A “Jail” Of A Time
ONE of the best things about The Scots Magazine is that it’s packed full of inspiration for fantastic experiences all over the country. When it comes to enjoying the content of this marvellous magazine, I’m no different to any other reader.
It was after reading staff writer Scott Paterson’s informative article about Inveraray in this month’s “Focus On” section, that I decided to head there for a visit.
With me were my five-year-old nephew, Archie, and my dad. As we crested the Rest And Be Thankful en route to the historic Argyll town, my nephew commented that this was a “boys’ day out”.
We’d booked tickets for a visit to Inveraray Jail. It’s perfect for a family day out – plenty of thought-provoking interpretation for adults, and enough gruesome exhibits, like thumbscrews and birching tables, to excite the imaginations of the most macabre kids.
Storyboards document the lives of many unfortunate prisoners, up until it ceased functioning as a jail in 1889. One tale that stuck in my mind was of a 15-year-old caught stealing food. An orphan, with responsibility for his younger sister, he was found wearing rags and living in a ruin. The community petitioned authorities that he not be prosecuted – if he hadn’t stolen, they argued, he and his sister would have starved.
Sadly, the fiscal disagreed. The boy was sentenced to several years. It’s an awful snapshot of a particular moment in time that leaves so many sad questions – what became of the boy, how did his life turn out after his release? What befell his wee sister?
The mind of a five-year-old works on a different level. My nephew’s main thoughts were “why were so many people called Archie then?” and “why were children so bad in the olden days?” How to explain to a 21st-century child that back then, often their only “crime” was to be poor.