Edinburgh's Fairy Coffins

[Q]

I'm really struggling to find good resources or info about the coffins on net. I've searched the National Museums Scotland website to no avail - does anyone have anything bookmarked or can shed a little more light on the fairy coffins for me? I'd like to include a piece on them for a forthcoming blog entry and it would be much appreciated!

[gordonrutter]

Hi Q

You could wait till my next book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paranormal-Edinburgh-Gordon-Rutter/dp/0752449745/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233162600&sr=1-3 comes out but as I haven't finished the MS yet it might be a long wait - anything specific I might be able to answer?

Cheers

Gordon

[stonedog]

Does this help?

http://www.wunderkabinett.co.uk/emporium/index.php?topic=1524.0

Kath

[Min Bannister]

Most stuff on the internet about the coffins is guff. It's a library job I'm afraid.

Scotsman 18th July 1836 for original report.

Other mentions from the Scotsman are 16th May 1906

Evening Dispatch 16th October 1956. (this is mince-sounds almost totally made up)

Book of the Old Edinburgh Club Vol 3 1994 Menefee and Simpson West Port Murders and the Miniature Coffins from Arthurs Seat-the Burke and Hare Theory.

If you want to know anything I can tell you. 

Edit-wrong year on a reference, d'oh

[stonedog]

That lastsounds........... 


Kath

[Q]

Gordon, if only your book was completed! Min, I know you did a talk on them at the EdFort convention so I was hoping you'd respond on here...

I was basically looking for a good site or online article - preferably with a description or photo of the coffins that I could direct people to. I'm not going to look at them indepth as the entry would be more of an aggregation of links. That's why I was hoping that whatever museum held them would have something online.

I would like to know when they were found, IIRC didn't some children find them and they may be linked to some murders*?


* I notice that one of Min's list points to this

[Q]

I am such a plank! I've just discovered why I wasn't getting any decent 'hits'.

I'd been searching for variations on 'fairy coffins' when I should have been searching for 'Arthur's Seat Coffins'.

link

[stonedog]

Welll... doh! 


Kath

[Min Bannister]

That little article sums up pretty much all that is known about their discovery! There is a lot of fabrication in many of the online (or even offline) mentions of them.

The Burke and Hare reference is a piece done by Menefee and Simpson where they actually had some analysis done on the coffin materials and found some interesting things such as the metal on the coffin lids coming from the metal used to make shoe buckles. Given the time period and the number of coffins they hypothesied that they were made by a shoe maker friend of Burke's who wished to give the victims some sort of decent burial. There were 16 murder victims and 1 accidental death so it fits quite nicely. The only problem (for me anyway) is in the coffins with clothes remaining the figures have little trousers neatly stitched on to them. All but three of Burke and Hare's victims were women. It is possible that all the clothes have dissolved off the women dolls and only the males remain but it seems a bit unlikely to me. That is my feeling anyway. One of the other problems is that the original description of the coffins says that some of them were deteriorated showing that they had been laid over a number of years. Menefee and Simpson reference an article in the Sunday Times where someone at the museum states that there is evidence the coffins were laid all at once and some of them were just wet and so decomposed. I went to the Times in question (and a few others) and found no trace of the article so I cannot find any reason why the coffins might have been laid all at once and don't know what the evidence is. I believe Simpson and Menefee have since amended their theory and think it is Burke himself who made the coffins. Even if I don't agree it is still a very interesting piece and well worth reading for those who are interested!

[Min Bannister]

Here is a nifty summary on the CFI blog by Mike Dash. And he mentions me, I'm famous, yay!

[Emperor]

Here is a nifty summary on the CFI blog by Mike Dash. And he mentions me, I'm famous, yay!

Wooooo. Good overview too.