Scotland is reknown for its pretty, hilly terrain, dotted with castles that date back centuries. In a narrow valley said to be Scotland's longest, stands Merggernie Castle. It is not one of the prettiest or oldest castles in Scotland but I call your attention to it because it has a spooky reputation linked to a double murder mystery that boggles the mind. The castle was built in 1580 by 'Mad Collin' Campbell who earned his nickname for a daring abduction of the Countess of Erroll. His madness seems to have run in the family. I say this because the ghost in the castle is the result of a fit of madness by another male descendent of 'Mad Collin' Campbell. But more on that later. Let me first tell you of the best documented sighting of the castle's resident ghost. Many moons ago there was a big house party in the castle. The owners of this impressive castle had over 20 of their closest friends over for the big do, with all of them invited to stay in the castle for two nights. Among their guests was a tall, bearded distinguished looking man called E.J Simons. Quite unexpectedly Simons met an old school friend at this party, Beaumont Featherstone. Featherstone was a short, lively little man with an infectious smile. The two were thrilled at this chance meeting as they had not met in years. They were even more surprised when they found, by a strange twist of fate, they happened to share adjoining rooms in the massive castle. Their rooms were up in the castle tower, the tallest part of the castle. this meant they had the good fortune of enjoying the splendid view of the beautiful River Lyons. But on closer inspection of their room, Simons found something even more interesting.
A strange looking door stood at the far end of the wall of his room, leading to Featherstone's room. But when Simons tried to open the door, he found it was firmly sealed. Still, his curiosity had been fired up and he wanted to know if the sealed door would lead to his friend's room. After unpacking, he went over to featherstone's room to have a look. Curiously enough, it did lead to his friend's room but only into a small cupboard. But again, the cupboard was firmly sealed on featherstone's side. It couldn't be pried open. The two men fiddled around with this strange contraption for awhile. But they simply could not force it open. It was locked solid. It was also obvious it had been sealed off for a long time. They couldn't help wondering why the cupboard was sealed and what was in it. They sat around for sometime speculating on the contents within it. When they finally managed to get a moment with the master of the castle, their first question was of course about the strange door. But the owner reacted rather oddly to their query. The blood quickly drained from his face and his lower lip trembled involuntarily when he heard the question. But he refused to answer it. Seeing how uneasy it made him feel, Simons and Featherstone quickly dropped the subject. And as the night wore on, they slowly but surely forgot all about the strange, sealed cupboard. By the time they got to bed, it was well past midnight. The two men were so tired, they nodded off almost as soon as they hit their pillows. But sometime in the early morning Simons awoke with a start. He felt a hot, feverish kiss on his right cheek.
The kiss was so hot, it made him wince. Simons immediately bolted upright in bed. His eyes darted around the big, dark room, wondering who was in the there with him. And sure enough as he strained to make out what was around him, he caught a movement at the far end of the room. A woman was gliding towards the sealed door. In the shadows of the darkness, he caught sight only the upper part of her body. From the silhouette he managed to make out, he knew it was a female with long hair and small shoulders. he held his breath and waited. The shadow disappeared through the door. He looked on in disbelief and thought himself, 'No, she couldn't have gone through it, it's locked solid.' It took awhile before he summoned up enough courage to follow her. When he stumbled over to the little door in the wall, he was stunned to find it was as firmly sealed just as it had been when he and Featherstone had inspected it just hours before. Yet the shadow woman was gone. How in God's name did she get through it, he wondered. He began to feel frightened. He could hear his heart start to pound in his chest. And the sting on his right cheek continued to burn. He was sure he would see a horrible burn on his face. he slowly made his way to the mirror, steeling himself for the sight of a horrible scar on his face where she had planted her unearthly kiss. But when he looked at himself in the mirror, he was stunned. There wasn't a single mark on his face. Instead of relief, he felt even more frightened and agitated. He climbed back into bed but he did not dare turn off the light. Instead, he kept a watchful eye on the small door in the wall, it had suddenly taken on eerie proportions.
he was terrified the ghostly woman would come gliding back. The hours ticked away slowly. At the crack of dawn he heard a steady pounding on his door. He continued to lie in bed, not daring to answer the door. but the knocking persisted. Still he did not dare to move. Finally he heard a familiar voice. It begged him to open the door. It was Featherstone. He bolted to the door and opened it, but he was shocked at what he saw. Featherstone looked pas as a ghost. He stood there trembling and then finally he spoke, 'I've had the most terrible night,' he blurted out. Simons quickly volunteered that he too had a horrific time. They looked at each other and instinctively realised they had both seen the same thing. But before they described it to each other, the decided to get a third person to hear their stories separately and compare them. They went to their host and told him what they had both seen. Their host, a normally cool, level headed person, looked visibly shaken by their accounts. He promptly moved them from the tower. Apparently Featherstone too had the identical experience. According to his account, he was awoken by a bright, oink light in the room at about two am. he saw a female hovering at the foot of his bed. She came along the side of the bed and bent over him. At first he lay there thinking it was the housekeeper walking in her sleep. But when she continued to stare down at him with an unearthly fixed gaze, he began to feel uneasy. The fixed stare on her face was cold and hard and it chilled him to the bone. He decided he would have to raise himself from the bed. She quickly retreated away from the bed. it was only then he realised who she was.
She was a ghost, she had no legs. She only had an upper body, yet she glided with great speed towards the small cupboard, just opposite the foot of his bed; she disappeared into it in the blink of an eye. The poor man shook with fear at what he had just seen. Nearly an hour passed before he mustered the courage to get out of bed and walk towards the cupboard that had so fascinated him and his friend just a few hours before. He took a deep breath and pulled at the door's handle. This time it flew open but it was empty. The cupboard was a small, bare space with no place to hide and no way to escape. Yet she was gone. He searched the rest of the room thoroughly, but she was nowhere in sight. That was just one of the more well publicized sightings of the ghostly woman of Merggernie Castle. Many have seen her before and after the luckless Simons and featherstone. The reason behind the appearance of this mutilated spectre is a horrendous murder. And a rather senseless one too, I might add; which brings me back to the streak of madness that ran through the Menzies clan who built the brick palace. One of the chiefs of the clan resided in Merggernie Castle hundreds of years ago. He was by nature a man who had difficulty controlling his emotions. Bur being a chief, ha had no problems landing himself a beautiful wife. A woman with a figure and face that made heads turn wherever she went. But he was obsessively jealous about her. One day the paranoia reached such a pitch, he lost his head and murdered his beautiful, young wife, high up in the castle tower.
when sanity returned to his unstable mind, he began to plot a way to hide his hideous crime. His first priority of course was to get rid of the incriminating evidence. He promptly cut her corpse up in two. This helped him to hide the body in a chest standing in the cupboard that had been built into the wall of the room. Then he sealed the cupboard from prying eyes. Satisfied nobody would find her body there, he moved swiftly to step number two. He gathered the servants of the castle around and announced he and his wife had decided to travel abroad for some rest and relaxation. then during the night, under cover of darkness, he made off without the servants seeing him off. Finally, he returned to the castle a few months later and conveniently announced in an appropriately distraught fashion that his wife had met with a terrible accident. She had drowned while on holiday. The servants grieved for their young, sweet mistress and he joined in with a few crocodile tears of his own. When he was satisfied his story had been bought by the castle staff, he slowly made his way back to the castle tower where he unsealed the cupboard with the horrible secret. Late in the night, when the rest of the castle was fast asleep, he took the tower half of the rotting corpse from the cupboard and stole down the long, windy tower stairs, out to a nearby churchyard where he buried it. By the time he got back to the castle to cart off the rest of the body, the first rays of daylight had started to filter through the dark skies above. It was too dangerous to finish off the job. He decided to bury the rest of the body the following night. But it was not to be.
The following night his body was found in the tower, the cause of death was never determined. Who dunnit? No one can say for sure. but we can assume it was probably a person who found out the true reason for his wife's disappearance and avenged her death. Or could it have been his wife herself who returned from The Great Beyond to exact her own revenge? If only the cold, grey stones of Merggernie Castle could speak, we could at least solve part of the mystery surrounding the macabre murders that took place high up in the castle tower...
A strange looking door stood at the far end of the wall of his room, leading to Featherstone's room. But when Simons tried to open the door, he found it was firmly sealed. Still, his curiosity had been fired up and he wanted to know if the sealed door would lead to his friend's room. After unpacking, he went over to featherstone's room to have a look. Curiously enough, it did lead to his friend's room but only into a small cupboard. But again, the cupboard was firmly sealed on featherstone's side. It couldn't be pried open. The two men fiddled around with this strange contraption for awhile. But they simply could not force it open. It was locked solid. It was also obvious it had been sealed off for a long time. They couldn't help wondering why the cupboard was sealed and what was in it. They sat around for sometime speculating on the contents within it. When they finally managed to get a moment with the master of the castle, their first question was of course about the strange door. But the owner reacted rather oddly to their query. The blood quickly drained from his face and his lower lip trembled involuntarily when he heard the question. But he refused to answer it. Seeing how uneasy it made him feel, Simons and Featherstone quickly dropped the subject. And as the night wore on, they slowly but surely forgot all about the strange, sealed cupboard. By the time they got to bed, it was well past midnight. The two men were so tired, they nodded off almost as soon as they hit their pillows. But sometime in the early morning Simons awoke with a start. He felt a hot, feverish kiss on his right cheek.
The kiss was so hot, it made him wince. Simons immediately bolted upright in bed. His eyes darted around the big, dark room, wondering who was in the there with him. And sure enough as he strained to make out what was around him, he caught a movement at the far end of the room. A woman was gliding towards the sealed door. In the shadows of the darkness, he caught sight only the upper part of her body. From the silhouette he managed to make out, he knew it was a female with long hair and small shoulders. he held his breath and waited. The shadow disappeared through the door. He looked on in disbelief and thought himself, 'No, she couldn't have gone through it, it's locked solid.' It took awhile before he summoned up enough courage to follow her. When he stumbled over to the little door in the wall, he was stunned to find it was as firmly sealed just as it had been when he and Featherstone had inspected it just hours before. Yet the shadow woman was gone. How in God's name did she get through it, he wondered. He began to feel frightened. He could hear his heart start to pound in his chest. And the sting on his right cheek continued to burn. He was sure he would see a horrible burn on his face. he slowly made his way to the mirror, steeling himself for the sight of a horrible scar on his face where she had planted her unearthly kiss. But when he looked at himself in the mirror, he was stunned. There wasn't a single mark on his face. Instead of relief, he felt even more frightened and agitated. He climbed back into bed but he did not dare turn off the light. Instead, he kept a watchful eye on the small door in the wall, it had suddenly taken on eerie proportions.
he was terrified the ghostly woman would come gliding back. The hours ticked away slowly. At the crack of dawn he heard a steady pounding on his door. He continued to lie in bed, not daring to answer the door. but the knocking persisted. Still he did not dare to move. Finally he heard a familiar voice. It begged him to open the door. It was Featherstone. He bolted to the door and opened it, but he was shocked at what he saw. Featherstone looked pas as a ghost. He stood there trembling and then finally he spoke, 'I've had the most terrible night,' he blurted out. Simons quickly volunteered that he too had a horrific time. They looked at each other and instinctively realised they had both seen the same thing. But before they described it to each other, the decided to get a third person to hear their stories separately and compare them. They went to their host and told him what they had both seen. Their host, a normally cool, level headed person, looked visibly shaken by their accounts. He promptly moved them from the tower. Apparently Featherstone too had the identical experience. According to his account, he was awoken by a bright, oink light in the room at about two am. he saw a female hovering at the foot of his bed. She came along the side of the bed and bent over him. At first he lay there thinking it was the housekeeper walking in her sleep. But when she continued to stare down at him with an unearthly fixed gaze, he began to feel uneasy. The fixed stare on her face was cold and hard and it chilled him to the bone. He decided he would have to raise himself from the bed. She quickly retreated away from the bed. it was only then he realised who she was.
She was a ghost, she had no legs. She only had an upper body, yet she glided with great speed towards the small cupboard, just opposite the foot of his bed; she disappeared into it in the blink of an eye. The poor man shook with fear at what he had just seen. Nearly an hour passed before he mustered the courage to get out of bed and walk towards the cupboard that had so fascinated him and his friend just a few hours before. He took a deep breath and pulled at the door's handle. This time it flew open but it was empty. The cupboard was a small, bare space with no place to hide and no way to escape. Yet she was gone. He searched the rest of the room thoroughly, but she was nowhere in sight. That was just one of the more well publicized sightings of the ghostly woman of Merggernie Castle. Many have seen her before and after the luckless Simons and featherstone. The reason behind the appearance of this mutilated spectre is a horrendous murder. And a rather senseless one too, I might add; which brings me back to the streak of madness that ran through the Menzies clan who built the brick palace. One of the chiefs of the clan resided in Merggernie Castle hundreds of years ago. He was by nature a man who had difficulty controlling his emotions. Bur being a chief, ha had no problems landing himself a beautiful wife. A woman with a figure and face that made heads turn wherever she went. But he was obsessively jealous about her. One day the paranoia reached such a pitch, he lost his head and murdered his beautiful, young wife, high up in the castle tower.
when sanity returned to his unstable mind, he began to plot a way to hide his hideous crime. His first priority of course was to get rid of the incriminating evidence. He promptly cut her corpse up in two. This helped him to hide the body in a chest standing in the cupboard that had been built into the wall of the room. Then he sealed the cupboard from prying eyes. Satisfied nobody would find her body there, he moved swiftly to step number two. He gathered the servants of the castle around and announced he and his wife had decided to travel abroad for some rest and relaxation. then during the night, under cover of darkness, he made off without the servants seeing him off. Finally, he returned to the castle a few months later and conveniently announced in an appropriately distraught fashion that his wife had met with a terrible accident. She had drowned while on holiday. The servants grieved for their young, sweet mistress and he joined in with a few crocodile tears of his own. When he was satisfied his story had been bought by the castle staff, he slowly made his way back to the castle tower where he unsealed the cupboard with the horrible secret. Late in the night, when the rest of the castle was fast asleep, he took the tower half of the rotting corpse from the cupboard and stole down the long, windy tower stairs, out to a nearby churchyard where he buried it. By the time he got back to the castle to cart off the rest of the body, the first rays of daylight had started to filter through the dark skies above. It was too dangerous to finish off the job. He decided to bury the rest of the body the following night. But it was not to be.
The following night his body was found in the tower, the cause of death was never determined. Who dunnit? No one can say for sure. but we can assume it was probably a person who found out the true reason for his wife's disappearance and avenged her death. Or could it have been his wife herself who returned from The Great Beyond to exact her own revenge? If only the cold, grey stones of Merggernie Castle could speak, we could at least solve part of the mystery surrounding the macabre murders that took place high up in the castle tower...
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