Exhibit XI: The Little People
From Dark History: Where The Darkness See’s The Light by Rob Bradley
June 10, 2026 · 13 min · Season 1 · Episode 11
About this episode
The episode explores the mystery of seventeen tiny coffins discovered in Edinburgh, delving into their origins and the theories surrounding them.
The museum doors creak open once more, traveller, and tonight I invite you into one of the strangest rooms in my collection. High above the city of Edinburgh, hidden within the slopes of Arthur's Seat, seventeen tiny coffins lay concealed for years behind carefully placed stones. Each contained a small wooden figure, dressed in handmade clothing and arranged with unsettling care. No names. No explanation. No clues. When five boys stumbled upon them in 1836, they uncovered a mystery that has endured for nearly two centuries. Were they memorials to the dead? Tools of witchcraft? Secret burials for souls lost at sea? Or something even stranger? In Exhibit XI: The Little People, we descend into the fog-covered streets of Victorian Edinburgh and examine one of Britain's most enduring unsolved mysteries. Together we will explore the discovery of the tiny coffins, the theories surrounding their creation, the disturbing links to death and folklore, and the unanswered questions that continue to haunt historians to this day. Step carefully, traveller. Some mysteries do not want to be solved. The Little People are waiting.
People in this episode
Host: Rob Bradley
Topics covered
- mystery
- Victorian Edinburgh
- folklore
- death
- tiny coffins
Keywords
- tiny coffins
- Edinburgh
- mystery
- Victorian
- folklore
- death
- unanswered questions
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Edinburgh, Arthur's Seat
More episodes of Dark History: Where The Darkness See’s The Light
- S5 E11: Gloomy Sunday — The Hungarian Suicide Song · June 3, 2026 · 23 min
- Exhibit X: The Servants' Annihilation · May 27, 2026 · 11 min
- S5 E10: Mysteries of the Sumerians — The Cradle of Civilization · May 20, 2026 · 40 min
- Exhibit IX: The Draugr’s Toll · May 13, 2026 · 11 min
- S5 E9 The Plague of Justinian: The Pandemic That Nearly Ended the World · May 6, 2026 · 30 min
- Exhibit VIII: The Last Candle of the Paris Catacombs · April 29, 2026 · 10 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Dark History: Where The Darkness See’s The Light podcast page.