In August 1413, a 9-day windstorm smothered the village of Forvie under massive sand dunes, leaving only the kirk visible. Eventually abandoned, Forvie was said to have been cursed by three sisters who were sent off to die in a leaky boat in 1391.
Yf evyr maidenis malysone Did licht upon drie lande Lay nocht be funde of Forvy’s glebys, Bot thystle, bente, and sande.
(translated) If ever maidens accursed, Do alight upon dry land, Let nothing be found in Forvie’s fields, But thistles, marram, and sand!
The Curse of Forvie
References
Anderson, W. (1873) Howes o’ Buchan: being notes, local, historical, and antiquarian, regarding the various places of interest along the route of the Buchan Railway. Sentinel Office, Peterhead pp.96-97
Sherriffs, E. (2017) Life in medieval Forvie. Foveran Community Newsletter. Issue 148. pp. 26-27
In 1865, Blairgowrie woman, Jessie Bowman dreamt she stood in a bale-stand emblazoned with “XXV” and felt it foretold her death. Her friends predicted a wedding instead. She died aged 25, on Sept 25th 1867 helping her father with the cattle.
References
National Records of Scotland– 1867 BOWMAN, JESSIE (Statutory registers Deaths 335/ 78) Dundee Advertiser. 3rd October 1836. pg.3
Geordie moved to Colorado in US and continued work on flying machines. Pictured here is his “Gyropter” which was again steam-powered. According to an article in Scientific American, it did manage to lift itself off the ground for a few seconds at a time, before the boiler exploded and destroyed the whole thing.
Artist’s impression of the finished Davidson Gyropter. (Image from Gunston, 1977)Plan of the Davidson Gyropter (from Gunston, 1977)
References
The Sphere. 25th August 1900. pg. 31 Aberdeen Evening Express. 1st April 1989. pg. 14 Scottish Notes and Queries. Vol. 12, pg. 41 Banffshire Reporter. 17th September 1898, pg. 3 Aberdeen Press and Journal. 7th September 1898. pg. 6 Gunston, P. (1977) Helicopters at War. Chartwell, Secaucus, NJ. p.13 The Sketch. 23rd April 1913. pg 91.
Fleein Geordie’s Ither Inventions
Here are some images of George L. O. Davidson’s other patents and inventions, which are all great and someone should most definitely build models of them.
On 17th August 1865, a freak rainstorm covered about 3 acres of Maxwelltown, Dumfries in froglets. A fortnight before, the tracks at Lanark Railway Station were covered in tadpoles after 5 minutes of rain.
References
Greenock Advertiser. 22nd Aug 1865. pg.2 The Scotsman. 24th Aug 1865. pg.4
On New Year’s Eve 1917, Scottish soldiers stationed in South Africa sent an encrypted message to the British Army’s field headquarters. It was a Happy New Year message in Gaelic. It took the codebreakers hours to solve. The high command were not amused…
On 10th Jan 1930 a mysterious tattered ship with no rudder, sails or lifeboats appeared off Ardnamurchan.
After having drifted for *48 days* the Neptune II was towed into Tobermory. It was almost destroyed in gales a few miles from home port…in Newfoundland.
References
Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 23rd Jan 1930. p.12 Dundee Courier. 21st Jan 1930. p. 3 & 8 Illustrated London News. 25th Jan 1930 p.11 Birmingham Daily Gazette. 23rd Jan 1930. p 12
In the 19th century, many believed in “maternal impression”– the idea that women could “mark” a fetus during pregnancy.
In 1817, when Galloway man John Woods said he wouldn’t accept paternity unless the child had his name writ large on its face, apparently…
References
T.E.C. (1976) The power of maternal impression causes the alleged father’s name to appear in legible letters in his infant son’s right eye. Pediatrics 58(6): 901
In the 19th century, many Scots would not eat *any* fresh vegetables, unripe berries, or new potatoes in case they caught “the Scotch cholera” which was supposed fatal in less than a day.
In April 1650, Brechin woman Catharin Walker was accused of witchcraft, for, among other things, booting a man in the balls so hard he died.
Her accusers also claimed: She had a meeting with the devil in the form of a cat and made a pact with him She had kicked another man in the groin (and that he also died) She had poisoned cattle and children She had used incantations to summon the devil in her prison cell She had brought some sort of pestilence upon Brechin.
While we know that the man who died post-booting was named Beattie, the records of the Brechin presbytery don’t say what Catharin’s fate was. No commission to try her has been found in the records, so she may have been acquitted. However, she was found by witchpricker John Kincaid to have had the “Devil’s mark” on her, and she had at some point confessed to murder–not easy things to shake and unlikely to get you let out of jail.*
*thanks to Louise Yeoman and Ciaran Jones for this insight on Catharin’s fate.
