The Ardlamont Mystery

The Ardlamont murder trial, which took place in Edinburgh's High Court in December 1893, was the culmination of one of t... (more)

The Ardlamont murder trial, which took place in Edinburgh's High Court in December 1893, was the culmination of one of the most intriguing criminal cases in British legal history. But perhaps more remarkable than that was that it brought together the two principal real-life inspirations behind the creation of the world's favourite fictional consulting detective: Sherlock Holmes. Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn were Professors of Medicine at Edinburgh University. As educators, medical trailblazers and social reformers, the two friends were pioneers in the emerging world of forensic science, and both were called as expert witnesses at the Ardlamont murder trial. Under their tutelage had been a young student named Arthur Conan Doyle. He had served as an assistant to Bell, where he was able to scrutinise at first-hand Bell's remarkable deductive powers. In fact, Conan Doyle went on to say of Bell: 'It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes'. (less)