CLOCKING OFF: Nicky Alan and an alien timeslip in the Scottish Highlands

Aberdeen in 1830 with a population of 177,657 had its employment deeply involved in the Textile industry. 4000 people were employed in the business manufacturing thread, Sailcloth’s, brown linens and sacking. Woollen items like stockings and blankets were much desired and exported to Germany and Holland. The city had 2000 weavers adding to this. Granite was in great demand (24,000 tonnes shipped) and mined and transported in huge quantities as was salmon and cattle.

A workhouse had been formed for destitute boys and girls, in 1739. It catered to rid the city of vagabonds and contribute to giving the poor children a way out to apprenticeships in the linen trade. It may have been the embarrassment of Elspeth Reid’s predicament that her charges against her were so severe. The Town chiefs had to continue to pump funds into the Workhouse to keep it from closing, as it wasn’t self sufficient to meet the needs of the vagrants it supported. Elspeth being a benefactor of the workhouse had disgraced the towns charity and turned to theft!

The linen trade requires the product to be washed in bleaching materials to render the threads soft and clean. Pre-1800s human urine was used, sometimes sour milk and then citric acid. It was found a new product called “Vitriol” now replaced the foul-smelling previous agents and was seen as the definitive product to bleach the linen. Sulfuric acid is a mineral acid. It’s made by burning sulphur to create Sulphur Dioxide gas, the Gas produced is dissolved in a hydrogen Peroxide solution which produces the “Vitriol” a very caustic acid!

Aberdeen in 1830 with having such a large linen manufacturing industry “Vitriol” the new Bleaching product was readily available with a “Vitriol” manufacturing plant now based in Prestonpans.

Man has over the centuries never ceased to amaze in the many inventive ways created to kill off his enemies. Killing your husband with “Vitriol” is probably not the quietest, or cleanest way to do it! But one drunken night in the Humphrey household. Catherine waited till her husband was in bed. The titanic row that had fuelled this moment of madness spurned her on to pour the caustic “Vitriol” into her sleeping husband’s mouth. He erupted in a fountain of blood as the acid burnt into the tissue and muscle of his neck and arteries. He thrashed around in his deathly last moments of despair and pain. Then lay dead upon the floor as the acid continued to corrupt his face! The noise of his death brought the authorities and the arrest of Catherine. She was taken to the Tolbooth.

In the Magistrates court that followed, Catherine confessed to a question by the Reverent Ian Murray, saying….” I acknowledge the justice of my sentence, but I did not buy the stuff to give him! But misfortune took hold of me, and I gave it to him. I did not think it would kill him, but I did it and will suffer justly for it”

Catherine Humphreys was led to the scaffold to be hanged on the 8th October 1830. She was the first woman in 45 years to be hanged in Aberdeen since Elspeth Reid.

The Caledonian Mercury newspaper published as a broadsheet by John Muir on October the 11th described the hanging of Catherine.

“Since her condemnation she has conducted herself in a exemplary condition” but 45 years previous she had the premonition that this would be her fate after witnessing the hanging of Jean Craig and catching the rope all those years ago. On the scaffold, she exclaimed “Oh my God” before the trapdoor opened. When researching this story for this book I tried to find where exactly Mrs Humphreys had her Tavern. The Gazetteer of Scotland printed in 1844 gives Aberdeen 193 wine merchants and 41 spirit dealers, but there is nothing I can find to pinpoint the exact location.

Sources:

Aberdeen, Gazetteer of Scotland vol 1, 1844 Mrs Humphreys judgement and hanging, The Scots Black Kalendar, T.M. Todd, p42, 1938 Mrs Humphreys, Caledonian Mercury Broadsheet newspaper Mon 11th 1830 Aberdeen poor house, History of the Workhouse 1739-1852, J.P. Edmond and Spark 1885 H aving just read the amazing

last issue of Haunted Magazine I was inspired to write this article after reading the feature with Craig Charles and Sarah Cruddas covering their new show that investigates UFO hotspots. I thought as I have the freedom to write anything spooky or paranormal, I would share with you what I think was an alien abduction. I can find no other answer that could justify what happened, see what you think.

I was on a tour of the Scottish Highlands with my ex and his mum and dad. It was February 1999 and we had just left Braemar heading for Aviemore through the Cairngorms National Park. I am not going to lie, I was a bit concerned as the snow on both sides of the road was about seven foot high and we were travelling down what I can only describe as a track rather than a wide, smooth, safe road! The drive was slow and careful and soon the faded winter sun gave up the ghost (pardon the pun, oh no, this isn’t a ghost story…well you know what I mean!) and dipped behind the majestic mountains leaving a vastness of dark velvet skies with no artificial light. Just the reflective glint of the snowbound banks on the sides of the road kept us headed in the right direction.

As we limped along, I spotted a white van upside down on one of the snowbanks. I could see no disturbance of the snow around the van, so my old police head kicked in. “Stop!” I yelled. The brakes were applied accompanied with three faces looking inquisitively into mine. ”Can you not see that van upside down? There could be someone trapped in there!”

Without even thinking I jumped out into the freezing cold night and started to push my way through the treacherously high snow. I stopped and again saw no other snow disturbed around the van so I started shouting out ‘Hello’ convinced that the driver must still be in the van. I reached the front of the van and raised my arm up to feel that the bonnet was slightly warm which added to my confusion because as I looked into the driver’s window there was no driver. In fact, I circled the whole of the van and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. “How could a recently crashed van have a warm bonnet with no snow disturbance around it whatsoever? Where was the driver? Where were his tracks?”

By this time, everyone had got out of the car and were searching the roadside for any clues. I would say it was around 9 pm. I was just about to tell everyone to get back in the car when BANG! There was something I can only describe as a supersonic boom accompanied with the biggest, blueish white light flash that I had ever seen. It was so bright I had to cover my eyes. The light lit up the whole of the valley. Everyone became briefly illuminated like a firework had just gone off right in front of us. The boom literally vibrated through my body. It was like witnessing a nuclear bomb from a distance it… was exceptionally frightening. The only thing I could offer to the rest of the group in a very shaky voice was,

“What the F**k was that?”

Everyone stood there speechless, just shaking their heads. None of us could even put into words what we had just witnessed. We then fell into a weird mass hysteria where we started to laugh nervously and made a joke of it. Nearly 50 Scottish UFO reports in 2021 including ‘round object’ followed by three fighter jets

After another quick look around for the missing driver, the cold and the shock of the supersonic boom sent us scurrying back into the car. We continued our drive trying to make sense of what we had just seen and heard but didn’t really come up with anything solid or explainable. By the time we got to Aviemore we were so tired but relieved with the notion that we would soon be sitting in front of a roaring fire, nursing an alcoholic beverage. As we walked up to the main door of the hotel, we were shocked to find it locked. The lights looked like they were out and we could see no rosy faced patrons sipping on vino and relishing in the glow of the roaring fire! I felt quite agitated and had no idea why a bar and hotel would be closed at 10 pm!

After a continuous ringing of the bell a night porter came to the door and looked at us as if we were mad!

“Can I help you?” he asked cautiously. “Yes, we are here as we have booked a room.” “Well, you are a bit late, I don’t know if I can help you.” “A bit late?” I enquired a wee tad sarcastically, “It is only 10pm and we did say to you we would be coming at a late hour, and you said it would be ok!” “Well, I think you may find that your watch is wrong as all of our staff have gone home, I am the only one here and it is in fact midnight!” “What are you talking about?” I asked somewhat confused. We all looked at our watches and were stunned to see that they all read 10 pm. We had lost two hours. I just couldn’t believe it.