Curses & omens

The Prophecy That Kisimul Would Become a Cairn for Thrushes

Kisimul Castle (Caisteal Chiosmuil), Castlebay, Barra

Told of the founding feast; told after 1838

He was very reluctant, but on being promised no harm would come to him he said the castle would become a cairn for thrushes. This would happen when the Rattle Stone was found, when people worked at seaweed in Baile na Creige, Rock Town, a village far from the sea, and when deer swam over from Uist and were found on every dunghill in Barra. Campbell says all of this had happened and the castle was in ruins. Other tellers gave different signs: a ship with blue wool, a blind man coming ashore unaided, and a ground officer with big fingers who would measure Barra with an iron string. A ship laden with blue cloth was wrecked on the island, a blind man was said to have escaped, and the officer's fingers were big as bottles, and Barra was surveyed and sold.

Kisimul was abandoned in 1838 when the island was sold, and was bought and restored by Robert Lister MacNeil from 1937. The story fits those dates but is told after the event, so the prophecy cannot be treated as evidence.

Formerly visited by boat from Castlebay; closed to visitors for structural conservation.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
No public access
Location
56.952, -7.487 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: John Gregorson Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1900), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]; Wikipedia, "Kisimul Castle" [other]

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