“It is an ill thing to meet a man you thought dead
in the woodland at dusk.”
— Robert E. Howard, Hour of the Dragon
*
Defeated! Defeated!
— Ghost of Culloden Moor
A mood was upon me.
It was 33 degrees and raining when I rolled into the cinder pit at Zimmerman Butte for a Sunday morning range session. Fine, bone-chilling Scottish weather that persisted all day and all night. For a “themer,” there was nothing for it Sunday evening, but to brew up some tea and settle down with some historical ghost stories from Scotland.
Enter Eerie Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is a paranormal enthusiast’s paradise, with spirits and spectres seemingly around almost every corner and up every close. In recent years, its best known hauntings are the fascinating stories of the ghosts in the underground vaults and the MacKenzie poltergeist in the graveyard at Greyfriars Kirk. However, if you look beyond these incredible modern tales, you’ll find hundreds of years worth of history and spooky goings-on.
Of course I must turn to tales from Jacobite history:
The storytelling is so fine and the landscape shots so grand that I am willing to forgive the annoying use of AI images, which seem to be inescapable in this type of video.
For all that, just what was required for a dark and stormy evening in the dark of the year…
*
For good measure…
Ye Banished Privateers traditionally release a piratical take on a song of the season. They just released this one, which seems apt, as well:
From all of us aboard Ye Banished Privateers, we send yo our warmest Christmas wishes this stormy season. In these troubled times, we hope that our Christmas carol of anno 1724 will find a way to warm your soul.
Quixotic Mainer says
A great ode to this “Wild Hunt Crossing”, dark and gloomy time of year. Terry Pratchett’s “Hogfather”, is my yuletide read of choice, the opening Howard line made me recall a good grim quote.
No followup questions were necessary. Some things are obvious when told to you by a seven foot skeleton with a scythe.
JimC says
I like that.
Stanley says
“And they slaughtered the house of MacDonald.”
I’ve enjoyed that song since the mid 1980s when I first heard it.
lane batot says
Speaking of Scottish themes–we have a stray cat here at the zoo that looks amazingly like a Scottish wildcat, that has evaded every effort to capture him for years, not to mention successfully dodging all the resident coyotes and other natural hazards. I’ve named him McDougall, and wish him well!(stray cats and dogs are NOT ALLOWED on zoo grounds, officially…). For many years we had another such similar stray cat I named Rob Roy, but alas, Rob Roy finally fell for the temptations of the bait in a cage trap(NOT set by me!) Hopefully McDougall will continue to avoid such……
JimC says
Rob Roy is a GREAT name for an outlaw cat.
lane batot says
Right? No one else got it around here where I work. Which is why having a place around the Frontier Partisan campfire is so meaningful to me–whether or not everyone agrees with my opinions, at least most everyone present here GET’S IT! About SO MANY subjects dear to my barbarian heart!
JimC says
That pleases me. On mission.