I love collecting ghost stories and reading about strange experiences particularly if they contain an interesting coda. Its all very well recounting tales but many simply peter out leaving the reader wondering, what happened next? I find the following satisfying in that respect though my natural curiosity makes me wonder if anything residual can still be felt today. Anyhow here is the story which I hope you enjoy and any comments regarding this would be most welcome.
Dingwall situated some twenty-four miles from Inverness with a population of around five and a half thousand people it has been a royal burgh since the 13th century. It is also the location of this strange and tragic tale which reached the public eye in March of 1957 and leave us to question was it just a remarkable set of coincidences or something more? At the time the Daily Record ran several articles on the case, and the subsequent research uncovered some remarkable findings centred around Dingwall’s British Legion building which had been a temperance hotel. It was also home to Murdo and Ann Mackenzie. a happily married couple with ties to Glasgow who as caretakers lived onsite. Around eight days prior to the first article being published, Ann had been found dead on the staircase of the building, in her nightclothes. Her distraught husband later revealed the reason why; his wife had been convinced that the building was haunted. It transpired that for some time Ann had heard unaccountable noises at night including footsteps especially around the staircase area and slowly began to believe they were not alone. Her husband would obligingly check to allay her fears but on doing so found nothing, however remained convinced his wife had not been imagining things, later claiming the noises had lured her to her death. It was also noted that at the time of writing her body was undergoing postmortem, so it was difficult to ascertain the cause of her death.
Several days later, a local historian who was intrigued by the case was contacted and found an interesting historical account from September 13th, 1740. It described rioting during a local election which had been rigged by a wealthy landowner Sir Robert Munro. Mustering a private army of gun wielding thugs, their presence in town only exacerbated the situation and they fired several rounds of musket fire to quell the unrest. In the ensuing melee one musket ball entered the home of a local merchant Alexander Mackenzie killing his wife Ann who was standing innocently on the stair. As recompense for his wife’s untimely passing Munro paid for a new house to be erected on the site of the old, latterly used by the British Legion.
It is an intriguing story made more so by both ‘victims’ having the same name. The question of course remains, did the ghostly sounds of a historic murder inadvertently cause the death of another? Some days later Ann’s husband was again interviewed and in doing so stated that he planned to hold an all-night vigil, the outcome of which remains a mystery. He was subsequently dismissed for his troubles for ‘conduct detrimental to good management.’ Talk about kicking a man when he is down. The club officials then closed ranks, denying the building was haunted and duly re-advertised for a new caretaker. In August 1957 a headline in the local paper read, ‘Rush for Haunted Post,’ revealing there had been over a hundred applicants. It is a tragedy on many fronts, and I suspect the unfortunate husband was haunted for years to come, literally. Sometime later Roderick McDonald, a former employee when the building was used as a temperance house got in touch with the newspaper. He stated that during his tenure the similar phenomena had been reported in the building, the most common being the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Perhaps Ann was right all along.
Written by Graeme Milne
Written by Graeme Milne
Wrotsteps on the stairs. Perhaps Ann had been right all along.f footsteps on the stairs. Perhaps Ann had been right all along.