Skulferatu #132 - Old Railway Path, South Queensferry

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Skulferatu #131 - Ferrymuir, South Queensferry

 

The Ferrymuir is a busy patch of land on the outskirts of South Queensferry.  A small island of retail and hospitality that is circled by busy roads taking traffic to and from the Forth Bridges, and to and from the surrounding towns and villages.  A place of hustle and bustle, it boasts a Dakota hotel, a Tesco superstore, a couple of fast food outlets, some offices, and a small housing estate. All of this is relatively new though, as when I was a child the Ferrymuir was nothing more than a quiet, grassy field where a few cows grazed.  As children we never referred to it as the Ferrymuir, we knew it as the witches’ field, and that the local folklore was that several witches had been burned there.

 

Where they burned the witches

 

Crossing

 

Big black building

 

Dakota

Low roof and big sky

 

Fast Food

 

Car park and blue sky

 

South Queensferry, like so many towns and villages in Scotland, has a dark, blood stained past linked to the Scottish Witch Trials of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.  Witch trials that so often seem to emanate from the influence of one religious zealot arriving in a town and deciding to rid it of those holding on to old superstitions, those they see as a nuisance, and anyone who annoys them or arouses their jealousy.  On the 1^st of September 1641, just such a man arrived in the small town of South Queensferry, the new minister of the Kirk, one Ephraim Melville.

 

Melville was an enthusiastic pastor and a strict Presbyterian of the ‘Tartan Taliban’ type, who saw all around him the remnants of the Catholic faith.  In his eyes a faith of idolatry, a faith summed up in the superstitious practices and ‘preternatural fancies’ of many of those living in the town. To Melville these ‘Popish’ fancies were no better than devil worship and needed to be stamped out. It wasn’t long after his arrival in the town that he dragged it into a frenzied witch hunt.

 

The records of the witch trials in South Queensferry are patchy and incomplete, and I only have access to secondary records recording them, which adds another layer of confusion to what went on; however, it appears that at least thirteen women were accused of sorcery and using the dark arts.  Of these at least eight suffered the cruel and horrible fate of being burnt at the stake in the fields of Ferrymuir.

 

It all began in 1643 when Melville wrote in the parish records that on the 3^rd of December an extraordinary session had been convened to call for the apprehension of Janet Lowrie and Helen Thomson for witchcraft.  The two women were then imprisoned that day.  It also appears that several other women were apprehended, including Helen Hill and her daughter Isobel Young.

 

Shortly after this, on the 5^th of December, a woman from the town, Helen Young, approached Melville and made a complaint to him that Helen Dauline had called her a witch.  Both women were subsequently detained and imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft, though the main reason for Helen Young’s detention appears to be because she was ‘old’.

 

Several more women were seized on suspicion of witchcraft and on the 14^th of December it was noted that under questioning, or should that be torture, that three of those being held as witches, Elspeth Cant, Janet Lowrie and Helen Thomson had confessed and had also named Janet Mowbray and Marion Dauline as being witches.  These two women were then seized and imprisoned that day.  Then, for good luck, or maybe just because she was a bit of a nuisance, the local beggar, one Marion Stein was also seized and imprisoned.

 

While all this was going on, a tragedy hit the local community with the death of William Lowrie, a merchant from South Queensferry who was lost at sea, along with all his crew, when his ship sank in a storm.  Lowrie was a man of some significant standing, who had lived in a large house he’d had built for himself and his wife, Marion Speddie.  The house, which still stands on the High Street of the town is known as the ‘Black Castle’ and bears the initials of both Lowrie and Speddie on the dormer pediments.  This tragedy then took a darker turn when on the 6^th of April 1644, Marion Little, who was the sister in law of William and was married to his brother James Lowrie, confessed to Melville that she had paid the ‘witch beggar’ called Marion Stein a dollar to ‘help to drowne William Lowrie’s shipe and company...’  We do not know the background to her confession or who had named her as a witch, but it is likely that it was obtained under torture and duress, as at a session of the church it had been decided that anyone accused of being a witch was to be held in irons and denied any sleep while they were in custody.  No doubt the usual humiliations and tortures were also used along with this.

 

The Black Castle

 

On the 21^st of July 1644, at a further session of the church it was decided that James Lowrie should be ordered to pay for the execution of his wife Marion Little and the execution of Marion Stein.  The records of this meeting also disclose that another woman, Catherine Logie, was to be executed with them.  It is not recorded what part she was meant to have played in the death of William Lowrie, but it was ordered that her goods and belongings were to be seized to pay for her burning, and that if there was any shortfall James Lowrie was to make up the difference.  It would appear that not long after this session of the church, that Little, Stein and Logie were led from the Tolbooth in South Queensferry and up to the Ferrymuir where they were burned at the stake together.

 

A suspected ‘witch’ being questioned

 

It is likely that much of the town was caught up in the hysteria of the witch hunt, however not everyone was onboard with it.  John Young and his son, who it seems were relations of Isobel Young and Helen Hill, spoke out against their ‘burning’ and for this were warned by Melville that if they were heard to do so again ‘they shall be fyned most sickerlie.’

 

Later the parish records record that John Young petitioned Melville for the release of his daughter Margaret who was ‘lying in prison’ after having been accused of being a witch.  Melville and his cronies eventually agreed to release Margaret, on the understanding that she would be banished from the kingdom, that if she were ever to return, she would be burned as a witch, and Young would be fined the sum of ‘fortie pounds’.  Young agreed to this, and Margaret was released.  However, the records then show that at a later session of the church it was ordered that Young be apprehended on sight for failing to carry out their demands, and that he should be imprisoned until he had paid the fine.  There are no records detailing what happened next and we can only hope that both Young and his daughter evaded capture, escaped from the clutches of Melville and lived long and happy lives.

 

By the end of 1644 the Queensferry Witch Hunt was over, and life returned to some sort of normality for the inhabitants of what was at that time a small fishing town with a busy and bustling harbour.  So, what became of Ephraim Melville you may wonder?  Well, like any good villain, he carried on regardless.  In 1649 he was appointed by the church as a commissioner for visiting the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, to distribute endowments to the Professors and other members working there.  Then in 1650 he left the parish at South Queensferry for the much larger and better paying one of Linlithgow. However, it seems there was some dissent amongst church members about his appointment with several objecting to him because ‘of the weakness of his voice.’   I’d like to think that this meant he had a high, squeaky voice or something like that, but there were ructions in the Presbyterian Church at that time, with different factions emerging and so this objection is probably more down to him not being on the same side as those opposing his appointment.  Those in Linlithgow didn’t have to put up with him for too long though, as in April 1653 Melville died.

 

***

 

While out in South Queensferry I had a wander around the Ferrymuir taking in the delightful sights of urban sprawl.  Walking past the Tesco supermarket, I found a little grassy haven along which ran a lichen covered fence, much which must have been there when I was a kid given how old and rotten it was. I left a Skulferatu posed in the lichen, in memory of those women denounced, persecuted, and killed in the South Queensferry Witch Hunt –

 

Margaret Brown

Elspeth Cant

Margaret Dauline

Marion Dauline

Helen Hill

Marion Little

Catherine Logie

Janet Lowrie

Janet Mowbray

Marion Stein

Catherine Thomson or Antonie

Helen Thomson

Isobel Young

 

A little grassy haven

 

Skulferatu #131

 

Skulferatu #131 in a bed of lichen

 

Skulferatu #131 in a bed of lichen

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #131

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.98263

Longitude -3.401452

 

what3words: dives.dawn.require

 

I used the following sources for information on the witches of South Queensferry –

 

Summer life on land and water at South Queensferry

By William Wallace Fyfe

1851

 

Scotland’s Places

West Lothian OS Name Books, 1855-1859, West Lothian volume 21, OS1/34/21/22

Scotland's Places - OS1/34/21/22

 

Witchcraft in the ‘Ferry.  Seven Witches Burned.

Linlithgowshire Gazette - Friday 08 November 1901

 

Ecclesia Antiqua

The History of an Ancient Church (St. Michael's of Linlithgow)

by John Ferguson

1905

Skulferatu #29 - Hound Point Battery, Dalmeny Estate, South Queensferry

 

On a sunny, but bitterly cold April morning I took a walk from Cramond, through Dalmeny Estate, to South Queensferry.  Following Cycle Route 76, I walked through the top of the estate and round and down to Hound Point.  By Fishery Cottage, I cut up the hill and through the woods to the concrete remains of the Hound Point Battery, an old First World War coastal defences site.  There I had a good look about as the trees all around swayed and creaked in the wind.

 

Hill view of gun emplacement at Hound Point Battery

 

Remains of the magazine building

Gun emplacement – Hound Point Battery

 

Gun emplacement – Hound Point Battery

 

Gun emplacement – Hound Point Battery

 

Hound point Battery was part of a defensive system built along the coast of the UK that stretched from Shetland to Cornwall.  Building work began on the Battery before the start of World War One and it was operational by 1914.  The Battery consisted of two gun emplacements at the top of the hill overlooking the Firth of Forth, and a magazine building to the rear and slightly further down the hill.  While it was operational the perimeter of the Battery would have been surrounded by blockhouses and a barbed wire fence.  When it was armed in 1914 the Battery had two BL 6-inch Mk VII guns, however these were removed in 1915 and transferred to another battery at Leith Docks.  The guns were then replaced in 1916 with two 12 pounder Quick Firing Naval 18cwt guns.  These were dismounted and removed in 1922.

 

In September 1914, the Battery at Hound Point opened fire on a suspected enemy submarine out in the Firth of Forth.  However, one of the shells fired ricocheted off the water and landed near to the Earl of Moray’s residence at Donibristle House in Dalgety Bay.  Luckily, it didn’t cause much damage other than ploughing up the lawn in front of the house.  The enemy submarine was eventually sunk by a gunner based out on Inchgarvie Island.

 

The Battery is now in a state of disrepair and is badly vandalised and crumbling away, much like most of the old coastal defences.  However, around the old gun emplacements there are some good views, through the trees, over the Forth.  The sort of views that make you realise why they built the Battery where they did.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in the hollow of a tree growing out from one of the gun emplacements.

 

Skulferatu #29

Skulferatu #29 in tree hollow at Hound Point Battery

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #29

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.999295

Longitude -3.351049

I used the following sources for information on Hound Point Battery -

 

Linlithgowshire Gazette – Friday, September 18, 1914

 

Overland China Mail – No 2386, October 31, 1914

 

Canmore – Forth Defences, Inner, Hound Point Battery

Canmore - Forth Defences, Inner, Hound Point Battery

 

Ancient Monuments UK

ancientmonuments.uk - Hound Point Battery, City of Edinburgh

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