Castle McClair

There wasn’t a lot of the Castle left,

A couple of Towers, and Keep,

Most of the walls had fallen in

To a courtyard, full of sheep.

It stood up high on a Scottish hill

Now all enclosed by a farm,

But once there was always blue-blood there,

Brought in by its Highland charm.

It ruled all over the countryside

That it mastered, looking down, 

Bolstered by the power of a Laird

With a royal court and a clown,

The Laird was a noble, Ralph McClair,

And his wife, a Lady Ann,

A beauty brought from the Western Isles

But from quite a different clan.

The clown was a kinsman, Rod McBain

Who’d been held from a local feud,

At court he’d been made to entertain

For the peace that his kinsmen sued.

They never ceased to humiliate

McBain for his royal blood,

And dressed him in bells and motley there,

Simply because they could.

From what one knows, as the story goes

When McClair rode far and wide,

Taxing the poorest peasants there

For the sake of his royal pride,

It came one day he returned, they say,

To discover his Lady Ann,

In flagrante delicto in

The arms of a naked man.

The man just happened to be McBain

Who was seized, and his features spoiled,

They ripped the flesh from his back and dropped

Him into a cask of oil,

The oil was heated to boiling point

Till his screams rang out, and loud,

While she was naked, paraded there

In front of the courtyard crowd.

His screams and cries and the lady’s sighs

Ate into the castle walls,

And that they say is the only way

To explain the stonework falls,

A fungus grew in the mortar there

And destroyed the Castle McClair,

And as I say, if you go today

You will see the result right there.

For up on that distant Scottish height

You will see the remains of love,

Especially when the Northern Lights

Light up the sky from above,

For stones still fall from the Towers and Keep,

At night, and in winter rain,

And crash down into the courtyard, but

Sounding like screams of pain.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

Wonderful tale written my friend. You create place of mystery leading the reader to demented ending. Thank you David for sharing the outstanding poetry.
Coyote

[TPK Stories]

Wonderful story love the vivid scenery you paint with your words.

[Einstein Noodle]

i love those castles and the Scots ..and the hauntings that are always afoot ..fun read sir! it puts me right there as it happens ..poor poor McBain :((
E.