Strange Tales of Scotland all deal with a particular aspect of Scottish mysteries.
You'll learn of the ghost that appeared at the wedding of King Alexander II, and of monsters such as the Shellycoat and Water-horse that were thought to inhabit Scotland’s lochs.
Another part deals exclusively with Loch Ness, and the strange happenings at that mysterious body of water. Later, we have a look at the mysterious deaths at the Flannan Islands Lighthouse, and at the strange creatures that were once believed to infest the hills and glens of Scotland, including the terrifying brollachan and the slaugh.
Tales of Mermaids and Fin-men are unearthed, as are terrible stories of Scotland’s caves, including human sacrifice at Moray’s Sculptor’s Cave. The legends of Roslin Chapel and its nearby castle are examined, with the possible connection to the Knights Templar.
Finally, we have a look at the legend of the phantom armies of Scotland; soldiers who refuse to fade away even centuries after their wars have been fought, and their causes faded in history.
Welcome to the Strange Tales of Scotland.
Bestselling author's pseudonym.
This small book has stories of the unusual, the bizarre and the just plain creepy. Some are old, some are fairly modern and some contain elements of both. They have nothing much in common except that, at one time or other, people have believed them.
Scotland can be a strange country, even today, with what is unusual elsewhere being commonplace here. Intricately carved Pictish Stones sit in churchyards or beside the road; stone circles erupt from moorland or fields, mysterious brochs exist nowhere else except Scotland and until recently farmers left a corner of their fields severely alone.
These were the Devil’s or Gudeman’s Crofts although the tradition probably extended further back in time than any belief in the antithesis of Jesus Christ. Most of these corners were merely left neglected but in some places there were strict ceremonies. For example in Corgarff, high in Aberdeenshire, there were two such places, each surrounded by a protective dry-stane dyke. On the First of April these areas were anointed with milk, which prevented the devil from entering the house, barn or byre. Neither the farmer, or his wife, horse nor cattle were advised to cross this unhallowed piece of land in peril of invoking bad luck.
