The Story Of Fat Lips
This is potentially a ghost story or a creature story from the ruined abbey of Dryburgh in Berwickshire.
Unlike most of the other stories on this website there are very few details about him other than he was given the name Fat Lips because the old lady who saw him, and shared the ruins with him, said, he had big lips, hence the name.
The Origin Story
This story dates back to the period after the Jacobite uprisings in 1745. An old woman had taken to living in the ruined Dryburgh Abbey. We don't know exactly why she was there, but probably had been made homeless at some point, was a recluse, or as some suggest she had been waiting for her love to return from the fighting. She said that she began to see an apparition of a man around the ruin as well.
This man was described as small and wore big boots that she could hear walking about the ruin on the stone floors. Other witnesses have described him wearing either soldiers attire or that of a general labourer.
She told people that he was very helpful and helped her to keep the ruin tidy. So it is possible that she was being visited by a 'Brownie' rather than by the spirit of a soldier, as they are helpful and like to be useful.
Key Locations
Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland.
Dryburgh Abbey
Fatlips Castle is a peel tower in Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. Situated at the top of Minto Crags, above the River Teviot, it was built in the 16th century by the Turnbulls of Barnhills, notorious Border reivers, and owners of nearby Barnhills Tower and farm
Fat Lips Castle
On a hill overlooking the River Tweed near Melrose is a striking statue of William Wallace. The statue, erected in 1814, is just a few hundred yards from the ruins of historic Dryburgh Abbey and a very short distance from Scott's View, a popular viewpoint named for its links to author Sir Walter Scott, who is buried at Dryburgh.
William Wallace Statue
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