Unexplained dead bodies, missing persons, mysterious dungeons and the supernatural - you name it Scotland has it when it comes to fascinating, yet frightful, unsolved mysteries.
The haunted capital city itself, Edinburgh, is famously built upon hundreds of thousands of dead bodies of which the bones can still be found today among other dark discoveries.
Yet this grim reminder of our history extends to the entire country, and if you look past the mist-covered glens that would bring any tourist holding a camera tremendous glee, you can uncover stories of our past that will send chills down your spine.
Let’s take a look at 13 unexplained Scottish mysteries that remain unsolved to this day.
5. The Unknown Bairn of Fife, 1971
A postman and his son in Fife were astonished in 1971 when what they thought was a doll washed onto the beach at Tayport turned out to be the dead body of a 3-year-old boy still dressed in what seemed to be his pyjamas. Reports state he died of natural causes but despite massive news coverage nobody ever stepped forward to claim or identify the poor child. Some suspect he had been aboard a ship visiting the Tay and fell off or, depressingly, his family just couldn’t afford a funeral. To pay their respects, Tayport’s people raised the money to have him buried in the village, his headstone reads: “Erected by the people of Scotland in memory of the Unknown Bairn”. Photo: W Brown
6. The Aberdeen Arm Mystery, 1945
Along the coastline reaching the entrance of Aberdeen’s harbour a local man made a horrifying discovery when amongst the driftwood he spotted a severed human arm. At a closer look he saw that the detached human arm was tied at one end with a loop of thread. Eventually, the fingerprints of the arm were matched to those of Betty Hadden, a 17-year-old local girl who was known to catch the eye of visiting sailors as she strolled the harbour. Alas, her killer was never identified nor were the rest of her remains ever found. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons / Scotland's History YouTube Screengrab
7. Gilmerton Cove - Edinburgh's unexplained tunnels, 1719-1724
This archaeological mystery has confused investigators for over 300 years - an underground cove carved out of sandstone and left untouched for centuries, but no one knows who built it or why. Local blacksmith George Patterson claimed he built the rooms inside between 1719 and 1724 to serve as a family home, yet in 1897 when an investigator from the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland assessed the cove he stated that this was impossible. Imagery in the cove tells another story, there are mason’s marks inside which suggest it was a masonic meeting place, and even faint tracings of a cat sitting perched, leading some to think the site belonged to a coven. Others theorise it was used as a chapel for people being persecuted for their religion as somewhere they could meet privately - to this day there is no conclusive answer. Photo: John Dale via Wikimedia Commons
8. The forsaken bagpiper boy, Unknown
For centuries Edinburgh has remembered the legend of the lone bagpiper boy who was abandoned in Edinburgh Castle’s secret tunnels hundreds of years ago one August night. To fight off intruders to the castle, many underground secret tunnels were created, and after one was discovered the lone child was sent in to investigate armed only with his bagpipes which he would play so those above ground could map where he was by listening to him. Inexplicably, the music suddenly stopped and when locals searched for the boy and his bagpipes neither were ever found, thus they closed off the tunnel and his fate too was sealed. Every year his story is marked during the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Photo: fw42 via Wikimedia Commons