The Auld Kirk

For the first 21 years of my life a garden, a road and a few old gravestones was all that separated my bedroom from the bell tower of this ruined 15th century church.

It never bothered either myself or my two brothers during those years that there was a few ghostly tales surrounding the kirk and some of the quiet residents of the churchyard. Everyone assumed expectantly that we must have seen numerous unearthly activities from our window during these years, but we never did (apart from the joker who had me frozen to the spot one night after they had climbed up and placed one of the old style paraffin roadwork lamps in the Bell Tower. The sight of that orange glow flickering away gave me the kind of scare that I've never experienced since)

It was quite sad returning there this evening and seeing the amount of damage that's been done. There's hardly a stone standing and the Kirk itself is barred and access denied. When we were kids this was all open but we knew better than to play in and around it, partly because our parents could see us from the living room window if they looked out, partly because the Police station was at the end of the road and there would a hefty size nine applied to your backside if any of the local constabulary caught you in there. It seems to be just another place to wreak mindless havoc in now, and something that had survived near intact for five hundred years might disappear within a couple of generations through the vandalism of a few brainless idiots.

Anyway, as mentioned, there are a few meaty stories surrounding this building and I'm sure they'll make their way into a future blip on some long, dark winter night...