The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

AS
CHAPTER XXII
GHOST TALES AND HAUNTED PLACES
in all parts of the world where tradition and
superstition linger, belief in ghosts remains firmly
L established in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Concurrent with this belief exists the notion that certain
places are haunted. Nearly all the ancient castles of Celtic
Scotland have their ghost ; and the ancestral homes of many
Highland families, even when such homes have fallen into
ruins, are said to be haunted by the family ghost, as in the
case of the Castle of Moy, the stronghold of the MacLaines
of Lochbuie, which continues to be the abode of the ghost
of Ewen of the Wee Head, a henchman of the MacLaines
long, long ago.
Many Highland kirkyards are dreaded because of their
ghosts ; and several lochs and rivers are avoided by the
natives after dark, because phantom anglers have been
known to fish them.
The Haunted Country.
About half a century ago, Mr and Mrs Faed of Edinburgh,
a well-known artist family, while holidaying in
Prince Charlie's Country, decided to call on some friends in
the neighbourhood of Glenfinnan. So, as an alternative to
taking the high-road, they set out for their destination by a
small glen. Ere they had travelled far into this glen, rain
began to fall. They came to a point at which two pathways
diverged. One continued up the glen : the other
seemed to run down to the spot at which the stream flowing
through the glen is fordable. At this point stood two men
in Highland dress, accompanied by two beautiful deer-
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