granny kempock

auld dunrod

captain kidd

featuring ...

Published by Magic Torch Comics

with assistance fromHeritage Lottery Fund Scotland - Heritage Grants

www . hlf . org . uk

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher except for the purposes of review. This book is strictly not for sale or resale by third parties in either physical or digital editions, it has been grant funded by Heritage Lottery Fund to be distributed for free. Magic Torch generate no income from this publication.

Printing co-ordinated byNew Vision Print, Jamaica Street, Greenock

Edited Digital Edition published October 2013

ArtworkAndy Lee

Lettering, typeset and pre presstrust design

All stories researched, retold, embellished and scripted by Magic Torch or directly adapted from local folktales and ballads, except Slenderman - written by Inverclyde Academy / Magic Torch. The Slenderman meme and mythos were originated online by Victor Surge.

Magic Torch are all volunteers, we do this for chuckles and glory and because we believe that local heritage has a vital role to play in genuine regeneration - we have spent the last 15 years trying to prove that in all sorts of ways, from publishing books and working within schools to directly campaigning around community use of local built heritage. This comic is part of the Tales of the Oak project, supported by Heritage Lottery Fund. It has also published Wee Nasties a childrens book introducing younger audiences to local folklore.

You can find out more about our work, read more traditional local folktales and visit our online shop at

www . talesoftheoak . co . uk

Follow us on twitter @aulddunrod

Magic Torch is a Scottish Charity SC033748

the folk roundabout weren’t so keen about it, and came hunting The witch they hanged here howled her vengeance,and as she choked she screamed The Curse of Crow Mount

Lovely picnic spot don’t you think? Though after dark this ancient

woodland at the edge of the town was said to be a haunt of witches.

Like I say...nice place for a wee stop and a think about...

Meet Archibald Weir, a latterday resident of CrowMount fallen on hard times

He had fought in the Crimean War alongside SIr SHaw Stewart

Injured in the seige at Sevastapol, Weir returned home,bitter and haunted by his experiences on the battlefield

Down on his luck he took to petty crime

So it was that one day in the Coffee Rooms, his eyes fell upon the old town drum

A drum like thatmight fetch a prettypennyin the Glasgow

markets.

Those who did brought the drum, in memory of the fallen

... now seldom used but for the odd ceremonial occasion

The town drum was no more lucky than Archibald In 1513 when the Lords of Greenock assembled thetownsmen to fight with King James against the English

The men marched to the beat of this drum, framedwith the wood of the Crow Mount trees...

When the Scots were beaten on the fields of Flodden,few men returned to the town

But an uneasy sleep awaited him

Nightmares of wars and witches ...

and all the while,the endless beat of a lonely drum

Thump Thump Thump

The drum would not be silenced

That night, Archibald returned to take the ancient drum forhimself

He rushed home to hide his prize, planning to sell it thenext day

And those same trees were used to make some of the pews

Weir was found the next morning, hanging from the oldest tree in Crow Mount. A witches curse? The ghost of one ofFloddens fallen?

Or simply a poor soul driven mad with guilt

Shortly thereafter, thetrees were cleared to make way for the mount church

But it was a brave soul whowould sit on them.

hee hee hee!

Mr Murphy has spent his whole life obsessed with pirateCaptain Kidd and his treasure. Finally he’s found something in an auction house which might bring him one step closer to those riches…

But treasure hunters everywhereare always on the lookout for hisloot ... and will do anything when

they think they’ve found aclue like the one in...

That pitiful pirate,Captain Kidd, keeps trying

to steal the limelight.You think if he actually had

any treasure he couldafford to dress better!

A viciouspirate.

Hmm…and if there’s a map in that mirror, I’ll

keep it for myself

Legend says he hid histreasure map in a mirror.

If I’m right,the mirror belonged

to William Kidd.

Friend of yours?

It’s at auctiontomorrow. I want you

to bid on it.

What? Some old mirrorand a TOrn bible?

Really? You think this is the mirror?

There’s only one way to find out.

Leaving broken hearted Mr Murphy to his treasureisland dreams, Mitchell got ready to set off on his own adventure

next day mitchell rushed home with his prize

he wasted no time in disappointing poor Mr Murphy

sold!

It’s here! He was right!

That’s it, the coastline from

Kidd’s map.

Sorry Mr Murphy.I was outbid. I bet itwas a fake anyway.

For days he wandered through dense jungle foliage,through swarms of insects, waist deep in stinking swamps…all the while thinking only of Kidd’s treasure

Mitchell went to the Caribbean coastline, andtook a rowboat out to the island marked on the map

until finally ... He clambered up to the cave mouth andinto the darkness

It’s the cave! This is where it’s supposed to

be!

The map says its twenty paces forward and I should find a well…

Ready to help him send another treacherous soul toKidd’s crew of the damned…

He tried to run of course, back through the dank depths of the unfamiliar jungle. But there was no escape…

A few weeks later, Mr Murphy recieved Kidd’s mirror in thepost. And as he haddone many timesbefore, he put itback up forauction…

I hear yer looking for my treasure.

we have ways of dealing with thieves Mr Mitchell…

I’m surprised it isn’t cracked already with Kidd’s ugly mug looking in it all

the time.

That’s one mirror that would bring better

luck if it was broken.

meowr

Come on. I double dare you. We’ll walk the whole thing all the way to the cemetery.

Rats, spiders, old broken tracks, shortly these lads will discover there’s far worse than that onthe abandoned railway line

there’s ...

A regular haunt of children not wise enough tolisten to the warnings of older folk

The ‘double darky’, an abandonedrailway tunnel that runs under most of the town

My mum said Ian had to get tetanus jags after he came

down here. RIght in his bum.

I’ve been here loads of times. C’mon...…

... it’ll be alaugh ...

Only they did all sorts of horrible experiments on him.

Eventually he escaped, killed his tormentors and brokeout of the prison. He ran for miles looking for somewhere to hide ...

He’s been living in this tunnel ever since, living on deadrats and stray cats and dogs

Seriously? Catman was locked up in a prison somewhere years ago,

no one knowswhat for...…

Shut up about him or I’m

leaving!

Who’s theCatman?

Unless we run into the Catman ...

They put him off at Greenock, the curse still follows him, and if anyone gets too close to him, they die

Before his last trip, hecheated an old gypsy at cards and she cursed him

He didn’t tell his shipmates, sailors are a superstitious lot, but it wasn’t long before there was trouble aboard. Anyone who spent time with Catman ended up dead

The crew soon worked out the source of the problem and tied him up below decks

That’s not what I heard. He’s not an escaped criminal, he’s

a Russian sailor.

Man overboard.

Again!

it smelled rotten, the wood was really soft ...

Wouldn’t you?

How could you pass up a chance like that?

Never seen anything like that down here.

But one time I did find anold coffin.

Must have fallen right through from the cemetery.

No way ..!

Did you openit ..?

What was that?

Shhh!

But no Catman. Hey,we’re nearly

at thedarkest bit ...

Y’see, I don’t call him Catman, to me he’s

just ...

dad!

Oh dear. Looks like the cat’s got their tongue. You know what they say about

curiosity ...

Hi dad. Ibrought some

friends over for

dinner...

grarrrrr!

Auld Dunrod was a gowstie carl,As ever ye micht see;

And gin he wisna’ a warlock wicht,There was nane in the haill countrie.

This one’s an oldie ...

but a goodie ...

about a right old

baddie ...

Your friend ...

not mine ...…

And there was nae cumerauld manabout Wha cam’ to him for skill,That gif he didna dae him guid,He didna dae him ill.

But the kirk got word o’ Dunrod’s tricks,And the Session they took him hand;And naething was left but auld Dunrod Forsooth maun leave the land.

Sae auld Dunrod he muntit his stick -His broomstick muntit he - And he flychter’t twa’r three times aboot, And syne through the air did flee.

Auld Dunrod he stack a pin -A boutrie pin - in the wa’,And when he wanted his neighbour’s milkHe just gaed the pin a thraw.

He milkit the Laird o’ Kellies kye,And a’ the kye o’ Dunoon;And auld Dunrod gat far mair milkThan wad mak’ a gabbert swim.

The cheese he made were numerous,And wonerous to descry

For the kyth’t as gin they had been gruleOr peats set up to dry.

Beats going to the shops.

Y’know…I’m not sure I really need all

this milk ...

Cheese anyone?

This one’s really good for hangovers.

And he flew awa’ by auld Greenock tower,And by the Newark ha’.Ye wadna kent him in his flichtBe a buddock or a craw.

And he flew to the Rest and be Thankfu’Stane - A merry auld carle was he;He stottit and fluffer’t as he had

been wud. Or drucken wi’ the barley bree.

But a rountree grew at the stane -It is there unto this day,And gin ye dinna find it still,Set doun that it’s away.

And he ne’er wist o’ the rountreeTill he cam dunt thereon;

His magic broomstick tint its spell,And he daudit on the stone.

Laters losers!

uuh!

His heid was hard,and the Stane was sae,And whan they met ane anither,It was hard to say what wad be the weird Of either the tane or the tither.

But the Stane was muilt like a lampetshell, And sae was Auld Dunrod;When ye munt a broomstick to tak a flicht,

Ye had best tak anither road.

The neighbours gathert to see the sicht,The Stane’s remains they saw;

But as for Auld Dunrod himsel’,He was carriet clean awa’.

And monie noy’t, as weill they micht,The Rest and be Thankfu’ Stane;And ilk ane said it had been better far,Gin Dunrod had staid at hame.

And what becam o’ Auld DunrodWas doubtfu’ for to say,Some said he wasna there ava,But flew anither way.

Not looking forward to this insurance claim!

Bet the ferry’scancelled

againas well ...

I often think thingsare better whenAuld Dunrodstays at home.

His evil aftershave isreally overpowering ...

there are many legends of the thin stranger. he appearsthroughout the centuries, in fairy tales & history books, always just out of focus, in the corner of the eye ...

his tentacles and long fingers steal away the unwary, never to return. if you see him, it may already be too late ...

...and today he’s come to greenock

here’s a tale about a tall, dark and, well, not so handsome

gentleman coming to visit.a real...

little ellie sees him first at the supermarket car park

back in a minute,honey...

there is no compassion, no quartergiven ...

only the darkness ...

meant to getsome mince ...

think thereis still some

in thefreezer ..?

NO!!!MY BABY!!!

...max will lookafter you.

... and screams filling the emptyspaces

he moves slowly and silently through the mall

the guard thinks he sees something ...

but has already forgottenwhat it was as he is enveloped by the dark ...

his tendrils snake slowly across the sleeping town ...

he has come!

and a long shadow falls ...

all those who find loved ones missing from empty beds ...

might not like what they find when they go looking for the lost

from the hustle and bustle of the town, to the old largs road and moorland at dusk, he watches

mick!

mick! get the headlights back

on!

better go see if anyone’s hurt,

mate.

ian? ian, where are ye? what

the...

ian?

looks like somebody’s come off their bike ...

just as the taken wait ... not knowing what’s next ...

gasp! ugh....

always waiting ...

hee hee. thank you to inverclyde academy

for terrifying me withthese nightmarish pages.

incase you’ve been made to forget, slenderman was

originated online by victor surge

Our tale begins in 1588, when King Phillip of Spain raised an Armada and sailed against England. After a disastrousdefeat at the battle of the Gravelines, the Armada found itself blown off course and scattered along the Northern coast of Britain ...

Only a few brave or foolhardy Captains were able to steer their ships through the dark nights and harsh stormsof the North-western coast of Scotland

Among those few left was CaptainMordoba, whose ship the Salamanca became the scourge of Ports and villages along the West Coast of Scotland. The bowels of his ship became stuffed with the gold of the Scots

Who doesn’t love the beach? But is one of our most popular beauty spots

really troubledby a

foul spirit ...

Some say that the Captain himself was laid to rest inthe old cemetery of Inverkip, and to this day, if you look hard enough among the overgrown stones, you will find a small grave marked with a simple skull and cross bones

Then one night, late in October, afierce storm tore the sails from the Salamanca, and threw her into the Firth of the Clyde. As the wind howled and the rain battered down, Mordoba’s men scrambled overboard

But the Captain himselfwould not be separated from his gold. It was to be

the death of him. And so it was the Captain met his fate on the rocks of the Gantocks, his ship lost the waves

But what of Mordoba’s treasure? Well it is said thatin the days after the storms a young farm hand named John Carswell came across a black chest while walking along the beach at Lunderston Bay ...

He thought fortune had smiled on him that day. With Mordoba’s gold, Carswell was a rich man. But never a happy one ...

For the tale goes that wherever he went, a shadow was always at his back.He became convinced that the Captain’s Ghost had returned for his gold, following him at every turn, unresting and unyielding in his haunting ...

He died a penniless and miserable man, and as he went tohis grave, he still muttered of the Ghostly Captain ...

And so, driven mad by thespectre, Carswell resolved to bury what little remained of the gold, and leave the cursed wealth behind

The last of Mordoba’s gold? Perhaps ...

Or perhaps it still lies waiting to be found ...

Certainly there are still those today who swear they have seen the

haunting spectre of the Ghost Captain stalking along the beach at Lunderston

Bay, searching for his treasure.

It’s almost enough to put you off your 99.

Just a yarn you might say. But there is a strange twist to this tale ... in the 1950’s two workmen discovered a cowhorn containing sixty coins while digging in Burns Road. The coins were dated to around 1580 ...

the night of the comet

I always like to keep a close eye on heavenly objects. But

here’s some skywatching that’s too terrible for words...…

gurrrrgh!

boooooom!!

pfffrrp

schlorrp!

nearrrgghh!

looks like they’reheaded for thetown hall...

let’s hope no-one accidentally puts them

in charge of anything...…

gnaaaargh!

muuuuhhhhh ...

His...unorthodox... experiments have led to shame anddisgrace, and he has decided to return to his home town to drown his sorrows...

Y’know this place used to be a carpark originally, but it wasn’t very well used.

Graveyards are always popular though ... never going tostop needing

those ...

Someone, orsomething

had already been very busy.

Scotland’s favourite graverobbers Burke and Hare spent a few days down our

way back in the day, but the good folk of Inverkip hardly had any bodies left in the

ground by the time they arrived ...

Your heart willsurely break

when you read ...

This is Doctor Bryant, a promising young practitioner withsome strange ideas about how to use electrical energy in terminal cases ...

leave!

My poor Mary. We wanted to wed, buther father wouldn’t have it. So we decided to run away together. We sailed back from Bute to Inverkip but were caughtin a storm and the boat capsized

It’s only been a few daysand already I feel as though i can’t go on. I would do anything to have her back...

... only to find a soul even sorrier than himself

John McGhee of Chrisswell, who has been a trifleunlucky in love ...

What’s wrong my friend?

I just can’t believe she’s dead...

You’ve lost a lady friend I take it?

anything...?

McGhee is only interested in his former lady love

Bryant is an old handat assembling the raw materials for his work, and thegrief stricken McGhee is easily convinced to assist ...

But while Bryant does not care whose final restingplace he disturbs ...

Fresh as a daisy!

Don’t worry my friend, you will be back

togetheragain soon.

For days, Bryant toils, ripping, sawing, breaking, stitching... always needing more bodies to fuel his savageexperiment ...

... which poor McGhee is compelled to supply, hoping against hope it will bring his Mary back

until finally ...

She’s

alive!I’ve done it!

Alive? Perhaps, but certainly not the girl she once was ...

It is said the two are still seen wandering from theriver up to Chrisswell, finally together and at peace

Mary? What have you done to her?

Mary!

wait... My experiment!

Somehow, she knows where to go, what has gone wrong andhow to fix it ...

The river takes her for a second time, but on this occasion ...

John has found a different way for them both to betogether ...

...Sort of

Poor Mary, she seemed mortified about her new look. We’ve all had bad hair days. Still, love conquers all eh?

sir Gabriel Woods Mariners Home, Greenock, 1883

We made a mistake, a terrible mistake. If we’d

known the true cost...

Can’t you hear it Rhodes? The howling inside empty shells? The

mournful sighs of the drowned as they wander the harbours?

This explains it all. Have mercy. I hope only that you may somehow be able to silence

Greenock. Today ...

Sir Glen Douglas Rhodes, folklorist, antiquarian and adventurer.His long out of print books explore the myths, legends and folktales of Greenock and the surrounding area ...

Sir Glen did not simply write about monsters however,he claims to have met them

Here are battles with goblins ...

Graveyard skirmishes with long dead witches ...

Ghostly legions on long forgotten roads ...

All sortsof bizarre monkey business

and all of it happening in this town ...

I was looking into several mysterious disappearancesin the area, and after reading Rhodes’ research, i came to believe that the Cluthee were still practicing their dark arts, summoning strange, and unnatural spirits to do their bidding.

Rhodes traced the Cluthee’s lineage across the centuries ...

His classic work the Clann AbhainnCluaidh is a manuscript, carefully encoding his investigations into a local serpent worship cult, the Cluthee

He believed they were secretly running the town througharcane ritual, using vile magic to ensure prosperity for the area and forthemselves ...

During the course of my own investigations, a copy of the manuscript found its way into my hands ...

More blood, more bodies, as all the time our towngrew larger and the beast only hungrier. What

price prosperity? Is our progress worth centuries of murder? This has to stop ...

The first sacrifices date back to the iron age, ritual burnings on the slopesof the riverside between Inverkip and Largs...the so called Serpent Mound

Further along the river, offerings were made to thekempock Stone to ensure good fishing and good fortune on the river

Christianity dampenedthe spirits of such pagan notions for a short time

But not for long ...

i will make it stop ... this beast they worship must sinkbeneath the waves ... forever!

Just as magic raised the beast, so now it would keep it at bay. Three sigils, hidden across the town in places they will SUrely be safe. The map hidden in case any should have need of it in future. The BEast will remain beneath the waves

damnablecluthee!

HA!

My work is far from over though. The Cluthee have scattered, but they have not disappeared ...

Also, there’s a ruddy great monster somewhere in the river, and I’m GAme for a hunt ...

thwup

blam

blam

It would seem there are those who certainly believethat, and would once again aim to raise the beast ...

I resolved therefore to check Rhodes’ secret map for thelocations of his sigils, to check they were still in place ...

Finding only destroyed buildings from a bygone age, nowonly remembered in street names ... all too late ...

Was the dark magic of the Cluthee really responsible for the towns early prosperity?

The signs would only be obvious to those who knewwhat to look for ...

For if it is ever moved ... or broken ...we are all surely doomed to hear the call of Clutha

We can hope only that Sir Glen’s final sigil holds, onthe mythic site of the fabled Green Oak tree

... just as it is too late for me,my investigations were discovered with ease. The beast is already wakened, though weak. The Cluthee have risen again

kYAAAAAAeeeeeeee!!!

Ask Granny...

Dear Granny, I can’t sleep at nightfor fear of what may lurk beneath the streets. Is there really a Catman?

Stories of the Catman seem to start aroundthe period of industrial decline in the area, so lots of stories of a strange gentleman living in the concrete pipes in Scotts Lane leading into the east end of the town start around the seventies. However he was still being spotted in this century, making him a ripe old age. Some local wags apparently shot some footage of him eating a rat. Not very nice, but nice enough for The Sun newspaper which ran a big story on our local bogeyman - photos included. Sleep tight.

Granny - what’s with the comet zombies?

I believe that’s called artistic license dear...as far as we know, zombies did not take over the council that year. However, The Great Comet did indeed pass over the country in 1811, visible for over 260 days. The impressive Comet gave the Port Glasgow steamship being constructed by John Wood and Co a name.

I believe I recognise a few unfortunate zombie faces from the ever popular Old Greenock Characters book, the most delightful collection of miscreants and ne’er do wells you will find outside political party membership.

Dear Granny, am I supposed to know whoyou people telling the stories are?

Indeed. We certainly know who you are. Andwhere you live. But for the uninitiated, Dunrod is a former landowner and warlock from 16th Century Inverkip, Kidd is a failed pirate, hanged for murder and treason. Folklore suggests he was from Greenock, history has rather different ideas on the matter. And I’m the personification of a standing stone in Gourock associated with local witchcraft and serpent worship. You should never be rude to your elders and betters.

Did Captain Kidd really have cursed itemsat auction?

He sells stuff all the time to fund his premiumrum. In July 2012, several items including a mirror and a bible purporting to belong to Kidd turned up at an auction down south. Quite why he would have a bible I don’t know, its not the sort of thing he usually reads. A few saps from Greenock tried to buy the items but were hilariously outbid. Maybe that was just as well...

Granny, are any of Sir Glen DouglasRhodes stories actually true?

Truth is such a relative concept, who is to saywhat is real and unreal? Oh, I see, you want an actual answer...yes, they’re all true. For example, there are two sites with potential links to ritual sacrifice, at either end of the river - Langbank and Skelmorlie. In Skelmorlie, excavations at the Serpent Mound at the turn of the last century uncovered burned bones. Clutha was what our original settlers called the Clyde.

As for Rhodes tussles with Bogles, Romans and Undead Monks (all detailed elsewhere), well again, the hills behind Port Glasgow and Kilmacolm have all manner of strange tales associated with them - most recently of course, the Big Black Cat which apparently roams freely across the moors. All of our stories have at the very least, a grain of local truth or history about them. Maybe you should do some research yourself and start making your own mind up instead of pestering old ladies.

Dear Granny, it must really annoy youthat Captain Kidd and Auld Dunrod both have ballads sung about them while all you have is a bit of old stone.

Not at all. Stone endures after all. I’ll behere long after all the rest of you have sunk into the rapidly rising waters of the Clyde. And of course while you await the inevitable, if you want to read anymore stories, hear recordings of tales, or heaven forbid, listen to songs about Kidd and Dunrod, pop along to

www.talesoftheoak.co.uk

Your folkqueries remedied...

A Nip In The AirGothic Tales of Inverclyde Terror

by Magic TorchAvailable NOW on Amazon for Kindle...only 99pAll profits reinvested in local heritage projects

is this definitelythe library they were

talking about,jenna?

i knew weshould have donethat homework

sooner...

that’s cosyou don’t read,

john!

3

seriously...i don’t think i’veever seen thisplace before...

4

no.... i wouldremember BEing here

...is that a deadroman...?

let’s just get onwith it before it gets

any darker.

5

right... history of st john’s school.let’s get looking!

it feels weirdin here...

6

good evening...welcome to the

archive.

The ArchivistJob description:

To remember...

“I keep six honest

serving-men...

They taught me all I knew;

Their names are What

and Why and When

and How and Where

and Who”- Rudyard Kipling.

eh... hullo...you the one incharge here?

we’re trying tosort out some

homework.

homework?i’m the king of homework!

hmmm... actually... forget that...that sounds rubbish... doesn’t it?the entire history of your town

is here! what would you liketo discover?

the romans weredefinitely among the

first to visit. they werelargely here to subjugate

the damonni tribeat langbank.

but in later years,they established twooutposts in order to

protect the antonine wall,one over at skelmorlie

and the other onlurg moor.

only last year someroman coins were discovered

during some landscaping workin port glasgow and the work

had to be stopped fora few days...

...turned out that theywere fakes right enough.no-one is quite sure how

they got there...

7

over thecenturies we’ve

really had all sortsarriving on our shores.

being on a river, becomesa passing place.that shapes your

community.

damonni... thefirst iron age tribe tosettle here. they owedalliegiance to welsh

chieftains.

he looks like hemeans business!

he did!although a celtic

king, he renouncedpaganism, and turned tothe church. it’s said thatmerlin himself was at the

court of king rydderch, butlater replaced by saint

kentigern... who ended upquite popular in

glasgow.

eh... i’ve missed a bit...who were the dominoes

at langbank?

many more celticmissionaries passed throughthe area... st blaine, st fillian,

st columba... all stillremembered in the names of

streets, churchesand villages.

the wholestrathclyde area

was a welsh kingdom,in the fifth century, and

at that time we would allhave spoken old welsh. the

seat of the kingdom ofstrathclyde was dumbarton

rock... and its king wasryhdderch hael.

8

in 1635, charles igranted sir john shawof greenock a barony,the first step towards

greenock becoming a town.and by 1714 we had a custom

house. the extension ofthe harbour followed

soon after.

and the thing is...when you have a big

harbour, and a river,lots of different peoplestart passing through the

town. some don’t stay long.some stay forever. and

that’s when it starts to getreally interesting... that’swhen we start to see theroots of the community

that we are heretoday.

over the next fewhundred years we had

highlanders, germans, italians, french, jewish... all sorts ofpeople from all walks of life

came here to work and live.and this archive has something

to represent and tell thestories of all those people,

and how they shapedour town...

and all thewhile, our little port

was growing and growing.fishing was very popular,

and so important to the town,that a whole series of

superstitions grew up around it....don’t go trying to push

stones into the river...that’s my advice

to you

9

Read More online The Archivist Treasure, available in multiple formats FREE from Graphicly...Part of the Heritage Lottery Fund project Identity

Also available FREE from graphiclyThere’s all sorts of Wee Nasties hiding around Inverclyde, a bogle with smelly feet, a grumpy old wizard

casting cheeky spells, and even a (mostly) friendly monster in the river.

This book is produced by Magic Torch and supported by Heritage Lottery Fund to introduce younger audiences to our local folklore.

Magic Torch presents a terrifying selection of stories adapted from and inspired by Inverclyde folklore and legends.

Within, are cursed treasure maps, serpent worshipping cultists, trolls, ghosts, undead pirates and graverobbers in tales told by some of our most infamous horrors - Captain

Kidd, Granny Kempock and Auld Dunrod.

Dare you shine a flickering candle on the darker corners of our local folklore?

www.talesoftheoak.co.uk