A fabulous collection of ghostly hauntings, blood-chilling tales and strange phenomena abound in Scotland.

An examination of how and why Scotland gained its reputation for the supernatural, and how belief continued to flourish in a supposed Age of Enlightenment. SHORTLISTED for the Katharine Briggs Award 2019 Scotland is famed for being a haunted nation, "whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry". Medieval Scots told stories of restless souls and walking corpses, but after the 1560Reformation, witches and demons became the focal point for explorations of the supernatural. Ghosts re-emerged in scholarly discussion in the late seventeenth century, often in the guise of religious propagandists. As time went on, physicians increasingly reframed ghosts as the conjurations of disturbed minds, but gothic and romantic literature revelled in the emotive power of the returning dead; they were placed against a backdrop of ancient monasteries, castles and mouldering ruins, and authors such as Robert Burns, James Hogg and Walter Scott drew on the macabre to colour their depictions of Scottish life. Meanwhile, folk culture used apparitions to talk about morality and mortality. Focusing on the period from 1685 to 1830, this book provides the first academic study of the history of Scottish ghosts. Drawing on a wide range of sources, and examining beliefs across the social spectrum, it shows howghost stories achieved a new prominence in a period that is more usually associated with the rise of rationalism. In exploring perceptions of ghosts, it also reflects on understandings of death and the afterlife; the constructionof national identity; and the impact of the Enlightenment. MARTHA MCGILL completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

Roddy Martine looks beyond the everyday world in this thought-provoking selection of real-life encounters with the supernatural. Based on personal experience and interviews with those who have witnessed all manner of paranormal activity, Haunted Scotland is a fascinating glimpse into a world unexplainable by the laws of science, and includes spine-chilling cases of hauntings, time slips, exorcisms, reincarnation, omens and witchcraft from all parts of Scotland.

The Witch Persecutions of the 15th to 17th century were a horrific time in Scottish history when an estimated 4,000 people were executed as accused witches. Communities were torn apart by accusations of witchcraft, aimed at cunning men and women using traditional remedies to heal the sick; old women who perhaps stood apart from the rest of the population; strangers to the area - or indeed anyone against whom someone might have a grudge. It was a terrifying time with an all-powerful Church and laws influenced by the zealot beliefs of King James VII, amongst several other factors. The way in which the victims of the witch trials are viewed has changed drastically over the centuries, from being viewed as the minions of Satan to people who lost their lives thanks to intolerance. Scotland is now remembering it's so-called witches in a different light, commemorating rather than vilifying them. With talk of a national memorial to Scottish 'witches', Gregor Stewart looks at the local memorials already in existence and the stories they tell.

A chilling collection of tales that illustrates Scotland's rich and diverse cultural tradition when it comes to the supernatural.

In the global world of the Internet, where anything is possible, where scientists never cease to astonish yet seem to provide more questions than answers, Roddy Martine looks beyond the everyday and the normal, searching for answers in the mysteries of Haunted Scotland. Collected over many years, the author retells stories that have evolved through the mists of time, while others he recounts are based on interviews with those who claim to have experienced real-life paranormal encounters. Divided into geographical chapters covering the Borders, the South West, Strathclyde, the South East, the Central Belt and Trossachs, the Eastern Highlands, the Kingdom of Fife, the Western Highlands, the North, the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness, Roddy Martine examines stories of paranormal activity and the legends and folklore of haunted Scotland.