Skye, Island of (Scotland) -- Description and travel
But the broken tower of Duntulm still abode in my memory, and I began
to make inquiries concerning it. I was told that it was long the
seat of the Macdonalds, but that after the family had been driven out
of it by the ghost of Donald Gorm, they removed to Mugstot. "Donald
Gorm!" I said; "were they driven out by the restless spirit of the
Donald who flouted Macleod at his own table at Dunvegan--who, when he
was asked to show his dirk, held it up in the torch-light in the face
of Macleod and of his gentlemen, with the exclamation, 'Here it is,
Macleod of Dunvegan, and in the best hand for pushing it home in the
four and twenty islands of the Hebrides?'" "They were driven away by
the spirit of the same Donald," said our host. "That chieftain had
been stricken by a lingering yet mortal illness, and removed to
Edinburgh, and placed himself under the care of the leeches there.
His body lay on a sick-bed in Edinburgh, but his spirit roamed about
the passages and galleries of the castle. The people heard the
noises, and the slamming of doors, and the waving of tartans on the
staircases, and did not know that it was the spirit of their sick
master that troubled them. It was found out, however. The servants
were frightened out of their wits by the unearthly voices, and the
sounds of weeping, the waving of shadowy tartans, and the wringing of
shadowy hands, and declared that they would no longer abide in the
castle. At last a young man, from Kilmuir over there, said that if
they would provide him with a sword and a Bible, and plenty to eat
and drink, he would sit up in the hall all night and speak to the
apparition. His offer was accepted, and he sat down to supper in the
great hall with his sword drawn and his Bible open on the table
before him. At midnight he heard doors open and close, and the sound
of footsteps on the stairs, and before he knew where he was there was
Donald Gorm, dressed in tartan as if for feast or battle, standing on
the floor and looking at him. 'What do you want with me, Donald?'
said the young man. 'I was in Edinburgh last night,' said the
spirit, 'and I am in my own castle to-night. Don't be afraid, man;
there is more force in the little pebble which you chuck away from
you with your finger and thumb than there is in my entire body of
strength. Tell Donald Gorm Og--("Donald's son, you know,"
interpolated the photographer)--tell Donald Gorm Og to stand up for
the right against might, to be generous to the multitude, to have a
charitable hand stretched out to the poor. Woe's me! woe's me! I
have spoken to a mortal, and must leave the castle to-night,' and so
the ghost of Donald vanished, and the young man was left sitting in
the hall alone. Donald died in Edinburgh and was buried there; but
after his death, as during his life, his spirit walked about here
until the family was compelled to leave. It was a fine place once,
but it has been crumbling away year by year, and is now broken and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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