Birnam Wood and Dunsinane Hill – The Real Locations Behind Death and Poetry
Birnam Wood and Dunsinane Hill are real places in Perthshire, Scotland, made famous by Shakespeare's Macbeth, and they're the setting for Death and Poetry, book 2 in my McBride & Tanner series. Here's how a Shakespeare prophecy and a book about forensic botany came together to give me the premise.
Death and Poetry was inspired by two books (although one certainly didn't start life as a book): Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and Traces by Patricia Wiltshire.
What is forensic botany?
I first read Traces in the summer of 2022, and it fascinated me. It documents the author's career as a forensic botanist, a highly specialised role in which forensic technicians use traces of plant matter to identify where an object or person has been, to help shed light on crimes.
In a chapter called 'Searching and Finding', she describes how she uses plant evidence to go on a mental journey, imagining the route that a perpetrator or a victim must have taken to arrive at a crime scene.
I started imagining how I might use this to help the detectives in one of my novels solve a crime. I was thinking about storylines for my McBride & Tanner series, and then I got an idea for how I might link it to a classic play that, while not Scottish, takes place in Scotland.
Birnam Wood and Dunsinane Hill in Macbeth
William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around 1606. It's pretty clear that he never visited Scotland, and he didn't need to. The stage directions in his plays are sparse, with all the detail in the dialogue, so he wouldn't have felt the need to describe the Perthshire or Inverness-shire countryside for those staging his plays.
And besides, a journey from London (or from Stratford-upon-Avon) to Scotland in the seventeenth century would have been a huge undertaking, and probably taken weeks. And if you've ever watched Upstart Crow, you'll know how arduous the bard found travelling.
But anyway. In Macbeth, a number of prophecies are made by the three infamous witches. Firstly there are the prophecies about Macbeth's rise to greatness: Thane of Cawdor and then king (no less). Macbeth, with the help of a hell of a lot of bloodshed, makes these come true.
And then there are the prophecies about Macbeth's descent from greatness, or rather what Macbeth interprets as reassurances that such a descent will never happen. For example:
'Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him.'
A wood can't uproot itself and move to the top of a hill 13 miles away, surely? I mean, this isn't Tolkien.
But it turns out it can. The soldiers of Macduff's army tear branches off the trees to use as camouflage, and then march on Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane.
Can you climb Dunsinane Hill?
Yes. Macbeth's castle stood at the top of a hill I climbed as part of my research for the book (such dedication). And Birnam Wood is a beautiful place for a research walk, if not for a murder.
How does Death and Poetry begin?
In Death and Poetry, something similar to the prophecy happens. Instead of tearing branches off the trees at Birnam Wood, the killer places soil and vegetation from Birnam Wood in the pockets of their victim, whom they then leave at the top of Dunsinane Hill.
This isn't your normal run-of-the-mill murder (if there is such a thing). It's the work of someone who wants the police to see the Macbeth connection.
But why?
Well, that's a question that only the forensic psychologist Dr Petra McBride can answer. And a question you'll have answered too, when you read the book.
