According to the legend, Jean Douglas, youngest daughter of William Douglas, Earl of March, was forbidden to marry the son of the laird of Tushielaw because he was thought below her rank. She pined while her lover was sent away. When he eventually returned, she was so wasted that he did not know her, and she died of a broken heart. Walter Scott wrote a poem, The Maid of Neidpath, on the tale.
Her apparition is described as wearing a full length brown dress with a large white collar. A Borders roundup lists Neidpath for the maid, with doors opening and closing themselves, objects moving and unexplained noises. Another castle ghost list describes only a pale woman in white who died of heartbreak over forbidden love, so the clothing varies between accounts. Neidpath is a fourteenth century tower house on a rock over the Tweed, west of Peebles.
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