Old Town Tour - Stirling

18/01/2025

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09/11/2024

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26/10/2024

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25/10/2024

VERY busy week ahead...and, I'm glad to say, 'Walkers HAVE been booking in advance to avoid a last minute rush.

8pm & 9.30pm on 25th and 26th October, 8pm on 27th, both shows on 28th, 29th, all FULLY Booked, as are 8.00pm shows on 30th and 31st (and 1st and 2nd November).

Full-Capacity for these so PLEASE, folks, don't turn up in the hope of joining-on for THESE shows!!! We HAVE been asking people to Book In Advance for these 'Walks for MONTHS, after all.

A few places ARE still available for the 9.30 shows on 27th (a RARE Sunday walk) 30th and 31st.

Book NOW at OLDTOWNJAIL.CO.UK!!!

12/10/2024

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10/10/2024

Episode #151, Saturday for Patrones - next week on Spotify. This week, with Autumn now nipping at our heels, we take another look at the dear old Cailliach, and her part in...well...everything, pretty much.

GhostWalks getting busier in the run-up to Hallowe'en - I've had to take several dates off the public tours on oldtownjail.co.uk because of big group bookings - so PLEASE, folks BOOK ahead.

We always say that, I know, but we've had to turn people away who have turned up on-spec for some of our busier tours, ver the past couple of Hallowe'ens, so, please...BOOK AHEAD at oldtownjail.co.uk

28/09/2024

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25/09/2024

Who'd a' thunk it?

This weekend, Boys & Ghouls will be the 150th episode of Spooks & Bogles: The Stirling GhostWalk Podcast.

Ooft.

Who'd have thought I'd still be doing this four and a half years (very nearly) after beginning the show as a distraction from Lockdown? Harder to believe that for that first year or so I was managing to research, script and mix TWO bloody shows a week - one a fortnight, these days, is exhausting enough...which is why I started a Summer Hiatus, a couple of years back, as the Stirling Old Town Jail, Stirling Ghostwalk and...y'know...that medical dictionary my body seems intent on compiling...really were enough to contend with during peak season.

This week I've been prepping tales for my Stirling 900 gig at Stirling Castle, 'Walking (as Hallowe'en approaches I have many a private show), yet ANOTHER CT Scan, and more Jail hours than I expected (lots of our younger players have heavier class schedules than THEY expected).

Was it a challenge to get this episode ready in time? Oh yes indeedy, it was....but that's rather the point.

A friend at the Jail has asked me, many times 'Why do you keep n with this nonsense? You have enough to do, surely!'. And, yes, I surely do. But to have something that is uniquely mine, polished enough to put in front of an audience takes discipline and time-management...skills any creator should strive to cultivate. I've missed a deadline (usually by a day or two, due to illness or having to cover for a colleague, unexpectedly) I think, three times. Which isn't bad (but still annoys me): as colleagues an tell, I don't 'DO' late.

I get to explore themes and issues - historical, cultural or topical - and explore their relationship to older tropes and tales. I get to tell stories, and opine or speculate on a bizarre array of subject - from theories of a dormant Neanderthal population on the Shetland Isles possibly spawning tales of the Wulver, the 'Guid Neighbours', the Werewolves of that remote rock...to the political Spin and Fake News which cultivated the spurious tales of Sawney Bean.

It keeps me searching for new stories, new ideas. New characters - and after 150 shows I know full well that I am just scratching the surface where these subjects are concerned. I love to learn new things. And I'm a story-junkie...S&B means that I have to remain creative, to maintain a drive to create and reinterpret stories for a new audience.

Did I hope that my efforts would be chanced upon and I'd be snapped up by some BBC Sounds production exec - discovered...at 57? Well, yes. A little. Maybe. But if I were how would I find time to do the OTHER things that kept me so busy?

And, of course, its the Patreon Patrons subscription which have funded most of the costumes (YES, Matthew, COSTUMES!) I've sourced for use (at SOME point) at the Jail.

So, again, thanks to Tina, Margaret, Barry and so many others who have been with the podcast from the start, to those who have come and gone, in the 53 months that followed, and to those who have joined us on Spotify (cheapskates!...only kidding!).

I hope you enjoy #150.

Saturday 28th for Patrons. Next week for Scruff!

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay sanitized....and never, EVER, let a little thing like the truth get in the way of a good story!

14/09/2024

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03/09/2024

Well I'll be there!

Otherwise there's a gap in the programme! And we CAN'T have that!!

Join us for an evening of entertainment celebrating 900 years of the Royal Burgh of Stirling. Proceeds support the 'Walking of the Marches'

31/08/2024

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29/08/2024

Boys and Ghouls, we have only three more shows of the summer-season remaining - then it's back to Fridays, Saturdays and Hallowe'en, which can only mean one thing....I get most of my nights back, and I have time to research, write, record and mix my podcast.

Spooks & Bogles #148 - Fear Itself - looking at the Irvine Witch-Trials of 1618....and how the knee-jerk paranoia and disinformation of superstitious Scotland is STILL with us.

Saturday for Patrons on Patreon, Wednesday for the scruff on Spotify!

22/06/2024

18/06/2024

Saturday for Patreon Patrons - next week for Spotify Scruff - in our last show before the busy Summer Season at the Jail and Stirling GhostWalk (don't worry...we're back in September) a look at Migratory Legends, Confirmation Bias, Dumfrieshire Poltergeists, Arran Apparitions our old pal Charlie...and how I'm being haunted by a ghost-story with NO spook attached!

GhostWalks continue 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the month - then 8.30pm, Tuesday-to-Saturday, in July and August...book at oldtownjail.co,uk

08/06/2024

What's in a name?

This week we return to the Holy Isle of Staffa (by way of Stirling and Staffa) to look at how reputations - historical, spooky, spiritual or sacred - change their names and the way we percieve them...and how some of those names just refuse to go away.

GhostWalks continue 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays, until the end of June - then 8.30pm, Tuesday-to-Saturday, in July and August - meeting at the gates of the Old Town Jail, St John Street.

Book at oldtownjail.co.uk

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25/05/2024

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21/05/2024

This Saturday...a load of old balls (as usual!), as we take a look at an array of twinkly Scottish crystal charms and amulets.

GhostWalks continue 8pm, Fridays and Saturdays, at the gates of the Old Town Jail. Book at oldtownjail.co.uk