Nairnshire couple's web series shares some spooky history
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SHARING spooky tales online has kept the creative juices flowing for one young couple during lockdown.
Husband and wife Kieran and Eilidh Macrae launched their Generally Spooky podcast series in April and have been growing their audience ever since.
Fascinated by the supernatural and otherwise mysteriously unexplained of Scotland’s past there is certainly no shortage of stories to choose from.
Mr Macrae runs a digital marketing business from their home at Blairmore near Cawdor while his wife, a journalism and creative writing graduate, also works from home where she dyes woollen yarn for sale.
Both, however, also have a keen interest in Scottish history and ghoulish tales.
One of their early episodes recounts the mysterious and still unexplained disappearance of lighthouse keepers Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald MacArthur from the Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides in December 1900.
The mystery was previously captured in a poem by Wilfred Wilson Gibson and made the subject of a psychological thriller movie The Vanishing in 2018.
“We had been thinking of it for three or four years,” Mrs Macrae said of how the series began.
“But it was only in the past year we found ourselves in a position and had the technology to make the idea become a reality.
“I have always enjoyed creative writing and the format is I read some familiar tales to Kieran, who acts as the audience.
“There’s interaction, because we talk about the stories and have done some of our own research into them.”
She added: “People can download them for free. It’s purely for fun. We enjoy doing it and already we are getting good feedback from people who have listened to the podcasts.”
“We’re passionate about telling Scottish stories and sharing these with people.
“We’re in our first season and have so far released episodes with stories from Edinburgh and Glasgow – the Fairy Coffins from Arthur’s Seat and the Gorbals Vampire.
“The Tale of the Witch of Auldearn, Isobel Gowdie, Burke and Hare and the Loch Ness Monster are also in the pipeline.
“It’s been great fun and certainly helped us get through lockdown during the winter and we hope listeners will tune in and get some pleasure from them.”
The podcast is available on all major platforms at www.generallyspooky.com
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