Ballechin House

Coordinates: 56°39′42.14″N 3°44′18.61″W / 56.6617056°N 3.7385028°W / 56.6617056; -3.7385028
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ballechin House pre-1964

Ballechin House was a

estate home near Grandtully, Perthshire, Scotland. It was built in 1806,[1] on the site of an old manor house which had been owned by the Steuart family since the 15th century.[2] This house, which stands in Ballechin Wood, is the subject for a popular local ghostlore
story.

History

In 1834 Major Robert Steuart (1806-1876)[3] inherited the house and rented it to tenants whilst he served in the Indian Army.[2]

Ghostlore

During his time in India, Steuart came to believe in

transmigration.[4] He returned to the house in 1850 and lived there with numerous dogs: he is reported to have stated that he would return in the form of a dog.[3][4] Major Steuart was unmarried, but local gossip linked his name with that of his much younger housekeeper who died there in 1873.[3][4] After the Major's death, the house was inherited by his nephew John Skinner who assumed the name Steuart.[5] Fearing that his uncle would reincarnate in the form of one of his dogs, the new owner reportedly shot them all.[4] From this story came the legend that Robert Steuart was forced to haunt the house as a disembodied spirit.[2] The first reported haunting at the house took place in 1876; the witness was a maid in the house.[2][6]

Society for Psychical Research investigation

In 1897 an investigation of the house was organized by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, with the assistance of paranormal researchers from the Society for Psychical Research.[2][6] Ballechin House was known as "The Most Haunted House in Scotland",[6][7] with several similarities to the Borley Rectory haunting, including the alleged apparition of a ghostly nun.[2] The team of investigators from the Society for Psychical Research included Colonel Lemesurier Taylor and the notorious Ada Goodrich Freer.[8][9] In 1899, The Alleged Haunting of B---- House by Crichton-Stuart and Freer was published, and serialised in The Times, containing a journal of the phenomena kept by Freer.[2]

J. Callender Ross who had stayed at the house stated in The Times that there was no evidence for any supernatural disturbances and considered the whole investigation to be fraudulent.[10] The SPR later removed material from a volume of their Proceedings on the investigation and denounced Freer. Psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers who was originally supportive of the investigation wrote in a letter to The Times he "greatly doubt[ed] whether there was anything supernormal" at the house.[11]

Trevor H. Hall revealed that Freer was an unreliable investigator, had deceived the SPR, plagiarised material and lied about her own life.[11][12]

Ballechin House was uninhabited by 1932, and most of the house was demolished in 1963, after a fire, leaving only the former servants quarters and outbuildings.

British East India Company and the Scottish Indian company Jardine Skinner, owned by John Skinner Steuart and the Jardine family.[citation needed
]

References

  1. ^ a b Graeme Virtue (31 October 1999). "Favourite haunts". The Sunday Herald.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Ballechin House". The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. Harper Element. 2006. p. 59.
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-85877-005-X
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Hall (1980) p.74
  5. ^ Hall (1980) p.100
  6. ^ a b c "The spirit of sanity". Scotland on Sunday. 9 March 1997.
  7. ^ Laura Miller (28 August 2006). "Ghost world". Salon.com.
  8. ^ Price, Harry. (1945). Poltergeist Over England. Country Life. p. 224
  9. ISBN 978-90-382-1340-8
    .
  10. ^ "The 'unhaunted' Ballechin House". Perthshire Diary.
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4094-2720-9
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1-4549-1654-3

Further reading

External links

56°39′42.14″N 3°44′18.61″W / 56.6617056°N 3.7385028°W / 56.6617056; -3.7385028

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