In 1935, someone in Ayr bought a horse from Alloway but had no way to collect it. The seller in Alloway stuck a label on the horse and handed it into the Post Office who duly “carried” it to Ayr. The postage cost one shilling.
In 1829 when farmers hiked up the price of sour milk, women rioted at Kilmarnock cross. They smashed milk jugs on the heads of anyone who paid the new prices, threw milk at the police, and flooded streets with milk from the carts.
Their cause won out. The farmers went back to charging the old fair price for milk.
By 1793, apparently nothing had ever happened.
In 1925, a farmer left a gate open and let his horses wander and was fined.
In 1950, a man defrauded a farmer of a dozen eggs to buy back his boots.
In 1787 or 1788, Louis XVI banned the import of Burntisland “mould” into France. Dug from the hills above the town, the “mould” was apparently used in making ceramics and was treated as a credible threat to the French ceramics industry.
In 1927, as 3 boys played on a lock gate at the Grangemouth Saw Mill they found 2 caches of “hidden treasure”. One bag filled with jewelry, another full of expensive furs. Jewelry stolen from G’mouth, furs stolen from Edinburgh, years apart. Two crimes solved!
In 1819 the River Cree dried up exposing a single ancient elk antler in the clay at Machermore measuring 34inches long and 12inches around at the base. It was sent to Sir Walter Scott and was one of the first solid proofs that elk previously roamed in Scotland.
The folk of Loans were *notorious* for “relieving” ships of their cargo when they were beached on North Sands. They had special cellars called ‘brandy holes’ and the Laird of Fullarton faked reports about pirate ships to the exciseman to protect his tenants.
In August 1899, Pinter and Ord’s circus lioness escaped into the streets of Pitlochry. It attacked a pony, but came off worse after the pony bit its neck. Locals caught it by throwing a large tarpaulin over it. Only one man injured after it stepped on his toes.
Locharbriggs, north of Dumfries was traditionally the trysting place for all witches and warlocks in the area. The meetings were so terrifying and memorable for the locals they were used to tell folks’ age (I’m older than Tibbie Fleucher’s Hallowmass tryst).
Between 1862 and 1866 pitch black heavy rains fell on Slains parish 7 times. Two showers were accompanied by large rafts of pumice stones on the sea (8-10in diam. and >1lb in weight). Attributed to Etna and Vesuvius eruptions, it fell nowhere else in Scotland*.
*Carluke, Lanark got one black rain at the same time (no pumice) but that’s some pinpoint accuracy for volcanic meteorological phenomena. The true cause was hotly debated in the papers but never settled Needless to say, parishioners in Slains lost their shit.