Haunted Scotland (21 page)
Authors: Roddy Martine
Tags: #Europe, #Unexplained Phenomena, #Social Science, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Travel, #Great Britain, #Supernatural, #Folklore & Mythology, #History
In the process of writing
Haunted Scotland
and its predecessor,
Supernatural Scotland
, I have vigorously interrogated almost everyone I know on the subject of the paranormal. For
this I ask their forgiveness but, having done so, I am still not sure that I am personally any the wiser.
Ghosts, phantoms, poltergeists, time-slips, second sight, reincarnation, witchcraft, curses, demons and guardian angels, tales of terror and dread have been handed down from father to son, from
mother to daughter. There is nothing we enjoy more than jumping at our own shadows. It seems that our appetite for dread of the unknown is insatiable.
Yet why should we be alarmed by the intangible? If there is nothing there, there is nothing to fear. If there is something there, it has to be there for a reason.
And if we fail to take a grip on our imaginations we can end up in all kinds of trouble, literally frightening ourselves to death.
Consider, for example, an event which took place in the autumn of 1810, when 326 cavalry officers, 800 artillery, and 1,158 infantrymen were stationed in an army camp beside the town of
Haddington, in East Lothian.
Among the first to occupy the barracks were the 25th, or Sussex Regiment, and it was a trivial dispute between two of its officers, Captain Hugh Blair Rutherford and Doctor Cahill, that led to
the ensuing tragedy.
Although nobody could remember afterwards what the two men had quarrelled about, neither was prepared to back down for fear of loss of face. A duel was therefore fought and the
twenty-four-year-old Captain Rutherford mortally wounded. Great remorse was shown over his demise, and his funeral, which took place in the graveyard of St Martin’s Chapel in Haddington, was
largely attended.
St Martin’s Chapel, it should be explained, was located in close proximity to the army barracks and although it had been largely destroyed during the Reformation, its graveyard was where
the soldiers were then interred when they died of either natural causes or sheer tedium.
Greatly distressed, Captain Rutherford’s fellow officers congregated after the burial to discuss what had occurred. Copious quantities of wine were consumed and a ghoulish wager struck in
which Lieutenant Gray, infuriated that his close friend had risen to the challenge in the first place, agreed to return to the graveyard at midnight to plunge his dagger into his comrade’s
grave in protest.
Wrapped in a large military cloak, the lieutenant set off into the night. Hours passed until eventually his friends, becoming concerned as to his welfare, went in search
of him. As they crossed the River Tyne, the black silhouette of the ruined chapel loomed against the monochrome sky. They could see no sign of movement but when they entered the graveyard with
their torches, they found Lieutenant Gray’s lifeless body hunched over their comrade’s burial plot.
What was even more terrifying was that when they attempted to lift him, his body refused to budge. It was as if it had been stapled to the ground.
And only then did it become apparent that the intoxicated Gray had plunged his dagger into the ground up to the hilt through the material of his cloak. In his agitation, the young lieutenant had
inadvertently skewered himself onto the ground and, in so doing, convinced himself that he was being held down by some supernatural power. Despite his young age, the shock had caused him to have a
massive heart attack.
Or had it? We shall never know. Today, the burial ground of St Martin’s Chapel, flanked by Whittingehame Drive and overlooked by the modern housing of Bullet Loan, has long vanished
beneath a swathe of grass. On the hour of midnight, nevertheless, a cloaked figure has from time to time been sighted vanishing into the roofless chapel choir.
All of us are susceptible to fear, but God forbid we share the fate of the luckless Lieutenant Gray. Fear, however, is what encourages us to search for reasons beyond our
reach; to provide rational explanations for the irrational; to give names to the shadows in the gloom. Inevitably, I have strayed into territories in my research that I would have preferred not to.
If trifled with, the realms of parapsychology and the psychic can be exceedingly dangerous.
Once the imagination kicks into play, its inventive power is unlimited and
irrevocable. It is irresponsible to trifle with fragility. Telepathy moves objects; transfers thought and bends metal. Willpower transcends opposition.
One day science will reveal all, but until then it is important to retain an intelligent equilibrium on the subject. A sense of humour also helps, if only to lighten the burden.
Scotland, as I observed earlier, lends itself uncompromisingly to the occult and paranormal. Superstition is embedded deep in our multicultural, multi-faith psyche. In my investigations I have
attempted to remain non-judgemental throughout, allowing anecdotes and incidents to speak for themselves, and throwing in a few of my own encounters with the inexplicable.
But if I have discovered anything on my adventures it is that answers are elusive. Opinions are contradictory. After at least 3,000 years of human intelligence, nobody has as yet successfully
made the breakthrough into the conundrum of parallel worlds.
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