Wikipedia traces the story to a ballad called 'May or Mary Culzean', a local form of a ballad type known elsewhere in Britain in which a knight lures brides to a river or cliff and is killed by the last. A real John Cathcart of Carleton did exist, but he lived at Killochan Castle and had a wife named Helen Wallace, and no one can say how the murder legend came to be attached to his name.
The castle is a small ruined tower on the coast south of Girvan, reached from the A77. The haunting element is thin: the Mysterious Britain gazetteer says only that his screams have been heard echoing through the ruins.
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