Castle Stuart acquired a bad reputation even before it was completed.
Construction on Castle Stuart began around 1561; however, the first Earl was brutally murdered and the castle was not finished until 1625. The Stuarts
abandoned the castle soon after it was completed, fleeing Clan McIntosh.
Meanwhile, the castle began to get a reputation for being haunted. Finally, one of the Earls of Moray decided to brave the ghosts of Castle Stuart and live there. The apparitions never deemed him worthy to make an appearance; however, he heard enough blood-chilling noises to offer a �20 reward for anyone who could find out what was causing the noises.
Although the reward was a lot of money in a poor area, the offer was not
excepted for some time. Eventually a brave Presbyterian Minister rounded
up a small group to help him. A church elder, a shoemaker, and a buff Highlander called Rob Angus would each spend a night in the Haunted Room at the top of the East Tower. When all had completed the task, they would compare notes and report to the Earl.
On the first night, after the door had been locked, the Minister sat alone in the
room. In spite of his dread, he soon fell asleep. The Minister dreamed that a
huge Highlander, splattered in blood, came into the room and sat next to him all
night without talking. In the morning he awoke to find the locked room empty, but
the chair next to him strangely warm.
On the second night, the Elder sat reading his bible after the dead bolt clicked
closed. Around midnight, he felt a presence in the room and looked up to see the
same bloody Highlander. The Highlander scowled and demanded to know what
the Elder was doing here. He was too tongue tied to answer, and the Highlander
advanced upon him with dagger drawn. The Elder fainted, and the last thing he
saw was a grinning skull behind him, revealed in the mirror opposite.
On the third night, the terrified shoemaker was dragged into the room and flailed
at the closing door. He pounded the door and paced the room, but the windows
were too high for him to try to jump. Finally he settled down by the fire to pray
and plead for his life. As he begged for mercy, a strange coldness crept into the
room, and he began to shiver in fright. The doorknob began to turn as he
watched and the door slowly creaked open.
The Devil stood, framed in the red light behind him. Lucifer walked into the room,
his cloven hooves tapping against the floorboards, and sat down next to the
shoemaker. The poor shoemaker was paralyzed with fright. Suddenly, a
skeleton appeared in the mirror, and Satan sprang up from his chair. The
shoemaker gratefully fainted.
On the last night, Rob Angus chatted with his friend who was to lock the door.
The friend, who was a drinking companion, said he would meet him in the
morning. Rob grinned and replied, "You will find me as I am, or dead." The
servant closed and locked the door, not knowing that was the last time he would
speak to Rob Angus.
Of what Rob Angus saw, we can only guess. Finally a drover, who was looking
after his sheep near the castle, came forward with his tale of what happened that
night. Around midnight, he heard the unmistakable sounds of a struggle and
looked up at the Haunted Room.
Two tall figures were silhouetted against the light, clearly fighting. Then the window seemed to explode, and the Highlander flew through the air and landed with a bone-shattering thud. When the shepherd looked up at the window, he saw the Devil grinning down at him. Terrified, he fled the area, leaving Rob Angus' friend to discover the ransacked room and the body below.
Sometime after this event, a particularly violent storm tore off the roof of the East
Tower, and all the stairways to the wing were sealed off. The East Tower was
ignored until the mid 1930's, when a Canadian man named John Carmeron
bought the castle and began to work on it. He was up on a ladder, inspecting a
wall, when he discovered an area of plaster that seemed different from the rest.
When he knocked against that area, the wall seemed hallow.
Concluding that it must be a sealed-up doorway to the East Tower, he eagerly set
to work, chipping and chiseling the mortar away. He was so curious about what
was behind the wall that he even worked after all the other workmen had left and
it began to get dark.
Cameron soon uncovered a set of stone steps, and began to widen the hole.
Suddenly, some stone caved inward, and he fell into the doorway. At that moment, he heard a half strangled voice cry, "NO!" Cameron recovered his balance and stood on the ladder, shaking. He managed to convince himself that he had imagined the voice and raised his chisel to strike again.
At that point, invisible hands shoved against his chest, sending Cameron flying off
the ladder. A strange rotten odor clung to the ground and the air around him
seemed charged with energy. In a panic, he ran to his car and hid behind the
fender.
Eventually logic kicked in and he realized that he had to get his tools and turn off
the temporary electric lights. If the people of the village saw them blazing, they
might ask uncomfortable questions. He bravely squared his shoulders to walk back to the now silent castle, but left his headlights pointed at the door so he wouldn't be lost in the ink-blackness.
Cameron found his tools, then took a deep breath and faced the wedged-open
door before he switched off the lights. Instead of his headlights beckoning
through the opening, Cameron found himself in total darkness.
He cried out and scrabbled for the other side of the room. In the blackness, icy
hands grabbed his shirt and tried to drag him into the heart of the castle. With a
strength borne of fear and desperation, Cameron wrenched himself free and
yanked open the door. He sprinted across the lawn, and never set foot on the
grounds again.