Arthur's Seat plays a prominent role in Scottish writer James Hogg's 1824 novel "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner". Robert and George Colwan, two feuding brothers, are caught in a fog atop Arthur's Seat and witness what could be interpreted as a Brocken spectre, a strange phenomenon of the light, which causes George to believe that he is seeing a ghost. In the confusion, George nearly kills Robert, but they both escape to the bottom of the hill as the fog begins to clear.