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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A panorama of Scottish ghost folklore, 14 Feb 2001
By A Customer
From Scotland's pre-Stuart border battles with England to its eerie tales of resurrectionists, there is plenty potential for the restless spirits of its dead. The locals along Edinburgh's Royal Mile claim they have the highest concentration of ghosts in the world. If the true accounts reported in HAUNTED SCOTLAND are any indication, they may well be right. What this book lacks in depth, it makes up for in abundance. It serves as a good introduction to Scotland's residents of the nether world.Adams covers a wide range of ghostly phenomena, including those in private residences, theaters, pubs and inns, military facilities, retail establishments, battlefields, religious structures, castles and mansions, and along Scottish roads. There is also a chapter on those frustrating poltergeists. One experience Adams chronicles is that of a couple who move into the top flat of a converted chapel house. Although the unit below them was vacant during their tenancy, they kept hearing annoying noises come from there. When each of them went downstairs on their own to investigate on two separate occasions, they came face-to-cowl with an apparition looking like the Ghost of Christmas-Yet-to-Come. Dealing with one paranormal occurrence too many, the couple made a hasty departure. After their exodus, they learned there were others who also encountered the mysterious figure. There is another account of a man driving down a road and coming to a screeching stop when he saw a knight in full regalia, mounted on a horse who had reared up on his haunches. When the driver settled down enough to look for the knight, the apparition had disappeared. The driver had two or three nearby pedestrians, who thought it was someone in costume, back up his story. Most of the stories provided in this book are anecdotal. Few of them last longer than a full page. It documents people's supernatural experiences, but does little investigation aside from collecting the stories. Since these are supposed to be true accounts, this book might have been more intriguing if it put more depth into them. It neither researches the background of the hauntings to determine the veracity of the legends as they are currently known nor does it bring any mediums to the haunted locations to see what impressions they receive (à la Hans Holzer). However, the wealth of stories and names might be particularly of interest to genealogists of Scottish lineage. A friend, whose last name is Leith, was really jazzed when two accounts, involving people with her name, were brought to her attention. HAUNTED SCOTLAND serves as an excellent survey of the rich ghost folklore from a country with a long, turbulent history. This is a good one for a dark and stormy night or maybe even on Halloween.
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