The Old Post Horn Inn, which dated from the 1400s and was made larger around 1744, was the 8th stop from Edinburgh to London, having accommodated important clients as noted in a book about the property “Sheila Scott, HORSES FOR HIRE, 1983, Biggar Museum Trust”

The Inn, now closed as a public house and hotel, is said to have been haunted by three ghosts.

One was said to be a young girl, who was accidentally killed by a coach in the Main Street and who was the daughter of a former innkeeper. Her apparition had allegedly been seen in the dining room, which had originally been the stables, it is said that she was responsible for the movement of chairs around the room and the ghostly sound of her singing to herself.

Another alleged phantom was reportedly that of a coachman who wore a dark cloak and it was believed by the locals that he had died in 1805.

A third ghostly sighting was that of a five-year-old girl who was said to have been hanged for stealing bread

An early view of the Crawford Hotel, showing staff and a customer at the front door.

On the left is the monument at the Townfoot junction, which has been variously described as the village cross or the ‘Birley Cross‘ where the ‘Birley Court met, or as a monument for the Cranston family who ran the Crawford Hotel.

A local story has it that the Cranstons ordered the monument and when it arrived they were so disappointed that they let it lie on the grass at the junction until the council put it up where it stands to this day.

The hotel itself is one of the oldest buildings in the village and would have been a changeover point for horses pulling the Royal Mail coach on the London to Glasgow route which passed through the village for sixty years from July 1788.