CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY
The Murray Clan Society
Added on 30 November 2024
The Fairies of Meall Dail Min: Not far from Blair Castle is Lude where, just before Christmas, there was a burial where the mourners came to toast the grave until they were quite merry. One man thoughtlessly kicked a skull and, laughing, said: ‘come and have a Christmas dram with me’.
It was all forgotten until on Christmas Day, the skull came to the house, in human form, telling the wife of the man, that he had received an invitation from the master of the house to come for a dram. Not wishing to be inhospitable, the woman happily gave the visitor bread, butter, cheese, and milk. The man ate everything not a crumb was left. The wife went to a neighbour’s to get more food – and he devoured all of that too! Once he had finished eating, he thanked the wife and asked her to tell her husband to come share New Year with him in return.
The invitation was forgotten until one day, while tending his sheep, the man passed a cave. From within, there came the most melodious music that drew him in to stop and listen but, as the man made his way home, a neighbour stopped him to ask where he had been all year. Confused, he returned home only to see that his son, who’d been a tiny baby when he’d left home that day, was now sitting up and crawling… Only then did he realise that the fairies had lured him in and kept him for a year.