Mysterious Affair.
The district of Atholl has been thrown into a state of alarm by reports of occurrences said to have taken place at the farm of Bonskeid, of a description which throws the famous “Cock-lane ghost” completely into the shade. The inmates of the farm say, that about a fortnight ago, they observed a number of large stones in the neighbourhood to be moving from place to place, without the aid of any perceptible agency.
Several of these made their way through the windows and doors, and even the roof of the dwelling: some entering into and demolishing the kitchen utensils, and others contenting themselves with effecting a comfortable lodgement by the fire; while a different class, after making the circuit of the farm-house, are said to have resumed the original situation in front of the door.
Since that time, it seems the fantastic missiles have performed similar freaks almost every day. They are generally in motion about nine in the morning and five in the afternoon, and their performances have attracted multitudes to the spot. The clergymen of the district have visited Bonskeid, and used their endeavours to consign the supposed wizard to the “vasty deep,” but in vain; for the flinty bodies he has been pleased to animate are reported still to continue their perambulations.
This affair, the obvious creation of folly or perhaps of knavery, however ridiculous it may appear, has revived all the exploded tales of the district, which had their origin in the superstition of a darker period, and raised the terror of the inhabitants to a degree which would hardly be believed. Sundry respectable old females in the neighbourhood are already marked out as being at the bottom of the whole business, through the practice of the heinous crime of witchcraft. — Montrose Review.
Perthshire Courier, 25th October 1821.
Some half century ago or more a native of Rannoch resided at Bonskeid (Bonn-sgaod) in the neighbouring parish of Blair Athole. He was married to a Badenoch woman, who had brought servants with her from her own country. In fact the only servants about the house were from Badenoch. In obedience to the law, which ascribes that which is mysterious to that which is remote, Badenoch was at that time esteemed a great place for witchcraft and things “uncanny.” A series of unaccountable noises and appearances began about the house in Bonskeid. Turnips and peats, thrown by unseen hands, flew about the house, lights were blown out, furniture was mysteriously moved, bedclothes were pulled off, and no one could be sure that an article would be found by him where he had left it. In all this there was no appearance of mortal agency, and the whole business was at once assumed to be the work of evil spirits. A friend from Rannoch, who had been on a visit to the house, declared solemnly (and he was a God-fearing, trustworthy man) that he himself heard the spinning-wheel coming down stairs, and saw it falling in pieces on the floor of the room in which he and the family were sitting, without any visible agency, and without any part of it being broken or injured. He put it together again, and with his own hands carried it upstairs and left it in its original place. He had not sat long after coming down when the wheel again came in the same mysterious manner, and fell in pieces on the floor. On another occasion, as he stood in the byre, a turnip came and knocked the candle out of his hand. To his certain knowledge there was no one in the byre who could have thrown it. These flying turnips came sometimes as if they had been hurled through the wall. The unhappy man, in whose house this occurred, endured the persecution for more than a year, and was sadly broken in health and spirits by the trouble. One day as he stood on the hearth-stone, warming the back of his feet to the fire, the hearth-stone began to move. A Badenoch dark hussy (Caileag dhubh) was at the time standing by, with her elbow rested on the kitchen ‘dresser,’ and her chin on her hand. He observed her smiling, and it struck him she was at the bottom of all this bedevilment. He turned her and all the rest of the Badenoch servants away, and no further disturbance took place.
Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, by John Gregorson Campbell, 1902.