... and, on a happier note....

There must be thousands of Scottish ghosts who have been unhappy in love.  Brides who, fearing themselves abandoned, threw themselves to their deaths from a high place, unwilling brides, betrayed servants impregnated by the son or master of the house, women whose lovers rode off to war never to return. The misery and desperation of their legends echo down the ages at us.

The Grey Lady of the Inn at Lathones sets a different tone, however. Her story was told to me by Nick White, the Inn's owner, many years ago.  The Inn at Lathones is a four centuries old coaching inn approximately a mile from Largoward in Fife.  The oldest part of the Inn is the bar, which used to be the stables.  The front part of the house was built in the late seventeenth century and its fireplace has a wedding stone placed above it as its lintel.

Iona Kirk married Ewan Lindsay in front of the fireplace in 1718 and the couple ran the Inn together until Iona's death in 1732.  It's said that such was the love between them that the wedding stone cracked when Iona died and that Ewan died shortly afterwards.

Noises have been heard in the bar and the Grey Lady has been seen and her horse heard there.  Nick has often wondered if this is Iona settling her horse in its stall.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "wedding stone", the picture above is an example of one that can be seen in Newburgh, Fife. They usually incorporate the year of the mariage, the initials (or in this case the full names) of the married couple and some symbol of the husband's profession.