The Spell of Cadboll Castle

The story of Cadboll begins with Roderick Macleod, a powerful and stern knight who ruled the castle with an iron fist. Macleod’s life was filled with battles and clan strife, and he was always on the lookout for allies to help him maintain his power. This led him to arrange a marriage between his daughter, Lady May, and the chief of the Macraes, a tribe known for their size and courage. However, Lady May was in love with another man, a young warrior named Hugh Munro.
Munro and Lady May continued to meet in secret, despite the danger of being caught by Macrae or her father. But Macrae grew suspicious of their meetings, and he became determined to put an end to their relationship. One day, he set out to find Munro and bring him to the castle to witness the wedding. But Munro, knowing that he would be captured and killed, fled into the mountains.
Lady May was devastated by Munro’s absence, and she fell into a deep depression. She begged her father to let her die, but the curse of Cadboll prevented death from entering the castle. For fifty years, she lived in sorrow, pining for her lost love and longing for death.
As she grew older, May became paralyzed and unable to move. She longed for death but was unable to die because of a strange spell that existed on Cadboll Castle, which prevented death from entering within its walls. Her maids listened to her heart-breaking appeals to the spirit of Hugh, her unwed husband, to come to her aid from the land of shadows and of silence.
Finally, the maids, partly worn out by her unceasing importunities, and partly to gratify the whim, as they considered it, of the sufferer, agreed to obey her requests and to carry her forth to the edge of the cliff. As they passed through the gate and wound along the hill side, the broad expanse of ocean burst upon the sight, a flash of rapture beamed on her countenance, a cry of joy and hope overcame her and she breathed her last breath, finally breaking the spell of Cadboll and ending her long and tragic story. With the passing of Lady May, the castle fell into ruin and decay, and now only a few remnants remain to tell of its former grandeur.