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Ghost stories are traditionally told at this time of year in Scotland so I’ve attempted to paint what is reputedly the most haunted place in my country. In 1679 around 400 “Covenanters” were imprisoned here and endured many years of harsh imprisonment before being executed or transported. It is said that their ghosts still cry out for vengeance and there are many tales of folk, who are daft enough to go on one of the many “Haunted Tours of Edinburgh’s Old Town”, becoming paralysed with fear when they visit the far end of the graveyard where many of the prisoners are buried. On a lighter note the small Skye Terrier, known as “Greyfriars Bobby who faithfully watched over his master’s grave for 14 years, is also buried in these grounds. Special dispensation was granted, in 1872, to bury an animal in consecrated ground.
