Spot the Dummy

Viewing in Large might help!

Or should it be Spot the Real Person. Somewhere in this mock 19thC trial is my husband, occupying the public gallery among the crowd of dummies. After 40 years of coming to Scotland we finally paid a visit to Inverary Jail, being at a loose end after our family left to go home. It must be the most publicised attraction in Scotland, with brochures in hotels and info centres in every corner of the country, no matter how remote.

I can’t say I found it riveting, but certainly horrifying. Thank goodness we’ve moved on a bit since the 19thC when people were punished for ‘crimes’ such as adultery and suicide, when starving children were punished for stealing a loaf of bread, and many people were sent to Australia, never to return, for the smallest misdemeanour. Hundreds of true stories of inmates and trials are told. Here is just one typical, which tweaks the heart strings like so many others.

Annabelle MacFarlane gave birth to her son in the Old Prison on 13th August 1846. She had been sentenced to 60 days in prison for stealing half a chest of tea - and here's the worst bit, stole it from a shipwreck! Annabelle had no home and it is believed she stole the tea to make sure she had a warm, safe place for the birth.

The Old Prison was unheated and prisoners were only let out of their cells (where they ate, slept and worked) for an hour a day to take air in individual caged yards. They were not permitted to speak to anyone.