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

GHOST TALES AND HAUNTED PLACES
To his dying day the Lowland farmer never forgave
himself for his not having believed in ghosts.
The Ghost of Donald Gorm.
Perhaps the best known ghost in Skye is that of Donald
Gorm MacDonald, which is said to haunt Duntiilm Castle,
the seat for at least two centuries of the doughty Lords of
the Isles. Indeed, it is said that the Castle was abandoned
about the year, 1715, because of the haunting ghost of
Donald Gorm. In point of fact, the deserting of Duntulm
by the MacDonalds has never been explained satisfactorily.
Some say the death of a child that fell out of a western
window into the sea was regarded by its occupants as an
event sufficiently unpropitious to warrant their leaving it;
but the explanation more generally accepted is that the
MacDonalds dreaded the ghost of their dauntless clansman,
Donald Gorm.
Be this as it may, this same ghost proved invaluable on
one occasion, and in the following manner. The year after
Donald Gorm Mor was succeeded by his nephew, Donald
Gorm Og, an important family document went amissing.
On the recovery of this document a great deal depended.
Now, about this time there frequently had been seen in the
neighbourhood of Duntulm Castle three ghostly forms,
which Donald Gorm Og had made many unsuccessful
attempts to accost. One day, however, the three forms
were observed to enter the Castle. A local wiseacre now
suggested that seven men, bearing seven staves with fire at
their ends, should follow them. This suggestion was
adopted without delay; and whom did the seven men
discover in the wine-cellar but Donald Gorm and two
carousing clansmen !
On
his being questioned as to the
whereabouts of the missing document, Donald Gorm
instructed them as to where it was to be found.
I The Ghost of Ewen of the Wee Head.
The people of Mull say that, when death is about to
overtake any member of the family of the MacLaines of
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