Old Weird Scotland

Built around 1750, the Old Manse of Kilbucho sits in a small glen between Broughton and Coulter in the Borders. In 1902, it was the scene of an unsolved mystery that left its occupants too terrified to spend another night in their home.

A private house for over a century, in February 1902 it was owned by Misses Elizabeth (50) and Isabella (46) Hope, who lived there themselves since the death of their father 9 months previously. The Old Manse sits tucked into a hollow next to the ruins of Kilbucho Kirk.

Apart from a few sheepfarms, the Old Manse has no real neighbours– you’d have to walk over an hour down the track in either direction to reach a village.

The two sisters had spent the evening of the 6th of February by the fire in their bedroom and decided to turn in at around 11pm. Their habit in winter was to open the shutters before bed to make the most of the morning daylight.

On a moonless night like that one was, the two sisters’ window, illuminated by the fireplace, would have visible to any passers-by (of which there shouldn’t be *any* as they lived in the middle of nowhere!)

A little after midnight the sisters were awoken by their window panes being smashed. By their candlelight, they saw a large masked figure with a beard hacking at their window frame with an axe.

After all the panes were broken, a revolver was then pointed through the window and two shots rang out. Both bullets hit the sisters’ headboard. Scrambling out of the room, the sisters ran down the hall to kitchen.

As soon as they got there though the masked figure started breaking another window and again opened fire– the rounds thudding into an open pantry door. Barefoot and pyjamaed, Elizabeth and Isabella flung open the kitchen door and ran off into the night.

They made for the farmhouse at Mitchellhill, 400 yards down the track, and were admitted by a bemused Tom and Jemima Todd. After hearing their story, Tom woke the shepherd and the two men made for the old manse armed with sticks and lanterns.

They found the house as the Hope sisters had left it–kitchen door open wide, glass and splintered wood on the floor. While Tom looked around the outbuildings, the shepherd ran back to the farmhouse to sound the alarm.

The shepherd returned with a posse of farmers who tried their best to track the mystery assailant. The ground was hard and they found no footprints. They assumed the gunman had headed west up the valley where there were no farms or houses, but no trace was ever found.

Police found that one drawer had been opened but nothing had been stolen. The sisters never slept in their home of over 25 years again. It was put on the market and sold within months. Isabella and Elizabeth Hope moved to Peebles where they lived for the rest of their days.

The bullets were found to be “of a small calibre” and were the only real evidence collected. The poet T.T. Kilbucho (Thomas Todd), who was the son of Tom and Jemima Todd at Mitchellhill, visited the Old Manse in the 1960s and was shown the bullet holes in the pantry door.