memory and from elsewhere. And I will say- the atmosphere around the painted monument has always been dark and horrible
 
This extensive article from a 2010 issue of Scotland Magazine:

http://www.scotlandmag.com/magazine/issue53/12009840.html

... provides a number of reasons to doubt the monument pre-dates the 18th or 19th century.

For example, certain stonework on the monument wasn't done as early as the 17th century, and some features are claimed to be no older than the 19th century.
 
I know this monument well having driven past many, many times as I live in Perthshire. During a previous job I’d often park up and eat my lunch there when I was out and about. But I never knew the Moors Murders connection until about 3 months ago when I stumbled across the photos of Myra Hindley there online. Put a right chill up my spine, that did.
 
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