Arthur’s Seat Coffins | Morbid | Forensic Files

I have really really cool news Okay so about a year ago I got to share the absolutely life-changing mind-blowing
like Universe warping news about writing my first book The Butcher and the Wren I
could never have dreamed of the support that I received then and that the book continues to receive now from all of you
you are amazing you set records with the numbers of pre-orders you made every edition of best seller it's it's you
guys you did it and it was even nominated recently for an Audi award it's for best audiobook with a
multi-voice performance yup yup those voice actors are the best and now I am so proud and so thrilled to share two
pieces of incredible news with you I have been sitting on this these two pieces of news forever and I can't wait
to scream them to you so the first one is that the butcher in the Wren is going to be out in paperback this summer on
July 25th so you can finally get that paperback edition and to make this even cooler guess what the paperback edition
is going to have what it's gonna have a sneak peek of a chapter from book two oh
my God and guess what I got to read it and I can tell you it's a really good chapter it is that's right there's going
to be a sequel it is coming you get to read part of it in that paperback if you get it and what's even better is that my
publisher is giving away free signed copies of the paperback to the first 50 people who pre-order so if you want to
pre-order the paperback with that sneak peek chapter of book two in it you can go to tinyurl.com
t-b-a-t-w paperback that's tinyurl.com tbatw paperback thank you guys so much you're amazing thank you so much for
listening supporting reading being the best weirdos that you ever could be I can't tell you how much I appreciate you
and love you yo I just want to hug you all but I won't because it's virtual but like feel it okay I can't wait for you
guys to read more of Jeremy and ren this summer and it's gonna be awesome just you wait kapowi
[Music] thank you hey weirdos I'm Elena and I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] yay I love morbin I love morbid too I
love you oh my god and I love all of you yay and you know what I wasn't here last
episode uh you guys got Caleb instead Caleb khalib it was a fun episode with Kayla but you were obviously very missed
but it was it was a good time we love Caleb yeah who doesn't do he's literally like our Brethren he's our Brethren he's
our one called my brother in Christ yeah I call him our brother in Christ all the
time yeah he's wonderful we love him um very thankful to him for stepping in when I had to dip out real quick
what did you do I went to New York City I I don't think I did a really great job
of explaining like why you were gone I was like she's getting like honored out of Gala
um I don't know it's like a New York minute thing her and John are gonna be fancy yep that's pretty much exactly
what I said uh no I got to go to the poet and writers Gala it'd be a literary table host which was cool uh it was
really fun and it was Levar Burton was the host yeah and he sang the Reading Rainbow theme song that's really [ __ ]
special so that uh was worth its weight in gold um he was amazing and then we went to
the um out I think it's like the I can never say around the Audis audio audio the Audis yeah the audience
yeah but it looks like Audi the car and that was us trying to figure out how to speak on a podcast thanks for tuning in
but uh yeah the butcher in the red was uh a finalist in the multi-voiced performance category which
is a big deal because there's only like 25 categories yeah Sophie and Joe the narrators who did
um the the narration for the Butcher and they're in the audiobook they were like
they did such a [ __ ] awesome job did you get to meet them while you were there I didn't and you know what the
thing is here it is Sophie if you're listening right now I need you to know this I don't think Joe was there okay
but Sophie I think I saw Sophie and I was with Sabrina yeah my wonderful literary agent I was with John and I
looked over and I said I think that's Ren and they were like what and I was like I'm pretty sure that's rent and
then I was like I'm scared to go up to her and say are you ran and have her be like who the [ __ ] no like I don't know
who you are oh my God I got very social anxiety about it but Sophia I think I saw you and I and it was exciting
because I was like that's so cool look it's Ren and I didn't say anything and I regret it now I know exactly how that
feels though like I know exactly the feeling that you were feeling I get very well not intense because I never wrote a
book and had somebody narrate it I'm like I know exactly what that's like when I go to these Galas anxiety you
know like it's I it was it was intense and it was a very different vibe for me because it was such a fancy event
um DePaul fence wall but you know it was fun but that was my outing for the year
I don't blame you I will not be doing anything else so there was that so that was fun
um but yeah I had to miss the uh episode recording I know and Caleb was like I got you yeah in fact that's literally
what he said I got you quite literally said that so okay I got you doggy yep I got you doggy that's what he said
verbatim um but this is this kind of works out because the last episode that I did was
the Birkin hair case I loved that well I didn't love that but it was a fascinating case right like it's a very
interesting Scottish case one of the craziest Scottish crimes in Scottish history
um and this connects to it oh so it's like a fun little like continuation a little offshoot uh this is actually I'm
going to talk about the Arthur seat coffins today uh you if you were at the obituary show
or if you have been at any of the obituary shows I assume they mention these little coffins okay and when I saw
them I was like oh I've been meaning to dive into those you actually leaned over
to me and said that exactly I literally did I was like oh that's one I wanted to
like put on the list to make sure I get to and when we decided to do birken hair
which is another one I've been wanting to do forever I was like oh these connect so we can just do them back to
back and here we are hello so let's tell you what Arthur's seat is first okay they're probably like what is that yeah
so Arthur's seat is the largest section of a three-part ancient volcano system that
erupted more than 300 million years ago and is now extinct it was lit it was very lit uh it's located about one mile
east of edinburgh's Old Town neighborhood not very far from the coast it has slopes and cliffs it's like very
Scenic and it basically combines with other Hills and geological features like the Salisbury Crags and all these things
together form Holly Rood Park which is one of Scotland's Royal parks and the largest open space in Edinburgh that's
really cool yeah it's very cool I don't think I realized that there were volcanoes in Scotland yeah they're like
everywhere well like they're they're in way more places than you think yeah because a lot of them are extinct so
it's like you would never know that that was once an active volcano right or even
a dormant one because now it's like is it it doesn't do it that was me making the like it's dead she did the like hand
across yeah yeah the visuals are hard around here they are they're hard on a podcast but here we are
um also if you go on like Tick Tock or something while you can if you can and it's fingers crossed and you type in
like Edinburgh or you type in like Arthur seat Scotland you're gonna get some really cool [ __ ] videos of it if
you type in Scotland into Tick Tock we were just watching tick tocks actually and you're like I want to go to there
planning a trip to you immediately but um yeah it's wild and you see our car castle in A lot of them and I'm like
oh okay that's just my castle that's the latest ancestors it's just my answer oh
wait those are my ancestors too no they're just men no they're mine I'm just kidding we can share them um so the
area of Arthur's seat has a lot of history um it was once home to the the vodadini
I believe it's pronounced an iron-aged era Society of bratonic people who occupied the area until about the fifth
century okay um it has a position as the highest point in the region which is good
because it made it a really good location for a hill Fort because obviously from that high up it would
have been very defensible from all four sides and over time the area has served a number of important social functions
too um it was a super fruitful hunting ground uh it was the grounds of the Hollywood Holly Rood I always want to
say Hollywood Hollywood Abbey which was a haven for debtors during the Victorian era and it is among Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert's favorite locations in Scotland oh interesting in fact Prince Albert felt so strongly
about this region that he actually enacted programs to clean up the overly polluted Royal Park and he put in
policies to protect basically its natural Splendor that's really cool yeah now although the origins of its name are
not like super no they're we think we know where it came from so they're not like it's so we don't have like the
concrete evidence we need to be like that's what it is we're making inferences we are and we're inside there
you go and one of the most popular theories for where the name came from is that it was the site of Camelot oh poem
of King Arthur I know that night so the round table knife stuck in the rock you know like there wasn't there was an uh
what's the knight's name in that isn't it Camelot Lancelot Lancelot Lance I knew it was a lot the exactly it
wasn't a candle Camelot was like the kingdom I think oh okay so Arthur's seat King Arthur he sat there makes sense
that this area would be called Arthur's seat for Camelot I like it I think that is the the origin because it's fun and I
can't think of any other origin no it's the it's fun it's whimsical I like it it's Fantastical I like it yeah there
are some less exciting theories of where it came from [ __ ] these following theories you know one of them is that it
could be an evolution of an ancient Scott Gaelic word I'm gonna try it guys go for it ardna
said I believe you which means height of arrows okay I you know yeah sure fun in
a way yeah in a different way you're literary yeah you know illiterate you are indeed and it's fun and like oh fun
language and words way yeah but it's not fun in like a Camelot Knights of the Round Table kind of way if there's not a
night it's just like if there's not a night what are we even here for that's you know I'm a night owl oh me too
uh but yes and then you know like so there's that and then more theories are that it was once you know the home of an
ancient dragon okay that's really [ __ ] fun you're like [ __ ] these following theories I'm like oh no this
is pretty good was Daenerys there perhaps and you know what this one I think you're really gonna like oh let's
[ __ ] go some people say that the do on the morning grass contains magical properties that will keep you looking
young and beautiful give me those [ __ ] Tuck Everlasting drops and this do magic actually is such a
prevalent legend that many a young woman often climb the hillside on May Day and
wash their faces in the morning do because youth what's may day may day is a day is it in May
[ __ ] because I want I think we're probably gonna go in summer if we go yeah because that's supposedly like the
best time to go yeah and like you know kids not missing school and stuff but like
[ __ ] I want to go on May Day I mean maybe you can just go and get the do anyway maybe it has the same I mean act
like I'm not gonna act like I'm not gonna rub do on my face act like I'm gonna rub all the dew on my face oh yeah
you are okay I'm excited about that for Botox I think it's pretty great yeah just get some Arthur's seat do I'm about
to do Holly rude any Scottish listener right now is like my God step aside exactly there you go damn the
Holly rude do is where it's at so given its geographical prominence it's Splendor it's aesthetic Beauty it's
magical properties it does make sense that Arthur's seat would be a pretty significant piece of any Scottish and
Gaelic folklore it's like a perfect place for it it's like fairy Glens in the Isle of Skye in Scotland Rife she
just told me about it yeah go look at that to the fairy Glens or the whole Isle of Skye really I'm
getting the [ __ ] out of America you guys yeah I mean you look at Scotland or really like any of those kind of places
and you're like what am I doing over here if we get to go to there I'm like gonna look at something I want to go to
them I'm not even joking you're lost right now bye y'all yeah um interestingly too this place is so
like magical and beauteous and wonderful it is attracted you know obviously it's
been part of Scottish and Gaelic folklore but it's also attracted non-european groups like the Mormon
church huh right I said that too huh that's exactly my reaction really all I know
they Incorporated it into their Origins as far back as 1840. so that's just like an interesting
little thing um right now as we sit here it's a very popular like tourist destination that
makes sense um and you can get there by a short hike you can guess like it's not one of those
things that you're like well you have to like free climb up a cliff to get there
you know like it's not one of those you can just like run up that hill with you can just run it up that hill exactly uh
so you're good uh but let's talk so now we know where Arthur's seat is I almost said office
at the seat and now we know what at this seat is um we can now talk about the coffins the
Lilliputian coffins what is Lilliputian thank you for asking that I don't know that was really funny I really you know
you're always really thank you for asking that you walked me into my next statement you go thank you for asking
that I literally don't know I'll look it up I don't know why that was you know what
it is I think I got so excited about the word Lilliputian because it's beautiful
it feels great oh it's just it just means trivial or very small okay yeah there you go it's a very small person or
thing there you go because you know what like say Lilliputian oh I will liliputian doesn't that feel just like
well anything usually that starts with little I like to say and specifically at the end of things feels very like you
shouldn't yeah and Sean are very yummy names they are they just it's got good mouth feel to it
it does I was gonna shout out Ryan Lil really quick oh my God Ryan Lil yeah I knew that you would be on board with
that for a moment yeah let's take a quick little detour don't worry I'm not gonna like we're not gonna go for it let
us pray like and let us to Ryan Lil Ryan Lil we're gonna have to link his stuff in the in our show notes because it's so
worth knowing this human um you need to check out his books which we will also um
his newest one is I want to make sure I get the it's in the pie in the Pines I just wanted to make sure I got the exact
yeah it's in the Pines in the Pines he also has music music is the song Adore me that we like oh my God or is it just
adore me right yeah it's adore me um it's he's just a very talented human being he's an amazing makeup artist uh
his other book is on the wire that is already out I believe the on a wire on a wire and then in the next one is going
to be coming out soon so look out for it we're just gonna link his um he's gonna shout him out everywhere
yeah we're gonna link his link Tree in these show notes because I'm obsessed with him and so are you he's a wonderful
human and it's just like one of those people that you're like you know what yeah I just want you to be the happiest
human yeah so follow Ryan Lil Washington two l's and Ryan lill on Instagram yeah
and go check the books are by the book phenomenal listen to the music can confirm watch the music video for a door
watch the music video for Adore Me you showed it to me and I was over the moon also just like scream out the lyrics to
adore me scream whenever you can scream them out your sunroof because my God is in a Bop while someone else is driving
by the way but yeah so that's our short little detour but Lila Fusion Lil uh a little pushing coffins
um in late June 1836 so just you know a couple of years ago yeah uh a group of local boys so they were just venturing
into a holly rude Park they were going to hunt for I can't help it now no I left they were going to hunt for rabbits
people do that now I don't know why I'm acting like this isn't only 18 30. I'm like it was 1836 when people hunted
rabbits okay you know what I think this year rabbits have changed to my favorite
animal whoa look at you I'm not even I believe that a spiritual connections lately you have been but I'll shut up no
I think you yeah rabbits and you they're you're together forever uh but they were
going to hunt rabbits and as they arrived they were you know looking for rabbits and as they did that they looked
for they noticed a really small opening which when you read this story anywhere it's commonly referred to as a cave
but like it's kind of just like a depression in the side of a mountain yeah don't set people up to be
disappointed don't set people up thinking this is a [ __ ] game don't promise a cave of Wonder justification
but yeah it's like I guess it's like a tiny cave but they notice this in the rock wall along the relatively secluded
northeast side of the Hill okay so they get closer and they notice that the opening is actually covered up by what
was three thin pieces of slate stone rudely cut at the upper ends into a canonical form and then placed into a
row so that's different that's not organic somebody did this and they assumed that this was likely done to
protect whatever was inside from the effects of the weather the elements all the or anything that would come from the
outside so they removed these slabs of stone which like personally I think was the first of their bad ideas I'm gonna
agree um I think when when you find something that has been like purposely protected
by slabs of stone in the side of a mystical Hill don't touch that just assume that it's meant to be there you
know that expression like you break it you buy it that doesn't mean necessarily that like you purchase it it means like
that's yours now that's yours and you [ __ ] up you own whatever's happening now you own the mistake that you've
created little boys they didn't do that they didn't listen to heat our warnings from 1836 because they moved them really
and inside they discovered a 12 inch by 12 inch depression in the earth so they're like what the [ __ ] is this so
they look in and inside someone had placed 17 Lilliputian coffins 17. and these tiny coffins had been arranged in
two tiers of eight each separated by a thin piece of slate and I know you're thinking two rows of eight is 16 because
when I first read that I was like that's 16. I'm confused two rows of eight and then there was a third row that had
begun with one okay yeah so to me I'm like was there supposed to be more probably somebody was like obviously
putting more and starting a new row I need to know more yeah and then they got you can just leave and then breaking
hair got caught is that what you're telling me I'm saying so the that origin story how they were found like that
that's the one that is everywhere EV that is generally accepted as true how they were discovered okay
um but it wasn't the only story at the time that was circulated there was a couple more
um a short time after they were discovered there was another story that went into a journal a print Journal
titled notes and queries and it was under the headline a fairy's burial place oh [ __ ] I kind of love that and
like anytime you throw fairies into the mix I'm like oh okay let's go get into it yeah um and this one had a much more
dramatic account of how they were found because that one's just like some boys were hunting rabbits and they went where
they shouldn't have yeah but this one said in the print version while I was a resident at Edinburgh either in the year
1836 or 1837 I forget which a curious Discovery took place which form the subject of a nine days wonder and a few
newspaper paragraphs some children were at play at the foot of Salisbury Craig's
when one of them more venturesome than the others attempted to ascend the escarpment of the cliff his foot slipped
and to save himself from a dangerous fall he caught at a projecting piece of rock which appeared to be attached to
the other portions of the cliff it gave way however beneath the pressure of his hand and although it broke his fall both
he and it came to the bottom of the Craig nothing daunted sorry I had to swallow nothing daunted
the Hardy boy got up shook himself and began the attempt a second time when he reached the point from Once the
treacherous Rock had projected he found that it had merely masked the entrance to a large hole which had been dug into
the face of the cliff okay so similar Discovery yeah boys just less boys just a boy falling off the side of a craggy
Cliff just actually I just thought we just added some adventure to the whole thing yeah and this version of the story
does add some more details about the coffins it says they have handles this isn't true and can be easily
disproven by just looking at the actual coffins and seeing they don't have handles bro so it makes this one feel
more of like a jump off of that actual original Discovery and trying to make it more
exciting which I'm like you didn't really the original one's pretty [ __ ] exciting I don't care what they were
they could have been going there to blow their noses and finding that and I'd be
like that's [ __ ] awesome like that was legendary because they found 17 tiny coffins in the side of a [ __ ]
mystical Hill you don't have to spice that up yeah you don't have to give me some crazy story
s themselves were roughly 3.75 inches at length oh my very small in each coffin was hand carved out of a
single piece of pine okay with metal which they thought was most likely tin um kind of adorning the lids so they had
cut out tin and made like decorations on the lids of them so 10 metal and what other
um okay okay so and they were held this this tin was held in place with wire Springs or brass pins inside each coffin
was a hand carved wooden figure of a human and they were quote dressed in custom made clothes that had been
stitched and glued around them this is freaky as [ __ ] right and some of them had black boots painted on their feet
hey now it wasn't they they described them as not being like some kind of ancient artifact like how most ancient
artifacts are pretty crudely done yeah because differently materials and skill sets and all that
these appeared to have a pretty orderly and neat way about them um like someone had taken really great
care and meticulous time to do this to create them and to place them where they had put them
and they had not all been put into this little tomb at the same time and how could they tell
that so according to news reports quote the rotten and decayed state of the first tier of coffins and their wooden
mummies the wrapping clothes being in some cases moldy While others showed various degrees of comp decomposition
and the coffin last placed as clean and fresh as if only a day a few days had elapsed since their entombment oh wow
that's how they were able like that first tier was old and then it got less so as it went huh and that last row for
it to be that's creepy to me that someone could have just been there that's really creepy because imagine if
those boys had planned their hunting trip like days earlier and had caught the person doing that I wish they had
because that maybe we would know that I'm nervous like I'm kind of glad they didn't at the same time yeah because I'm
like what would have become of you yeah I don't know I mean they didn't they weren't really nice to the coffins they
weren't as boys um nobody really knows why or what they thought I don't know how old these boys
were either yeah they were like rambunctious but it's like also like um you should know better uh because they
nobody really knows what they thought when they found these um but the earliest Reports say that at
least half were destroyed by the boys pelting them at each other as unmeaning and contemptible Trifles
so boy so stupid yeah like what the [ __ ] on the record oh why are they so stupid
especially these boys so silly of course the discovery was obviously significant enough for at
least one of them to mention the coffin to somebody else or we wouldn't know about them at all yeah according to a
report from the mid-1950s the following day after the they were discovered way back in 1836 this was so we didn't find
out about this like how this all went down until the 1950s oh [ __ ] they said that the boys in one of the boys at
least told one of their school Masters a man named Mr Ferguson who was a member of a local archaeological society that
they had come across these it really is just taking everything in me right now not to say Turd Ferguson thank you
go ahead there you go you're like you're 12. she's like but you said it I told you so later that day Mr Ferguson a very
Scottish name he retrieved the remaining coffins from the cave and the Hillside and he took them home and then shared
them with other members of the archaeological Society because once he had heard this story from the kid he's
like are you [ __ ] kidding me yeah like I can't imagine how pissed he was hearing that they had broken half of
these seriously I feel like are you kidding me have I taught you nothing like you just tossed them around like
they were trash what a bunch of idiots now it should be said that the original accounts of this whole Discovery don't
mention a school teacher and they don't provide any details about how those coffins went from Arthur C to the town
below but I believe in Ferguson well it's so the original one doesn't say it but we know they somehow got from A to B
and then in the 1950s that's when the story came out about Mr Ferguson the local archaeological Society you know
all that stuff and it was in an article by Robert Chapman that was circulated among the
regional Scottish papers at the time that according to Mike Dash who I will um I'm going to put the the reference
there we go for what this is for he said a search of the Contemporary street directory shows that two School Masters
named Ferguson were working in Edinburgh in 1836 okay George Ferguson as a Classics Master at Edinburgh Academy and
Findlay Ferguson as a teacher of English and math at Easter duddingston I want it
to be Findlay so I know I love that name so it so there were two Mr Ferguson's in
the area at that time working as school teachers so that this life sucks yeah now it wasn't long after they'd been dug
out of the hillside that the Edinburgh press jumped on this mystery of these tiny little coffins so they of course
put forward a ton of theories the Scotsman reported a few day days after the discovery quote none of the Learned
with whom we have conversed on the subject can account in any way for the singular fantasy of the human mind and
in the article they said our own opinion would be had we not some years ago objured Witchcraft and demonology that
these are still some of the weird sisters hovering about muscats Karn or the or the windy gowl who retain their
ancient power to work the Spells Of Death by entombing the likenesses of those they wish to destroy literally
love I right I'm saying I think it's Karen I think I said Carn it was Cairn muskats can now I immediately wanted to
know what muscats Karen is I don't know about you I do uh so I looked it up just
gotta talk about what muscat's can is and why that makes any sense why this would be like a weird thing so at the
eastern part of holyrood Park there's a seemingly innocuous to this day pile of rocks that is actually a Cairn a Cairn
serves as some kind of landmark or Memorial it's like a pile of rocks in this case I suppose it's both
because see on October 17 1720 a surgeon named nickel Muscat he lured his 17 year
old wife Margaret into that spot and murdered her In Cold Blood well [ __ ] him slit her throat Jesus Christ her dying
words were my love my love do not murder me yeah oh I'm saying no he had an accomplice in the crime named Campbell
who apparently was sent to Australia after this I really want you to do this next right it's a while I'm intrigued he
had apparently been trying to get rid of his wife and or kill her for a while but
had failed several times he tried to force infidelity on her to force a divorce at first what and when that
didn't work like he'd tried to like get her drunk and like throw a man at her he
wanted to make her Infidel yeah so that he could divorce her without like having
any kind of like issues because back then you couldn't just divorce yeah no I know so it's like he wanted the
infidelity thing to be like oh she cheated on me wow and it's like that's weird but then when that didn't work he
tried to poison her and only ended up making her extremely ill he did that several times then he tried to get her
super drunk and drown her in a pond he then planned to have her he put her on horseback
and was going to tie her like not well into the saddle and have her horse his horse like flip her off and kill her
what the [ __ ] that's not even like I can't read either he just didn't like her he had grown weary of her
weary of her yeah I'm just some kind of over it I'm tired of it can't you leave her for no reason that's why he was
trying to force just a lie I'm saying like I'd rather be a liar than a murderer a vicious murderer for real he
confessed after he actually killed her at this Muscat now what is now called muscats Karen
um I wish it wasn't named after this [ __ ] I know and he confessed and during his confession he said he never
loved her and was ashamed of her visiting him before they were married right like he like further shits on her
memory name this after to her right and that's the thing like it's kind of lost to history her name like it's Margaret
Margaret Hall what was her name oh but it's like that's that's not part of the thing it's frustrating name it Maggie's
case uh Karen Karen yeah and he said he married her out of convenience he's a [ __ ] pig but he was hanged for his
crime in Grass Market in Edinburgh and like Scandal the Cairn right the Cairn was created in her honor good so and it
still remains there you can see it didn't like name it something else what's sad is like that's the place she
was murdered like that very place where that Karen is gosh but that was just interesting to me but back to the
coffins shall we wow uh other newspapers quickly joined the speculation for what
these little uh lilipetian coffins excuse me wrong it's a little excuse me I know that's such a good word I know uh
the Dundee Courier suggested that maybe they were an example of an ancient custom in Saxony in which one would bury
a miniature miniature Effigy for departed friends who had died in a distant land that's beautiful which is
beautiful but The Courier couldn't help um put forth like another romanticized version of this Theory got a solid
papers baby of course saying and this is also just like what we find out is not true
um they said that it could be a Superstition which exists among some Sailors in this country where the wives
of the sailors who had been lost at sea would bury a tiny like proxy it's basically
um to cut to kind of like make a Christian burial oh like happen yeah yeah so they could actually like if they
developed you know like it just kind of like it's like an effigy I like that now
a watch was kept on the hillside at Arthur's seat for days after the discover Discovery because they knew
that last one had been placed there rather recently but now it's all over the papers that it's been discovered
thank you and that's why I'm like guys yeah good planning you ruined it no additional coffins were placed of course
because it had already been [ __ ] out there this person's reading the papers come on now within a few weeks of the
discovery The public's interest apparently kind of like died down what the [ __ ] happened to make their interest
done which I'm like shocked because I'm still not over it like since 2023 and I'm not over it something had to have
happened but apparently the coffins what were left of them made their way into the private collection of Robert Frazier
who was an Edinburgh jeweler at this time Robert Frazier apparently he bought them
I guess but he displayed the coffins in his private Museum on South Andrews Street and then he retired in 1845 they
were there all the way up until there um and then he quote the celebrated Lilliputian coffins found on Arthur's
seat sold to a private buyer for just four pounds how much is that that's like four almost five bucks American oh
that's it okay I'm gonna do the conversion now once they went into the hands of this
private buyer they kind of disappeared for a while no one knew what really happened to them oh that was until more
than 50 years later so the coffins appeared again in 1901. okay this was when a private donor actually
ended up gifting eight of them to the Museum of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland oh that's a beautiful thing to
say in Scotland you know I just love all these words yeah um this would eventually become the
national Museum's the national the national museum of Scotland uh there's no way to know
like basically how much how or exactly who donated these I'm sure the museums yeah they probably passed hands like so
many times yeah and basically like at first because of this a lot of people were like are they the actual coffins or
these like you know something else but apparently according to Smithsonian Magazine it said circumstantial evidence
strongly suggests that these coffins were the same group as the one Frasier turned obtained in 1930 1836
um and that's really all they're going off of I trust the Smithsonian yeah I trust them so I think it's right
um but the coffins coming back into the fold kind of it sparked a new interest in them again finally people were
finally thinking about it get Adam again because I'm really sad that they like just fell off for God
these are fascinating they were found in the side of a mystical [ __ ] craggy Rock let that go how do we just like
lose interest in it but that speaks to the [ __ ] Human Condition um but it wasn't long before they were
back in the news again so in 1906 five years after they had been donated there was an article that appeared in the
Scotsman and it proposed a new and very unverifiable Theory as to their Origins but according to the article a woman
living in Edinburgh at the time said that shortly after they were found her father who was only called Mr B
had been visited several times at his business by a quote Daft man and during one of these visits the man produced a
hand-drawn picture of three small coffins under those coffins were written the dates 1837 1838 1840.
now there was no context or explanation so Mr B just kind of dismissed this picture as like you know just Mr B this
is just crazy yeah he's just like and so whatever but the following year 1837 a relative of Mr B died and who knows
another B Mr C um and this was followed by the death of another relative in 1938
Mr D and then the death of his brother in eight or excuse me it was 1838 and then the death of his brother in 1840.
now according to the man's daughter the mysterious man that came with this picture
um he appeared at her father's business shortly after his brother's funeral and was quote glowering at him before
disappearing and was never seen again so they believe basically the Scotsman said that it is not possible is it not
possible that this man was the maker of the Arthur C coffins driven mad by the loss of his treasures or was the whole
story nothing but coincidences so they think that this whole thing somehow is connected to the things that
this guy was making these little Treasures right they were discovered possibly that was the private donor who
had them he was pissed and you know uh maybe I mean it's not like totally Unthinkable but there's just not enough
yeah there there's better theories one of which includes Birkin here but you're like that's my [ __ ] Theory that's my
favorite now throughout the 20th century the coffins continued to make huge Fantastical theories crop up everywhere
a lot of Supernatural explanations like in 1978 Walter haverneck who was the director of the Museum of Hamburg
history he suggested the coffins could be kind of a Talisman like the totems carried by German Sailors for luck
now according to German folklore Sailors would carry mandrake root or some form of a doll in a small coffin as a
protection at sea oh that's cool and he theorized that these Arthur C coffins could be quote a horde of Lucky Charms
hidden in the hillside by a merchant to be sold to Sailors all right this all sounds great that kind of like okay yeah
maybe yeah but the national museum of Scotland pointed out that quote while the use of charms persisted in Scotland
well into the 19th century no evidence of this particular seafaring tradition has ever been found so I think well that
sounds like it would have been a good a good little thing it was made up that's not a real tradition that's a bummer so
I kind of love it because although that's like a nice like fun I love a seafaring spooky
sailor siren song tradition for sure like any of those stories are fun like that song Brandy
I don't know what that is yeah you do it's a I can't sing it right now because I have Florence and the Machine stuck in
my head but we can just move faster okay cool I'm sure I know what it is but I'll
just send it to you later when I can't you know when a song is stuck in your head yeah and you can't get past it
you're a fine girl such a fine wife you would be but my life my love for my lady
is the sea I've literally never heard that in my entire life do you absolutely have Papa loves that song and then it
goes I'm I'm probably not doing a good job I wish you guys could see the head motion that's happening right now like
it's very much like a Night at the Roxbury yeah I'm gonna have to find it on is it on
Spotify of course it's on Spotify I'll play it for you later and you're gonna be like oh I didn't know if this was
like a salty sailor tune that I couldn't find on Spotify about a sailor because the the his his life his lover his lady
is yeah she has it did yes she is she like brandy you should work something bar I don't know
like that kind of [ __ ] I'm like I'm into it and I love oh I know you know the song it sounds
familiar now I don't know hold on it's sounding a little familiar oh yeah but I never I I didn't know any
of the lyrics to that song really yeah all right well I thought it was going to be a sea shanty that you were yelling at
me no it's just about a sailor that's all a sailor who likes this girl who works
at a bar but he can't be with her see I'm like I like those old timey like like when we did um we put a sea shanty
in one of our exactly like my house um we did like um yeah for those ones I think we did some sea shanty things but
that's I like those I like like a legend like a seafaring Legend yeah I like a seafaring monster I like a siren oh my
God Nessie I mean I'm not let's see I'm on the lizard today you like you love a sea serpent a lake monster if you will I
I like those kind of things so that's fun to me I like that theory but it's not as
troubling as the Birkin hair one would be yeah I'm nervous about like where like yeah yeah are we gonna yeah now so
because they were so popular and that people were so kind of like obsessed with them for a while and there was such
a mystery surrounding these it's pretty surprising that like throughout the decades and decades that they were
trying to figure out what these were no one really performed any kind of thorough analysis of the Arthur C
coffins like they just they were like I wonder what these are yeah huh then they would
just like throw them off to the side and it's like do you guys want to like science it a little bit like just on
maybe not a lot of science going on someone put on some glasses and just take a closer peek at these well I bet
Ferguson did I you know I'm sure he did just like maybe didn't write down enough
info it wasn't until the 90s Kevin it was the 90s yeah I'm talking about the 1990s [ __ ] that anyone really gave these
their due attention so the examination of the remaining Arthur C coffins was done in the early 1990s by Alan Simpson
who was the former president of the royal Scottish Society of Arts [ __ ] he was joined by Samuel Menifee a senior
associate of the center Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia [ __ ] both of them were
visiting fellows at the school of Scottish studies at the University of Edinburgh at the time [ __ ] there you go
I had to wait for the that now they all looked pretty identical but Simpson and Menifee did note that there were some
some variations look at them so the dimensions did vary a little bit in size from 3.7 to 4.1 inches long anywhere
within that thing they would vary I wonder why uh 0.7 to 1.2 inches wide and 0.8 to 1 inch deep
so that's like so little that I thought it could have just been like hey I made this one I put it in the hill I'm doing
this one off of memory yeah I'm like a little off right to me that's the thing there's a lot of these things where I'm
like well I think it's this I'm gonna ask a question who knows if I'll have the answer really do you know if they
had rulers back then when did the ruler rulers were like I mean they had ruler instruments yeah long ago okay so that
was my question but but I don't know when I don't know when that began like what year an action when did the rulers
really get popular when did the rulers start to rule is what I wanted to know oh my God that's what I want to know
um what they also found out was that most of the coffins insides were made of rag fiber cloth but one was lined with
paper huh which was interesting um two of the coffins were originally painted pink or red okay
they generally were two kind of shapes most had square cut corners but three had rounded Corners which could suggest
two things to me they think it suggests that more than one person did it okay which absolutely
could be true like Burke and hair or it could be that well I don't think both of
them did it either but or it could be that like we were just saying the variations in these things are like well
I just put one in the hillside a couple weeks ago yeah I'm gonna do this one I don't remember if I rounded off the
edges or not sure I think we're not giving people enough credit for being silly somewhat lazy
and inconsistent as humans I think we're just not giving us that much I think we're like it must be more than one
person it's like no it could just be the same yeah inconsistent [ __ ] you know super inconsistent so I get it it
happens now the dolls contained within the coffins did appear to come from a set of figures with flat feet and arms
that would swing so they thought that those could have been Toy Soldiers originally I'm gonna have that stuck in
my head now I immediately did yeah uh we're getting so soon the eyes figure were open
oh I don't like that which they said made it unlikely that they were designed as Corpses
yeah I don't think I agree because almost every corpse I worked on in the morgue had open eyes really yeah I hate
that when people die a lot of times their eyes stay open yep they sure do and if these are designed as Corpses
than this person who made them might have seen these people when they died and their eyes were open yeah I'm just
saying we can't totally be like I don't think these were corpses guys the eyes were open like I don't think that's yeah
we need a little we can't completely discount that as a thing now some of the figurines were also
missing their arms they believe that maybe they were removed so they would fit better into
the coffins my opinion maybe it was representative of injury or dismemberment but that's just my sick
ass mind murder victims perhaps or just dead people then maybe they're being representative of what injuries they had
perhaps I don't know I'm just saying my mind is a weird place but I bet it is it
is it's a strange place you don't really want to be in there but when it came to
identifying who might have carved the coffins there was really no clues no for an actual identity but they were able to
take a little bit from some of the adornments like the tin adornments on the coffin Lids because they said that
um it's the use of Applied pieces of tinned iron as decoration which struck them and it's similar similar to the
type of tin used in contemporary shoe buckles so shoe buckles you say this could mean
thank you that it could be someone who was a Shoemaker or a leather worker I don't know if everybody remembers this
Berkey Burke Burke Burke was a Shoemaker him right he was a cobbler but I have a
the I have something to you know that's something to say so a Shoemaker they were saying would have the skills to
make these coffins but they weren't a carpenter they didn't have carpentry tools so they wouldn't have made them as
perfect and identical as you would think and that's why maybe they're a little inconsistent now when it came to the
figures themselves they said that they still think that these are supposed to be like toys of
some kind or representative of living people this is what they initially thought and not you know Effigies for
dead people um because they said that they could see strong lines across some of their brows
which indicated that they had hats at one point oh and that there was carefully carved lower bodies formed to
indicate tight knee breaches and hose below which the feet are blackened to indicate ankle boots I still think these
could be dead bodies I don't see why that changes things I don't think so if they were originally toy soldiers that
they changed into these little dolls then they maybe removed a helmet or hat of sure sort and that's what those are
from agreed but uh Simpson and Menifee use the figure's appearances to date them back to 1790s
at the earliest oh wow now the clothing on the figures which apparently had been
like sewn and glued into place like very carefully it represented a style of dress that didn't
correlate to period grave clothing so they said it's it was looked like it was supposed to be representative of
everyday wear and not like funeral wear like what somebody died in thank you because they said that they were
probably done just to cover the figures decently and not to represent any kind of specific period or occasion but if
they were murder victims like you said then they would be dressed in the clothing that they died in guys they
wouldn't be in Proper Burial clothing and if they were broken hairs victims I would think that they probably all had
similar shoes because they all came from a similar place exactly and if you look
at the pictures of these little little dudes they when I first read the description I was like oh so they have
like clothing when you look at it you're like clothing is a loose term like a coverings I would say okay that were
glued and sewn on yeah I keep meaning to look at pictures yeah it's like so the rag cloth lining of the coffins was
dated to the period after 1780. okay but the pair they believed that all the coffins were created probably no earlier
than 1800s and and they said that the deposit into the hillside they believed wasn't done until after 1830
um and they said so that kind of makes sense because that would be within five years of the discovery yeah which is
when that first tier makes sense that it wouldn't put in there so Naomi turant who is the curator of
European textiles at the national museum of Scotland she said that based on relatively good condition of the Fabrics
that they were definitely buried in the early 1830s okay yes and in several of the cases they were sewn using three-ply
thread which wouldn't have been manufactured until after 1812 so this does line up okay now in the conclusion
of their report on the analysis of these little coffins Alan Simpson and Samuel Menifee noted
quote that the problem with the various theories is their concentration on motivation rather than on the event or
events that caused the internments the former will always be open to argument but if the burials were event driven by
say the loss of a ship with 17 fatalities During the period in question the speculation would be at least be
built on demonstratable fact stated another way what we seek is an Edinburgh related event or events involving 17
deaths which occurred close to 1830 and certainly before 1836. go ahead one obvious answer Springs to mind the
Westport murders by William Burke and William Herron 1827 and 1828. yep these are creepy as [ __ ] very creepy and
follow so I'm going to give you a quick little like like lesson silver lesson of
Birkin hair in case you didn't listen to it you should go listen to it in case you're here and you're like oh [ __ ] I
want to finish this first and then go listen to that yeah yeah um so following the death of a border at William Harris
lodging house in November of 1827 and this will be quick don't worry if you've already listened to the episode
birkenhair realize as you know what it's a sign of the times we can make a ton of
money selling corpses to the Edinburgh Medical College this was a very big thing at the time they were called
Resurrection men these people who did this um and they prompted this prompted the
two of them to go on a murder spree because what is you know why wait for people to die why not just murder them
and they killed at least 16 people and sold their bodies to local surgeon and instructor Dr Robert Knox now birkenhair
and remember they killed 16 people sold that first one that is 17 altogether sure is Birkin hair were eventually
caught when a lodger in William Burke's House discovered the body of an elderly women woman that they had killed and
they they both confessed to the murders of 16 people but hair definitely blamed Burke it was a whole thing definitely
listen to it it's very interesting what happened with them um so they were they confessed to the
murders of 16 people in the unlawful sale of the body of the lodger at the boarding house and given that they were
all marginalized as people that were victims Simpson and Menifee think that the coffins could have served as like a
proper burial at Arthur's seat because these people wouldn't have gotten a proper burial to begin with I think I
see where you're going he said considering beliefs such as the alleged mimic burial given to Scottish Sailors
lost at sea it would not be unreasonable for some person or persons in the absence of the 17 dissected bodies to
wish to perpetuate these dead the majority of whom were murdered in atrocious circumstances by a form of
burial to set their Spirits at rest that makes sense well it is always possible that that other disasters could have
resulted in an identical identical casual identical I don't know why that was hard to say casualty list the
Westport murders would appear to be a logical motivating force now in 2005 producers from the National
Geographic Channel they convinced the curators at the Museum to allow forensic science service expert Mike Barber to
test the coffins for potential trace DNA they were hoping to match it to Burke basically so they have some of his DNA
they have his body um so they have his skeleton I didn't oh yeah now the tests on the coffins didn't
turn up any trace DNA that they could use which is sad and neither did the figures but and the museum wouldn't
allow Barbara to take the kind of samples that he would usually use for that kind of analysis so it's like not
really even a really good test really right and they would have to take DNA from the skeleton of William
Burke and he is kept under lock and key at Edinburgh University or did I forget that I don't think I
mentioned it in that episode um or maybe I did I'm not sure but either way they weren't going to let him
do that because they're not going to let them you know denigrate that DNA now despite the DNA test finding absolutely
nothing quote unquote Mike Barber is pretty convinced that it was Burke who created the coffins
and I think it's it makes sense so he said I think it's pretty clear he told this to the Edinburgh Evening News the
people I've spoken to during filming believe that it was hair who was the real bad one yeah was easily LED and
copped to it when he was shopped by hair yeah what they believe is that basically
William Burke had some kind of guilt and was making these to give them properties to give
them a proper burial and sorry was he the Shoemaker he was the Shoemaker that's all I could say the entire time
and while it's possible that they could have been placed there by Burke yeah or hair
about it I think there's a better theory that is still connected to William Burke okay
William here so William Burke was tried and executed not very long after her his
arrest for the 16th murder so that was my problem that's that's the part that gets me I was like when
especially like that last one is what you're saying right exactly and William Hare as well as both of their ladies
um they were run out of Scotland by an angry mob as soon as they were released from police custody so it's pretty
unlikely that they would have been able to place them there right without somebody seeing them and killing them
but another similar explanation was offered in 2005 by George um dagliash I believe it is a curate I
know right he's a curator of the Scottish of Scottish history at the national museum of Scotland and he said
he thinks the coffins were made by a close associate of Birkin hare who quote had a strong motive to make amends for
their crimes the the doctor the possible explanation put forth by dagley dagliosh I'm sorry
uh seems very plausible and it is that Dr Robert Knox called it to whom the bodies were sold he stayed in Edinburgh
for many years we talked about this after Burke's execution he presumably felt some kind of guilt for his
participation in the whole thing and before his arrest and execution actually William Burke like we said was a
Shoemaker so he would have had acquaintances with other shoemakers yeah who could have done this but either way
either a Shoemaker who knew about what was going on and worked with Burke or Dr will bought Dr Robert Knox makes so much
sense to me yeah because we don't know really much else about Dr Knox and like what his Hobbies were and things like
that exactly we don't know I I kind of I like the Knox Theory I do too I think it really makes it's like him
making amends for it and it makes sense and I kind of it kind of makes me feel better yeah it would it would honestly
be like not that it's not that it like it doesn't sense but like it would be at least something they're like a point too
because you're like I'm glad you had some kind of conscience yeah like you felt guilt now
they do point to one thing that could stray away from this Theory but I don't think it's an issue to be honest they
said no fewer than 12 of birkenhair's victims were female we know that but they said the clothed bodies found in
the coffins were dressed in male attire the clothings used to dress the figures definitely were like crude and not like
fully closed and in my opinion much more crude than they're giving them credit for yeah um but they said that they
would have been pretty easy for them to put a dress on it rather than pants in a
shirt but if you look at it they kind of just put onesies on all of them they really just covered up their limbs yeah
with cloth yeah I agree and to be honest a lot of these victims were found were brought to Knox
naked so it's like he wanted it feels like they it was just kind of a like they closed these dolls in very
very simplistic shrouds yeah a little bit like that's what it looks like to me if you look
them up that's what it looks like to me that's what they are neither I don't believe they are uh gendered clothing I
believe they're very like just down the middle could be either I agree with you and it's also
really hard to tell on most it's just like fabric a lot of them have like molded away exactly so you don't know oh
these things freak me out they're really creepy this the one that's um specifically terrifies me is wrapped up
in like all white and this the figure's eyes are still so prominent I know it's so creepy yeah yeah
now and they also pointed out that you know 17 bodies were sold by Birkin hair but they only kill confess to killing
16. but I don't think that's an issue because of it because body yeah and it's to me that makes sense because you have
the two rows of eight which would be who they killed and then you have that one standing alone which to me makes it
interesting yeah like that's the lodger yeah that's the beginning but they put it as the end I think it's I think it's
definitely related to birken hair I don't know who I believe did it but I definitely think it's related right it
just makes sense yeah now the scientific analysis of the Arthur C coffins was definitely able to
reveal like a pretty good deal about the construction of them the time period where they were made and it gave a
little bit of insight into the type of person who likely would have been able to make them but it didn't really
explain their original purpose yeah that's what everybody was trying to figure out and it kind of only like
deepened the mystery and when you connect it to Birkin hair it almost makes it more mysterious because it's
like what was the purpose of these was it to give them a proper burial like I need to know what they were or was like
was this somebody you remember if you go back to the episode they involved a few
people in their scheme yep and it's like were these people who felt guilt were these people who were involved in it and
decided to do this as some like weird like count of the victims you know what I mean like yeah it could mean a lot of
different things it definitely could but the other thing that I can think of is that um the guy who was involved in that
one murder with them and that maybe that one coffin could represent that one that's true it definitely could but I'm
I lean more toward the the 16 that they did that they murdered and then the one yeah they sold that was natural yep but
despite their inability to actually solve the mystery like concretely yet right uh the Arthur C coffins are like
still so popular and yeah and by late 2000 the Scottish tourism industry began to like really embrace
Scotland's dark history and dark tourism and they would like cater to people who
were interested in the Birkin hair case Mary Queen of Scots the hellfire club like all that stuff we I need Americans
close Mary King's close um and this was really just like tourism but in 2000 actually a popular Scottish
crime novelist Ian Rankin he decided to incorporate the coffins into his novel oh [ __ ] which I think is cool that is
cool um it's called The Falls and he entered he was introduced to them at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh and he said
quote this curator pulled me aside and said here you like this kind of stuff and he showed me the coffins I was just
knocked out by them by the idea that these small objects could generate so much mystery for so long yeah I love
that he put them in a novel I think that's cool wicked cool and in 2018 the coffins actually came back into like
Front Page News this time there was a claim that the mystery had been solved so after he'd spent months studying the
case a Scottish American writer and amateur historian Jeff Nisbet claimed that the coffins were definitely a
memorial to the event this event known as a radical war of 1820. this wasn't really a war it was more like an
uprising okay but it refers to a period of civil disobedience in 1820. which was
motivated basically by bad working conditions for Laborers and they were basically commencing an uprising to call
for improved working conditions more rights among several other things sure and they came to the uprisings came to
an end pretty quickly not long after they started and it was when three leaders of the movement were executed
for their activities and many others were sent to a penal colony in October in Australia I don't know I said October
um but the following year a group of unemployed Weavers were put to work by the crown building a path around
Arthur's seat and it was going to be known as radical Road I want to live there in a radical Road
and according to Nisbet the coffins he thinks were placed in the small cave in this place where these Weavers were
making were doing labor building the path around Arthur's seat they were put in this small cave as a coated Memento
to the ideals behind the labor struggles in Edinburgh okay an interview with the
herald he said by the time the coffins were discovered the Rebellion had been largely largely forgotten saved perhaps
by those who whose loved ones had been either lost by The Hangman's noose or a ship Bound for Australia and so it's my
theory that the artifacts raise on debt was to honor the radicals and that they were later resurrected in an attempt to
keep the flame of rebellion lit and a land too quick to forget an attempt that ultimately failed
hmm as evidence for this theory he says quote all appear to be male and have their eyes open represent men men not
dead yet sure maybe yeah another clue can be found in their clothes made by from a
type of cloth the Weavers would have been familiar with okay interesting his theory suggests that he's here it's like
he's definitely familiar with that time period this is a good theory yeah the fact that he's able to like say that the
cloth is pretty representative of what these Weavers that were there at the time building this path would have been
able to work with all of that makes sense the fact that they're you know technically they think that there are a
bunch of male dolls but I think that's really like a loose yeah confirmation I agree with that and that their eyes are
open like sure you can you can definitely put it in there and make it fit it's a decent one but
I think experts are pretty unconvinced by this like PR the principal curator of the national museum of Scotland's
Scottish history David Forsythe told the Heralds I wouldn't scoff at this Theory and it's
interesting to hear another idea about where the coffins come from but Mr nisbet's ideas outside the established
Canon that surrounds the coffin coffins and I think that the connection to the victims of birken hair Remains the most
likely explanation I agree so even the principal curator of the national museum of Scotland's Scottish history thinks
that there is a connection to Broken hair then I'd put my money on it and to me nisbet's Theory I think is a great
one yeah I think it's like when you put it all together you're like all right yeah for sure and if it actually ended
up being the origin story I'd be like you know what that makes sense I believe that still a cool origin story but I
can't I think it's broken hair related I think that it's the 17. well he didn't explain the 17. I was waiting for that
part of me too so you got the three the leaders who were killed you know I'm sure there was more than 17
people involved that's the thing so I'm like What's the 17. and why would they be placed at different times exactly
it's like I don't know why is one alone yeah that doesn't make sense to me so nearly two centuries after they were
found in that mystical Hillside in Hollywood Park the Arthur's damn it I almost said it again the at the seat
coffins remain much a mystery to this day as they were that day that they were pulled out when those kids were either
rabbit hunting or free climbing a cliff who knows what they were doing um but the that analysis that was done
in the 90s was really the only thing that gave us any insight about when and by Maybe by whom they were created they
should try to do something now that like technology has advanced even more I want
to keep looking into this I feel like we can figure this out and the the real the
big theory for their creation is definitely the connection to the broken hair the 17 just sticks to me I think it
sticks to everybody else it's a plausible Theory um but either way no matter what they were they were
totems that were tucked away in a secret location carved out of an ancient volcano that
alone is all you really need to tell people and it's like put a period right at the end of that sentence was it wise
to remove them ready ready say it with me no I don't think I won't take things from ancient
places one more time we don't take things from ancient places maybe just you know don't touch that
peek in you can peek in take a look see you know what you do you got one of those little Dental mirrors where they
it's like the big long mirror that they can look in the back of your mouth with yeah stick it in there
oh and maybe take a little picture if you want to maybe even that's kind of going far but then get out of there
scoot on out get out of there go I wonder what those are just say whoa I saw those and that's the thing crazy
that would be my ideal situation with this because I think like I don't know what these were and I don't know if it
was a good idea to move them who even knows if men placed them there in the first there you go maybe it was Beast
maybe it was Faye maybe it was Faye maybe these are fairy coffins I don't know I don't know maybe we don't know
did we [ __ ] around and find out maybe we didn't find anything out that was the
problem but maybe we like [ __ ] around and found out like we didn't find out the things we wanted to find we found
out we found out yeah dude like I don't know and that's it but now that we have removed them and it's been you know a
little bit maybe we should put them back maybe we should I don't know I don't I don't think that's how it works though I
don't think it's like gives these backseats I think like I think they are like I don't we don't play that way yeah
they probably don't but like if it's not fun maybe in centuries my guy no gives these back season maybe it's like
leprechaun and like gives you you know but I think now that we have them out of the uh ancient volcano on a
mystical Arthur's seat we've already [ __ ] around it we [ __ ] around so now let's find out I'd like to I'd like to
find out what these are I think we should keep looking into them I'd like more to come out because a lot of people
are like we will never know and it's like that I don't think so I thought that about a million gajillion things I
thought we'd never figure out Summerton man here exactly I think we'll have so many things yeah every every problem has
an answer there you go that's part of Snoop Dogg's Snoop Dogg's affirmations for kids they're great you should do
them if you want affirmations for kids there you go they're really fun my kids love them yeah we listened to that song
so many times that's an answer yeah yeah anything is possible there you go fine my family loves me
things matter I love it but yeah so uh that's the story of the Arthur C coffins uh they're they're Wily in like a coyote
I think we're gonna figure out what they are and I think it's gonna be either Birkin hair related or Fey related I
agree that's just me that's where I'm at too so so thanks for listening yeah we hope you keep it
yeah I think that's been the not so weird a lot lately but definitely not so rude that you take anything from an
ancient Place put it yeah put it back keep it so weird that you listen to your mama's over here and you put it back
look with your eyes not with your hands yes okay friends yes yes yes [Music] thank you
[Music]

In late June 1836, a group of boys hunting rabbits on a hillside on Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, discovered a small cave hidden behind three slabs of slate, each piece carved into a rough conical shape. When they moved the pieces of stone, they found hidden within seventeen hand-carved miniature coffins, each containing hand-carved figures. For nearly two hundred years, the mystery of the miniature coffins has baffled and delighted tourists and locals alike, all wondering who carved the coffins and why. Theories have been put forth claiming they’re everything from a satanic spell or witchcraft to an ancient custom or even the work of notorious Scottish serial killers and body-snatchers Burke and Hare.

Many thanks to the smashing David White for research assistance :)

References

Blackburn Standard. 1836. "Strange discovery." Blackburn Standard, 07 27.

Brown, Allan. 2000. "Coffins that came back from the grave." Sunday Times, September 17.

Chapman, Robert. 1958. "Seventeen Tiny Coffins." Derby Evening Telegraph, July 04: 18.

Dash, Mike. 2013. Edinburgh’s Mysterious Miniature Coffins. April 15. Accessed March 18, 2023. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/edinburghs-mysterious-miniature-coffins-22371426/

Dundee Courier. 1836. "The Lilliputian coffins." Dundee Courier, August 25.

Harrison, Jody. 2018. "Edinburgh coffin-doll mystery 'cracked at last', claims writer." The Herald, April 17.

Horton, Julia. 2005. "Buried secrets of the city murder dolls." Edinburgh Evening News, December 2.

National Museums of Scotland. n.d. The mystery of the miniature coffins. Accessed March 18, 2023. https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-history-and-archaeology/mystery-of-the-miniature-coffins/.

O'Neill, Emma. 2019. Seven facts you may not know about Arthur's Seat. February 28. Accessed March 19, 2023. https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/seven-facts-you-may-not-know-about-arthurs-seat-1494785.

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Brief Summary

Elena announces the paperback release of her book and discusses the mysterious Arthur's Seat coffins linked to the Burke and Hare murders.

Key points

Audi Award Nomination. The Butcher and the Wren has been nominated for an Audi award for best audiobook.
Paperback Release Announcement. The paperback edition of The Butcher and the Wren will be released on July 25th.
Sequel Sneak Peek. The paperback will include a sneak peek of the sequel's first chapter.
Lilliputian Coffins Discovery. Local boys discover 17 tiny coffins in a secluded area of Arthur's Seat.
The Discovery of Tiny Coffins. A dramatic tale unfolds as boys discover tiny coffins on a mystical hillside.
Theories About the Coffins. Various theories arise about the origins and purpose of the tiny coffins.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't wait for you guys to read more of Jeremy and Ren this summer.

Excitement for the upcoming release of the sequel.

2:03WatchApr 14, 2023

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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