Case file · Fairy lore
Robert Kirk's 'Secret Commonwealth'
In 1691 Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, wrote a treatise on fairies and second sight. When he died in 1692 on the nearby Doon Hill, local people said the fairies had taken him.
1691 CE · 56.18, -4.38 · status: legend
The account
The Secret Commonwealth describes the 'subterranean' people as real beings of a thin, airy body. Legend says Kirk appeared after his funeral and asked a cousin to free him by throwing a knife over his ghost at a christening, but the man froze. A pine on Doon Hill is still called the minister's tree.
The sceptical view
Kirk died of natural causes, by most accounts; the abduction story grew from his reputation.