On Good Friday 1882, 147 people in Inverness became severely ill after eating hot cross buns. While not fatal, they all experienced vomiting, tremors, and a dry throat. An unidentified alkaloid poison was found in the spice mix. The case was never solved.
To be honest though, hot cross buns do that at the best of times…
Dundee Courier. 11th April 1882. pg. 4
Inverness Courier. 13th June 1882. pg. 2
TINCHELL. n. a ring of hunters who surround a chosen area and close in to entrap any quarry. In 1868, a minor incident ignited anti-Irish sentiment around Lochearnhead. A tinchell of Highlanders, led by pipers, marched Irish workers 15 miles out of the area.
Dictionary of the Scots Language (https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/tinchel)
Inverness Courier. 11th June 1868. pg. 3
Twitter. Alex Mulholland (@molach95) https://twitter.com/molach95/status/1288156150546993154?s=20
Skye crofter, Jonathan MacLeod (d.1874) was shot in the leg at Waterloo and lived with the bullet in his calf for ~60 years. When his son Angus was interred with him at Kilmartin, his grandchildren found the bullet in the earth, 72 years after it had been shot.
Dundee Evening Telegraph. 24th March 1887. pg. 2
1887 MACLEOD, ANGUS (Statutory registers Deaths 112/2 7)
Billie Ritchie (1879-1921) was a Glaswegian actor who built a career on impersonating Charlie Chaplin, though he always claimed that Chaplin stole his act and look. He died after being savaged by ostriches he was mistreating on set.
Dundee Evening Telegraph. 4th August 1921. pg. 6
Historian David Calderwood reported that 1612 was a crazy year in Scotland.
“Well mett, I’m David Calderwood”
“A cow has brought furthe fourteene great dogge whelps in stead of calves and another, efter the calving, became starke madde, so that the owner was forced to slay her. A deid bairne was found in her bellie.”
“In Inveraray, ane of the Erle of Argyle’s servants being sicke, vomited two toades and a serpent, and so convalesced; but after did vomit a number of litle toades.”
“Neir Kirklistoun, A young man at the plough accidentallie killeth his owne son with the throwing of a stone. He hangeth himself. His wife, latlie delivered of a child, ran out the house to seek her husband, before she returned, a sow had eaten her child”
“Scottismen at court are in danger of their lyves by reasone of great malice conceived against them by the Englishe. There were at present about ane hundreth Scottismen, all in danger to be massacred, if the Englishe had not beene stayed by a councellour.”
“The brother of Sir Johne Ramsay hath smotte the Lord Montgomerie’s brother on the face with a rod for a lie given him at the horse race.” “In other news, James Maxwell, gentleman of the king’s chamber, hath pulled ane Englishman’s eare till it bledd.”
“And finallie, sixe yeers after he putt furth the ey of Lord Sanquhar at the fencing, ane Englishe fencer was killt in ane inn by two Scottismen hyred by the Lord. To content the Englishe, the king consented that the Lord Sanquhar be hangit.”
“With this acte, Scottismen shewn greater contempt to their nobilitie, as the Lord Sanquhar was hangit a among number of theevs.”
“So endeth our uprounding of “the prodigious works and rare accidents that fell furth in AD 1612” “For reporting Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, your maist humble servant, David Calderwood.”
Thomson, T. (ed.) (1845) The History of the Kirk of Scotland, by Mr. David Calderwood. vol. 7. Wodrow Society, Edinburgh. pp. 164-165.
You’ve heard of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, but have you heard about the Seven Wonders of Scotland? These come from the Gaelic tradition and were known as “seachd mìorbhuilean na h-Alba—the Seven Marvels of Scotland. This piece was originally published on Bella Caledonia
#1 Tobraichean Ghlinn Iuch
The Wells of Linlithgow (Ghlinn Iuch) have long made the town famous. An old saying went “Glesca for bells, Lithgae for wells”. The Cross Well was dug in 1535 at the behest of King James V and an elaborate fountain was built in 1628. This fountain was ruined by Cromwell’s troops during the occupation of Linlithgow Palace. After being rebuilt, lead pipes brought water to it from 1659 and it was said to “excite the envy of the citizens of Edinburgh for the copiousness of its supply of water.” The current fountain was carved in 1807 by Robert Gray—a one-armed mason who had a mallet for a prosthetic—and is thought to be an exact replica of the original.
The King’s Fountain in Linlithgow palace is of a similar age, having been commissioned in 1537 by James V. It is the oldest working fountain in Britain.
#2 Cluig Pheairt
The Bells of Perth (not Glasgow), specifically the bells of St John’s Kirk. With 63 bells, this is the largest collection of bells in the British Isles. The oldest bell is from 1340 (older than the kirk itself) and many were made in Flanders in 1526.
Hearing the carillon or call to worship boom out over the streets of Perth must’ve been a rare thing back in the day (here is the current carillonneur playing).
#3 Drochaid Obair Pheallaidh
“General Wade’s Bridge” at Aberfeldy was built in 1733 and at the time was the only way across the Tay. While in reality designed and built by the architect William Adam, Wade had this lofty inscription carved in Latin on the bridge giving himself a good pat on the back.
“Admire this military road stretching on this side and that 250 miles beyond the limits of the Roman one, mocking moors and bogs, opened up through rocks and over mountains, and, as you see, crossing the indignant Tay. This difficult work G. Wade, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland, accomplished by his own skill and ten years labour of his soldiers in the year of the Christian Era, 1733. Behold how much avail the Royal auspices of George 2nd.”
As pleased as Wade was, Thomas Telford thought it was all-fur-coat-an-nae-knickers when he saw it in 1819. “At distance it looks well, but makes a wretched appearance upon close inspection. There are four unmeaning obelisks upon the central arch [i.e. a waste of space] and the parapet is so high that you cannot see over it.”
#4 No Friùthachan
This marvel is less than a bridge. The Fords of Frew is one of the shallowest points on the Forth providing a good place to have an army cross and acted as a natural bottleneck between north and south Scotland. Fortified by Kenneth II in the 10th century and tactically important for the Battles of Sauchieburn (1488), Kilsyth (1645) and Falkirk Muir (1746), today it’s just a streambank in a cow field. Rob Roy was supposed to have escaped from Montrose by leaping from a carriage crossing at the ford and swimming down the river.
#5 Geata Inbhir Aòra
The “Gate” of Inveraray. I’m not sure specifically what in Inveraray this marvel is. Someone on Twitter suggested that it might be the Avenue Screen wall, with its decorative arches, built in 1787.
Alex Mulholland thought maybe the town itself was a “gate” to the surrounding area because of the geography. As Alex pointed out to me, Inveraray is important defensively. It guards Glen Aray and Loch Fyne and does act as a “gateway” to Kintyre and Knapdale. Inveraray was substantially remodelled after the ’45 so it’s possible the “gate” was part of old Inveraray.
#6 A’ Chraobh a tha fàs an Gàradh na Ceapaich
Oddly specific, this is “the tree that grows in the garden of Keppoch”. Keppoch is near Roybridge in Lochaber that had a castle from about 1500 and later a chieftain’s house built by the 9th Chief of Keppoch, Raonall Og (1554-1587).
Raonall also planted a pear orchard at Keppoch. One of the oldest orchards in the Highlands, the Gàradh nam Peuran (garden of pears) was famous across the Highlands. It stood for over 100 years until it was burned by the Duke of Cumberland’s forces in 1746. The only thing left standing was a single pear tree.
#7 Answers on postcard, please!
When the mìorbhuilean na h-Alba were collected by folklorists from Perthshire in late 19th/early 20th century, only six were known to the folk they interviewed. I haven’t found the seventh. So why are these “wonders” the seachd mìorbhuilean na h-Alba and what links them? The TL;DR version of the rest of the article is “I don’t know. If you do, let us know!”, but allow me to speculate…
At first glance, three have links to Jacobites and the ’45. Bonnie Prince Charlie crossed at Frew and Wade’s Bridge in Feb 1746 on the retreat north after the Battle of Falkirk Muir. Keppoch was burned to the ground by Cumberland’s forces soon after Culloden. Old Inveraray Village was demolished, and the new castle started in 1746 for the Duke of Argyll, who fought the Jacobites at Loch Fyne in Nov 1745.
So that leaves the wells and the bells. Charlie visited Perth and attended St John’s Kirk in September 1745 to try to get Presbyterians to warm to Catholics a bit. On October 30th a mob of Hanoverians attacked Jacobite sympathizers in Perth, occupied the Kirk and rang the bells incessantly.
As for the Wells of Linlithgow, there is a legend that when Charlie visited Linlithgow Palace on his way south, the King’s Fountain was filled with wine in celebration of the rightful Stuart king. Whether this happened or not, a well or fountain that you could drink your fill of wine at would certainly be marvellous.
From 21st-23rd August 1872, a large unidentified animal was seen in the Sound of Sleat. Estimates of its length varied between 45 and 80 feet but was described as a “serpent”. Two church ministers published a report in ‘The Zoologist’ with these diagrams.
At least 13 people reported seeing the same thing, including fishermen who said it was “no seal or porpoise”. This map shows where it was seen over those three days. The colours indicate independent observations. (It was also seen off Eigg.)
23rd Feb 1715. A “high ryot” started at Pittenweem after William Bell Jr., bailie, called Robert Cook, advocate, “mad and light in the head” and said that his “pericranium was wrang”.
An oddly specific burn if ever there was one.
Cook, D. (ed.) Annals of Pittenweem: being notes and extracts from the ancient records of that burgh, 1526-1793. Lewis Russell, Anstruther. pp.132-133
In the 1850s and 1860s a poetry competition of sorts took place in the guestbook of the old (pre-1881) Drumnadrochit Inn. See if you can spot the theme…
MacKay, W. (1914) Urquhart and Glenmoriston; olden times in a Highland parish. 2nd Edition. Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Company, Inverness. 596pp.
In 1898, the Dundee Courier reported a man’s skeleton was found inside a hayrick on the outskirts of Newport. As it was the previous year’s hayrick, it’s thought he fell asleep and was accidentally smothered by the others building the stack.
Dundee Courier. 12th November 1898. pg. 6.
