CASTLE MACTAVISH
Location: Pinpointing the exact location of this ancient stronghold was just as hard as getting permission to do a paranormal examination of the location. It is a private residence in the Scottish Highlands, and a private investigation was allowed only if the Collinsport Ghost Society would not divulge in its location. Guests are only by invitation.
Description of Place: Comprised of a three story manor house surrounded by an inter-connected labyrinth of multi-layered balconies, towers, parapets, walkways and courtyards, the castle looks as if it belongs in one of Grimm's Fairy Tales or as a substitute to Castle Dracula. The drawbridge at the front gate crosses over a fifteen-foot wide creek expanse into a courtyard that seems to enter into a small village courtyard but for the twelve-foot high walls and towering five story parapets around the equivalent of three city blocks. Restored to full condition through modern engineering, the castle is a nearly self-sustaining community with shops, small markets, blacksmiths and stables. Passageways in the structure lead to an elaborate subterranean labyrinth adjacent through caves to exterior footpaths beyond the castle walls. A semi-preserved dungeon, though flooded and collapsed still exists. Surrounded by cottages and two-room homes, the manor house is a maze of alternating rooms, corridors and stairways around an immense great hall adjacent to parapets, halls and balconies and decorated in a mix of Victorian, Edwardian, Norman, Saxon and Arthurian style, tainted only by the presence of modern conveniences. Beyond the main hall are a ballroom, music room, dining hall, game room, a wood-paneled library with a skylight and at least thirty maintained bedrooms.
Ghostly Manifestations: American hostess Samantha Stephens was very kind in aiding the Collinsport Ghost Society an audience to this location. Lord Constantius Ockham has been a close friend of her family for several years, and despite his reverence as lord and master of his estate, he is the consummate cordial and gracious host despite his privacy. Not just anyone is allowed to be his guest, but he has allowed his home open to royalty, celebrities, athletes and the middle-class.
However, not many guests want to share residence with MacTavish, the resident ghost who moans and bellyaches and sends loud screams into the house. The idly curious are daring enough to stay a night or two, debating the ghost as "a gimmick for the tourists." Ockham talks quite openly about MacTavish as if he's constantly around. A descendant of Wiccan practitioners and a Spiritualist, the British lord believes in ghosts and despite public appearances, considers MacTavish his favorite full-time resident. A resident who does not like the other guests...
"Any given night we have guests..." Lord Ockham answers. "The spirit of MacTavish will come down from wherever ghosts hide and will look in on the guests. If he likes them, you will hear footsteps running up and down the west stairway as he comes and goes seeing what they are doing. You will hear old bagpipe music coming from the great hall, laughing from the study and something cavorting around the kitchen. If he doesn't like the guests, he screams and bellyaches from outside the hall and appears at bedside to scare them off. He's our most obstinate resident ghost in Scotland."
MacTavish's presence has been seen seventeen times since 1965 in the main hall either walking from one side to the other or standing by the side of the huge fireplace where his meals were once cooked in a massive iron kettle. Described as an imposing six and a half feet tall and garbed in full Scottish armor and regalia with red hair and muttonchops, the active ghost has also been seen sans head walking past guests in corridors or leaving his decapitated head on the cutting table in the kitchen. He's been blamed for moving chairs, slamming immense oak doors, stomping up the winging staircases and moving furniture against bedroom doors to bar them from the inside. MacTavish has also been blamed for stealing things worth his interest: watches, cameras, silver cigarette holders and most recently, beepers, cell phones and I-pods. He's most known for screaming into the night, sometimes two to three times a week from anytime of the day or night, mostly surprising guests trying to sleep or housekeepers over laden with blankets.
"We had one guest who stayed here awhile back who had misplaced a cellular phone, and I think MacTavish was curious about it and wanted it." Ockham continues. "Meanwhile, our lady guest had searched her room for it, and had failed to find it. I finally suggested she try calling it and try tracing it by the ringing noise in the castle, so her traveling companion called the number to it, and the three of us heard a nearby chirping followed by a sudden "dunk" out in the hall. We looked, and her phone was located in the floor outside the study. It wasn't there before because they would have passed by it on the way to the dining room, but I kind of get the feeling we scared MacTavish into dropping it when we called it."
Besides stealing things, MacTavish at times has his favorite guests. While guests have to be invited to stay in the castle, all it takes for a return stay is a message to Lord Ockham's secretary to reserve a room. MacTavish himself seems to have taken a shine to several repeat guests including Mrs. Stephens who stays with Lord Ockham every time she travels to Scotland. Samantha has remarked that she has felt MacTavish's ghost lying next to her in bed and his shadow guarding her bedroom while she is showering. In 1986, a Irish businessman on his third stay in the castle found a dusty bottle of Scottish brandy in his room as he was heading to retire for the night. Thinking it was a gift of his genial host, Lord Ockham, he had a few drinks from the bottle as he drifted off that night. As he was preparing to leave the following day, he decided to thank Lord Ockham for his hospitality and the fine brandy.
"I'm not a drinking man, and I don't keep a lot of spirits." Ockham remarks. "He thanked me, and I appreciated the token of esteem, but I never left the bottle, and I didn't want to spook him, so I didn't say anything. I don't know where the brandy came from, but I have my suspicions."
As far as is known, MacTavish is the only known spirit in the castle. Guests claim to experience shadows, strange lights, sounds of conversation and other things in addition to footsteps and slamming doors, but Ockham is quite sure that their are no other ghosts. Samantha's in-laws aren't so sure.
Back in 1968, Samantha had arranged for her in-laws to take a British tour of Great Britain, culminating in a stay at MacTavish Castle. They both heard the screams echoing up through the main hall and the sound of someone trying to get into their locked room. Ockham insists on guests locking their doors to keep MacTavish from throwing them open. However, one actress staying as a guest here was changing clothes was caught and surprised in a scantily clad state by her slamming open. More annoyed by the recurring screams, Phyllis Stephens waited until they had abated to depart her room to ask her host for pain-killers to alleviate a headache. As she passed the library, she caught the ghostly images of two people talking in the library. One resembled MacTavish, the other resembled Samantha. As the image of her daughter-in-law vanished, MacTavish turned to seemingly verbally berate Phyllis, then faded away into the air himself....
Less than a hour later, Phyllis was on the phone to her daughter-in-law in Connecticut, and yet she swore to her deathbed that she saw Samantha in the castle that night in the Scottish Highlands.
History: Built possibly as early as the Twelfth Century, MacTavish Castle has had an isolated existence devoid of notable history despite invasions from Saxons, Normans and Danes. In the Fourteenth Century, Chieftain Daren the Bold of Munster held regular raids there and his grandson, Darin, used it for combat exercises. The location stood empty and deserted from 1748 to 1965 until Lord Constantius Ockham acquired legal custody of the property and restored it to its full original condition as a retreat in the Late Fifties. Shortly thereafter, he opened the location publicly, but as the ghost became popular, he stopped taking observations from people wanting to see the ghost and started accepting guests by screened invitation only.
Identity of Ghosts:
In life, Oenghus Lochlyn MacTavish (1084? – 1162?) was the reputed ancestral
patriarch of the Clan MacTavish. He was fallen by a battle arrow through his
neck, but it took eleven days to die as he slowly bled to death, an infection
finally taking his life. Days after his death, his raucous voice was heard
screaming from his chambers for his servants. It took years for rumors of his
death to be believed.
Source/Comments: Bewitched TV-Series (Episode: MacTavish"), Loosely compared to Stirling Castle in Stirling, Scotland, Castle Stuart in Inverness, Scotland, Fyvie Castle in Fyvie, Scotland and Carleton Castle in Girvan, Scotland.
Daren the Bold of Munster (15th Century) from Episode: "A Most Unusual Wood Nymph"
Darin the Bold (14th Century) from Episode: "The Return of Darren The Bold"