The Murders Written in Stone

The Ardwell House East Lodge sits right on the edge of A716 that runs along the east coast of the Rhins of Galloway, in southern Scotland. Located on the grounds of the 18th Century Ardwell House and Garden, this tiny cottage with great views across Luce Bay is billed by developers as “the perfect romantic getaway for couples”, and it is, until you wander around the woods surrounding the lodge and come face-to-face with an old weathered rock with a single word chiseled across its face—MURDER. A murder stone at St Catwgs, Cadoxton, Wales. Photo: waymarking.com This rock is a memorial and one of handful of “murder stones” erected across the UK during the 1800s to mark spots where violent crimes were committed. Often these were crimes that shocked the community. The stones served to commemorate the life of the victim as well as warn would-be-criminals of the consequences of committing such ghastly acts. The murder of the Laird of Castle Clanyard during the mid-16th century must have been gruesome, because whoever erected this murder stone at Ardwell, three centuries later, believed that the single-worded inscription would serve enough as a memorial to this infamous killing. Other murder stones are more verbal. One murder stone in the cemetery at St Catwg's church in Cadoxton, Neath, carries a description of the crime followed by a curse: 1823 To record MURDER This stone was erected over the body of Margaret Williams aged 26, a native of Carmarthenshire living in service in this parish who who was found dead with marks of violence on her person in a ditch on the marsh below this churchyard on the morning of Sunday the fourteenth of July, 1822. Although the savage murderer escaped for a season the detection of man yet God hath set his mark upon him either for time or eternity, and the cry of blood will assuredly pursue him to certain and terrible righteous judgement. The murder stone of Miss Margaret Williams.