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

GHOST TALES AND HAUNTED PLACES
fishermen then en.sfaged in considerable numbers at and
around Obbe.
At the coffee-house there was a certain amount of sleeping
accommodation for casual travellers.
Now, about twenty-eight years ago, during the tenancy of
Mr Wilson, the factor, weird knocking sounds were heard,
as of loud hammering in the wall of a bedroom upstairs.
This bedroom was occupied by the maids at the time ; and
the knocking always commenced at midnight. So nervous
eventually became the inmates of the coffee-house that they
often persuaded the villagers to sit up all night with them.
For several weeks this eerie knocking continued without
interruption. And it was observed that, when the maids
were transferred to another apartment, the knocking
followed them. Indeed, the haunted coffee-house at Obbe
was proverbial.
There came a day when a trap from the north of Harris
arrived unexpectedly at the door of the coffee-house; and
one of the maids, to the surprise of the household, went to
her mistress and informed her quite casually that she was
on the point of leaving for home. As she took her departure,
she placed her hand affectionately on her mistress's shoulder,
and, alluding to the continual knocking in the wall upstairs
each midnight, said " : You're not to be afraid. The knocking
has nothing to do with you.
I go."
It follows me wherever
And, curious to relate, the knocking ceased with the
maid's departure.
A year or two later, the coffee-house was destroyed by
fire. Everyone regarded it as a haunted place, and avoided
it. For years it remained a gaunt ruin, until it was rebuilt
by the late Kenneth Campbell, aforenamed.
Somewhere in Harris there's a haunted glen. They say
that in this haunted glen may be heard the conflict of battles
long ago, and the tumult and striving of men. And once
upon a time a man was found dead in it, with a look of
great horror in his eyes, as though he had zvitncssed as well
as heard. . . ,
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