Why I can see in the dark

At Duddingston kirkyard gate there are the remains of a medieval gallows. According to my parents, countless prisoners, many of them accused of witchcraft, were led up these stone steps, only to make their way down at the end of a noose.

Even bad girls and boys, especially the ones who didn't eat all their carrots, might find themselves dangling on the end of a rope in this very spot.

Although I prefer the gallows version, I now know that it's really just the medieval equivalent of a step ladder, to help gouty and corpulent parishioners get onto their horses.