Mysterious Scotland presents an extraordinary array of the weird and wonderful heritage of the country. In it Michael Balfour examines strange stories from the moors, forests, rivers, holy wells and lochs, where --as well as the old legends and dark secrets which he prises out of palaces, castle and cathedrals -- he finds monsters, ghoulies, unsolved murders and ancient cures.

Investigating a land where the past is reflected in the present, the author has roamed all round Scotland, exploring standing stones, mermaid beaches and magic springs. He seeks out new theories about the prehistoric, Celtic and Pictish stones, carvings, tombs, and brochs which are scattered across the country. Among his many wonderful discoveries, he unearth long -forgotten prophecies, puzzling tales from the bothies, consuming traditions and distillers' tricks, and finds evidence of legendary Highland second sight. Not forgotten are the great historical figures who throng the pages, each making a unique contribution. He ends the book with two modern mysteries we all know about as shown in this quote:

In a book with the title "Mysterious Scotland", loose ends are inevitable, as are sudden changes of theme. Here are two modern mysteries which, for all their tragedy, would find a place in a book such as this were it being written in a hundred years' time,

Two air crashes in recent years have occurred in Scotland and in neither case have the exact causes and perpetrators been identified. A PanAm Boeing 747 crashed on the evening of 21 December 1988 on to the town of Lockerbie in Dumfriesshire. It was Britain's largest air disaster; all 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed, as were many more on the ground. The presumption is that it was caused by a bomb on board which had been concealed in a transistor radio by two Libyans. The plane had broken up into five pieces the moment the bomb went off. There had previously been no mayday call from the pilot.

On 2 June 1994, the RAF's worst peacetime helicopter tragedy occurred on the Mull of Kintyre. An RAF Chinook Mark 2 helicopter HC2 ZD576 was flying from Belfast up towards Fort George, an army base near Inverness. On board were ten members of the RUC Special Branch, six MI5 officers, nine army intelligence officers and four crew members. They were going to attend a conference which could possibly have moved forward the peace process in Northern Ireland following the previous December's Downing Street Declaration.

There could not have been a more valuable collection of personnel gathered in one place, and it has been suggested that they should never have flown together. The government statement after the first court of inquiry reported that the pilots were guilty of negligence; however, this is held not to be so, and there certainly is a mystery that has extraordinary similarities with the circumstances in which the Duke of Kent lost his life tip in the north-east (see chapter four).

The pilot's route map was very clearly marked. He was to leave Belfast, head over County Antrim, the Irish Sea, the Mull of Kintyre and the Scottish mainland, north to Fort George. He and his co-pilot were extremely experienced, as was the case in the Duke of Kent's plane. Amid heavy ground mists and swathes of fog and driving rain, the Chinook rammed into the side of a small cliff on the side of Torr Mor, a 1,400-foot hill in the south-west of the Mull. The helicopter should have been flying at a minimum of 2,800 feet, but it hit the hillside at 810 feet at over 100 miles an hour and climbing at 30 degrees, which is called a cruise climb. There have of course been many theories about this disaster and how it happened.

Was it really pilot error, with the instruments misread and the pilot possibly dropping below the cloud base to get his bearings? Or was there engine failure, perhaps due to birds entering the blades? Was there instrument failure? Could the altimeter have been affected in some unknown way? Or was there gear failure, which has occurred in previous RAF Chinook accidents? Subsequent investigations revealed that there was, unusually, no black box on board, and of course there were no survivors to comment as to why no mayday call was sent out. The first inquiry ruled out any mechanical failure, sabotage - or the rumoured use of mobile phones on board which could have affected instrumentation. And so a horrible mystery remains. A modern one, but unsolved, like so many in this book. Scotland keeps its secrets.

This is one of the best books I have read a long time about Scotland. I have granted this book four thistles because it presents such a broad range of subjects in such a lighthearted and informative manner.

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