Scottish Folk Tales (Part Four)

Here’s another (and probably my last) folk tales blog, although I am intending to include more folk tales in my monthly newsletters.

A TALE FROM GREYFRIARS KIRKYARD, EDINBURGH

The graveyard at Greyfriars Kirk is a really interesting and atmospheric place to visit, and abounds with stories of hauntings. There are ghost tours of the city that include the graveyard, and a tale often told is one of Sir George Mackenzie, whose mausoleum is in the kirkyard.

Sir George Mackenzie

He was appointed as Lord Advocate by the king and took part in the brutal suppression of the rebel Covenanters in the late 17^th century. The Covenanters rebelled against the established church, and in 1679 were comprehensively defeated in a battle called Bothwell Brig. Several thousand Covenanters refused to swear allegiance to the king, and were imprisoned in a small area of Greyfriars Kirkyard. Over the winter months, as well as suffering from the extremely bitter whether, which killed some of them, as the area they were imprisoned in was outdoors, numbers of them were beheaded, tortured, transported and starved, at the behest of Mackenzie. It’s not surprising that he was nicknamed ‘Bloody Mackenzie’ by them, a name that has stuck.

When he died he was buried in the same kirkyard the prisoners had been held in, and in which many of them were also buried, having failed to survive their imprisonment. It was said that he died ‘wasted by fountains of blood continually issuing from all parts’, which was held to be proof of divine punishment for his brutality.

The Mackenzie Mausoleum (Att: Kim Traynor)

It seems that in spite of all this his spirit rested. In spite of mischievous schoolboys in the nineteenth century knocking on his tomb and inviting him to come out if he dared, he didn’t oblige them. His tomb was once used as a hiding place by a boy on the run from the police. His friends brought him food until he could get passage on a ship and escape. He was presumably more afraid of his sentence than of lying with the desiccated corpse of the brutal tormentor!

All stayed quiet, until in 1998 a homeless man broke into the mausoleum. He ransacked the tomb, which holds a number of bodies as well as Mackenzie’s, and broke open a number of the caskets, possibly hoping to find jewellery buried with the corpses. While trying to open one of the caskets, the floor gave way and he fell into one of the plague pits which was beneath the mausoleum. It was full of the bodies of plague victims, and due to the conditions, many of them had not rotted away completely. Horrified by the number of bodies, and the stench, the man ran screaming from the mausoleum and wasn’t seen again.

The following day a woman was blasted off the steps by a cold force as she tried to peep inside the mausoleum, and soon after another woman was found unconscious at the entrance, covered in bruises and partially strangled. Since then there have been hundreds of sightings of ghostly attacks on people visiting the tomb, and it’s now said that Mackenzie’s ghost, released by the homeless man, is responsible for the attacks.

THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND

This looks at the reason why the thistle, another enduring emblem of Scotland, became the national flower (apart from the fact that it grows everywhere!) Some people say that it’s a good metaphor for the country, which is extremely beautiful, but can be cruel and heartless to anyone treating it without respect. There are a number of theories as to how it became our flower.

Scottish thistle

One of these says that it’s because the spear-like shape of its leaves is reminiscent of the ranks of spears the Scots used in battle. I find this a little shaky, as many armies would have used spears at one time. Another story states that in the 11^th century when the Danes invaded the Highlands, they tried to sneak up on the Scots silently, by walking barefoot. However, when they had to walk across a field of thistles, their cries of pain alerted the enemy, who attacked and beat them as a result.

Another story, dating even further back to the 10^th century, when the Norse were raiding rather than trying to settle, it’s said that a raiding party planned to attack a castle at midnight by swimming across the moat and sneaking in. But when they took off their clothes and dived in they discovered that the moat was full of thistles rather than water, which had been placed there in case of such an attack. The cries of the Norsemen alerted the Scots, who repulsed the enemy.

Order of the Thistle insignia

There are a number of types of thistle, but the one assumed to be the Scottish thistle is the spear thistle (Cirsium Vulgare). It is extremely prickly, and if you have ever stood on one in your bare feet (yes, I have), the barefoot Danes story suddenly becomes very plausible. It’s a tenacious plant with beautiful purple flowers, which later become a profusion of seeds topped by silky thistledown, which then are blown away by the slightest breeze, to take root elsewhere. Thistledown was once used to stuff bedding, as it’s very soft and fluffy. As the thistle on coats of arms is very stylised, we can’t be certain that the spear thistle is actually the original Scottish thistle – it’s just the most likely of a number of contenders. Whichever one it is, the thistle has been associated with the royal family of Scotland since the 1300s. It’s the badge of the House of Stuart, and there are coins showing the thistle from at least 1470.  The highest order of chivalry in Scotland is the Order of the Thistle, which certainly existed by the time of King James V. The motto is ‘nemo me impune lacessit’ (no one provokes me with impunity), a prickly message which suits both the flower and the Scottish temperament!

SECOND SIGHT

In the Jacobite Chronicles I’ve mentioned the second sight a couple of times. My mother believed in it, with good reason, and I’ve heard a number of stories about unexplained sightings that have come to pass. The second sight is the ability to see things either at a distance as they’re happening, or before they’ve actually happened in time. It’s often said to be an inherited trait, and is usually not welcome to those who have it – understandable, as the visions the person so endowed had could be very distressing, and often not preventable.

Nobleman in a new coat

One story told where a sighting did (partially) prevent a tragedy took place in the 17^th century, when a nobleman was putting on a beautiful new coat when one of his companions begged him to remove it immediately, and not wear it, as he could see a dagger sticking in it. Rather than laughing at him, the nobleman took the advice, and took off the coat. A servant said he’d be happy to wear it, so the nobleman gave it to him. The poor menial was stabbed to death the same night.

Another story concerns a man named Alexander Brown from Balephuil, who said that he was walking along one day when he suddenly fell over, for no apparent reason. He got up, but within moments fell over again. Cursing himself for his clumsiness, he rose again and continued more carefully, but still fell a third time. This time when he got up he looked around, and saw the shadow of a woman standing next to him. He took a few steps, but then she seemed to touch his shoulder, on which he fell over again. Not being far from home now, he decided to crawl there on his knees, and although the shadow of the woman followed him, she didn’t touch him again.  The next night he discovered that an old woman had died on a nearby farm, at the time he had seen the shadow causing him to fall. He was convinced that it was the dead woman who had walked with him on the previous evening.

Poor person’s funeral

Another man told of a day when he was going home in a horse and cart, accompanied by an acquaintance. His horse was normally very well-behaved, but on this occasion when it was close to the local church, the horse suddenly stopped and wouldn’t move, no matter what her owner did.  When the man said aloud that he had no idea what was wrong with her, his companion told him to wait a few minutes, and then asked him to try again. Now the horse walked on quite happily. When the owner remarked that he’d never seen her stand so stubborn and still for so long, his companion replied, “How could she go on, with a funeral passing us?”  The horse owner had seen nothing, but his friend, who had the second sight, had clearly seen a phantom funeral, and the horse had either seen or sensed it, and had stopped.