The driver was alone and paralysed with shock after she knocked down the ghostly figure which had loomed out of the mist. She had slammed on her brakes, but the dark-clad figure bounced over the bonnet, rolled over the car roof but still landed feet first on the road behind her.

The caped man, wearing a tall carriage hat, stood silently in the road. When the woman reversed to check that he was all right – the mystery man had disappeared. Still shaking, she switched on the radio. It was her favourite Friday night show, Wee Fat Bob on Scot FM. She phoned the show. She was on a quiet, fog-shrouded road, she gasped, outside the 15^th century Kirk o’Shotts in Lanarkshire. She had seen a ghost.

The incident rang bells with an astonishing number of listeners who flooded Bob’s studio with calls to explain how they had suffered the same experience on that stretch of Canthill Road – which leads from the Kirk past the 25ft high barbed wire fence of Shotts prison.

Is this the most haunted spot in Scotland? And who WAS the caped jaywalker? Well, we can reveal both answers here, and VERY spooky they are too! The story involves grave-robbing, two of Scotland's most notorious criminals, mysterious fires, ghostly apparitions on photographs and MURDER.

Kirk o’Shotts is reckoned to be one of the most famous churches in Scotland. Situated in the shadow of the towering Blackhill TV mast beside the M8 motorway, millions of drivers a year view the floodlit church as the half-way marker between Glasgow and Edinburgh. But what most people don’t realise is this little church with its squint, moss-covered headstones and rusty gates, boasts a gruesome history.

Local legend claims a 12^th Century giant, the splendidly named Bertram Shotts, terrorised travellers on the ancient road. A reward was offered for his capture – dead or alive – and brave William Muirhead lay in wait for him at his drinking spot, a hillside spring, before slaying him. In 1450, St. Catherine’s Chapel was built on the spot where Shotts fell. It was converted to the Protestant Kirk o’Shotts after the Reformation in 1560.

Now legend becomes documented fact. The National Covenant, signed in 1638, led to revolution in 1688. Shotts was a Covenant stronghold, and was to pay for its allegiance in blood. In 1678, the Duke of Monmouth led an army of 10,000 men into battle at Bothwell Bridge where the Covenanters were defeated. Then, in 1876, the church was completely destroyed by a bolt of lightning…only the old sandstone baptismal font remains, after decades of being used as a pig trough. In the late 19^th century, a watch tower was erected after the graveyard had been plundered by notorious grave-robbers Burke and Hare.

Kirk o’Shotts minister Sheila Spence is deeply sceptical but admits members of her congregation claim to have encountered the Canthill Road ghost. She said: "One parishioner told me she had to swerve the car one night to miss this man standing in the middle of the road. But, by the time she had stopped, he was gone.

“From the descriptions I’ve heard about this figure, it sounds as if he’s dressed like one of the Covenanters. I’ve had various other people who say they’ve seen ghosts in the graveyard, including a grey lady. But you get some very strange shadows being thrown up from the floodlighting and car lights against the tombstones – it can be very eerie.

“Canthill Road is also affected by heavy mist almost all year round, which I suppose adds to the atmosphere. One man told me that he had to walk past the cemetery every night from his work and was absolutely petrified. He used to light two cigarettes and hold a conversation with himself, so any ghosts would think he wasn’t alone. But I’ve been here for 21 years and I drive that road almost every day and have seen nothing.”

Sheila also revealed how a photo session for the new church calendar had to be re-shot after every picture was blurred by grey shapes. She said:” We used the same photographer as we’ve always used for our calendar, but for some reason this year all his pictures had grey streaks down them. It didn’t look like a processing problem because the streaks were various shapes and sizes. He reckoned the church’s Grey Lady had wanted to get in the picture.” And Sheila joked: "We had them re-done and fortunately she stayed out of the frame this time – which is just as well, as we desperately need our calendar to try and raise our £500,000 restoration fund.”

So, who is the man behind the cape? Many locals firmly believe the ghost of Canthill Road is the spectre of William Smith – a Covenanter who was murdered in 1678. His tombstone stands in the Kirk’s graveyard with an epitaph which looks as though it was carved only yesterday. It reads: Here lies the bones of William Smith who lived in Moremellen and who with others fought at Pentland Hills in defence of Scotland’s Covenant in 1666 and was murdered on his return home near to this place.

One resident, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s rumoured that Smith was run down by the Duke of Monmouth’s horses before being stabbed to death. Many believe that he is playing out his death over and over again. Of course, now he’s being hit by cars instead of horses. It’s an experience you never forget. You even hear the body going over the top of your car – but when you get outside there’s no-one there.”

And Sheila added: “The records show that the Kirk has more than 12000 graves. So, you never know, this figure could well be one of the Kirk’s long-standing residents.”

 

Extract taken fron The Sun newspaper, Tuesday October 31 2000