The Burry Man’s Day

Facts and Fictions

Most of the places here are real places, although Brown’s Bar is fictitious, as is Cassilis Castle, which can be understood to lie somewhere between Scotstoun and Carlowrie. There was a short-lived shale mining enterprise on the spot where I imagine Dandy and Randall had their adventure, as well as the larger and longer-lasting Dalmeny Shale Oil Works, the entrance to which lay just behind the station.

Most of the minor characters in the book – the Turnbulls, the Lamonts, Father Cormack, The Rev. Dowd, The Rev. McAndrew, Inspector Cruickshank, Dr Rennick, Provost and Mrs Meiklejohn, and Pat Rearden – are entirely fictitious, as are all the principals: the de Cassilis family, the Dudgeons, and obviously the Browns. Folk like that could never belong in the Ferry.

Some of the others are real. The three families of Linlithgows, Roseberys and Stuart-Clarks did and still do live in three estates around Queensferry; I have stolen some land from the Dundas and Dalmeny estates to make way for Cadwallader’s acres. Also, in 1923, Mr Faichen was the undertaker, Mr Fairlie was the grocer, Mr Mawdsley was the harbour master, and there were Quigleys, Marshalls, Christies and McPhersons in Queensferry as there are today. It should be noted too that Dandy was right about wee Doreen Urquhart: she did grow up to be a beauty and she had a huge personality inside that tiny frame.

As far as I know, there never was a feud, a squabble, even a murmur, over the Burry Man or any other aspect of the Ferry Fair. Also, although Queensferry does have its fair share of ghostie stories and pubs, it is not quite as steeped in horrors as I have suggested here.

Finally, the Burry Man can still be seen walking the town on the second Friday in August. Hip, hip, hooray.