|
A strange story …
It was told to me in a wee pub on
the west coast of Scotland. I had finished my day of
tour guiding and settled down for a pint or two with
my dinner. Finishing my dinner I wandered to the bar
– as per normal – and looked for some one to bore to
death with my stories of tourists going crazy and
looking for elevators in our 16 century castles. I
stumbled on to old Ally (Alistair) – or did he
stumble on me? Can’t remember now. What he told me
shook my inners and I quickly finished my Guinness
and ran to my room to write this down.
He told me a story of a curse on a certain family
(not unknown to me) living in Inveraray. The story
went back to the 17 century when times were hard and
living was violent. A crofter was trying to eek out
a living for his family on a wee runrig stretch of
land, which was good and fertile. He was breaking
even and managing to feed his family, with enough
left over to sell or barter on for other goods. The
phrase “keeping your head above water” comes to
mind, been there done that! One day the Laird
(nameless, but a thief and stealer of land and
cattle, name begins with a C ) came to the croft
with a gaggle of rough looking thugs (bodyguard), he
demands the rent is increased double and payable by
the same time next week. Now this crofter – a
Maclachlan – managed to come up with the rent as his
friends and family from elsewhere joined in and
helped him. The Laird not knowing how he did this
was angry as a frog with a wasp in its mouth (now
there’s another story – the wide mouthed frog). He
went away frantic with anger at being bettered,
something his race do not like. Once at home he sat
down and started to make a plan to get rid of said
crofter. He determined to burn him out, at the same
time himself being away in Edinburgh.
The day came, the Laird made a huge fuss aboot going
to Auld reekie, making sure the whole township knew
of his leaving. As dusk fell the rogues fell upon
the croft with torches, they set alight the roof and
barred the doors and windows with wood and stone.
The screams were heard by people living a half mile
away, many tried to help but the flames were too
strong. Maclachlan and his family died there and
then. The Laird duly returned the following day, and
to show he was a kind man (not!) he arranged a
burial at his own expense. Now, the family of
Maclachlan knew who was behind this and vowed
vengence. Eight men from the kin of Maclachlan
formed up at the dead of night one night in
September, they stalked into the grounds of the
Laird and broke into his home. Silently they came
upon his room and entered. There he was, sleeping
with his wife. To her they gagged and bound and left
in another room. To him – they stabbed him eleven
times (the number murdered in the croft) then cut
his head off so he could issue no more orders of
cruelty. They left him sitting up in his bed with
his head in his hands, looking at himself.
Was this the end of the tale? No. Ally carried on –
I had bought him three drinks by now, do you think
there is some deep plot here here? He said the men
had never been caught, the new Laird (the son)
wrought terrible havoc upon the township after his
fathers death, starting all over again a new hatred
of the Laird and his family, that goes on to this
day with some of the locals. Ally then told me, on
the date of the murder of the Laird each year, there
can be seen a man staggering around a part of the
town with his head in his hands, walking like a
drunk, he ends up where the croft once stood. He
stands there wailing for an hour then returns to his
own grave in his own walled lands. As he returns,
eleven bodies rise up from the ground and turn their
backs to him, then settle down again in their new
homes underground.
Well, this is a typical Highland story, it happens
everywhere and tales are many, so why is this one
different? It happened that I was in the bar and
hotel (same place) the very night in September of
the murder. Did I go out at early dawn and look for
the gruesome sight? You bet your last Dollar I did!
Did I see the spectacle? well …
|
