The Pink Lady of the Auld Kirkyard

The Pink Lady – none of our many multicoloured female phantoms seem to be known by anything other than the colour of their robes – is the subject of one of Stirling’s our saddest ghost stories. Well, two, actually...as there is some disagreement as to her origins.

According to some legends she was a pretty young noblewoman of the Burgh, betrothed to one of the brave Scots knights who, at the height of the Wars of Independence, defended Stirling Castle against the English siege of 1304. When her lover – like so many others within that fortress – starved to death, she too perished...from a broken heart.

Her spirit wanders each night, betwixt the Kirk Tower and the Castle, the story goes, awaiting the Day of Judgement when their souls will be entwined before God Himself.

That's what I call a long engagement!

Others say she is the spirit of Mary Witherspoon, an old widow-woman who died in the town in 1823...and Stirling’s only known victim of The Resurrection Men – Grave-robbers – who would steal away the flesh of the newly dead to sell to surgeons for study and dissection.

Though the Grave-robbers were quickly found, the same could not be said of the Widow Witherspoon’s last remains...her wraith still seeking to be re-united with her poor lost mortal form.

Her appearances are said to be heralded by the faint scent of rose-blossom in the air. A favoured fragrance of the widow. A mystery in itself - as no such bloom can be found within the graveyard grounds.

More Information

The Church of the Holy Rude is open to the public daily from April to September http://www.holyrude.org