The Phantom Nun of Auchanachie

From The Illustrated London News
Christmas Number, 1957.

Illustrations by Alastair Flattely

Auchanachie, Aberdeenshire, where the spiral staircase is walked upon by a phantom nun - a long defrauded Gordon heiress of the property. Auchanachie house, a fine house contemporary with Crathes (A Castle in Kincardineshire), bears over the door the inscription, "From Our Enemies Defende Us O Christ 1594." It contains a fine spiral staircase and an enormous chimney, and was built by a branch of the Gordon family.

Some ghost stories are such obviously good stories that their credibility is suspect, they seem "man-made"; others are so tenuous, so inconclusive that they gain credibilty thereby, on the argument that no one would be bothered to make them up. Auchanachie, an old house in Aberdeenshire, has a fine spiral staircase and several vaulted rooms, one of which, a small room with three carved stone pendentives, is called "the nunnery".

There is a tradition that this room and this staircase are haunted by mysterious footfalls; and that the ghost is a woman dressed as a nun. Traditionally, too, this woman is Elizabeth Gordon, who was born in 1733 but whose death (some time after 1801) is unrecorded. At a very early age she was placed by her father in a French convent; and soon afterwards the father died. The knowledge of Elizabeth's existence was concealed by an unscrupulous relative, who entered into the inheritance.

After many years a man on the run for killing another in a drunken brawl heard her story and, in spite perhaps, or to gain favour, told of her continued existence, in misery and poverty, after many years in the convent. As a result and after a lawsuit in 1783, Elizabeth Gordon came into her rights, and returned to Auchanachie until 1801, when she left and "was never heard of or seen again" - at all events in the flesh.

A recently uncovered update to this story...

Nancy McKidd sends this little tidbit:

"It may interest you to know that we belong to the Gordon clan. Between Huntly and Keith there is a very old home (supposedly haunted) called Auchanachie...Funnily enough, the lovely old lady who is our organist at St. Marnan's Episcopal Church in Aberchirder, lives there. She tells me that over the door is the date 1455 but maintains that there are parts of the house older than that."

"It is said that the Duke of Gordon from Huntly Castle had his 2 illegitimate sons (George and John) living there - a convenient distance from the family seat. It is generally thought that the brothers adopted the name of the place, a common practise in 15th century life."

© 2003 Bruce L. Pollock, all rights reserved.
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