Spent some time today in the Mystery Room in the County Buildings, Cupar. It has jail doors, but why would a jail from the 1800s have fine stonework and 2 fire places? Why does the room have 2 fire places….it doesn’t need them? Why does the room have 2 doors from the same corridor? No evidence that it was ever 2 rooms. Found some answers today, but every answer raised more questions!!
I am featured as a guest writer on the Spooky Isles website again this week, read about the ghosts of St Andrews here
It’s been a long time coming, around 20 years between first starting to gather the ghost stories of the town to finally finishing the research and compiling the tales into one volume, but finally Supernatural St Andrews is finished. I am really pleased with how this book has come out, and I believe it to probably be the most historically complete collection of ghost tales from the town, with the background to all of the main ghosts uncovered and long forgotten spooks and stories re-discovered.
With maps and plenty of photographs, readers can easily visualise the various locations as they read about them, and people visiting the town can follow the routes or I will be more than happy to offer personalised tours for small to medium sized groups whenever possible, please use the ‘contact’ section on this page if you are interested.
The book is available on Kindle now, with the paperback to follow soon. This book is also the first in a new venture, Haunted Publishing. Loads of work ahead of me!
As part of the research for my new book ‘Supernatural St Andrews’, one of the key things I wanted to do was to gather as many photographs as I could to allow the reader the be able to visualise the locations behind the stories. A picture is worth one thousand words, as they say. Unfortunately repairs have been ongoing at one of the key sites, the Haunted Tower, home of the infamous White Lady of the cathedral, and where a secret chamber was discovered containing coffins with well preserved bodies, giving the appearance they had just been buried, despite the fact that in the two hundred years of earlier records available, there was no mention of the tower ever being used for burials. A request for the fencing around the tower to be removed to allow me to take a photograph was granted, although one section had to be left due to shuttering around a tombstone making it difficult to move.
While seeking permission, I also asked if I could view inside the tower, which is kept locked and is not open to the public and, after some form filling, Historic Scotland said yes! The chambers inside are far smaller than I ever thought they would be, and it is difficult to see how up to twelve coffins could have fitted inside, but I am reliably informed they were placed in a standing position lining the walls. In such a small, cramped space it was also difficult to take decent photographs, but I managed to get a couple, with the one below being the alcove that Dean W.T. Linskill, the recognised authority of his time in local ghostlore and author of the 1911 book ‘Haunted St Andrews’, stacked the coffins after he had the crypt, which had been bricked up, opened in the late 1800’s.
The coffins, which had been found to be empty at that time, had started to disintegrate. What happened to the bodies in the twenty years that had passed since the chamber was last opened remains a mystery. Despite the difficulties their size caused, I really did feel quite privileged to stand in these tiny chambers, where so few have ever stood before me and where so much mystery still lies, to experience the atmosphere for myself. The full story of the tower will be in Supernatural St Andrews, available for pre-order very soon.
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The title says it all, it’s been a while since I posted! An ongoing and worsening shoulder injury has made the work on my new book slow going! Still, it’s almost there, and at around 45,000 words and 70 plus photographs will be a decent sized book. I now have a mock-up for the cover, which I’m pleased with though might want to change the font for the text.
After a successful launch event at Waterstones in Kirkcaldy, Haunted Kirkcaldy is now available in book stores and online. This was the first time I have done a launch night, and the nerves were kicking in, but the audience were great and all seemed to go well. The staff at Waterstones in Kirkcaldy were also very supportive, even setting up a spooky theme in the shop!! I can’t thank everyone enough.
It’s back to work now on the next title. I have several started, but need to now focus on getting one finished!
I had another successful visit to Edinburgh, one of the best cities in the world. Found myself close to Greyfriars Kirkyard in the evening, so popped in to check out how it felt as the sun lowered in the sky. The big bonus for us this time was the cameras worked while taking photographs in both the Black Mausoleum and the Covenanter’s Prison.
The Black Mausoleum
Home of the MacKenzie Poltergeist
The only part of the cemetery I didn’t like this time was feeling like I was constantly being watched by the figures on this tomb!
With darkness approaching, tour groups were starting to gather in the Kirkyard, so we headed off round the Grassmarket and up to the Castle before heading back down the Royal Mile, snapping away with the camera as we went! Gathered lots of photos of locations I have been wanting to visit/revisit for a while for 3 new projects I am working on, one exploring the tales of witches and wizards in Scotland, another exploring tales of the Devil in Scotland and last (but far from least) a fresh exploration of the haunted spots in the city, including many that are not so well known.
I can guarantee that the research for these books will require further visits to Edinburgh, which is something I’m more than happy about!
Due to be visiting Edinburgh soon. Several places on the ‘to visit’ list for 2 new books, one exploring the less well known ghost stories of Edinburgh, and the other focusing on the witches and wizards from Scotland’s history. Greyfriars Kirkyard will be included as well and taking 2 cameras this time as last time the battery kept draining when taking photographs in the Covenanter’s prison. I will post some photos later in the week.
Apologies for the lack of post recently, I’ve been working flat out to try to get the new book, Haunted Kirkcaldy, finished which has been hard going due to a shoulder injury. Still, it’s completed, and available for presale on Amazon 
The research for writing this book has been the hardest of all the books I have written. As far as I can tell, this is the first time ever all of the stories from the Kirkcaldy area have been brought together, so despite the work involved, it’s quite satisfying to see it completed.
With some spare time on my hands now though, I’m planning to set off exploring some more places, for future books, so should be posting updates on a more regular basis.
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