In June 1836, a group of boys ventured up Arthur’s Seat on a hunt, encountering what would become one of Edinburgh’s most gripping unsolved mysteries.
Hidden away in a cave and tucked away under slates, the boys uncovered a collection of 17 miniature coffins containing carved wooden figurines wrapped in cloth. They lay in orderly sets of three, with 8 on each of the first two levels and a single coffin on top.
At the time, suspicions leant towards witchcraft, while others believed them to be representational burials. Historians in the 1970s argued that the coffins could have been talismans to be sold to sailors as a German custom for good luck, though no evidence has been found for this practice occurring in Scotland.
Many suspect that they were created as a memorial for Burke and Hare’s victims. In the 19th century, a shortage of cadavers for anatomy classes in Edinburgh made grave robbing a profitable trade. William Burke and William Hare decided to profit off of this trend further, and instead of waiting for new burials, began a killing spree, selling the bodies to Dr Robert Knox’s anatomy school.
The number of coffins correlates to the number of murders (of which there were at least 16), and the fabric on the dolls dates back to the early 1830s, not long after they took place. However, the figures’ appearance does not reflect the fact that 12 of the victims were female.
This detail could be purely symbolic, though their open eyes and stiff posture suggests that they only appear to be male because they were adapted from toy soldiers. The materials and tools used point to their creator being a shoemaker, and they appear to have been made by the same person.
The boys apparently destroyed some of the coffins. Eight have survived, remaining in the National Museum of Scotland with their origins yet to be explained.
“Arthur’s Seat coffins” by Kim Traynor is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.