The Duel Cairn (Landale-Morgan Duel)

NOT A MURDER STONE - DIFFERENT CATEGORY: Scotland's last fatal duel, and like Cawston, technically a murder charge at the time rather than something judged more leniently by definition. David Landale, a respected Kirkcaldy linen merchant, was publicly struck with an umbrella on Kirkcaldy High Street by his own banker, George Morgan, a hot-tempered former army officer who had been spreading damaging rumours about Landale's business during a financial dispute. Landale, a complete novice with firearms, had to rush to Edinburgh to buy a pistol before the duel. The two met at dawn on 23 August 1826 at Cardenbarns, near Carden Den south of Cardenden - both fired simultaneously at 12 paces, and remarkably it was the experienced Morgan who fell, fatally wounded, while the novice Landale walked away unscathed. Landale fled to England under an alias but voluntarily returned a month later, was tried for murder at Perth, and was acquitted 'with character unsullied.' He went on to become Provost of Kirkcaldy in 1835/36 and died in 1871. In a striking coda, the two families reconciled roughly 25 years after the duel when Landale's daughter married Morgan's nephew; both men are buried in Kirkcaldy's Old Kirk graveyard, reportedly 'barely a pistol shot apart.' The marker itself is a modern plaque/cairn, erected by the people of Cardenden in 2008, not contemporary to 1826. WORTH FOLLOWING UP: sources mention Fife saw two other fatal duels in the same short period (1821-1826) - the Boswell-Stuart duel near Balmuto in 1822, and a Gurley-Westall duel of unclear date - it's not confirmed whether either of those sites also has a physical marker. THE OTHER TWO FIFE DUELS, NOW DATED: 'Kirkcaldy in 50 Objects' (a local heritage project, now read in full) confirms and dates both of the other Fife duels flagged above as worth following up. The Boswell-Stuart duel was fought near Balmuto on 26 March 1822 (not 1821) - John Stuart of Dunearn shot Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck (son of James Boswell) after a political dispute; Stuart was acquitted of murder, defended by the prominent Scottish lawyers Henry Cockburn and Francis Jeffrey. The Gurley-Westall duel was fought at Ferryhills near North Queensferry on 30 October 1824, after a pub quarrel over a horse-racing bet; Captain William Gurley was shot dead by John Westall, who fled and was never found (his second was caught in Liverpool). Neither account mentions a surviving physical marker at either site - only the pistols from the 1826 Landale-Morgan duel survive, on display at Kirkcaldy Museum - so both remain unconfirmed as murder-stone-style sites, now with firmer dates at least.