The Bloody Hall in Nithsdale

A correspondent of the Year Book passed on a story well known in Nithsdale. In July or August 1745 a Highland regiment marching through the dale grew suspicious of the Duke of Buccleuch, forced its way into his castle and searched for him, but he had slipped out at the back. In revenge the soldiers drove oxen and sheep from the park into the great hall, and some sheep up to the ballroom, and slaughtered and feasted on them there until blood ran down the stairs. The stain was said to remain on the boards of a passage by the hall and could not be washed out; even when new boards were laid the blood showed through again, and the room was called the Bloody Hall ever after.