The spectral horse of Dirleton and other East Lothian hauntings
JAN BONDESON shares another deltiological discovery from his prodigious collection of postcards. This month’s pictorial blast from the past takes us on tour of East Lothian in the company of postcard artist Reginald Phillimore
8. CURIOSITIES OF EAST LOTHIAN
In Edwardian times, the North Berwick man Reginald Phillimore was one of Britain’s postcard kingpins: his cards were bought and collected all over the country and enjoyed healthy sales due to their superior quality. He employed a local schoolgirl to do the delicate colouring; since she liked some variation, no two hand-coloured cards are the same. In this article, Phillimore’s East Lothian cards take us on a tour of the county’s ghosts and curiosities.
A GIANT AND A GHOST AT LUFFNESS HOUSE
Luffness House near Aberlady is a castle of 13th-century origins, probably designed to control landings in Aberlady Bay. It was long in the family of the Earls of Dunbar and March. In 1739, the reconstructed castle was sold to the Earl of Hopetoun, and it is still held by the Hope family. A large and imposing building, it is not open to the public, although it can be seen from the road. Two Viking skeletons were found below the vaulted basement of Luffness House, one of them a giant 7ft (2.1m)tall. In the ruined chapel is the stone effigy of Sir David de Lindsay, Baron of Luffness; the chapel is supposed to be haunted by spectral footsteps.
THE HAUNTING OF ST MARY’S CHURCH
St Mary’s Church, Haddington, was completed in 1486, standing near the Tyne on the site of an earlier church. During the English occupation of Haddington in 1548, the church was badly destroyed. The townspeople rebuilt the nave and used it for worship, whereas the remainder was left in poor condition for centuries to come. When Phillimore came to call in Edwardian times, most of the church was still in ruins. This would change in the early 1970s, however: after a major restoration project, St Mary’s was completely rebuilt and it is today a perfectly good parish church, said to be the longest in Scotland. It is also said to be haunted by the ghost of John 1st Earl of Lauderdale, a persecutor of the Covenanters who is buried in the Chapel of the Three Kings. He has been heard to walk around in the church, and each time the Lauderdale vault is opened, his coffin is found in a different position.
THE SPECTRAL HORSE OF DIRLETON
The village of Dirleton (for postcard, see contents page) is remarkably intact today and has not changed much since Phillimore’s times: he would have recognised many of the buildings, although the main road through the village has been widened and the omnipresent motor cars have infested even this East Lothian idyll. Ancient Beadle’s Cottage has the reputation of being haunted by a spectral horse, which kicks at the stable door.
THE LAST WILD BOAR IN SCOTLAND
There is consensus that the wild boar was wiped out in Scotland in the 17th century, but divergent opinions as to where the last specimen was killed. Phillimore had heard the version that it was hunted down by Livingstone of Saltcoates not far from his castle, and he depicts the last wild boar running for its life, with a spear-wielding huntsman in hot pursuit. Another version of this legend, dating back to 1845, merely says that Livingstone was awarded some land for killing a particularly ferocious wild boar near Saltcoates. A conflicting legend states that the last wild boar in Scotland was killed at Prora, East Lothian, where there is a ‘boar stone’ to commemorate this event; what remains of this stone is at Prora Farmhouse today. Other versions say that the last wild
boar was killed at Swinton, Borders, or at Torinturk, Argyll and Bute.
DUNBAR CASTLE
There has been a castle overlooking Dunbar Harbour since early mediaeval times, besieged, repaired and extended on several occasions. Its finest hour came in 1338, when ‘Black Agnes’, the Countess of Dunbar, and a small troop of soldiers successfully withstood a siege from superior English forces. In 1566, after the murder of Rizzio, the Earls of Bothwell and Huntly rescued Mary and Darnley from Holyrood, and took them to Dunbar Castle, where they recruited soldiers and gathered supplies before entering Edinburgh in triumph. But Mary was dethroned and Bothwell exiled; on orders from the Scottish Parliament, Dunbar Castle was besieged and Bothwell’s remaining henchmen captured, before the castle was razed to the ground. Phillimore’s postcard shows the very ruinous state of this once-proud castle, the remains of which are today home to a quantity of seabirds. The ruins are said to be haunted by a phantom piper. The Creel Restaurant, a former smuggling inn situated not far away, is haunted by spectral footsteps and ghostly voices.
SPOTT’S GREY LADY
The small village of Spott, two miles south-west of Dunbar, is quite ancient and was a centre during the Roman occupation of southern Scotland. In 1570, the Parson of Spott, John Kelloe, murdered his wife and hanged her in the manse, before going to church and delivering “a more than usually eloquent sermon”. He was executed in Edinburgh for his crime. The church is an old and venerable building, but has been restored over the centuries; the old manse that was home to John Kelloe has been pulled down and a new one constructed. The house depicted by Phillimore, the village hall with its characteristic steeple, still stands and seems in a good state of repairs. Stately Spott House, also still standing, although the estate has been broken up, has a Grey Lady legend.
THE NINE DEMONS OF WHITTINGHAME
The Whittinghame Tower, a 15th-century tower house in a rural setting, is said to have been the site where the Earl of Bothwell conspired with the tower’s owner, Archibald Douglas, to murder Lord Darnley, although some historians claim the plot was hatched at Craigmillar Castle. The tower has survived war and strife, and although it looked rather ivy-covered and neglected when Phillimore came to call, it is today privately owned and well looked after. An obscure old legend says that a circle of nine standing stones at Whittinghame entomb nine demons, who patiently await revenge on those who imprisoned them.
This is an edited extract from Jan Bondeson’s book Phillimore’s East Lothian (Stenlake Publishing, 2020).