As I drove home on Sunday, along narrow roads over the Lecht, I pulled in to take a breather and photograph this little cottage in Tomintoul.
It's known locally as 'the Percy Toplis house' because it was here, in 1920, that fugitive and murderer, Percy Toplis was discovered. The manhunt was big news at the time. Toplis had been on the run for quite some time, wanted for the murder of a taxi driver in Andover (amongst other things). He had been seen in a hotel in Inverness, and some time later a Tomintoul farmer saw smoke rising from the chimney of this little house. He alerted the local policeman, and together they went along and found Toplis sitting by a fire. Toplis fired his pistol at them, wounding them both and then fled on a bicycle. He then cycled to Aberdeen and took a train to Carlisle. He was ultimately found and shot by police in Cumberland, about 7 days later.
Lovey cottage and what a history! I wonder if it's still owned/used? Did you hear on the news this morning about the lady who climbed all 282 munro's in record time and travelled between them under her own steam?
@busylady Absolutely. We started counting in 2020, but we're not in a hurry. Our goal is 30 a year. - but we're ahead of schedule this year ... we've already done 41 and have at least one more batch planned for August. Our current tally is 157/282, so we're over half way. :-)
