Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society

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I’m Ken, the ScotWays Knowledge Base

Ask Me Your Outdoor Access Question

Important People of Scottish Access

  • Important People of Scottish Access – Adam Black (1784-1874)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Archibald Eneas Robertson (1870-1958)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Arthur W Russell (1873-1967)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Donald Bennet (1928-2013)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Donald Grant Moir  (1902-1986)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – John George Bartholomew (1860-1920)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – John Hutton Balfour (1808-1884)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Professor Sir Robert (Bob) Grieve (1910 -1995)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Rennie McOwan (1933-2018)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Viscount James Bryce (1838-1922)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – Walter Arthur Smith (1852-1934)
  • Important People of Scottish Access – William Ferris (1894-1963)

Introducing Ken

  • Hello, my name is Ken.

Court Cases

  • An outline of the Scottish Courts System
  • The Authority of Case Law
Cases under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003
  • Aviemore Highland Resort v Cairngorms National Park Authority
  • Caledonian Heritable Ltd v East Lothian Council
  • Creelman v Argyll & Bute Council
  • Forbes v Fife Council
  • Gloag v Perth & Kinross Council and the Rambler’s Association
  • Law Society of Scotland v Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
  • Renyana Stahl Anstalt v Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority Appeal Decision
  • Snowie v Stirling Council and Ramblers Association Lindsay and Barbara Ross v Stirling Council
  • Tuley v Highland Council
  • Williamson v Highland Activities Limited
Public rights of way and private servitude rights of way
    Creation of public rights of way – need for public place end points
    • Cuthbertson v Young
    • Darrie v Drummond
    • Duncan v Lees
    • Jenkins v Murray
    • Lauder v MacColl
    • Leith-Buchanan v Hogg
    • Magistrates of Dunblane v Arnold-McCulloch
    • Marquis of Bute v McKirdy & McMillan
    • Melfort Pier Holidays Ltd v The Melfort Club and Others
    • Midlothian Council v Crolla
    • Oswald v Lawrie
    • Scott v Drummond
    • Smith v Saxton
    • Wood v North British Railway
    Creation of public rights of way – use as of right by the public for the prescriptive period
    • Aberdeen City Council v Wanchoo and Neumann v Hutchison
    • Ayr Burgh Council v British Transport Commission
    • Burt v Barclay
    • Cadell v Stevenson
    • Cumbernauld & Kilsyth District Council v Dollar Land (Cumbernauld) Ltd
    • Duffield Morgan v Lord Advocate
    • Kinloch’s Trustees v Young
    • Magistrates of Elgin v Robertson
    • McGregor v Crieff Co-operative Society Ltd
    • McInroy v Duke of Athole
    • Norrie v Magistrates of Kirriemuir
    • Rhins District Committee of the County Council of Wigtownshire v Cunninghame
    • Richardson v Cromarty Petroleum Co Ltd
    • Rome v Hope Johnstone
    • Scottish Rights of Way & Recreation Society Ltd v Macpherson
    • Strathclyde (Hyndland) Housing Society Ltd v Cowie
    • Wills Trustees v Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School Ltd
    • Wilson v Jamieson
    Creation of rights of way – interruption of the prescriptive period
    • Mann v Brodie
    Different kinds of use of rights of way
    • Aberdeenshire Council v Lord Glentanar
    • Carstairs v Spence
    • Crawford v Lumsden
    • Macfarlane v Morrison & Others (Robertson’s Trustees)
    • Mackenzie v Bankes
    • Malcolm v Lloyd
    Need for a particular line for public rights of way
    • Home Drummond & Another (Petitioners)
    • Hozier v Hawthorne
    • Mackintosh v Moir
    Obstruction of rights of way
    • Aitchison v India Tyre & Rubber Co.
    • Anderson v Earl of Morton
    • Drury v McGarvie
    • Earl of Morton v Anderson
    • Fife Council v Nisbet
    • Geils v Thomson
    • Glasgow and Carlisle Road Trustees v Tennant
    • Glasgow and Carlisle Road Trustees v Whyte
    • Graham v Sharpe
    • Hay v Earl of Morton’s Trustees
    • Kirkpatrick v Murray
    • Lanarkshire Water Board v Gilchrist
    • Lord Donington v Mair
    • Macdonald v Watson
    • Midlothian District Council v MacKenzie
    • Rodgers v Harvie
    • Soriani v Cluckie
    • Stewart, Pott & Co. v Brown Brothers & Co
    • Sutherland v Thomson
    Procedural issues
    • Alexander v Picken
    • Alston v Ross
    • Hope v Landward District Committee of the Parish Council of Inveresk
    • Macfie v Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation Society Limited
    • Nairn v Speedie
    • Potter v Hamilton
    • Torrie v Duke of Atholl
    Public and private rights of way – ancillary rights and burdens
    • Allan v McLachlan
    • Lord Burton v Mackay
    • McRobert v Reid
    • Milne v Inveresk Parish Council
    • Moncrieff v Jamieson
    • Preston’s Trustees v Preston
    Relationship of public rights of way with private servitude rights of way and with ‘roads’ under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
      Public rights of way and ‘roads’ under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
      • Davidson v Earl of Fife
      • Hamilton v Dumfries & Galloway Council
      • Hamilton v Nairn
      Relationship of public rights of way with private servitude rights of way
      • Alvis v Harrison
      • McGavin v McIntyre
      • Thomson v Murdoch
    Rights of way – land owned by statutory undertakers or the Crown
    • Ayr Harbour Trustees v Oswald
    • British Transport v Westmoreland County Council
    • Edinburgh Corporation v North British Railway Co.
    • Ellice’s Trustees v Commissioners for the Caledonian Canal
    • Kinross County Council v Archibald
    • Lord Advocate v Strathclyde Regional Council and Lord Advocate v Dumbarton District Council
    • Oban Town Council v Callander & Oban Railway
    • The Ramblers Association v The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (and Others)
Navigation rights and rights in relation to the foreshore
    Navigation rights
    • Campbell’s Trustees v Sweeney
    • Colquhoun’s Trustees v Orr Ewing & Co
    • Crown Estate Commissioners v Fairlie Yacht Slip Ltd.
    • Denaby and Cadeby Main Collieries Ltd v Anson
    • Ellerman Lines Ltd v Clyde Navigation Trustees
    • Kames Bay Case – Petition of the Crown Estate Commissioners
    • Walford v David
    • Wills Trustees v Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School Ltd
    Rights in relation to the foreshore
    • Leith-Buchanan v Hogg
    • Marquis of Bute v McKirdy & McMillan
    • Officers of State v Smith
Liability
    Cases relating to contributory negligence
    • Smith v Finch
    Liability of recreational users to one another
    • Anthony Phee v James Gordon & Niddry Castle Golf Club 4 November 2011
    • Milne v Duguid
    • Pearson v Lightning
    Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving ‘hazards’ in the outdoors
    • Anderson v The Scottish Ministers
    • Brown v South Lanarkshire Council
    • Duff v East Dunbartonshire Council
    • Fegan v Highland Regional Council
    • Graham v East of Scotland Water
    • Johnstone v Sweeney
    • Lang v Kerr Anderson & Co.
    • Marshall v North Ayrshire Council
    • McCluskey v Lord Advocate
    • Michael Leonard v The Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority
    • Prosecution by the Health & Safety Executive Dunoon Sheriff Court, 18th August 2010
    • Strachan v Highland Council
    • Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council
    • Trueman v Aberdeenshire Council
    • Wright v Nevis Range Development Company
    Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving children
    • Dawson v Scottish Power
    • Glasgow Corporation v Taylor
    • Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council
    • Stevenson v Glasgow Corporation
    Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving facilities/indoor premises
    • McCondichie v Mains Medical Centre
    • Poppleton v Peter Ashley Activities Centre
    • Porter v Borders Council
    Cases involving animals
    • Gardiner v Miller
    • Shirley McKaskie v John Cameron
    • Welsh v Brady
Other cases of interest
  • Carol Rohan Beyts v Trump International Golf Club Scotland Limited
  • Law Society of Scotland v Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
  • Neizer v Rhodes
  • R v Howard

The Bookshelf

  • Welcome to The Bookshelf
Legislation
  • Legislation 1960-1969
  • Legislation 1970-1979
  • Legislation 1980-1989
  • Legislation 1990-1999
  • Legislation 2000-2009
  • Legislation 2010-2019
  • Legislation 2020-2029
Guidance on Legislation
  • Guidance on Legislation 1990-1999
  • Guidance on Legislation 2000-2009
  • Guidance on Legislation 2010-2019
  • Guidance on Legislation 2020-2029
Responsible Access
  • Publications on Responsible Access 1990-1999
  • Publications on Responsible Access 2000-2009
  • Publications on Responsible Access 2010-2019
Rights of Way and Outdoor Access Management
    Land Management
    • Managing Land for Outdoor Access 2000-2009
    Path Management
    • Path Management 1980-1989
    • Path Management 1990-1999
    • Path Management 2000-2009
    • Path Management 2010-2019
    • Path Management 2020-2029
    People Management
    • Managing the Public 2000-2009
    • Managing the Public 2010-2019
    Signposting
    • Signposting and Interpretation 1990-1999
    • Signposting and Interpretation 2010-2019
    • Signposting and Interpretation 2020-2029
Surveys of Rights of Way, Access and Procedures
  • Surveys of Rights of Way, Outdoor Access and Procedures 1980-1989
  • Surveys of Rights of Way, Outdoor Access and Procedures 1990-1999
  • Surveys of Rights of Way, Outdoor Access and Procedures 2000-2009
  • Surveys of Rights of Way, Outdoor Access and Procedures 2010-2019

About Access Rights

  • What are Outdoor Access Rights?
Rights of Way
  • A local landowner has fenced off a path that is well used by local people, and has put up a sign saying No trespassers’. What can I do about it?
  • Can I ride my motorbike on a right of way or take it off road?
  • Development Proposals and Outdoor Access
  • Do public rights of way exist in Scotland?
  • Horse riders are using a local path and churning it up so that it is difficult for walkers to use. What can be done?
  • How does a route become a right of way?
  • Is there any need for rights of way, now that there is freedom of access?
  • Is there any record of rights of way in Scotland?
  • My neighbour says he has a right to go along the path at the back of my house. Could this be a public right of way?
  • Private Signs, Private Roads, Public Roads, What’s the difference?
  • Rights of access to land
  • There is a path close to my house which local people say is a right of way. Can I divert the route so as to protect my privacy?
  • There is a proposal for a windfarm development that will be close to a well-used right of way. What can be done?
  • Where can I cycle?
  • Where Can I Ride or Drive my Horse?
  • Who’s responsible for path maintenance?
Statutory Access Rights
  • A Brief History of Access Rights
  • A local landowner has fenced off a path that is well used by local people, and has put up a sign saying No trespassers’. What can I do about it?
  • Are access rights different in Scotland from those in England and Wales?
  • Can I go wild camping in Scotland?
  • Can I ride my motorbike on a right of way or take it off road?
  • Horse riders are using a local path and churning it up so that it is difficult for walkers to use. What can be done?
  • Is there any need for rights of way, now that there is freedom of access?
  • Private Signs, Private Roads, Public Roads, What’s the difference?
  • Right to Roam Timeline
  • Rights of access to land
  • The Coming of Access Rights
  • The Scottish Outdoor Access Code, A Replacement for the Country Code
  • What activities are covered by rights of access?
  • What activities are not covered by rights of access?
  • What are core paths?
  • What does behaving responsibly mean?
  • What happens when there is a dispute about whether, or how, the rights of access apply?
  • What is a Local Access forum?
  • Where can I cycle?
  • Where Can I Ride or Drive my Horse?
  • Where do access rights not apply?
  • Who should I contact if I have a problem about access rights?
  • Who’s responsible for path maintenance?

History

  • 175th Anniversary
  • 1844 The beginning of ScotWays
  • 1964 When figure 740 changed the face of path signs
  • A Brief History of Access Rights
  • Boardwalks, the oldest types of constructed path
  • Historic Footpaths
  • Right to Roam Timeline
  • ScotWays’s Oldest Standing Signpost
  • The Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in and Around Edinburgh
  • The Bedford Memorial Bridge
  • The Changing Face of ScotWays Signs
  • The Coming of Access Rights
  • The First ScotWays Signposts
  • The History of ScotWays
  • The Launch of the Heritage Paths website
  • Welcome the Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation Society Limited
  • What’s in a name?

Scottish Hill Tracks

  • Scottish Hill Tracks ~ Overview
  • SECTION 11: Glen Coe & Appin
  • SECTION 13: Loch Leven to Glen Spean
  • SECTION 14: Ardgour, Moidart & Morven
  • SECTION 15: West Mounth & Sidlaw Hills
  • SECTION 17: Cairngorms
  • SECTION 19: Monadh Liath
  • SECTION 2: Central & South-West Borders
  • SECTION 20: Loch Eil to Glen Shiel
  • SECTION 21: Glen Affric, Kintail & Strathfarrar
  • SECTION 22: Mull & Skye
  • SECTION 23: Wester Ross
  • SECTION 24: Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross
  • SECTION 3: Lammermuir & Moorfoot Hills
  • SECTION 4: Pentland Hills
  • SECTION 5: Clydesdale & Lowther Hills
  • SECTION 6: Galloway & South Ayrshire
  • SECTION 7: Arran, Inverclyde & North Ayrshire
  • SECTION 9: Southern Highlands

Heritage Paths

  • Heritage Paths Introduction
  • Historic Footpaths
  • The Launch of the Heritage Paths website
About Types of Heritage Paths
  • Coffin Roads
  • Drove Roads
  • Fish Roads
  • Heritage Paths Introduction
  • Leisure Paths
  • Medieval Roads
  • Military Roads
  • Pilgrimage Routes
  • Postie Paths
  • Public works and private enterprise: moving towards the modern transport system
  • Religious Routes
  • Roman Roads
  • Salters’ Roads
  • Trade Routes
  • Traveller Routes

Signposting

  • 1964 When figure 740 changed the face of path signs
  • A Signposting Tour of the Cairngorms
  • ScotWays’s Oldest Standing Signpost
  • The Changing Face of ScotWays Signs
  • The First ScotWays Signposts

#RespectProtectEnjoy

  • A different way to get there or doing something different.
  • Different Ways
  • Places to Visit
  • Home
  • Ask Ken
  • Heritage Paths
  • About Types of Heritage Paths
  • Coffin Roads

Coffin Roads

A coffin road is simply the route that funeral processions took when travelling from the place where the deceased lived to where they were due to be buried. The reason the processions originated in the dwelling house is that the dead were displayed in their homes for the wake, or in Scots, ‘Lykewake’, which was a period where mourners could visit and pay their respects to the dead. The Lykewake often degenerated into drunken revelry.

The procession along the coffin road is a rite of passage for both the dead and the mourners. It is a transitional rite where the mourners act to safely transport the spirit from the space of the living to the space of the dead and the mourners employ many ritual elements to ensure that the spirit is not lost or tempted to return to the domestic home and that the mourners are not tainted or contaminated by the dead that they are carrying. The transition phase is often referred to as a liminal period from the Latin limen, meaning a threshold, and liminal periods or places are often depicted in popular culture such as in the Twilight Zone, the island in the television series, Lost and in the film The Terminal where the main character is stuck between countries and resident of neither. The phenomenon of liminality is integral to the use of coffin roads as both the mourners and the deceased are between states.

Before a rite of transition can begin there is a rite of separation and funeral processions contain their own rites to signal that the body is now leaving the domestic sphere to start a journey to end, hopefully, in the spiritual sphere. Often coffins would be kept on tables or chairs during the lykewake and when the body was due to be lifted these tables and chairs would be knocked over or upturned to be left in this position until the mourners returned from the burial. This has most commonly been interpreted as a method of confusing the spirit to stop it from finding its way home and reoccupying the family home. While this may have become the reason, the most likely origin is to stop whatever contamination the chairs had contracted through touching the deceased from spreading.

A similar explanation can be given for the common ritual of taking the coffin out of a back door, a smokehole or even a specially made hole in the wall. Again, there was a desire to avoid taking the corpse across the doorway, which was the threshold to the house and, symbolically, a very important place – often people were married standing in the threshold and it was the boundary where visitors could be welcomed or barred. People who made a hole in their house were going to considerable effort for the serious purpose of avoiding the doorway, which was probably more for their benefit than that of the spirit.

Once the body was safely out of the domestic home it was now on a coffin road, on a transitional journey where it was betwixt and between the familiar states of domesticity and religiosity. This phase was a ritual in itself and there would be further opportunity to enact rites for the twin purposes of directing the spirit and cleansing the living of the taint of the dead. It has long been argued that there is such a thing as a liminal state becoming permanent, which happens when the rite of transition is not completed correctly and the initiand is not passed on to the new social order then there is a danger of that person never leaving the state of liminality. This is significant to coffin roads where rites were enacted to transport spirits from the domestic life to the spiritual state and if this rite was not completed correctly then that spirit could be lost in limbo and forced to exist as a ghost or a wraith.

The funeral procession would have left the house with between 2 and 6 people carrying the bier, which was a platform on which the coffin rested. There was no one system for the whole of the country and so, depending on where in Scotland you lived, 2 people might carry the bier at waist height at the head and feet, 4 people might take a corner each or 3 people might line up on either side and take it on their shoulders. There was a need to change coffin bearers regularly so that the bearers could rest and also as carrying the coffin was considered a way of paying respects to the dead and people would look to take a turn. In some parts of Scotland, carrying the coffin was mandatory and so if the route was very short, changes would be made in very quick succession. Changes of the carriers could be signalled by a shout from the lead mourner or a ringing of a bell or sometimes it would just be done on an ad hoc basis with carriers receiving a tap on the shoulder when someone wished to take over.

Occasionally there would be specific sites where the entire procession would stop for a time to rest, have something to eat and most importantly have something to drink – it was common for funeral parties to descend into drunkenness, leading one English observer to remark ‘Gosh, these Scots funerals are more drunken than our weddings’. Many of these customary rest stops were marked by cairns, often called resting cairns, where mourners would add a stone to mark the passing of the dead. Sometimes routes were contained large flat-topped stones that were used for resting the coffin on. Sadly, memories of these sites quickly died out and as the sites were marked by humble objects with an increasingly obscure purpose the majority of them have been lost through field clearing, an attempt to remove human evidence from the landscape or have simply been forgotten about and are waiting to be rediscovered.

In the east coast the flat-topped stones were commonly known as ‘leckerstane’, ‘liggarsteen’ or ‘liquorstane’ or any number of similarly spelled names. The common belief of the origin of this name is that this was where people stopped to drink copious amounts of liquor although there are some instances of ‘lecture stones’ in Cleish parish in Fife, which perhaps points towards them being a place where sermons were given before burial. However, it is far more likely that the root is the Old English ‘lych’, which means a corpse and in Scots this became ‘lyke’, which is evident in the lykewake and in Shetland it became ‘leek’. Very often the only remnant of these places is in the place names of farmhouses or in historic maps. Once again it is unclear whether these flat-topped stones were purely a useful place for the coffin to sit, if they were there to avoid having to let the coffin touch the fertile ground and potentially contaminate it or if they were even just seats where mourners could sit while lunching with the coffin at their feet.

In many parts of Scotland women were not allowed on the coffin procession or in the western Highlands and Islands they were allowed part of the way in order to sing a lament. The reason that women were barred from attending funerals is likely because women were a symbol of fertility and the dead were a potential threat to that rather than, at least originally, a patriarchal motive. The lament that women sang was called the ‘coronach’ and has variously been described as ‘beautiful, haunting’, a ‘hideous howl’ and ‘a sort of ho boo boo boo boo’. Sometimes women would accompany the singing by beating their breasts and crying. Often strangers who the funeral passed would join in the singing but later it became more professional and women would be paid to sing the lament. The singing of the Coronach largely died out in the 19th century.

In many parts of Scotland there was a belief that the spirit of the deceased would have to stand guard at the entrance to the graveyard until another person was buried and replaced them. When there were two funerals in a day it would lead to unseemly haste as both parties rushed to ensure the person they were carrying would spend as little time as possible standing guard. In the parish of Pettie, just east of Inverness, this belief had a sinister element where it was thought that the spirit guarding the entrance would ‘grab’ the last person in the procession who entered the graveyard. This led to very quick funerals as people were keen always to stay close to the front of the procession and regularly deteriorated to arguments and fights. There was a saying where, if someone was looking to go faster, someone would remark, ‘let’s put on the Pettie Step’.

The coffin road would end after entering the churchyard when the participants were no longer in between states and had very firmly entered the familiar religious sphere. In order to signal the end of the transition rite there would be rites of incorporation where the corpse would be incorporated with other bodies, the spirit with other spirits and the attendees would separate themselves from the dead and incorporate themselves with the living and back into the domestic sphere. The most obvious example of this is the burial itself and the liturgy but there could be other elements like carrying the coffin round the grave a number of times in a certain direction. These rituals were designed to ensure the spirit was led away to the appropriate place while the living safely extricated themselves from anything to do with the spirits and the dead.

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Updated on 22 January 2022
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