Contributed by Allie Dunnachie PDF Print E-mail
Written by Hilda McAdam   
Saturday, 09 January 2010 17:40
Contributed by Allie Dunnachie, 51 Kirkland Street

These tales all took place at Earlston during my mother’s stay there from 1903 till 1913 when she stayed with her aunt and uncle, who were caretaker and factor for the Forbes family.  She lived in the house but, of course, in the servant’s quarters, now used for holiday flats.  Mum had her own room not far from the staircase (now used by the flat residents), where she continually heard a noise like the rustle of silk.  Her aunt and uncle thought that she imagined all this.  She was so afraid that she slept with the bedroom door open.  One night she heard this rustle of silk and then saw the figure of a lady in a long dress coming down the staircase and then into her room where she stopped at the foot of the bed.  The story stops as she pulled the bedclothes over her head and shouted for her aunt and uncle, who, when they came saw nothing, but felt the ‘chill’ in her room.  No-one else was living in the house at the time – so was it a ghost?

On others occasion for no apparent reason they would find the horse and dogs in a state of fear and the farm machinery (thrashing mill, etc.) switched on in the still-locked outhouses.  One night when her uncle and she were milking the ‘kye’ they heard a carriage and pair coming up the garden path towards the big house and stop outside.  When they went outside there was nothing to be seen, and when they checked with her aunt in the house, she had neither heard nor seen anything.  Later the same evening they heard the carriage and pair going back down the path, but when they looked out, could see nothing but a light in the distance.

There is another story, but I’m not sure where it happened.  When a man was being chased for poaching and was nearly caught, he jumped over a dyke, but there was a great drop on the other side.  When the gamekeeper looked over, only a hare with a broken leg was to be seen.  A tall story?
Last Updated on Saturday, 09 January 2010 17:49