Skulferatu #147 - Balgone Barns Windmill, North Berwick

 

In a field outside of North Berwick there is an old and ruined stone tower.  It stands in an island of rough grass looking out over the ever-changing crops being grown and harvested around it.  I have often cycled by on the narrow country road that takes you past it and had thought that while it looked a bit like the remains of some fairytale tower fallen into disrepair, it was probably just one of the many dovecotes scattered around East Lothian.  However, though it was latterly used as that, it turns out that it was originally built as a windmill.

 

 

Balgone Barns Windmill

 

 

Balgone Barns Windmill

 

 

Balgone Barns Windmill

 

The windmill was built in the late 17th century for milling barley and is constructed of rubble and freestone.  It has an underground vault that extends out from the tower and about twenty feet into the field, which I assume was probably some sort of storage area.  The windmill carried on in its original industrious purpose up until the 18^th century when it fell into disuse and was then more than likely abandoned for a while.  Its working life over, someone, probably the local landowner, thought it would make a good doocot, so had it heightened by about ten feet and converted into that.  The building was recorded in 1799 on a map of Haddingtonshire by William Forrest as being a ‘Pidgeon Cot’.  How long it carried on in this function I have no idea, but at some point, a big chunk of the tower collapsed, and it fell out of use again.

 

 

Vault entrance to Balgone Barns Windmill

 

 

Vault entrance to Balgone Barns Windmill

 

 

Windmill tower and vault

 

 

View of the windmill tower

 

I had hoped to have a look around this building for a while but thought it best to wait until the crops around it had been harvested. Then they were and it rained for what seemed like weeks afterwards leaving the field a muddy mire.  So, after a few days of autumn sunshine I took a trip out and trudged through the field to the ruin.  The field was not quite as dry as I hoped, and the mud was a sticky clay that stuck and balled around my feet turning my stride into a boot heavy drag.

 

 

Silhouette and shadow

 

Wanting to get into the building I walked first of all to the doorway only to find that there was a ten-foot drop to the ground below.  Having no intention of being thwarted I then followed the line of the vault round to where there was another way in.  Ducking through into the short tunnel there, I got through and into the structure of the windmill itself.

 

 

Inside the vault

 

 

Looking out from the vault

 

Like in so many other earth floored ruins I’ve wandered around I found that I was quickly surrounded by little biting flies who nipped at my balding head in a frenzy of blood lust.  Unfortunately for them, a few swipes over of my hand and their feeding frenzy was over.  Well, until the next lot appeared.

 

Inside the tower of the windmill, it was quiet and warm, with the sunlight from above spiralling down.  I watched the clouds above scudding past in the sky and thought how relaxing it would be, if the nasty, little biting flies weren’t around, to sit there in a comfy armchair and spend an hour or two just looking up.  Maybe one day I’ll dig a deep hole to lie in and watch the sky.

 

 

Looking up to the sky

 

Before leaving, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me, in a gap in the tower wall of the old windmill.

 

 

Skulferatu #147

 

 

Skulferatu #147 in a gap in the tower wall

 

 

Skulferatu #147 in a gap in the tower wall

 

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #147

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are -

 

Latitude 56.035724

Longitude -2.718919

 

what3words: flagging.copiers.legend

 

I used the following sources for information on Balgone Barns Windmill –

 

Canmore - Balgone Barns Windmill, North Berwick

 

Historic Environment Scotland - Balgone Farm, Old Windmill

 

National Library of Scotland – William Forrest, Mapmaker

 

 

 

Skulferatu #100 - The Lost Village of Gleghornie, North Berwick, East Lothian

I know, from the photographs it looks like nothing more than a grass covered hill and some rocks, but back in the 15^th Century there was a small village nestling here.  A survey of the area in 1962 found some remnants of the village, a few traces of walls and the outlines of a building, but nothing much else. When the village was abandoned, and why, no-one knows. Maybe the inhabitants were wiped out in one of the plagues that swept through the country several hundred years ago, or maybe the village just died a natural death.  People moved out and away, the last of the old inhabitants died and the few remaining houses were abandoned to time and the elements.

 

The land where the village of Gleghornie once stood

 

The land where the village of Gleghornie once stood

 

The remains of a wall

 

Dandelion in a wall

 

The village was once home to the philosopher, theologian, historian and scholar, John Major (also known as John Mair or John Mayr), 1469 – 1550. He was born in the village and spent his childhood and early youth there.

 

Major left the village, and Scotland, during the 1490s to study at Cambridge and then Paris. He later taught at both the Sorbonne and Montaigu College. While in Paris he wrote Historia Majoris Brittaniae, a history of both England and Scotland, which unlike previous histories written about Scotland, cut out much of the myth and magic, and saw the country as being an integral part of Britain. In 1518 he returned to Scotland as Professor of Philosophy and Divinity at Glasgow University. There his pupils included both John Knox (theologian, preacher, and misogynist nutter) and Patrick Hamilton (Protestant reformer burnt at the stake in 1521 for heresy). In 1522, Major moved to the University of St. Andrews, and taught there for a while before briefly returning to Paris. He then returned once more to Scotland and St Andrews, where he was made Provost of St Salvator's College. He remained there until his death in 1550.

 

A contemporary drawing of John Major, taken from his work

In Petri Hyspani Summulas Commentaria, published in 1505

 

Now largely forgotten, much like his namesake, you know the one – the Grey Man of politics, Major was seen as an important figure during his lifetime and beyond. Some of his teachings seem quite enlightened for the time, in that after the Spanish ‘discovery’ of America, Major argued that the native peoples there had political and property rights and that at the very least they should be compensated for any land taken from them.

 

Despite having travelled and lived in some of the fabulous cities of that age, Major never forgot his roots and he styled himself as ‘Glegornesis’ in the titles of several of his works. He was also known to often reminisce about the oatcakes his mother cooked on the gridle over the ashes in the fireplace hearth, of catching lobster and crabs at North Berwick, and of how the Solent Geese nested on the Bass Rock each year.

 

Rocky area near where the village once stood

 

Tree and boundary wall

 

I walked out from North Berwick to Halflandbarns, and then down a dirt farm track to Gleghornie farm. Just past the farm I made my way down another dirt track which led me out to the open and rocky area where the village once stood. There, in a gap in the old stone wall running around the boundary of the land, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on my walk.

 

Skulferatu #100

 

Skulferatu #100 in a gap in the boundary wall

 

Skulferatu #100 in a gap in the boundary wall

 

Map showing the location of Skulferatu #100

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 56.036317

Longitude -2.654008

 

what3words: bandstand.passwords.prowess

 

I used the following sources for information on Gleghornie and John Major –

 

Canmore - Gleghornie

Canmore - Gleghornie

 

Pre-reformation Scholars in Scotland in the XVIth Century

by William Forbes-Leith

1915

 

The Catholic Encyclopedia

Catholic Encyclopedia: John Mayor

 

 

John Major of Haddington

E. J. G. Mackay

1892

Skulferatu #84 - St Baldred's Cave, Auldhame, North Berwick

 

A few miles from North Berwick there is a turn off down a single track road that leads down to Seacliff Beach.  Past the toll barrier and down the narrow, bumpy road a red sandstone cliff towers over one of the car parking areas.  In the cliff, and usually obscured by a parked car or van, there is a rather non-descript looking cave with a large boulder standing in front of it.  This is St Baldred’s Cave, which used to be known as Seacliff Cave.

 

St Baldred’s Cave from the path leading to Seacliff Beach

 

St Baldred’s Cave from the path leading to Seacliff Beach

 

St Baldred’s Cave

 

Saint Baldred was a Northumbrian monk who is believed to have lived around the mid to late Eighth Century.  He is said to have founded an abbey at Tyninghame, though mainly lived in a small hermitage on the Bass Rock and sometimes, when he fancied a wee change, in the cave by Seacliff beach. 

 

Saint Baldred led a simple and frugal life of prayer and contemplation, which is probably just as well as the cave does not look like the most comfortable place to live.  It is damp and cold with little shelter from the wind and elements.  It is also full of stinging nettles.  However, as a good old fashioned Christian saint, Baldred would have no doubt made a bed from these and slept naked on them as it snowed outside.  Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on old Baldred, as though the cave is known by his name, he most likely had nothing to do with it and never stayed there.   The cave’s supposed association with him in fact hides a dark and sinister past, as it would appear that back in the mists of time, probably around the Iron Age, the cave was a place of pagan worship and human sacrifice. 

 

In 1831, George Sligo, who owned the land around Seacliff, had work carried out to create a pathway down to the beach.  To do this a large hill of sand that rose up against the cliff had to be removed, and during its removal the cave was discovered. Sligo, who was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, then set about examining and noting everything within the cave.  He described how a stone standing at the front of the cave appeared to be an altar and that there was an eight shaped pavement of stones within the cave.  There were also lots of charred bones and piles of ash inside the cave.  The bones were found to be human as well as those of animals such as pigs, sheep, horses, and dogs.  On the altar stone itself, Sligo found charcoal and bones that were firmly adhered to it, which he concluded had probably ‘been caused by the sprinkling of the blood of the victim by the priest during sacrifice.’  Within the cave he also found the fragments of several earthenware pots and a carved tusk that appeared to be the handle for a knife.

 

The finding of the cave caused a bit of a stir in the local community and many people came out to see it.  Due to this, Sligo became slightly worried about the altar stone, as its foundation was a bit weak, and he feared that it may topple over if someone tried to climb it.  So, he had one of the foundation stones removed to put a larger and sturdier one in its place.  On doing this some of the clay that had been used to bind the stones together fell away revealing the skeleton of a very young child.  On examining the opposite side of the altar Sligo found the skeleton of another child there.  The children, both appeared to have been the sacrificial victims of whatever cult had worshipped at the cave.

 

Drawing of the cave from Notes on an Ancient Cave by George Sligo

 

St Baldred’s Cave looking out past the altar stone

 

Inside the cave

 

St Baldred’s Cave from Seacliff Beach

Today, as I walked into the cave, I could see no evidence of its dark past.  Near to the entrance lay the charcoal and foil remnants of several disposable barbecues, so in a way I suppose offerings of burnt meat are still made here.  The floor of the cave was hidden under vegetation, sand, soil, and plastic dog poo bags full of shit.  While the back of the cave had been utilised as a toilet by beach goers who had been caught short, and it was scattered with poo and toilet paper.  In short, there was nothing left there of its dark past...well, except for that altar stone sitting right outside the entrance.  And at this point I should give a word of warning to all you out of towners thinking of taking a trip to Seacliff.  That is, if you notice any of the locals staring at you be very, very wary.  You may think human sacrifice is something from the past, but I’ve watched ‘The Wicker Man’ and ‘Midsommar’, so I know just what these rural folk really get up to!

 

Skulferatu #84

 

Skulferatu #84 on a ledge in St Baldred’s Cave

 

Map showing the location of Skulferatu #84

 

I left a small earthenware Skulferatu on a rock ledge in the cave, as my offering to the ancient gods.  Hopefully, they’ll appreciate that a bit more than the poo and garbage left by most visitors.

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 56.05149

Longitude -2.636708

 

what3words: snooty.occupations.cave

 

I used the following sources for information on St Baldred’s Cave –

 

Canmore

Canmore - St Baldred's Cave

 

Notes on an Ancient Cave, & c,. discovered at Aldham, now called Seacliff, in East Lothian, in 1831.

By George Sligo

1832

 

Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - Eighth Report with Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of East Lothian.

1924

 

Evidence of Human Sacrifice in Seacliff Cave, Scotland

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, Volume 7, Issue 3

1934

 

Skulferatu #64 - Path to Oxroad Bay, North Berwick, East Lothian

 

I haven’t walked down the path to Oxroad Bay for a few years.  Last time I walked along it, there had been a landslide and part of the path had fallen away.  This led to a slightly dangerous walk along a ledge with a sheer drop of twenty to thirty feet to the rocks below. 

 

My walk along the path began as an easy wander down the side of a field that lies on the road to Seacliff Beach.  The path runs by an old, stone wall and Tantallon Castle dominates the view on the way along.  I then made my way down through a gap at the end of the field and on to the steep path that leads down to the bay.

 

View of Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock on path to Oxroad Bay

 

View of Tantallon Castle from path to Oxroad Bay

 

As I made my way down, I could see that there had been numerous landslides since the last time I had ventured that way and the path was now a muddy slide that in places ran to the cliff edge.  It didn’t look to safe, but hey, everyone needs a bit of danger in their life to really appreciate being alive. So, I made my way down, leaning to the side away from the cliff edge just in case I slipped and fell.  Better splattered with mud that splattered on the rocks.

 

View of Tantallon Castle and cliffs from path to Oxroad Bay

 

View of Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from path to Oxroad Bay

 

It wasn’t the most comfortable journey down, but I made it and then realised I’d have to go back up that way again.  That spoilt the joy of being in the seclusion of the bay a bit.  And it was secluded.  The tide was quite high, so the bay was completely cut off with cliffs towering above on all sides.  

The cliffs around Oxroad Bay are mainly made up of volcanic rock, however, there is a band containing cementstones in which lots of fossils have been found.  These have mainly been fragments of fish, though various species of pteridosperms and lycopods have also been discovered in them.  

Not being much of a fossil collector, I walked around the bay in the morning sunshine and watched the sea birds wading in the few feet of mud exposed by the sea.  They called out in alarm on seeing me wandering along the beach, a big, clumsy human in a bright waterproof jacket with a bunnet on his head.

 

Path leading down to Oxroad Bay

 

View of Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock from Oxroad Bay

 

I found some rocks to sit on and closed my eyes.  The winter sun warmed my face and the soothing lap of the waves made me feel at one with everything around me.  Then I remembered I had to get back up the path again.  Reverie ruined, I got up and made my way back round to the path and began my ascent.  On looking at it again I realised there were only really two bits that were bad.  In total maybe ten feet of the path and for some reason I decided that running up would be easiest, as being light of foot and fast would present the least danger.  It worked, and soon I was back up on the main path.

 

As I made my way back, I stopped by the old wall running along the path and left a Skulferatu in a gap by a love heart shaped stone.

 

Skulferatu #64

 

Wall along the path to Oxroad Bay

 

Skulferatu #64 in a gap in the wall

 

Skulferatu #64 in a gap in the wall

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #64

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 56.052649

Longitude -2.6472330

I used the following sources for information on the fossils at Oxroad Bay –

 

UK Fossils Network

UK Fossils - North-Berwick

 

Article and photographs are copyright of © Kevin Nosferatu, unless otherwise specified.

Skulferatu #30 - Seacliff House, North Berwick, East Lothian

 

If you have ever wandered along Seacliff Beach, you may have noticed the ruins of a gothic looking building that is almost hidden in the trees on the hill above.  These ruins are the remains of Seacliff House, a large, private mansion that once boasted having some of the best views out over the Bass Rock and the Forth.  Today, while walking to Seacliff Beach I decided to go and have a look around the ruins of the house on the hill.

 

The skeletal remains of Seacliff House half hidden by the trees

 

While wandering around I found that the ruins were still quite impressive, with much of the outer walls of the house remaining.  I remember walking through here a few years back and the ruined frontage of the house was mainly hidden in a mass of trees and undergrowth.  Most of this has now been cut back giving a much clearer view of what remains of the building.  There was a speculative scheme drawn up in 1992 to rebuild the house, add an extension and turn it into a spa hotel.  Thirty years later and I don’t think that plan is any further forward, but given the clearing of the trees around the building who knows…?

 

The ruins of Seacliff House

 

The ruins of Seacliff House

 

View of ruined frontage of Seacliff House

One of the remaining towers of the house

 

Detail of decorations on the tower

 

View of back of Seacliff House

 

The history of this building is that the original Seacliff House was built in 1750 by Robert Colt.  In 1841, the then owner George Sligo commissioned the architect David Bryce to design a new house around the earlier building.  Bryce designed a three storey house with an attic in the Scottish Baronial style, and building work was completed later that year.  The house was then enlarged in 1850 when the estate was acquired by John Watson Laidlay. 

 

Laidlay was an interesting chap, one of these classic Victorian gentleman types.  He studied chemistry under Michael Faraday and then went off to work in the family business out in India.  There he ran two factories producing silk and indigo.  In his spare time, he studied various ancient languages and translated texts by Fa Hian into English (Fa Hian or Faxian was a 4th Century Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled from China to India visiting sacred Buddhist sites on his journey).  Laidlay returned to the UK in 1849 and bought the property at Seacliff.  On his death in 1885 his eldest son Andrew Laidlay inherited the property.

 

Andrew Laidlay was by all accounts a popular man with many friends.  He was a magistrate in East Lothian and a keen golfer.  He was also an avid reader and researcher and spent many hours in the library of his house.  Late on the night of Saturday 27 July 1907 he was reading in his library.  As the house had no electricity, he read with the aid of a paraffin lamp and would often have this up on the highest flame to give himself more light to read by.  On this night, while reading, Andrew fell asleep.  It then appears that while sleeping he knocked the lamp over and set fire to the library.  Then, in the early hours of the morning on Sunday 28 July, two of the maids who were sleeping in the room they shared were woken by a crackling sound and what also sounded like falling furniture.  Alarmed by this they got up to wake the housemaid, Effie Hamilton, who slept in another room.  They woke her and on investigating what was going on she found that smoke was beginning to billow up from the rooms below.  Effie then quickly got the other members of staff out of the house.  Once outside Effie shouted and threw stones up at the bedroom window of the Laidlay’s daughter, Theophila.  On waking, Theophila quickly went to her mother’s room and roused her.  The two of them then bound some bed sheets together and climbed from the bedroom window down to a balcony on the second storey.  A ladder was then brought round so that they could safely get down to the ground and away from the house.  In the meantime, Effie had gone back into the house to try to get to Andrew Laidlay’s bedroom, as she feared he was asleep there and had been overcome by the smoke from the fire.   However, despite a couple of valiant attempts she was beaten back by the smoke and the heat from the fire.  All she and those who had escaped from the building could then do was watch as it was engulfed by the flames.

 

The fire brigade was called and attended, but they had serious problems in getting any water with which to douse the flames, as there was no mains water connected to the house, the water being usually drawn from a nearby well.  They attempted to use sea water, but this was fraught with difficulties given the distance from the house to the sea.  Most of the house was soon destroyed by the fire and was left as an empty, smouldering shell.  The fire brigade did however manage to stop the flames from engulfing the kitchen and laundry block.  Once the fire was out a search was undertaken to try and find the remains of Andrew Laidlay, but the heat had been so intense at the height of the fire that nothing could be found of him.

 

After the fire, the ruins of the house were abandoned.  The stables and a service cottage for the house, which had not been damaged by the fire, were purchased by the Royal Navy.  During World War I they were used as the base for HMS Scottish Seacliff.  This was a secret research facility concerned with navigation training and U-boat defence.  The stables and the cottage are now privately owned.

 

Article and photo of Seacliff House from The Graphic – August 10, 1907

 

The Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk was left in the hollow of a doorway wall.

 

Skulferatu #30

 

Skulferatu #30 in hollow of doorway wall

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #30

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are:

 

Latitude 56.050131

Longitude -2.631587

 

I used the following sources for information on Seacliff House –

 

John Watson Laidlay - Wikipedia

 

Seacliff - Wikipedia

 

Seacliff House, Seacliff | Buildings at Risk Register

 

Seacliff House | Canmore

 

The Scotsman – Monday 29 July 1907

 

Daily Telegraph and Courier (London) - Monday 29 July 1907

 

The Graphic – August 10, 1907

 

Article and photographs are copyright of © Kevin Nosferatu, unless otherwise specified.