Tragedies

In 1726 a sordid tragedy occurred on the moor above Rahane, whereby John Smith murdered his wife by throwing her over a precipice. He had formed an intimacy with another woman. At the trial, the ordeal of touch was resorted to, and the result was that he confessed his guilt and was executed at Dumbarton.

Later events are the wreck of a fishing boat with the loss of four or five lives nearly opposite the letter box at Rockingham; the death of a man on the moor above Cursnock in a shooting party by the incautious use of a gun; and the fall of Cove piermaster over the pier which he did not survive. Several lives have been lost from time to time between Blairmore and Cove through the awkward management of boats.