Traditions and stories of Scottish castles

One of the chief peculiarities of the Celtic nations is their fondness for local traditions. Every ruined Keep or dismantled Tower throughout the Highlands has some marvellous tale or romantic incident connected with it, which is lovingly preserved and handed down from generation to generation with undoubting faith and pious care, worthy sometimes of a better cause. The poetical cast of the Celtic mind throws around the most ordinary events a halo of romance which renders attractive many localities that would be otherwise uninteresting; and even the shrewdly practical Lowland mind, when brought under the influence of the spell, cannot entirely resist the glamour of the times that are gone, or remain indifferent to the tales of love and war, which are sanctified by their removal for several centuries.