It’s haunted in Skaill House!

Skaill House is a historic country house found on Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The wind rages 365 days, 24 hours a day around this remote house that is near a prehistoric village. And it’s haunted, too.

The history of Skaill House

The land on which Skaill House was later built belonged to Robert Steward, Earl of Orkney. His infamous son, Patrick Steward, was sentenced to death in 1615, and the land was given to Bishop George Graham. He built a simple house on the land in 1620. The name “Skaill” comes from the Norwegian word “Hal.” Influences of the Norwegian language can be found all over the island because the Vikings used to live here. But they were not the first inhabitants.

Special find

In 1850 it stormed harder than ever on the island, and that storm made for an unusual find. William Graham Watt, the owner of Skaill House, made the enormous discovery. Namely, the storm had revealed an entire prehistoric village. This settlement is even older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids and was completely intact. The find was called Skara Brae and is also nicknamed “The Pompeii of Scotland.” You can visit this extraordinary settlement.

An eerie find

But that’s not the only thing that was discovered on the property of the house. When the 12th and current owner wanted to renovate the house, he stumbled upon bones under the floor of his house. When he got over the initial shock and continued digging, he, Mayor Malcolm Macrea, found 15 more skeletons. Investigation revealed that that part of the house had been built on top of an ancient cemetery. The cemetery predated the Viking era. And that, of course, is asking for trouble.

Left lying around

Malcolm Macrae decided to let the skeletons lie and leave them alone. So they are still there. But the ghosts in Skaill House date from later times. When Malcolm and his dog were alone in Skaill House, they heard someone walking past the bedroom door with heavy footsteps. Malcolm’s dog began to squeak and hid shakily under the bed. Malcolm himself gathered all his courage and pulled open the door, but when he looked down the hallway, no one could be seen. Later he spoke to a relative who said it had been the ghost of Ubby who had walked by.

This hermit lived in a secluded part of Skaill House and wanted to build a mini-island in Skaill Loch, the lake near the house. He did this by taking stones with his boat to a certain spot in the lake and dropping them into the water there. A small island had already formed when disaster struck. Ubby’s boat capsized and Ubby drowned in the lake. Thus, his spirit still roams the house. A guest of Skaill House and his dog had a similar collision with Ubby. Again, the dog had been terrified. Ubby apparently was not a dog lover.

The ghost of the Big House

The Big House, the original home of Skaill House, has a ghost of its own. This tall man with thinning hair is seen regularly. He looks so real that visitors and staff often mistake him for being alive. One woman even asked him questions about the house because she thought he was working there. She later found out that no male guides were working that day.

The bedroom is haunted!

Another guest who stayed a night at Skaill House had a different experience. When he was alone in his room and almost falling asleep, he clearly felt that someone else was there. To his horror, he saw a figure sitting on the edge of his bed! He jumped up anxiously and the ghost disappeared. There was no one else in the house that night. In that same room, the cleaners who were busy in the garden saw a woman at the window. They thought it was one of the guests who had slept there, so they did not pay much further attention to it. Later they learned that there had been no guests at all that night. So no one should have been in the house at that time.

Other hauntings

There are often sounds in the house that cannot always be explained. Doors open and close by themselves and people smell things that cannot be there such as the smell of a cigar. In fact, smoking is not allowed in Skaill House. The spirits in Skaill House are friendly and do not want to harm anyone. But they are there. If you happen to be on Orkney Island sometime, be sure to visit Skara Brae. Your ticket includes instant admission to Skaill House. Do you dare go inside?

Main photo: PunkToad via flickr CC BY 2.0

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