Household Ghosts

A ghost has been associated with Houndwood for many generations, since the time that it was the home of John Stuart, the Commendator of the priory. Lang reported that the ghostly horses probably belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, who passed by one night with her retinue. In 1868, when a tree was blown down, among its roots was discovered a wedding-ring, initialled and dated, said to belong to Mary, which is now in the National Museum in Edinburgh. Lang also mentions a more famous spectre, a 'wailing child-ghost', who knocks and knocks on door and window, always weeping. Called "Chappie" after the repeated knocks or chaps it made, this ghost may in fact be that of an adult, the victim of a murder committed at Houndwood by a party of soldiers in the 16th century and re-enacted ever since.

In Victorian times the haunting by Chappie o'Houndwood made the place notorious. In 1856 the then owner, Mrs. Sarah Coulson, recorded the strange noises, which her servants also heard. Chappie would stride up and down certain rooms, and the stamp of his boots would be accompanied by the sound of steel scraping on steel, and by the heavy breathing and groans of a dying man. Yet though Chappie was never seen inside the house, in the grounds it was a different matter: his lower legs, clad in riding-breeches at the knee, and blood-stained riding-boots, were seen there, wandering trunkless in the half-light. But quite what poor Chappie had done to be severed by the soldiers in this way will probably never be known.