| Meggernie Castle |
The castle was involved in the intrigue of the 45 rebellion, and Jacobite troops are said to have stayed here, sheltered by James Menzie of Culdares. The castle is said to be haunted by a murdered women, who appears as two separate pieces of her dismembered corpse.
The story goes that one of the owners of the castle - a Menzie Lord - murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy and then chopped her into pieces. She seems to have returned in her dismembered form, as her apparition is said to appear variously as a trunk, severed legs and a head and shoulders. The pieces of her ghostly diced cadaver haunt different areas of the castle, her upper half haunting the higher levels of the castle, and her lower half haunting the lower reaches of the ground floor and the old burial ground - where her legs are supposed to have been hidden. The upper part of her torso was discovered as a skeleton by workmen during restoration in the 1800's.
The apparition is still said to make an appearance, and the focus of the haunting takes place in one of the rooms, which has been dubbed the haunted room. Male guests have been surprised to receive a ghostly kiss in the small hours of the morning. |
|
|
|
 |
| St Fillan's Chair and Well Dunfillan |
A rocky seat on top of the Dunfillan, is the place where St Fillan is said to have sat and blessed the surrounding lands. The chair was thought to be able to heal rheumatism of the back, although you had to be dragged back down the hill by your legs to affect a cure. This would certainly cause enough bruising to allow you to forget about your rheumatism for a while. The well was also a place of healing, the sick having to walk around it in a clockwise direction, and then having to drink of its water. The well is said to have moved its position as if by magic from its original spot on top of Dunfillan.
The cure was thought to have a better chance of success if an offering was placed on St Fillan's Chair. This was either a rag or a white pebble, which was left on the nearby cairn. The cures were thought to be more effective if the well and chair were visited on May Day, or in August.
|
| Map ref: NN 70 25 |
| Directions: St Fillans is reached from the A85to the East of Loch Earn. |
|
|
