This post is submitted to Friday Fictioneers.
The old stone Abbey loomed up suddenly through the early morning mist. A cold chill suddenly made my bones feel brittle. I knew I had been here before. Long before.
A shape stepped out of the dark so close in front of me that I nearly bumped into it.
“Tis me, my lad” a voice called. “Ye be a tad late I’m afraid. The battle is long over. But your great grandfather stood his ground until they kilted him. He fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie until a Redcoat thrust a bayonet through his heart. All Scotland loves the McKenzie Clan.”
Oh Danny Boy! 
Great ghost story, very vivid, makes the past come alive in a spooky way.
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Believable, especially if one is familiar with the history. Fitting.
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How lucky the ghost was on his side!
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Indeed! Thanks for stopping by.
DJ
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Enjoyable read.
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Oops, sorry, I over-commented on Neil’s comment.
I enjoyed the story very much.
I visited Culloden (and Glenfinnan) on a recent visit to Scotland and found it as eerily tragically spookily heart-rendingly magical as ever.
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Just returned from Scotland myself. I also visited Culloden. The movie of the battle was moving.
DJ
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Perfect take on the prompt. Nicely done.
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As always it’s nice to here from you. I’ve been on vacation for over a month in Europe. Oee of the stops was in Scotland which was the basis of my story.
DJ
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Of the entries I’ve read fire this prompt, this one seems to fit the image the best. Well done.
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Thanks for the nice comment.
DJ
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So nice to be recognized, if only by a ghost.
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I am sure that I have distant relatives who were there as well. Well done on capturing the call of the past!
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I wonder, did the Bonnie Prince really fight for his nation? Or for his throne? By the way. “until they kilted him” should be killed
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“kilted”…was trying for the Celtic speech pattern..Thanks for commenting.
DJ
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“kilted” in Celtic speech would mean wearing a kilt
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Point taken.
DJ
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Far be it for me to contradict Neil, but on the west coast where I spent much of my youth ‘kilted’ was perfectly acceptable for killed.
And Charlie was undoubtedly there to reclaim the Jacobite throne, but there is nothing in the story to suggest otherwise, is there?
But I would disagree that all Scotland loves anyone, it was as divided in 1746 as it is today.
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Good story. I imagine some of my Stewart ancestors shed blood there too. 😦
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Same here!
DJ
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That’d be just like me, turning up 250 years late 🙂 I was at Culloden many years ago but didn’t get any “visits”. Maybe none of the clans my mum’s a mixture of were there…
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Well done! I think a person standing there at Culloden would get an almost supernatural feeling of the history.
Alas for me, I’ probably get clunked with a Claymore, seeing I’m a descendant of the traitorous lowland Scots.
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A fellow Jacobite are ya Lad?
DJ
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Oh, yet worse, I fear. My ancestors would have been classed as Sassenachs, coming to Scotland from England to grab an estate. 😦
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Oh dear. Your post got me interested in my own family tree again and I discovered that I’ve insulted my ancestors big time! They were Normans, not Saxons. Gr-gr-gr-etc-grandfather John de Vaux built Dirleton Castle on the Firth of Forth, starting about 1240. But they did come up from England.
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You never know what you will find in your family tree. I found newspaper articles describing how my great grandmother hung herself from a tree in her own back yard after her husband left her with 7 children.
DJ
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Now that’s a really sad story. But back then a lot of women just couldn’t get work that paid enough to buy food and pay rent. Factory jobs were often brutal. But the poor children!
My husband read about a Goodenough hung for treason back in “merry old England.” And I discovered my gr-grandfather had been press-ganged as a 9-yr-old in London. Jumped ship in Halifax four years later. The poor sometimes endured terrible suffering no matter where..
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I obviously love this one, It goes so well with mine 😉
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I now see why. Swear I never saw yours first. I just returned from Scotland so the pic was easy for me.
DJ
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Ha Ha! No worries. I think it’s kinda cool when things like this happen!
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Cool, very fitting for the picture.
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