For this week's Wednesday Weirdness I am delighted to welcome Ailish to The Witch, The Weird, and The Wonderful with a tale of a Vanishing Laird!
The last owner of
Pitsligo Castle in Aberdeenshire was Alexander Forbes, the 4th Lord
of Pitsligo. Born in 1678, he was a well-educated man and a bit of an
alternative thinker of the time. For a while he ran a Mystery
School, possibly based on his study of Quietism, and he was also an
early advocate for the education of women and girls.
He was a staunch
Jacobite and took part in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 despite
being sixty-seven years old and asthmatic in 1745. After the defeat
at the Battle of Culloden he was a wanted man and went into hiding.
And here is where he
vanished, from the government troops at least. Lord Pitsligo spent
three years hiding in the lands surrounding his castle. He secreted
himself away under the low arches of the old bridge at Craigmaud and
also lived in a cave somewhere along this stretch of coast:
The Laird was well
loved, no one gave him up despite the bounty on his head, and stories
of him abound. It is said that he dressed as a beggar and met the
soldiers who were searching for him several times, once leading them
right to his cave. In church he was seen to sit with a bearing of
great dignity and to take on a radiance that affected all those in
the building.
He finally retired to
his son's house at Auchiries near Rathen, but even there he was not
left in peace. A visitor to the house had a dream that the place
was surrounded by soldiers. Unable to sleep or rid her mind of this
image she got up and looked out the window to discover the dream was
true. The Laird was quickly hidden in a small recess behind an old
lady's bed. The room was searched, the poor lady was examined to make
sure she was not a man in a woman's nightdress and The Laird had an
asthma attack. The old lady feigned a coughing fit to hide the
wheezing and Lord Pitsligo evaded capture once again. He then
requested the soldiers be given some ale and bread as they were only
men doing their duty.
He died on the 21st of
December 1762. His remains are housed in the Forbes vault at Peathill
Kirk, just up the hill from his castle.
He was also a writer!
His lengthily titled work, 'Thoughts concerning man's condition and
duties in this life, and his hopes in the world to come...' is
available here as a free ebook. It includes a review by Sir
Walter Scott and a biography. Picture below from the National
Library of Scotland. There are more pictures of the Castle and Kirk
on my own blog here.
Ailish Sinclair spent
the earlier parts of her life dancing around and encouraging others
to do the same. She now lives beside a loch with her husband and two
children, surrounded by castles and stone circles, where she writes
and dances (yes, still) and eats cake. Follow her on Twitter here.
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