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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday November 1989 Travel Outlook Some Scots just can never say die By DIAHANN NADEAU Herald Special Perhaps the most fascinating and unusual way to do Scotland would be a ghost tour Yes it is quite possible to plan such a thing The Scottish Tourist Board has a brochure listing places in the country with a reputation for haun tings These range from castles to desolate glens with ghosts of star crossed lovers to murderers For those of us with a taste for the mysterious the macabre or the romantic this is definitely an ap pealing route Due to its age and population Edinburgh offers the most trated ghost and witchery sites A Cadies Ghost Tour is a great way to set the scene We started with dinner at the Witchery restaurant on Castle Hill on the Royal Mile It is billed as the oldest most haunted restaurant in the Old Town The decor is marvelous pentagrams tarot cards a lifesize witch and other effects of black magic this is not the place to take a fervent Baptist The tour starts outside the restaurant Adam deceased leads the groups He is dressed much like Count Floyd from SCTV and he died by hanging for the crime of highway robber His first stop is at the fountain on top of Castle Hill right outside the Castle It is a plaque put up in 1894 to commemorate the spot where more than people were put to death for witchcraft This is one of the most tragic patches of ground all of Scotland Over a period of years people were burnt as witches in the coun try But more died on Castle Hill than any other place The witches were strangled and then burned in a ritual known as Confession was enough to satisfy the courts and therefore thousands of people were tortured until they d confess to anything produced the pilliwinks a thumbscrew device most favored to begin extracting a confession Fortunately Scottish jurisprudence has improved substantially since those times One of the more interesting cases of witchcraft has to be the fair of Major Weir known as the Wizard of West Bow An army of ficer who became Captain of the City Guard Major Weir was a very religious man After retiring from the Guard he devoted himself full time to his religion and began to preach A tall dark and imposing figure with his black cloak and walking stick the Major became famous for his sermons at his house in West Bow and was nicknamed Angelical Thomas because of his seemingly saintly nature Suddenly one evening at the ripe age of Weir broke down during a crowded service and confessed to leading a double life to com great acts of bestiality in eluding incest Hed also made a pact with the Devil and had met him a few times His friends tried to persuade him to recant but he would not and soon word spread to the authorities In April he was tried and convicted of carnal of fenses He was sentenced to by Outside the city ot the Gallow Lee the sentence carried out in front of a large crowd Weir s last words were I have lived as a beast I shall die as a beast His walking stick feared to hve magical powers burnt with him and twisted and turned like a snake in the fire Weir did not leave this world peacefully He was said to be ting his house and it stood empty from to 1820 Finally a tury and a half after his death a family moved into the house at traded by the low rent However things soon began moving on them and a calf s head appeared above the bed They quickly moved out The building was not lived again and was finally demolished in 1870 The area is still reputed to be haunted Another story concerns those grisly body snatchers Burke and Hare Edinburgh in the cen tury was famous for its medical school and a certain Dr Knox gave lectures on anatomy attended by hundreds of students and observers However schools were permitted only one body a criminals a year for dissection Supply did not meet demand and pretty soon there was a sordid trade in graverobbing Guard houses were built in cemeteries to try to stop the activity The Wat in St Chur chyard near the West end of Princes Street is currently undergoing extensive restoration Go To Hawaii For 385 NOT A CHANCE But you can be in paradise for as long as it takes you to finish our scrumptious Honolulu Special THE HONOLULU SPECIAL A COMPLETE CHICKEN DINNER HWY 7 MOUNTAINVIEW RD 8731646 More parking around corner beside Manpower 1 William Burke and William Hare decided to take this body snatching idea to its natural conclusion snatch bodies before they were buned before they were dead even The entrepreneurial was alive and well back then So they began a murder spree killing bums and vagrants people they believed would not be missed they were eventually arrested although evidence was so flimsy that the on ly way to get a conviction was to guarantee Hare s immunity and safe passage from the country in return for his evidence against Burke There was a sold out crowd for the trial on Dec 17 1828 Burke was convicted although of only ConldonPage7 RECYCLING on all do our pa I Please 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