Full Description
'Dark Tourism' involves travelling to sites associated with death, disaster, or the macabre. Scotland is filled with these 'dark places' that embody pain, shame, and 'difficult heritage.' 111 Dark Places in Scotland That You Shouldn't Miss provides an engaging, accessible, and authoritative guide to these significant sites within Scotland's castles, ancient cities, towns, and natural landscapes. This book delves into the darker aspects of the nation's heritage.
Scotland, while part of the UK, maintains a distinct cultural identity with a history steeped in conflict, especially with its dominant neighbour, England. The country's legacy of turmoil has shaped its strong sense of national identity, often the core of dark tourism. This guidebook is the first of its kind, designed for both locals and visitors to explore Scotland's dark tourism sites. It complements 111 Dark Places in England and provides a distinctly Scottish perspective on the nation's challenging past.
Contents
Hermitage Castle | Borders
Guardhouse of the 'bloodiest' valley in Britain | 10
Robert the Bruce's Heart | Borders
Scottish identity and a 'prune-like' heart | 12
Widows and Bairns | Borders
Heartbroken by Scotland's worst fishing disaster | 14
51st Highlanders | Central
Left behind after the 'Miracle of Dunkirk' | 16
Battle of Bannockburn | Central
Scotland's decisive victory against England | 18
Battle of Killiecrankie | Central
One of the goriest clashes in Jacobite history | 20
Battle of the Clans | Central
Most bizarre fight in Scottish clan history | 22
The Black Watch | Central
The oldest Highland army regiment | 24
Bon Scott Statue | Central
Tribute to a tragic rock star | 26
Cultybraggan PoW Camp | Central
'Black Camp of the North' | 28
Curse of Patrick Hamilton | Central
Malediction for University of St Andrews students | 30
David Stirling Memorial | Central
The 'Phantom Major' of the SAS | 32
Dunblane Memorial | Central
Most murderous mass shooting in British history | 34
Forbes Mausoleum | Central
An abandoned monument to mortality | 36
Martyrs' Memorial | Central
Sisters of 'The Killing Time' | 38
National Wallace Monument | Central
From outlaw to 'Braveheart' | 40
Scotland's Secret Bunker | Central
'Protect and survive' a nuclear Armageddon | 42
The Star Pyramid | Central
Remembering religious and civil persecution | 44
The Tay Bridge Disaster | Central
Poor engineering leads to 'touching deaths' | 46
The 'Witch' Monument | Central
Murdered by the state for 'diabolic pacts' | 48
Devil's Porridge Museum | Dumfries & Galloway
'Canary Girls' who produced war munitions | 50
Lockerbie Memorial Garden | Dumfries & Galloway
Deadliest ever terrorist attack in the UK | 52
Sawney Bean's Cave | Dumfries & Galloway
A Scottish cannibal who raised an incestuous family | 54
Burn O' Vat | Grampian
A geological quirk with tales of outlaws | 56
The American Monument | Highlands & Islands
Pilgrimage for a double wartime tragedy | 58
Badbea Clearance Village | Highlands & Islands
Highland Clearances and 'Scottish diaspora' | 60
Boleskine House | Highlands & Islands
Home to a malevolent occultist | 62
Commando Memorial | Highlands & Islands
'United we conquer' | 64
Culloden | Highlands & Islands
Last pitched battle fought in Britain | 66
Cuween Chambered Cairn | Highlands & Islands
Ancient burial chamber under a hill | 68
Eagle's Rock Memorial | Highlands & Islands
Mysterious death of a libertine prince | 70
Flannan Isles Lighthouse | Highlands & Islands
Vanishing of 'three dead men' | 72
Glencoe Massacre | Highlands & Islands
Treacherous clan rivalry leads to slaughter | 74
Glenfinnan Monument | Highlands & Islands
Clansmen killed during the Jacobite Uprising | 76
Gloup Disaster Memorial | Highlands & Islands
A historic sea-faring tragedy | 78
Flora MacDonald's Grave | Highlands & Islands
Hero of the Highlands | 80
The Ghost Village | Highlands & Islands
Splendid isolation abandoned for modernity | 82
Gruinard Island | Highlands & Islands
'Anthrax Island' and cakes of death | 84
Iolaire Memorial | Highlands & Islands
Crowning sorrow of World War I | 86
Massacre Cave | Highlands & Islands
Mass murder of MacDonalds | 88
Oil Rig 'Graveyard' | Highlands & Islands
Industrial ruins and economic ghosts | 90
Royal Oak Memorial Garden | Highlands & Islands
Reflecting the sad loss of naval souls | 92
Ruthven Barracks | Highlands & Islands
'Let every man seek his own safety' | 94
Scapa Flow | Highlands & Islands
Murdered sailor is last to die from World War I | 96
St Columba's Well | Highlands & Islands
Saintly miracles and an early 'Loch Ness Monster' | 98
The Unfinished Memorial | Highlands & Islands
Burial site of the last hereditary piper | 100
Well of the Seven Heads | Highlands & Islands
Beheaded murderers and Highland clan justice | 102
Willie MacRae Memorial | Highlands & Islands
A mysterious death and tales of foul play | 104
Ailie's Cairn | Lothian
Cruel misogynistic murder from yesteryear | 106
Barnton Nuclear Bunker | Lothian
Declassified but still hidden | 108
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh | Lothian
First modern battle on British soil | 110
The Black Mausoleum | Lothian
Where the 'bluidy' ghost of George MacKenzie roams | 112
Burke & Hare Murder Dolls | Lothian
Mysterious miniature coffins and tiny doll corpses | 114
Canine Cemetery | Lothian
Final resting place for doggy companions | 116
Covenanters' Prison | Lothian
Dying for your religion | 118
Craigentinny Marbles | Lothian
Imposing 'suburban' tomb of an eccentric landowner | 120
Cramond Island | Lothian
'Ghost island' and former wartime coastal defence | 122
Death Cell Door | Lothian
An entrance to execution | 124
Dechmont UFO Monument | Lothian
The only UK criminal case for an alien encounter | 126
Dolly the Sheep | Lothian
A cloned mammal that pushed ethical envelopes | 128
Dr Dewar Monument | Lothian
Remembering a killer physician | 130
The Edinburgh Maiden | Lothian
A beheading machine that executed its inventor | 132
'Great Lafayette' Grave | Lothian
Magical life and curious death | 134
Greyfriars Kirkyard | Lothian
'Non Omnis Moriar' (Not All of Me Will Die) | 136
Greyfriars' Mortsafes | Lothian
Guarding graves against 'resurrectionists' | 138
The Hanging Stanes | Lothian
Last public execution for highway robbery | 140
Heave Awa Hoose | Lothian
'Dig away chaps, I'm not dead yet' | 142
Holodomor Memory | Lothian
Millions of people killed by starvation | 144
James Lind's Memorial | Lothian
The Hippocrates of naval medicine | 146
John Knox's Grave | Lothian
Buried in car parking space number 23 | 148
John Livingston's Tomb | Lothian
Black Death and an apothecary's grave | 150
Korean War Memorial | Lothian
A 'forgotten' war that never ended | 152
Lt John Irving Grave | Lothian
Serving on HMS Terror led to terror | 154
Mary King's Close | Lothian
Tales of hauntings and Black Death | 156
Mini-Submarine Wrecks | Lothian
Underwater warfare in midget submarines | 158
Monte Cassino Manuscript | Lothian
Dismembered body and horrors of war | 160
National War Museum | Lothian
Scotland's warfare and conflicts | 162
Old Calton Burial Ground | Lothian
Monuments and graves of eminent Scots | 164
Robert Burns Shelter | Lothian
The 'darker' side of Rabbie Burns | 166
Rosslyn Chapel | Lothian
Suffragette bombs and alt-history | 168
The Soldier Bear Memorial | Lothian
The bear that went to war | 170
The 'Spitting Stone' | Lothian
Spitting on the Heart of Midlothian | 172
Surgeons' Hall Museum | Lothian
Death mask to human-skin book cover | 174
William Burke Museum | Lothian
A 'bit of Burke' on gruesome display | 176
The Witches' Well | Lothian
Satanic panic of witchcraft | 178
Woman and Child Memorial | Lothian
Standing against racial discrimination | 180
WWI Training Trenches | Lothian
Practising for the horrors of trench warfare | 182
Cameronians Memorial | Strathclyde
Respected regiment that refused to play football | 184
Cheapside Street Fire | Strathclyde
Britain's worst peacetime fire-service disaster | 186
The Coal Mining Monument | Strathclyde
To all those who worked and died in mining | 188
Collins' Fountain | Strathclyde
Ills of the 'demon drink' | 190
Glasgow Necropolis | Strathclyde
Sightsee in ''mansions of the dead' | 192
Glasgow University | Strathclyde
Atonement for its slavery heritage | 194
Ibrox Disaster Memorial | Strathclyde
Sixty-six football fans who died in Stairway 13 | 196
Inveraray Jail | Strathclyde
Penal codes from the past | 198
Jim Murray Memorial | Strathclyde
A sport that can kill | 200
La Pasionaria | Strathclyde
Fight against fascism | 202
Loch Long Torpedo Range | Strathclyde
Military secrets and an executed spy | 204
Lord Roberts Monument | Strathclyde
A statue to brutal suppression | 206
A Lost Roman Legion | Strathclyde
The Ninth Legion that mysteriously disappeared | 208
The Miners Memorial | Strathclyde
To those killed in Scottish mining | 210
Overtoun Bridge | Strathclyde
Dogs leap to a 'canine suicide' | 212
Paisley Witches | Strathclyde
'Pain inflicted, suffering endured, injustice done' | 214
Pierre's Unmarked Grave | Strathclyde
A poisoned lover and a Victorian scandal | 216
Southern Necropolis | Strathclyde
Home of the 'Gorbals Vampire' | 218
St Valentine's Bones | Strathclyde
Trading body parts as holy relics | 220
Stillborn Baby Memorial | Strathclyde
For our babies briefly known but never forgotten | 222
Victoria Cross Memorial | Strathclyde
Awarded for 'valour in the presence of the enemy' | 224
Wallace's Well | Strathclyde
Wallace's final drink as a free man | 226
The Witch's Skull | Strathclyde
A female skull in Glasgow's only pub museum | 228
Women of the Necropolis | Strathclyde
From a witch to medical pioneer to gypsy queen | 230
