AN: Unless stated otherwise, all images in this article are my own, taken with either my Canon EOS 400D, my EOS 1200D or my Google Pixel phone.

Introduction

Just a quick write up for today. I’ve been wanting to do some research on the local legends of my area for a while. The paranormal has always been a key interest for me, as far back as I remember. I was a weird kid who’d talk the ears off my parents about grey aliens and shadow people. Truth is, I haven’t changed one bit. If I have a drink in me and you so much as mention the supernatural, prepare for the floodgates to open as I gush about the subject and recount all these random cases I’ve read about over the years.

There’s a lot of weird things that go on in Scotland. I’m from the Ayrshire area, and we have our share of UFO sightings, cryptids, curses and ghost stories. I want to write some pieces on a selection of these cases in the future.

I’ve witnessed some of these ghost stories play out first hand. Around 2011–2012, I was actually part of a small paranormal investigation team. We were amateurs, but we were so passionate about experiencing the unknown. We’d go out in the middle of the night with K2 meters, cameras, EVP recorders — the whole shebang, as much as we could afford to purchase. If I can find copies of the images and recordings, I’ll do some write-ups on it.

Unfortunately, I was spooked away from the paranormal for a long time by a specific place: Loudoun Kirk, and don’t worry — I’ll be writing about that in the future. But for now, let’s talk about my hometown.

I’m very fortunate to live where I live. Sure, Kilmarnock is a grey town well past its prime — it’s a place covered in graffiti, litter, where gangs of youths rule the streets now — but it wasn’t always like that. 

There’s a lot of beauty in the town, believe it or not. Stunning architecture in places like the Palace Theatre, the Dick Institute, or the recently built Ayrshire College, or even just the majesty of nature found right on our doorstep, there’s a lot to be grateful for.

It’s incredible that I live in a place where a castle is literally within ten minutes of walking distance from my home. That’s no exaggeration. I often feel like people in this town take their location for granted. We have a lot of beauty and so much nature around us, and yet, people focus on the dingy town centre. In winter, the castle is lit up with projectors, and stalls serve hot cocoa and mince pies. It’s beautiful.

But we’re not going to talk about the beauty of the castle today. No. Instead, we’re going to dive into one of the area’s most commonly discussed ghost stories: that of the Earl of Kilmarnock’s head.

A Short History Lesson

The land on which the castle stands was gifted by Robert the Bruce to the Boyd family to show his gratitude for their aid at the Battle of Bannockburn. According to sources, construction of the castle commenced in 1350. Over the centuries, structures have been added including the gatehouse which was completed in 1936, after the ownership of the castle transferred to the 8th Lord Howard de Walden. It was later gifted to the people of Kilmarnock in 1975.

According to Ayrshire And Arran, in 1745, the Earl of Kilmarnock, William Boyd, joined the Jacobite rebellion but was unfortunately executed in London for treason. I’m not sure what happened to his body, but rumour has it that his head was taken back to Dean Castle and is still kept in a chest in the castle grounds.

Worth a mention here is that famous poet, Robert Burns, who also has a myriad of ties to the town, also joined the Jacobite uprising alongside the Earl. To this day, our shopping mall is called The Burns Mall, for example.

But what were the Jacobite uprisings? In a nutshell, it was a political movement in Scotland during the 18th century that aimed to restore an exiled Scottish Catholic family to the British throne. The Stuarts had been replaced by a protestant family but not all motivation to overthrow them was religious.

Many supporters of the Jacobite movement saw this political turmoil as a potential way to take back Scottish sovereignty from the English. The Jacobite uprisings and the Scottish Independence movement are linked, but it’s important to note that they’re not the same.

But just from that little bite-sized snippet of background, it’s easy to imagine that with 673 years of history, a place like this is bound to have some darkness lurking beneath the surface.

It’s worth looking into the Boyd family more deeply. It’s a dark tale of politics, feuds, bloody battles and alliances with Kings. It even involves the more well-known figures in Scottish history, such as William Wallace, and, as mentioned above, Robert the Bruce.

The Earl of Kilmarnock

It’s no wonder this is the main story that people whisper about whenever Dean Castle is mentioned. After all, bloody battles and unjust executions are the bread and butter of a restless spirit.

When a person’s belief is something is so strong, it’s entirely possible that they can’t let go, even in death. It’s a common line of thinking in the realms of the paranormal that unfinished business or a feeling of injustice can cause a spirit to remain trapped in our world. As the rivers of time flow, these people cannot finish their business and thus find themselves in a lonely limbo.

I won’t delve into the Jacobite Rebellion past what I mentioned prior  but I can only imagine how outraged and unjust the Earl of Kilmarnock must have felt to be captured and executed in London of all places for the crime of wanting a free people. Of course, there will be more to it than that — as I said, I don’t know the full story of the Jacobites — but just that factor alone would be enough to make any vengeful spirit linger.

However, perhaps the Earl’s reasoning for joining the Jacobites wasn’t as cut and dried as a shared belief in Scottish sovereignty. It’s known that his father fought against the Jacobites and that the Earl himself had written letters where he claimed his decision to join the rebellion would cause a financial gain for his family (he was in debt). So there’s every chance his spirit is regretful at his decision.

It’s no surprise then that stories surfaced from visitors and workers in the castle of the Earl’s head. According to Paranormal Database, the first known report of this came from a servant while the Earl was still alive. In a terrifying omen of death, she claimed to have witnessed his bloody severed head rolling across the floors in front of her, despite the Earl being on the castle grounds. It’s reported that it was exactly a year later that he would be executed and his head transported back to the castle. This woman somehow saw this before history had unfolded. The irony of it all is that the rolling head is exactly what the Earl feared upon learning of his probable coming execution. He arranged for friends to catch his head with a sheet.

Stories like this aren’t uncommon. In fact, visions of death can happen days, weeks or even years before the event actually occurs. In fact, there may even be a scientific basis for such events. A 2021 article in The Guardian newspaper details a phenomenon called ‘quantum entanglement’. It’s better if I quote the author, Amelia Tait, directly.

“Quantum entanglement — nicknamed “spooky action at a distance” by Albert Einstein — describes the (proven) phenomenon of two spatially separated particles influencing each other, even over large distances. While the phenomenon is subatomic, academics such as Josephson have theorised that quantum entanglement could explain phenomena like telepathy and psychokinesis.”

 Tait, 2021.

Interestingly, the servant isn’t the only such story of the same event. Over the decades, there have been whispers of similar accounts, but none with dates or corroborating testimony to back them up.

So what exactly is quantum entanglement and the premonition theory? In spirituality, it’s the theory that everything is interconnected, so it would make sense for visions of the future to occur, since the future, past and present are all part of the same wheel. Maybe sometimes the wheel spins a little faster in some places and glitches happen. It reminds me of the Mandela Effect, in which people often firmly believe historical events happened an entirely different way than they actually played out.

Conclusion

Well, like every good ghost story, there’s nary a crumb of evidence or times where multiple witnesses can back each other’s stories up. It’s a strange one. The only real evidence we have is a letter the Earl of Kilmarnock himself wrote to a friend detailing the servant’s tale of the apparition. It’s one of those rare supernatural historical cases where we have a primary source rather than a myriad of ‘he said, she said’, ‘friend of a friend’ type testimony.

There’s an eerie irony that our main evidence comes from the man himself who would one day fall victim to the very vision described by his servant.

It’s easy to write the entire story off as a misunderstanding. Perhaps the servant saw something perfectly natural that had fallen and rolled by, and perhaps in dim light she mistook it for something else. But the report unsettled the Earl so much that he thought to record it in ink. The fact that he would die in this exact manner almost a year to the date later is eerie.

Apparently, his head is still kept in the Dean Castle tower, so there’s every chance more sightings will surface as the years go on. But for now, it’s hard to find modern testimony. Certainly an interesting slice of my town’s history and definitely a case that gives me pause for thought.

References

Ayrshire & Arran. “Dean Castle.” [Online]. Available: https://ayrshireandarran.com/dean-castle/

Future Museum. “William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock (1704–1746).” [Online]. Available: http://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/collections/people/key-people/soldiers,-sailors,-rebels-outlaws/william-boyd-the-4th-earl-of-kilmarnock/william-boyd,-4th-earl-of-kilmarnock-%281704-1746%29.aspx

Parks and Gardens UK. “Dean Castle, Kilmarnock, Scotland.” [Online]. Available: https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/dean-castle

The Guardian. “Premonitions that turn out to be true: is there science to explain them?” [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/23/premonitions-that-turn-out-to-be-true-is-there-science-to-explain-them-amelia-tait

Further Reading

East Ayrshire Leisure. “The Truth Behind The Boyd Curse”. [Online video]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c94DlfPSk7Q&ab_channel=eastayrshireleisure

David Tallerman’s Blog. “Guest Post: The Headless Earl of Dean Castle.” [Online]. Available: https://davidtallerman.blogspot.com/2019/01/guest-post-headless-earl-of-dean-castle.html

Electric Scotland. “Chapter XV: The Battle of Prestonpans – The Jacobites.” [Online]. Available: https://electricscotland.com/history/jacobites/chapter15.htm

Archaic Wonder. “Death Omen at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock, Scotland.” [Online]. Available: https://archaicwonder.tumblr.com/post/72372411351/death-omen-at-dean-castle-kilmarnock-scotland.