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HAUNTED HIGHLANDS

Poltergeist rattling swords and pans at Scottish pub is ghost of man wrongly hanged for murder

Spooked staff fear the spirit of an 18th century killer James Stewart is rattling glasses, throwing pans and pushing over chairs

THE ghost of a wrongly-convicted murderer is reportedly haunting a Highlands pub spooking out staff.

Workers claim they've seen glasses being rattled, pans flying through the air and chairs falling over at the Old Inn in Appin, Argyll.

 Several staff at the Old Inn are convinced the pub is being haunted by a man infamously wrongly hanged for murder (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
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Several staff at the Old Inn are convinced the pub is being haunted by a man infamously wrongly hanged for murder (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
 The spooky goings on at the Highlands pub have included glasses being rattled and chairs pushed over claim workers  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
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The spooky goings on at the Highlands pub have included glasses being rattled and chairs pushed over claim workers  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
 The reason why staff suspect it is the ghost of James Stewart is because he drank in the pub and his trial was held there  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
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The reason why staff suspect it is the ghost of James Stewart is because he drank in the pub and his trial was held there  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
 Barman Allan Colthart, 19, revealed that "swords on the wall have rattled" without explanation, which they blame on the ghost of the 18th century man  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)
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Barman Allan Colthart, 19, revealed that "swords on the wall have rattled" without explanation, which they blame on the ghost of the 18th century man  (Moira Kerr/Daily Record)

Landlord Jim Milligan told  he fears the ghost of James Stewart is to blame.

Stewart, known as 'James of the Glen' shot dead estate factor Colin Campbell – The Red Fox – in Appin, Argyll, in 1752.

Jim, 43, who reopened the Old Inn in the village late last year, said: “We’re worried that it is the ghost of James of the Glen.

"He drank in the pub and evidence for the trial was given in the back room of the inn.”

Staff told the paper they have heard mysterious footsteps in an empty upstairs room and spotted a ghostly figure.

Motion cameras at the pub have been regularly activated, according to Jim, who plans to spend £10,000 on more hi-tech cameras to see if he can capture the ghost.

 

Jim said the first spooky goings-on began when staff heard a "sigh" and claims to have seen a mysterious figure "walking across the kitchen".

Barman Allan Colthart, 19, revealed that "swords on the wall have rattled and glasses have clanked together".

He added: "I was closing up one night and I heard three big thumps, like big footsteps."

Barmaid Lesley Moore, 49, also claimed that she witnesses the St Andrew's flag "fly up above the gantry".

The Appin Murder

The Appin Murder on May 14 1752 resulted in a notorious miscarriage of justice and happened after the Jacobite Rising of 1745.

This was a failed attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the throne, whiuch ended when Stuart and his band of Highland clansmen being crushed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

Colin Roy Campbell, 44, the government-appointed factor to the forfeited estates of the Stewart Clan in North Argyll, Scotland, was shot in the back by a marksman in the wood of Lettermore near Ballachulish.

The Jacobite Stewarts of Appin were blamed after being evicted on Cambell's orders.

The chief suspect was Allan Stewart (or Alan Breck Stewart) who fled.

His relative James Stewart, one of the last leaders of Stewarts, was arrested for the crime and tried for the murder.

Although it was clear at the trial he was not directly involved he was convicted of being an accessory and hanged. The case inspired the novel Kidnapped by Roert Louis Stevenson in 1886.

 



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