Leaving Staffin Bay’s rugged shore behind you soon come to Flodigarry, with its many traditionary stories connected with it. Old Flodigarry House had the reputation of being haunted, and after nightfall a place of dread by passers-by. People who thought themselves superstition-proof tried to test the matter by staying a night in it, but they soon wished themselves in “Gath,” for no sooner did the darkness come than the most unearthly and alarming proceedings commenced.
Broken bottles, stones, peats, and all sorts of missiles were flung at them, no one knew how or whence they came. All doors and windows were closed and bolted, and the things appeared to come through the stone wall of the building, which was several feet thick. The mystery is a mystery still.
This story had its comic side. A certain man with a family of two grown-up daughters, whom I know well, did not get on smoothly with their stepmother. They thought they would act the Flodigarry ghost and thus frighten her away from the house. Every night, as soon as the rest of the family were in bed, they climbed up to the top of the house and began throwing showers of stones, peats, etc., on the step-mother, whose bed was conveniently under the chimney-hole, frightening the poor body out of her wits .
Prayers, Bible-reading, etc., were tried to drive away the ghost, but this ghost was proof against all these things. At last the neighbours undertook to watch the house by turns, with the result tha tthe young ladies were caught in the act. What their punishment was is not on record. This clever play-acting happened not far from Dunegan.
Northern Chronicle and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland, 24th March 1909.