A hangman choking to death on a chicken bone is the sort of ending a storyteller could hardly improve upon. In Stirling, that is precisely the fate local legend gave Jock Rankin, the town’s torturer and executioner.
Actor, writer and folklorist David Kinnaird has spent decades bringing Jock to life on Stirling Ghost Walk. Yet his research into the man behind the character uncovered a very different ending.
While researching his book Auld Stirling Punishments, David found a notice of dismissal and banishment in the burgh archives. The famous chicken bone, he says, belonged to the legend.
The Happy Hangman’s other ending
Jock was Stirling’s staffman, responsible for collecting debts and administering punishments, including executions. In the familiar story, his wife, Isabell Kilconquahar, known as Tibbie Cawker, dropped a chicken bone into his broth.
David says the records instead describe Tibbie’s conviction for stealing cheese, port and shirts from a neighbour’s cellar. Jock was made to whip his wife through the town before being sent back to Ayr.
According to David, residents later used a ghost story about Jock to discourage children from visiting Hangman’s Close. His former official residence had become a lodging house for drunkards and vagrants.
Victorian histories helped the more memorable version survive. David points particularly to William Drysdale’s Old Faces, Old Places and Old Stories of Stirling, which repeated the story of Jock’s ironic death.
“The jolly ghoulish torturer character appealed to me when I first played him, and still does,” David says.
The preacher who battled the devil
David has found a similar gap between folklore and biography in the story of Blind Alick Lyon. According to the tale, a blind preacher battled Satan on Ladies Hill in the Holy Rude Kirkyard, prompting local drinkers to repent.
Research for his book Haunted Stirling led David to a real man: a local drunkard whose party piece was reciting scripture on demand.
David believes the early Victorian temperance movement transformed Alick into an opponent of drink. Visitors from America and Canada even travelled to Stirling to follow the preacher’s supposed footsteps while Alick was still alive.
Stories from Stirling’s Old Town
The walk grew from a community project run by Top of the Town Enterprises. Following a pilot season in 1989, David joined the first commercial season in 1990 and soon helped script, direct and run the performances.
Stirling’s Holy Rude Kirkyard gives those stories a striking setting. David describes old gravestones beneath the kirk’s bell tower, with the lights of Stirling Castle visible beyond.
Another tale he tells concerns Stirling Castle’s Green Lady. In one version David heard from an elderly castle guide, a maidservant saved Mary, Queen of Scots from a fire but died from her injuries.
The story changes with the audience and the time of year. Summer performances lean towards comedy; darker evenings allow David to draw on more unsettling material.
Asked whether anything unexplained has happened to him on a walk, David says nothing has. He remains interested in supernatural possibilities, but says the Old Town’s foxes may account for some visitors’ feeling of being watched.
Beyond the ghost walk
David’s podcast Spooks and Bogles began during the first Covid lockdown and continues exploring Scottish history and folklore. One favourite episode concerns the Wulver, the kindly werewolf of Shetland.
His interest lies in how stories change as people repeat them, from Stirling’s hangman to supernatural traditions across Scotland.
How to join Stirling Ghost Walk
Stirling Ghost Walk meets at the Old Town Jail gate on St John Street. The operator currently advertises 8pm walks on Fridays and Saturdays from September to June, and 8.30pm walks Tuesday to Saturday in July and August. Check current dates when booking. Visitors can expect a mixture of local history, theatrical storytelling and comedy.
For more Stirling stories, read about Allan Mair at Stirling Tolbooth, browse haunted places in Stirling, or consult our Events Guide.
