The Pagans of Scoughall

Seacliff Beach is a popular seaside day out, with its vivid red rocks and sweeping views towards Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock. However, this stretch of shoreline wasn’t such a welcome sight for the many ships that once regularly passed up and down the Firth of Forth, desperately looking to avoid any unnecessary bumps below the waterline.

On wild nights, passing sailors would be searching for any port in a storm, and that was taken advantage of by a group known as the Pagans of Scoughall. They had a horrendous reputation around East Lothian as a band of men who looked to plunder what they couldn't fairly earn.

When the nights were at their darkest, they would encourage ships to crash on the rocks of Seacliff with an unusual technique. Tying a horse's neck to its knee, then hanging a lantern from that rope, they would lead it slowly along the cliffs. To passing ships, the light looked as if it was a ship gently bobbing at anchor and they would head directly towards it, just to be surprised by a smash when they hit the rocks.

That was when the Pagans of Scoughall swooped in and took whatever they pleased. Famous author Robert Louis Stevenson was a relative of the Dale family who still own the estates and he used the story as inspiration for his novel The Wrecker.

Some ships did crash at Seacliff entirely of their own accord though. In 1864 a French schooner carrying 110 tons of the finest brandy hit the rocks. The crew did manage to safely reach the shore, but their cargo had beat them to it.

It's said that out of 2000 casks, they only ever managed to claim back around half of them. The others had mysteriously disappeared.