Skulferatu #26 - Saltcoats Castle, Gullane, East Lothian

When I go cycling from Edinburgh to North Berwick, I like to take the coastal road and enjoy the scenic route.  Just before I reach Gullane, I turn off from the road and take the bumpy path along the John Muir Way and cut down to the rather spectacular ruin of Saltcoats Castle.  On a sunny day it’s relaxing just to sit in the castle grounds, rehydrate and take in the great view.

 

Saltcoats Castle with ruined cottage and outbuildings

 

Tower of Saltcoats Castle seen through overgrown outer area of the castle

 

The history of this rather marvellous ruin starts with a legend of daring and bravery, or the needless slaughter of a wild animal, depending on your point of view.  The story goes something like this…

 

…back in the mists of time, when the lands that now make up East Lothian were sparsely populated and thick with forest and wild beasts, there was a huge, wild boar that terrorised the area.     This beast was enraged by anybody it saw on its territory and had chased, gouged and maimed a dozen or so people.  Soon it got to the stage where those in the villages were terrified of travelling to market, the peasants working the fields were terrified as they worked, the landlords in their stately homes were terrified of walking outside in their gardens and those travelling from Edinburgh towards England took a long route round to avoid the area.  The King, on learning what was going on, offered a large reward to anyone who could kill the boar and rid the land of its menace.  Many tried and died in their attempts.  The boar always seemed to be one step ahead of them and ambushed many a brave hunter, slicing through their weak and mortal bodies with sharp tusks that seemed to be made of steel.  Soon the boar was being seen as more than just a beast, it was a demon sent from Hell or a punishment from God.  The churches rang out their bells and the holy prayed in hope that the good Lord would end their torment.  But he didn’t.

 

Then along came a young man from the Livington family.  His family had fallen on hard times and he had decided that to improve their lot he would take on the challenge of killing the boar.  First of all, he set about preparing for the task and had a special glove made of thick leather.  The inside of this glove was heavily padded with down.  He also had a steel helmet, body armour and a sword made for the task.  Expensive though this was, he persuaded the craftsmen who made the pieces for him that he would pay them when he had killed the boar.  Such was his self confidence in completing this task that they all agreed to this and he was soon ready to go on the hunt for the deadly beast.

 

On a summer’s morning young Livington set off out into the forest.  As he went, he would call out every so often in order to attract the boar.  However, it was almost as if the beast could sense him and his purpose, and for hours Livington walked without seeing any sign of it.  Growing weary from walking, Livington stopped near a stream and drank from it.  He sat by it for a while and decided to give up for the day and to start his hunt again the next morning.  As he rose to make his way back out of the forest, he heard something crashing through the undergrowth.  It drew nearer and nearer.  Livington drew his sword and readied himself.  With a roar the boar burst through the undergrowth to where Livington stood.  The creature was huge with tusks like sabres and eyes that glowed red like the hot coals of a fire.  For a moment it stood still staring at Livington, then it stamped at the ground, snarled, and rushed at him with tusks out.  Like a matador, Livington spun to the side and the boar charged past.  It came to a skidding halt and turned again to face him.  It’s eyes burning with anger and hate it let out a roar and charged at him.  Livington once more sidestepped the boar as it reached him, howling with frustrated rage it turned and came at him again.  As it was almost on top of him Livington thrust his gloved arm down into its mouth.  The shock of this caused the beast to stumble and fall, taking both it and Livington to the ground.  The beast, unable to move its head enough to gouge Livington with its tusks, kicked out at him, catching him several times about the body and denting the armour he wore.  In this onslaught Livington almost lost grip of his sword, but just managing to keep hold of it he thrust it up and through the beast’s heart.  The beast let out a groan, almost human, then sighing it died by Livington’s side.  Exhausted, Livington lay by it and prayed a prayer of thanks to the Almighty Lord above.

 

A group of five woodsmen, had bravely ventured that day into the forest to chop wood, and had heard the commotion.  Cautiously they approached to see what was going on and saw Livington lying beside the body of the boar.  Thinking that he must have died in the fight, they went over to offer prayers for him.  On seeing that he was alive and suffering from no fatal wounds, they helped the exhausted man to his feet.  They then cut and stripped a large branch and tied the body of the boar to this.  Four of the woodsmen carried it out, while one carried Livington on his shoulders.  As they walked out through the forest, they came across a den of six squealing little piglets. The six little piglets mama boar had been protecting from those who encroached on her territory.  These were gathered up, placed in a sack, and handed to Livington.

 

On hearing that the boar was dead, villagers from all around came out in celebration.  That night Livington and the villagers, from landlord to peasant, all feasted on suckling pig and wild boar sausages, black pudding, and roast pork.  All washed down with local ales and fine wines imported from afar. 

 

A few days later the King heard that the boar had been killed.  For Livington’s act of bravery and ridding the land of the terrible beast the King granted him the lands from Gullane Point to North Berwick Law.  It was on the land acquired by Livington, near to Gullane, that Saltcoats Castle was built.

 

Up until the 1790s the helmet said to be worn by Livington when he slayed the boar hung in the church at Dirleton in East Lothian.  When the church was being repaired the helmet was removed for safekeeping and was lost.

 

At the mouth of the Peffer there is a small stream that goes by the name of Livington’s Ford.  It is here that Livington supposedly slew the wild boar. 

 

Anyway, let’s get back to the castle…the name of Saltcoats Castle is thought to come from the fact that it stands on ground that was in ancient times a salt marsh.  The castle is a Sixteenth Century courtyard castle that rose to a height of three storeys.  It was enclosed by a wall and in the grounds, there would have been an extensive garden and orchard.  There was also at one time a bowling green to the east of the castle, though all signs of this have been lost as it has been ploughed over numerous times and become part of the surrounding fields.

 

The castle was built in around 1590 for Patrick Livington and his wife Margaret Fettis of Fawside.  In the early 1700s the castle and estate were acquired by the Hamilton family when James Hamilton of Pencaitland married ‘the heiress of Saltcoats’, Margaret Menzies.  The castle was inhabited until around the late 1790s, the last tenant being a Mrs Carmichael, who died there.  It was then left uninhabited for several years.  Around 1810 much of the stonework was removed to build farm steadings and walls.  The ruined cottage which stands at the side of the castle was built around this time and on its front wall there is a panel taken from the castle with the coat of arms of Patrick Livington carved into it.

 

Tower of Saltcoats Castle

Sketch of Saltcoats Castle from ‘The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland’ - 1887

Side view of castle ruins and tower

 

Side view of castle tower

 

View of castle and ruins of farm steadings

 

Saltcoats Castle has now been designated as a scheduled monument.

 

The Skulferatu that accompanied me today was left on a ledge above the keyhole window on the tower.

 

Skulferatu #26

 

Spot the Skulferatu 

 

Close up of Skulferatu #26 on window ledge

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #26

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are:

 

Latitude 56.026982

Longitude -2.827307

 

 

I used the following sources for information on the castle –

 

The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century

Volume Four

By David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross

1887

 

Lamp of Lothian or the History of Haddington form the earliest times to 1844

by James Miller

1900

 

St Baldred of the Bass and Other Poems

By James Miller

Oliver and Boyd

1824

 

Wikipedia – Saltcoats Castle

Saltcoats Castle - Wikipedia

 

Canmore – Saltcoats Castle

Canmore - Saltcoats Castle, Gullane

 

 

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

Skulferatu #24 - SEPA Monitoring Site, River Almond, Craighall, Edinburgh

 

On an unseasonably sunny day I went for a stroll along the River Almond. The Almond runs from Hirst Hill in Lanarkshire to its exit into the Firth of Forth at Cramond.  The river is twenty-eight miles long and winds its way through West Lothian and round the outskirts of Edinburgh.  The name of the river comes from the old Celtic word Amon, which means river.  So, the name of the river is basically River River.

 

I joined the Almond at its exit into the sea at Cramond and walked along the riverbank up the path to the Old Cramond Brig (bridge).  On crossing that, I cut off down the path under the new bridge that carries the traffic speeding along the A90.  The noise from the traffic is a continuous thunderous rumble and as I walked through the nearby woods, I could just make out some birdsong, which made me wonder how the birds can possibly communicate above all that noise.  Maybe they just sing a bit louder.

 

Old Cramond Brig

 

Snowdrops on the riverbank

An old drainage tunnel, draining water from nearby fields into the River Almond

 

Once under and past the new bridge the river path winds on for miles and miles.  One day I will walk, or cycle, as far as the path carries me, but not today.

 

A view of the River Almond

 

Today I walked to the SEPA Monitoring Site on the Almond at Craighall.  SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has 392 sites around Scotland that monitor water levels.  The information from these sites helps in flood management, amongst other things. 

 

SEPA Monitoring Site, as seen from the riverbank

 

SEPA Monitoring Site, as seen from riverside

 

The monitoring site at Craighall is a rather unimpressive, purely functional, brick building.  Its walls are cracked and pitted with holes and it is heavily graffitied on the wall facing the path.  At its side there is a set of rather worn steps and what looks like a lovely, shiny ruler.  This ruler is the basic, but effective tool for measuring the level of the river.  At the time of my trip out there the level was just under 50 centimetres.  According to the River Levels UK website the usual range of the level of the Almond is between 0.21 and 1.92 metres, though it reached 3.76 metres in April 2000…a particularly wet year I have no recollection of.  I must have spent most of it in the pub, to keep out of the rain.

 

Measure at side of building showing water levels

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in one of the many little holes in the wall of the monitoring station, facing out onto the River Almond.

 

Skulferatu #24

Skulferatu #24 in a hollow in the wall of the Monitoring Station

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #24

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.962894

Longitude -3.338132

 

Skulferatu #20 - Greyfriars Kirkyard, Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh

 

Another day and another graveyard.  Greyfriars Kirkyard is probably the most famous graveyard in Edinburgh.  This was once due to the enduring story of Greyfriars Bobby, the little dog who sat on his master’s grave for years after he had died.  Now it is the Harry Potter franchise that attracts visitor after visitor to this wonderfully gothic place.

 

Detail of Gravestone at Greyfriars Kirkyard

 

Gravestone at Greyfriars Kirkyard

 

I used to work near to Greyfriars and at lunchtimes would often wander around the graveyard to clear my head.  Many of the graves and tombs here are steeped in the history of Edinburgh, and page after page could, and has, been written about their occupants.  There is the tomb of George ‘Bloody’ Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate who in the late 17^th Century was responsible for the prosecution and execution of many of the Covenanters.  There is the grave of Captain John Porteous, who was lynched by an angry mob after ordering his men in the City Guard to shoot into a crowd of townsfolk rioting after a public hanging.  Then there is the grave of William McGonagall, the poet who wrote some of the worst poetry known to man.  Here is a little extract from his best known work, ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’ -

 

‘…Twas about seven o’clock at night,

And the wind it blew with all its might,

And the rain came pouring down,

And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,

And the Demon of the air seem’d to say –

I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay…’

 

Great stuff! 

 

However, the gravestone that drew my attention on one of my previous wanderings here was a simple and unadorned one for another poet and author, Franz Hedrich.  I had never heard of him, so did a little research and found that in the 1880s he was involved in a scandal that shocked the literary world.  His story is as follows…

 

Grave of Franz Hedrich

 

Franz Hedrich was born in Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) in 1823.  As an aspiring poet and author in his youth, he moved in various literary circles and in the 1840s became a close friend of the poet and author Alfred Meissner.   Hedrich also dabbled in politics and was at one point elected to the Frankfurt National Assembly as the leader of one of the parties on the extreme left.  He was then arrested and exiled for his political views.

 

In the 1850s Hedrich moved to Munich and would often spend his summers with Meissner.  During this time, according to Hedrich, Meissner came to rely on him to review and rewrite much of his new work and this eventually culminated in Hedrich writing several of Meissner’s novels for him, as his ghost-writer.  It would, however, appear that Hedrich was unhappy with this as Meissner had promised that the work would appear in their joint names.  He also felt that Meissner was pocketing most of the money and ‘awarding him only a trifle.’

 

In 1871, in Switzerland, Hedrich married Janet Barron of Edinburgh.  He then lived with her in Switzerland, France and in Scotland.  Janet appears to have been quite wealthy, having inherited a large amount of money after the death of her parents.  Whether this played any part in Hedrich falling for her we will never know, however being a man who enjoyed the finer things in life he quickly squandered much of her fortune.  Running low on money, he then began to blackmail Meissner threatening to let the world know that he had written the novels.  It would seem that through this he obtained substantial sums of money from Meissner for several years.  Then in 1885, Meissner could take no more and made a suicide attempt by slashing his own throat.  He survived this but died shortly afterwards of sepsis.  On his death bed he told his brother in law, Robert Byr, that Hedrich ‘was hunting me like a tiger.  He claimed the fortune of my children.  He was my evil genius during all my life, and I was his prisoner, so that nothing but death remains for me to escape his bondage.’

 

A few years after Meissner’s death, a collection of his works was published and included various novels that Hedrich had written.  This seems to have annoyed Hedrich and resulted in him writing a pamphlet that was then published by the Berlin firm O. Janke.  The same firm who had published Meissner’s work.  In this pamphlet Hedrich claimed authorship of most of Meissner’s novels and stated that for almost thirty years Meissner had been claiming to be the author of books that he, Hedrich, had written.  To provide proof of his claims he included copies of letters from Meissner and these showed beyond doubt that Hedrich had indeed written several novels attributed to Meissner.  Hedrich also pointed out that in several of the novels he had used a simple type of cryptogram to encode the words ‘Autor Hedrich’ to show he was the author of the work.

 

Robert Byr, Meissner’s brother in law, then made a reply to Hedrich’s accusations.  He stated that Meissner had claimed authorship and tried to sell a single novel written by Hedrich. This deed had caused him such remorse that he had then committed suicide.  Byr also claimed that Hedrich was only a collaborator in some of Meissner’s novels.  The two men had arranged this collaboration as Meissner’s name was well known, and novels appearing under his name would command a greater price than those appearing under Hedrich’s.

 

On viewing the evidence that Hedrich produced, it was accepted by the literary world that he had indeed written several of the novels appearing under Meissner’s name, and had collaborated on others.  However, it was also found that he had overstated his case and claimed authorship of some novels that were purely Meissner’s work.  

 

Hedrich did not fare well in this scandal.  He was seen by many as being dishonourable, and too ready to denounce someone who had been his close friend in order to make money.  A leading literary magazine of the time wrote of him that - ‘Hedrich had dragged Meissner in the mire…but he has degraded himself beneath the notice of respectable men in doing it.’

 

Hedrich spent his later years living in the West End of Edinburgh with his wife.  He died on 31 October 1895.

 

Well, back to my walk around Greyfriars on what was a miserable and cold February day.  A day so grey that the sun seemed to have lost its way.  A day so damp that even the stone of the tombs around me seemed to ooze out dark, cold water.  A perfect day for a walk around the graveyard, as there was no-one else stupid enough to come out in this weather.  A perfect day for being unobserved in leaving a Skulferatu in a tree just across from the grave of Franz Hedrich.

 

Skulferatu #20

 

Skulferatu #20 in tree at Greyfriars Kirkyard

 

Skulferatu #20 in tree at Greyfriars Kirkyard

  

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #20

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.946205

Longitude -3.192669

 

I used the following sources for information on the Hedrich & Meissner scandal –

 

Renfrewshire Independent (Births, Marriages and Deaths)

Published 14 January 1871

 

The Scotsman (Alfred Meissner and Franz Hedrich)

Published 22 November 1889

 

The New York Times (A Literary Scandal)

Published 18 December 1889

 

The Publisher’s Weekly (Page 27)

New York

Published 12 July 1890.

 

Wikipedia articles on Franz Hedrich & Alfred Meissner

Skulferatu #19 - St Andrew's Kirk, Kirk Ports, North Berwick

 

St Andrew’s Kirk, Kirk Ports, North Berwick

 

Just off North Berwick High Street stands the rather quaint ruin of St Andrew’s Kirk.  This church was built in the 17^th Century and opened on 5 June 1664.  It was built to replace St Andrew’s Old Kirk, which stood near to the sea and had been so severely damaged by a storm that it had to be abandoned.  The ruins of the Old Kirk lie near to the Scottish Seabird Centre.   

 

With the arrival of the railway in North Berwick in 1850, the town’s population grew substantially.  By 1873 the congregation was too large for St Andrew’s Kirk and in 1882 a new and larger church opened nearby. 

 

On 3 June 1883, the last service was held in St Andrew’s Kirk and shortly after this it was partly dismantled, with various fixtures and fittings being auctioned off.  However, it was decided by the church authorities to ‘allow the walls of the church to stand in order to form a picturesque ruin…’

 

Interior of the ruins of St Andrew’s Kirk

A view of the graveyard at Kirk Ports and the ruins of St Andrew’s Kirk

Old Gravestone at Kirk Ports Graveyard

 

Carved skull on one of the old graves

 

I placed the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk around North Berwick in a gap in the wall at the church.

 

Skulferatu #19

 

Skulferatu #19 in wall at St Andrew’s Kirk

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #19

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 56.057800

Longitude -2.718484

Skulferatu #18 - The Site of Major Thomas Weir's House, Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh

 

On a cold, damp, and dreich day I trudged around the empty streets of Edinburgh’s old town.  Well, when I say empty, what I mean is there was hardly anyone else out walking the streets, but there were workmen everywhere.  At the moment every second building seems to be shrouded in scaffolding and protective sheets of polythene.  When the Covid is over it looks like we’re going to have a shiny, newly refurbished city to run around in. 

 

So anyway, today I walked up the Canongate into the High Street and onto the Lawnmarket where I turned into Riddles Court.  This place is one of the architectural gems of old Edinburgh, however I wasn’t here to see quaint old buildings, but rather the dull back wall of the Quaker Meeting House.  A dull back wall steeped in the history of a notorious figure in Edinburgh- Major Thomas Weir.  His is a story of hypocrisy, cruelty, bigotry, sexual depravity, and supposedly black magic and pacts with the Devil.

 

Entrance into Riddle’s Court, Edinburgh

 

Riddle’s Court – the lower building in background is reputed to be the remains of Major Weirs House.

 

Thomas Weir was born in 1599 in Lanarkshire.  He was the son of Thomas Weir, the Laird of Kirkton and his wife, Lady Jean Somerville.  His mother was reputed to have clairvoyant powers and was said to have taught her son the art of sorcery.  As a young man, Thomas joined the Scottish Army and in 1641 served in Ulster protecting the Scottish settlers there.  Before returning to Edinburgh, he is believed to have fought at the Battle of Benburb in 1646 when the Scots were defeated by the Irish Confederate army. 

 

Thomas was described as being a tall, thin man with a big nose who always looked severe and gloomy.  He dressed in black and wore a long, black cloak.  He always carried a staff with him wherever he went. He was a Covenanter, a strict Presbyterian and anti-Royalist and by all accounts was a humourless zealot, and a religious bigot, who was given to preaching and praying.  Amongst the other Covenanters he gained a reputation for being very pious and many gathered around him for private prayer meetings.  It is written of him that - ‘He had acquir’d a particular Gracefulness in Whining and Sighing, above any of the sacred Clan; and had learn’d to deliver himself upon all serious occasions, in a far more ravishing Accent than any of their ministers could attain unto.’   Amongst some of those who attended his prayer meetings Thomas was known as ‘Angelical Thomas’, as he seemed to them to be more angel than man.  Locally, he and those he met with were referred to somewhat sarcastically as the ‘Bow-Head Saints.’   The name coming from their perceived piety and that they usually met in the home Thomas shared with his sister Jane, near the top of the West Bow in Edinburgh. 

 

In 1650 Thomas was appointed to the rank of Major in the Edinburgh Town Guard.  During this time there he was very active in seeking out and imprisoning Royalists and gained a reputation for cruelty in the way he treated his prisoners.  It was said that he would insult and ‘triumph over’ those sentenced to death and would laugh and make sarcastic remarks to those on their way to the gallows.

 

After retiring from the Edinburgh Town Guard, Thomas fell ill with a severe sickness.  In 1670, from his sick bed, he began to make a series of confessions.  These were that he had been for many years in an incestuous relationship with his sister Jane, that he had committed adultery with many women, fornicated with beasts and had made a pact with the devil to be kept safe from harm. Those in his church were very worried by these confessions, and fearing the scandal they would cause, sought to keep them quiet.  However, rumours about Thomas were soon circulating around Edinburgh.  One of the ministers of his church then informed the Lord Provost, Sir Andrew Ramsay of Abbotshall, of Weir’s confessions.

 

On hearing of the horrendous crimes that Thomas had accused himself of, the Lord Provost at first refused to believe it could be possible and assumed him to be mad.  He asked two doctors to attend Thomas and see what mental ailment he was suffering from, however after examining him they concluded he was not mentally ill, but rather suffering from a guilty conscience.  This was then confirmed to the Lord Provost by several of the ministers from the church in which Thomas had preached, who stated that he was suffering from ‘the terrors of God, which were upon his soul.’

 

Given what he had been told, the Lord Provost ordered that Thomas, and his sister Jane be taken to the public gaol at the Tolbooth.  When the guards seized them at their home, Jane told the guards not to let Thomas get hold of his staff, as it was given to him by the Devil and had certain powers.  The brother, sister and the staff were all then taken to the Tolbooth.

 

While in prison Thomas confessed to committing adultery with some of the most devout women from his church and told how he had persuaded and seduced them.  He then told of one devout woman who had refused his advances, with help from the Devil he had entered her home and found her in bed.  She had then awoken and caused a great scene so, again with the help of the Devil, he had fled.  This woman had then fallen into a great melancholy and depression and died a few weeks later.  Thomas went on to confess that the Devil appeared to him as a beautiful woman and that his staff, a gift from the Devil, was what gave him the power to be so eloquent in prayer.

 

In prison Jane confessed that she had been an accomplice to her brother’s crimes and went on to tell a tale that in September 1648, she and her brother had been transported from Edinburgh to Musselburgh and back again in a flaming coach pulled by six horses.  In Musselburgh they had met with the Devil who told Thomas that the Royalist and Scots army had been defeated in Preston (Battle of Preston – 17 to 19 August 1648, when the Royalists and Scots, commanded by the Duke of Hamilton, were defeated by the New Model Army under the command of Oliver Cromwell).  This meant that Weir was aware of this event several days before the news arrived back in Edinburgh.  He used this knowledge to make people believe he had the spirit of prophesy. Jane said that she had gained little from their dalliances with the Devil, but she did have a familiar spirit who had spun her enormous quantities of yarn, more yarn than four women together could have spun.

 

On 9 April 1670 Thomas and Jane appeared for trial.  The charges against Thomas all related to incest, adultery, and bestiality.  The charges against Jane related to incest with her brother, committing sorcery and witchcraft and consulting with witches, necromancers, and devils.  Various witnesses were called, and they mainly confirmed the admissions that Thomas had made to them.  However, another of Thomas’s sisters was called as a witness and she stated that when Thomas was around 27 years of age, she had found him and her sister Jane naked together in bed and that the ‘bed did shake’, and she heard some ‘scandalous language between them’.  Evidence was also given that Thomas had committed incest with the daughter of his first wife, now deceased.   It was then declared to the court that in the year 1651 or 1652 there had been a report that Thomas had committed bestiality with a mare and had been seen by a witness to do this.

 

Thomas then spoke to the court and admitted to the charges against him.  In regard to the act of bestiality with the Mare, he admitted to this and said that the matter had been reported, as a woman had seen him and gone to tell a local minister.  He had later been seized by some soldiers but was freed, as they could find no evidence against him.  The woman who had made the allegation was then whipped as a punishment for slandering him.

 

Thomas was found guilty of all the charges against him and was sentenced to death.  The Judge ordered that on the 11 April 1670 he be taken and strangled at the stake and his body then burnt to ashes.  His staff was to be burned with him.  Jane was found guilty of the charge of incest and was also sentenced to death.  The Judge ordered that she be hanged at the Grassmarket the day after her brother was executed.

 

On 11 April 1670 Thomas was taken to Gallowlee, between Edinburgh and Leith.  There, before the sentence was carried out, he was asked to request God’s mercy.  To this Thomas replied – ‘Let me alone.  I will not.  I have lived as a beast, and I must die as a beast.’  He was then strangled, and his body burnt along with his staff.

 

Jane was hanged in the Grassmarket the next day.  As the rope was placed around her neck, she tried to strip off her clothing.  One of the presiding officials was so scandalised by this that he told the hangman to hurry up and get the job done.  For this Jane slapped him about the face, before being ‘thrown over’ and hanged. 

 

For years after, the house the Weirs had lived in was used during the day by various businesses, but no-one would stay the night in it.  It was believed to be haunted by Thomas and the devils and spirits he had summoned.  Those who lived nearby said that at night terrible noises came through the walls of the house and anyone passing by would hear what sounded like a crowd of ghouls and demons howling and spinning and dancing.  Some even told tales of seeing Thomas, in the dead of night, leaving the house to mount a headless black horse and ride off into the darkness.  One couple were enticed to stay the night in the house, but fled in terror after a demonic calf entered their bedroom and stood by their bed staring at them.

 

Scary stuff or what!!! 

 

The house was eventually torn down to make way for a new building and the Quaker Meeting House on Victoria Terrace, by Upper Bow now stands upon part of the land where the house once was.

 

View up Victoria Street to Quaker Meeting House

 

Quaker Meeting House – encompasses part of land that Major Weir’s House stood on

View of Quaker Meeting House from Victoria Terrace

 

As there was no access to the back wall of the Weir’s house, I walked round to Victoria Street and up the steps to Victoria Terrace.  There I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me on today’s walk on a ledge above a pillar at the front of the building.  Its silent scream can join in with those from the demons who reside here at night.

Skulferatu #18

 

Skulferatu #18 on stone ledge at site of Major Weir’s house

Skulferatu #18 on stone ledge at site of Major Weir’s house

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are:

 

Latitude 55.948816

Longitude -3.193375

 

I used the following sources for the tale of Major Weir – 

 

The Spirit of Fanaticism exemplified in the trials of Mr James Mitchell (a Presbyterian Minister, who was Hang’d at Edinburgh, for an Attempt made upon the Archbishop of St. Andrews) and Major Thomas Weir (a Gifted Brother at the Knack of Extempore Prayer) who was Burnt between Edinburgh and Leith April 11^th, 1670 for Adultery, Bestiality with a Mare and a Cow, and Incest with his own Sister, who was likewise Hang’d the next Day after him.

Published, London 1710

Available on Google Books

Note: Reading this document does make one see the story of Major Weir in a different light from the tale normally told.  If the Devil and witchcraft aspects are put to one side, then the tale of Major Weir is one of a sexual predator who has sexually abused and taken advantage of those around him, including his young stepdaughter.  He has used his position within his faith to badger and harass women to have sex with him and his actions appear to have caused the death of one of the female followers of his faith.  Also, his sister Jane can be seen as someone who has been destroyed by years of abuse, someone driven mad by her brother’s lusts.  It is interesting how in the main she is the one who when questioned talks of witchcraft and devils, almost as a way of explaining her brother.  Or could it be that Thomas used stories of his pact with the Devil to control her and keep her silence about his sexual proclivities?  It is something we will never know.  It does appear that the pacts with the Devil, the witchcraft and other magical elements of this tale have been embellished over the years, especially by later writers who have removed or lessened the sexual aspects to Weir’s crimes.)

 

Satan’s Invisible World Discovered

by George Sinclair 

Published, Edinburgh 1779

Available on Google Books

 

Old and New Edinburgh, Volume 1

Published 1883

by James Grant

 

Edinburgh and the Lothians (Chapter XVI)

By Francis Watt

Published 1912

Available at https://electricscotland.com

 

Wikipedia article on Major Thomas Weir

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