111 Dark Places in Scotland That You Shouldn't Miss

Philip R. Stone, Ph.D. is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of 'dark tourism’ and ‘difficult heritage’. He has published extensively about the subject in academic literature and has presented his work at conferences across the world. Philip is also a media consultant on dark tourism, with clients including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. He is the author of the first-ever book of its kind, 111 Dark Places in England That You Shouldn’t Miss.

""111 Dark Places in Scotland You Must Not Miss" takes the reader to places where history becomes tangible, raw, unsettling, and irresistibly fascinating. This is not just any travel guide… This book opens the door to Scotland's hidden past, to places scarred by death, betrayal, disaster, and unresolved trauma." - NL Magazine

• Hermitage Castle | BordersGuardhouse of the ‘bloodiest’ valley in Britain | 10Robert the Bruce’s Heart | BordersScottish identity and a ‘prune-like’ heart | 12Widows and Bairns | BordersHeartbroken by Scotland’s worst fishing disaster | 1451st Highlanders | CentralLeft behind after the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’ | 16Battle of Bannockburn | CentralScotland’s decisive victory against England | 18Battle of Killiecrankie | CentralOne of the goriest clashes in Jacobite history | 20Battle of the Clans | CentralMost bizarre fight in Scottish clan history | 22The Black Watch | CentralThe oldest Highland army regiment | 24Bon Scott Statue | CentralTribute to a tragic rock star | 26Cultybraggan PoW Camp | Central‘Black Camp of the North’ | 28Curse of Patrick Hamilton | CentralMalediction for University of St Andrews students | 30David Stirling Memorial | CentralThe ‘Phantom Major’ of the SAS | 32Dunblane Memorial | CentralMost murderous mass shooting in British history | 34Forbes Mausoleum | CentralAn abandoned monument to mortality | 36Martyrs’ Memorial | CentralSisters of ‘The Killing Time’ | 38National Wallace Monument | CentralFrom outlaw to ‘Braveheart’ | 40Scotland’s Secret Bunker | Central‘Protect and survive’ a nuclear Armageddon | 42The Star Pyramid | CentralRemembering religious and civil persecution | 44The Tay Bridge Disaster | CentralPoor engineering leads to ‘touching deaths’ | 46The ‘Witch’ Monument | CentralMurdered by the state for ‘diabolic pacts’ | 48Devil’s Porridge Museum | Dumfries & Galloway‘Canary Girls’ who produced war munitions | 50Lockerbie Memorial Garden | Dumfries & GallowayDeadliest ever terrorist attack in the UK | 52Sawney Bean’s Cave | Dumfries & GallowayA Scottish cannibal who raised an incestuous family | 54Burn O’ Vat | GrampianA geological quirk with tales of outlaws | 56The American Monument | Highlands & IslandsPilgrimage for a double wartime tragedy | 58Badbea Clearance Village | Highlands & IslandsHighland Clearances and ‘Scottish diaspora’ | 60Boleskine House | Highlands & IslandsHome to a malevolent occultist | 62Commando Memorial | Highlands & Islands‘United we conquer’ | 64Culloden | Highlands & IslandsLast pitched battle fought in Britain | 66Cuween Chambered Cairn | Highlands & IslandsAncient burial chamber under a hill | 68Eagle’s Rock Memorial | Highlands & IslandsMysterious death of a libertine prince | 70Flannan Isles Lighthouse | Highlands & IslandsVanishing of ‘three dead men’ | 72Glencoe Massacre | Highlands & IslandsTreacherous clan rivalry leads to slaughter | 74Glenfinnan Monument | Highlands & IslandsClansmen killed during the Jacobite Uprising | 76Gloup Disaster Memorial | Highlands & IslandsA historic sea-faring tragedy | 78Flora MacDonald’s Grave | Highlands & IslandsHero of the Highlands | 80The Ghost Village | Highlands & IslandsSplendid isolation abandoned for modernity | 82Gruinard Island | Highlands & Islands‘Anthrax Island’ and cakes of death | 84Iolaire Memorial | Highlands & IslandsCrowning sorrow of World War I | 86Massacre Cave | Highlands & IslandsMass murder of MacDonalds | 88Oil Rig ‘Graveyard’ | Highlands & IslandsIndustrial ruins and economic ghosts | 90Royal Oak Memorial Garden | Highlands & IslandsReflecting the sad loss of naval souls | 92Ruthven Barracks | Highlands & Islands‘Let every man seek his own safety’ | 94Scapa Flow | Highlands & IslandsMurdered sailor is last to die from World War I | 96St Columba’s Well | Highlands & IslandsSaintly miracles and an early ‘Loch Ness Monster’ | 98The Unfinished Memorial | Highlands & IslandsBurial site of the last hereditary piper | 100Well of the Seven Heads | Highlands & IslandsBeheaded murderers and Highland clan justice | 102Willie MacRae Memorial | Highlands & IslandsA mysterious death and tales of foul play | 104Ailie’s Cairn | LothianCruel misogynistic murder from yesteryear | 106Barnton Nuclear Bunker | LothianDeclassified but still hidden | 108Battle of Pinkie Cleugh | LothianFirst modern battle on British soil | 110The Black Mausoleum | LothianWhere the ‘bluidy’ ghost of George MacKenzie roams | 112Burke & Hare Murder Dolls | LothianMysterious miniature coffins and tiny doll corpses | 114Canine Cemetery | LothianFinal resting place for doggy companions | 116Covenanters’ Prison | LothianDying for your religion | 118Craigentinny Marbles | LothianImposing ‘suburban’ tomb of an eccentric landowner | 120Cramond Island | Lothian‘Ghost island’ and former wartime coastal defence | 122Death Cell Door | LothianAn entrance to execution | 124Dechmont UFO Monument | LothianThe only UK criminal case for an alien encounter | 126Dolly the Sheep | LothianA cloned mammal that pushed ethical envelopes | 128Dr Dewar Monument | LothianRemembering a killer physician | 130The Edinburgh Maiden | LothianA beheading machine that executed its inventor | 132‘Great Lafayette’ Grave | LothianMagical life and curious death | 134Greyfriars Kirkyard | Lothian‘Non Omnis Moriar’ (Not All of Me Will Die) | 136Greyfriars’ Mortsafes | LothianGuarding graves against ‘resurrectionists’ | 138The Hanging Stanes | LothianLast public execution for highway robbery | 140Heave Awa Hoose | Lothian‘Dig away chaps, I’m not dead yet’ | 142Holodomor Memory | LothianMillions of people killed by starvation | 144James Lind’s Memorial | LothianThe Hippocrates of naval medicine | 146John Knox’s Grave | LothianBuried in car parking space number 23 | 148John Livingston’s Tomb | LothianBlack Death and an apothecary’s grave | 150Korean War Memorial | LothianA ‘forgotten’ war that never ended | 152Lt John Irving Grave | LothianServing on HMS Terror led to terror | 154Mary King’s Close | LothianTales of hauntings and Black Death | 156Mini-Submarine Wrecks | LothianUnderwater warfare in midget submarines | 158Monte Cassino Manuscript | LothianDismembered body and horrors of war | 160National War Museum | LothianScotland’s warfare and conflicts | 162Old Calton Burial Ground | LothianMonuments and graves of eminent Scots | 164Robert Burns Shelter | LothianThe ‘darker’ side of Rabbie Burns | 166Rosslyn Chapel | LothianSuffragette bombs and alt-history | 168The Soldier Bear Memorial | LothianThe bear that went to war | 170The ‘Spitting Stone’ | LothianSpitting on the Heart of Midlothian | 172Surgeons’ Hall Museum | LothianDeath mask to human-skin book cover | 174William Burke Museum | LothianA ‘bit of Burke’ on gruesome display | 176The Witches’ Well | LothianSatanic panic of witchcraft | 178Woman and Child Memorial | LothianStanding against racial discrimination | 180WWI Training Trenches | LothianPractising for the horrors of trench warfare | 182Cameronians Memorial | StrathclydeRespected regiment that refused to play football | 184Cheapside Street Fire | StrathclydeBritain’s worst peacetime fire-service disaster | 186The Coal Mining Monument | StrathclydeTo all those who worked and died in mining | 188Collins’ Fountain | StrathclydeIlls of the ‘demon drink’ | 190Glasgow Necropolis | StrathclydeSightsee in ‘‘mansions of the dead’ | 192Glasgow University | StrathclydeAtonement for its slavery heritage | 194Ibrox Disaster Memorial | StrathclydeSixty-six football fans who died in Stairway 13 | 196Inveraray Jail | StrathclydePenal codes from the past | 198Jim Murray Memorial | StrathclydeA sport that can kill | 200La Pasionaria | StrathclydeFight against fascism | 202Loch Long Torpedo Range | StrathclydeMilitary secrets and an executed spy | 204Lord Roberts Monument | StrathclydeA statue to brutal suppression | 206A Lost Roman Legion | StrathclydeThe Ninth Legion that mysteriously disappeared | 208The Miners Memorial | StrathclydeTo those killed in Scottish mining | 210Overtoun Bridge | StrathclydeDogs leap to a ‘canine suicide’ | 212Paisley Witches | Strathclyde‘Pain inflicted, suffering endured, injustice done’ | 214Pierre’s Unmarked Grave | StrathclydeA poisoned lover and a Victorian scandal | 216Southern Necropolis | StrathclydeHome of the ‘Gorbals Vampire’ | 218St Valentine’s Bones | StrathclydeTrading body parts as holy relics | 220Stillborn Baby Memorial | StrathclydeFor our babies briefly known but never forgotten | 222Victoria Cross Memorial | StrathclydeAwarded for ‘valour in the presence of the enemy’ | 224Wallace’s Well | StrathclydeWallace’s final drink as a free man | 226The Witch’s Skull | StrathclydeA female skull in Glasgow’s only pub museum | 228Women of the Necropolis | StrathclydeFrom a witch to medical pioneer to gypsy queen | 230