Cawdor Castle

The castle stands a few miles from Nairn. It was built in 1370 and became a seat of the Campbell family around 1510—11. Cawdor Castle is the haunt of a female ghost who is a woman with no hands. The ghost does not date from the early times but from the first half of the nineteenth century not long after the head of the family became entitled to call himself Earl of Cawdor. It is thought that the ghost was once the daughter of an Earl of Cawdor who found herself smitten with a young man from a rival family. The Earl of Cawdor discovered the secret romance when he came upon the sweethearts one day in their secret meeting place. The Earl was infuriated by his daughter’s treachery. He cut her hands off with his
sword so that she might never embrace her lover again.

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