Mystery of Ardrishaig murder shrine location solved

We recently published the story of the murder in Ardrishaig in 1908 of the local doctor, 44 year-old Dr Duncan Shaw Morrison, known to be what we would now describe as an alcoholic.

Inveraray Jail has the original photographic plates of a recreation of the position of the body of the body of Dr Morrison. These were submitted and, for the first time accepted as evidence in the successful trial at the Inveraray Jail Court House, of local man William MacGregor.

MacGregor, on the advice of his Counsel, changed his plea to Guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide and was found guilty of this by the Jury by reason of his own confession. The judge, Lord Johnston,sentenced him to 7 years had labour.

The mystery we were trying to resolve, out of interest and for Inveraray Jail, related to the persistent story that a white cross was afterwards painted on a wall at the scene of the murder by someone unknown – and regularly repainted over the years by someone never identified.

Thanks to Ardrishaig man, Councillor Dougoe Philand – who did the smart thing and asked his mother -we now have the answer to the first mystery – the location of the white cross, long since gone.

Mrs Philand says that she can remember that when she was at school there was a cross painted on the wall of the Ardrishaig tennis club and children were told this was where a murder had taken place.

Unfortunately she does not know who originally painted it and whether they or someone else maintained it for so many years.