The Fairy Coffins at Arthur's Seat

On June 25th 1836, three boys searching for rabbit warrens on a rocky peak known as Arthur's Seat near Edinburgh, came upon some thin sheets of slate covering a small cave. Inside they discovered 17 tiny coffins containing intricately carved wooden figures. 

They soon became known as the 'Fairy Coffins'. 

Accounts vary considerably on this remarkable discovery and no sources are given. The London Times of July 20th, 1836 has this:

" ...the coffins were miniature wooden figures. They were dressed differently in both style and material. There were two tiers of eight coffins each, and a third one begun, with one coffin. The extraordinary datum, which especially made history here: That the coffins had been deposited singly, in the little cave, and at intervals of many years. In the first tier, the coffins were quite decayed, and the wrappings had moldered away. In the second tier, the effects of age had not advanced so far. And the top coffin was quite recent looking".

US academic Professor Samuel Menefee and Allen Simpson the former principal curator of the National Museums of Scotland, suggest that all were placed in the niche after 1830, about five years before the boys discovered them.

But who placed them there? And why?  Simpson suggests that they may be an attempt to provide a decent symbolic burial for the victims of murderers William Burke and William Hare, who had sold 17 corpses to local doctor Robert Knox in 1828 for use in anatomy lessons. But 12 of Burke and Hare’s victims were women and the occupants of the coffins are all dressed as men. Furthermore, the eyes of the figures are open, not closed like a corpse.

The little figures are made of white wood, but the coffins are carved from Scottish pine. Each figure is dressed in plain cotton clothes that have been stitched and glued around them. Analysis has revealed that they were not the work of a carpenter or woodcarver, but judging from the knife marks and materials used, they were likely to be the work of an amateur using the tools of the trade of a leatherworker or cobbler. Also, the coffins, 95mm in length, come in two styles, one square, one rounded, which suggests that either there were two makers at work, or that their creator changed and/or refined their style as they were being made over a period of time. 

Fewer than half of the coffins survived because it was believed that the boys 'pelted them at each other' in fun, not realising their potential importance. Those that survived became part of a collection kept by Robert Frazier, a jeweller, who displayed them in his private museum. On his death they were auctioned as, ' the celebrated Lilliputian coffins found on Arthur's Seat, 1836,' and sold for just over £4.

In 1901 Christina Couper of Dumfriesshire generously gave a set of eight coffins to the National Museum of Scotland, where they have remained until this day. Speculation has continued to grow about their purpose. Many have suggested that they were 'ritualistic offerings,' highlighting the fact that Arthur's Seat has long been associated with the supernatural, with one of its springs being quoted in one of the earliest recorded witch trials (1572). The Scotsman on 16 July 1836 has:

 “Our own opinion would be – had we not some years ago abjured witchcraft and demonology – that there are still some of the weird sisters hovering about Mushat’s Cairn or the Windy Gowl, who retain their ancient power to work the spells of death by entombing the likenesses of those they wish to destroy.”

Shortly after, The Edinburgh Evening Post claimed the coffins represented:
"An ancient custom which prevailed in Saxony, of burying in effigy departed friends who had died in a distant land." 

The Caledonian Mercury added:
"We have also heard of another superstition which exists among some sailors in this country, that they enjoined their wives on parting to give them “Christian burial” in an effigy if they happened [to be lost at sea]."

The mystery of these coffins continues to this day.