Has the bruit and fame of the Meoble ghost, or “goblin damned” rather, yet reached you at Inverness. An ill-natured, uncompanionable rogue, and very strong and substantial withal, is this the same monster apparition, that thrashes and belabours the good people of Meoble (in Arisaig) till they are black and blue, and sore, and bruised, all over their bodies, from the might and mercilessness of their oft repeated castigations. The whole affair is unquestionably a practical joke, carried somewhat too far we take it, and probably with a deeper purpose than is at first sight apparent.
It has created a great deal of talk amongst the people of this and the neighbouring districts for some time past. We wish this dreadful goblin were fairly caught, and caged, adn brought to Onich. We should not object to see Clach-a-charra once at least in its history, were it but to please our antiquarian friends in Edinburgh, used as a whipping-post for the special benefit of the sturdy rascal who, with marvellous impunity, has been playing the goblin so long in and about the farm-house of Meoble. 18th March 1867.
Inverness Courier, 21st March 1867.
Some years ago the Scottish papers were very full of the Meoble Bochdan. This was a thing which took up its abode in a Highland shieling occupied by three shepherds and a farm bailiff, who only used the place at nights. As they sat round the fire the big peats were lifted by unseen hands and hurled into their midst, and sometimes completely raked out before their astonished eyes. Their dogs crept to bed the moment they reached home, and not even the offer of food would induce them to leave their retreat.
On some nights terrifying noises were heard, and when the men, horrified by the racket, left the bothy, they were assailed with clods and stones, though no human being could be seen. One clear moonlight night they observed a huge boulder, seven or eight tons in weight, roll violently away for some twenty yards with nothing near to touch it. When in their beds, the clothes would be stripped from the men and hands, unattached to any visible body, hit them right and left, leaving ugly bruises.
Sometimes the Bochdan would tormet them far from home by removing stepping stones just as the shepherds’ feet were about to touch them and this in broad daylight, it was alleged. The tales went all over the countryside, but the fact remains that after the death of one of the shepherds named McPherson, the manifestations ceased. If he were the Bochdan, the trouble is to explain how he did certain things.
Portadown Times, 28th November 1924.