Ackergill Tower
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| Ackergill Tower located in Caithness, Scotland, is now operated as a fancy hotel and reception center. |
I started
writing this with the idea that I would tell some tales about haunted
castles in Scotland, as I am fascinated by tales of ghosts and also
by castles (haunted or not). There's no shortage of haunted castles
'across the pond', so I had lots of material to choose from.
While reading
about Ackergill Tower/Castle, located in Wick, Caithness, in the
extreme north eastern part of the land of Scotland, I was impressed
by the creativity of the Keith Clan at a long ago fracas known as
"The Battle of Champions", between their clan and the
neighboring Gunn Clan. I was also surprised to find out that these
clans had feuded for 500 long years and only in 1978 did they finally
sign a friendship treaty with each other. The Hatfields and McCoys
have nothing on these determined Scots!
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| The Tower at night. |
The story has
it that beautiful Helen of Braemore (a member of the Gunn Clan) was
kidnapped (woman-napped?) on the eve of her wedding to another man by
the Chieftain of the Keith Clan. Helen was imprisoned in the highest room of the tower
and rather than submit to the advances of her abductor she jumped to her death. Her ghost, with stylish black hair,
and all dressed up for a party in a red ball gown is seen roaming
around the tower.
The rude
behavior of the Keith Chieftain started a feud between the two clans
which went on and on, so the two clans decided to duke it out for
good with each other near the Chapel of St. Tears.
"After
long quarelling between the Keiths and Guns, it was agreed that
riders on twelve horses
each side should meet at the Chapel of St Tayr, near Ackergill, to
adjust all their differences."
(Quote
from Robert MacKay, who wrote an account of the battle in his book
the History of the
House and Clan of the Name MacKay
(1829), wherein he quoted from historian Sir
Robert Gordon (1580–1656).
So...riders on
twelve horses from each clan were to meet and put an end to the
quarrel once and for all. The Gunns arrived first and as their rivals
had not yet made an appearance at the appointed place, the twelve
Gunn riders decided they would go into the chapel and say some humble
prayers, (no doubt for divine intervention in their favor, of
course). While they were in the chapel, the riders from the Keith
Clan arrived, only instead of sending one man on each of the twelve
horses (as assumed), they sent two men riding on each of the twelve
horses and promptly made short work of the rival clan members in the
chapel. (Those Keiths really knew how to think outside of the box.)
The
'creativity' of Clan Keith at the battle turned out to be a more
interesting story to me than the one of Helen's sad ghost roaming
the halls of Ackergill tower (nothing personal, Helen).
