The Evolution of Haunted Space in Scotland

Abstract

This article explores the popularisation of the concept of haunted space in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland. While earlier ghost stories were usually about the haunting of people, the rise of Gothic and Romantic literary aesthetics fuelled a new interest in both the Scottish landscape, and the dramatic potential of lurking spectres. Amid the upheaval of industrialisation and the Highland Clearances, and in a period when Scots were still wrestling with the implications of the 1707 Union, authors recorded stories of wandering ghosts as part of a broader movement to fashion a distinctive identity rooted in a specific cultural context. Against the frequently broad scope of academic literature on spectrality, this article draws attention to the crucial significance of contextual nuances and specific historical and social circumstances. In particular, it points to the fraught politics of loss and repossession in relation to the Highlands’ history of depopulation and modernisation, casting a fresh light on the historical events that have given shape to Scottish haunted space.