The Art of Staying at a Historic and (Possibly) Haunted Hotel
Britain – the county where the first purpose-built inn (the Old Bell Hotel at Malmesbury) dates back to year 1220 - is full of historic places to stay. We Brits often tend to take them for granted, very much unlike, say, Australians (and I am a carrier of both British and Australian passports) who treasure and revere every building older than 100 years as part of their heritage. My latest stay at one such notable British hotel – Rockhall Tower in Dumfries – has prompted a short 'How to' manual for those who want to get the most out of their stay in similar places, where one is surrounded by and can interact with History.
Make sure you approach the building slowly – to allow yourself to imbibe the surrounding landscape.
As we drove unhurriedly towards Rockhall up the little road off the motorway to Dumfries through fields, grazing livestock and trees, I kept imagining that I was an armoured medieval knight astride a thoroughbred stallion, (with an unlikely name Toyota), who has just eloped with a beautiful maiden (my wife) and is on his way to the near-by village of Gretna on the border with England, where they could quickly formalise their marital union. And here it was at last – a tall castle-like L-shaped mansion, rebuilt and further fortified in 1690, with turrets and embrasure-shaped windows. It pounced at us in all its Spartan beauty after another sharp road turn...
2.Try to get a room on the top floor of the house from where you can get a proper perspective of the place – not just in space but also in time.
We were lucky to be staying in a bright and airy room under the roof of the castle (sorry, hotel), from where we had panoramic views of the long-suffering England/Scotland "Border Country", which H V Morton described as a ''queer compromise between fairyland and battlefield''. The 5-star view we could admire (through the binoculars, kindly provided by Kirsty and Callum Rose, the Rockhall owners) had no reminders of the battles: just fluffy hills, green-and-yellow fields, and – felt, if not quite seen somewhere in the distance – the white-capped ripples of the open sea of the Solway Firth.
3. As you walk to your room up the grand staircase, take your time to absorb the hotel's long bio step by step and layer by layer.
In Rockhall, the historical ascent begins from the basement, now housing a wine-cellar, yet formerly concealing an 'Oubliette' - the cell where prisoners used to be left to be forgotten until they died... Or, more likely, it was just a 'regulation' dungeon, where Sir Robert Grierson, the First Baronet of Lag, the persecutor of Covenanters (supporters of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland) and the most 'famous' Rockhall dweller (he was the prototype of one of the heroes of Sir Walter Scott's novel 'Redgauntlet'), remembered for his ruthlessness and lack of mercy, interrogated his prisoners.
Starting with the ground floor, where breakfast is now served informally in a friendly dining room with vaulted ceiling and a huge wooden square table in the middle, Rockhall's history brightens up with every floor reminding the guests of the times of Elizabeth Crichton –a direct antipode of Grierson. Born at Rockhall in1779, she was an open-natured enlightener and philanthropist, who founded the Crichton 'Institute for Lunatics', which, due to its pioneering methods of mental illness treatment, eventually acquired royal status and was considered until very recently (it closed in 2013) to be the best in Europe. As if reflecting Elizabeth's cheerful, engaging and perennially young personality, the walls along the grand staircase are decorated with quirky and joyfully eclectic paintings, masks and cushions. Old houses do reflect the spirit (I mean the soul) of their dwellers – past and present.
4. Befriend the building's ghosts (if any), but do not rush to take selfies with them.
An old hotel without a ghost is like a wedding without a wedding cake (the wedding association is not accidental here: there is a 1720 Grierson 'wedding stone' in the grounds of Rockhall which makes it a popular venue for modern newlyweds on way to and from Gretna - only joking). And Rockhall is not an exception: it does preserve not just the soul, but, indeed, the spirits (read phantoms) of the past. If only just a couple...
As we make our way through the front doors, we are welcomed by the figurine of a little monkey, with a fez atop his head. It represents the pet of Sir Robert Grierson, who like many a tyrant, while secretly hating all humans, had a strong – almost unhealthily strong – attachment to his pet, a rather naughty and obstreperous little Simian, whose name history did not preserve – unlike the creature's nasty disposition (don't pets always resemble their owners?), manifesting itself in snatching kitchen utensils and other objects from the servants. To make it worse, he (the monkey) was in the habit of blowing a whistle when demanding attention, i.e. every five seconds. His whistling was driving everyone mad. Little wonder that one day the fez-sporting monkey was 'accidentally' killed by a cook while trying to nick something from the basement kitchen. As a Rockhall legend goes, one can still hear some muffled whistling in the mansion's dark corridors on some nights. At times, the whistling is followed by the sound of old floorboards squeaking – probably under the gouty ectoplasmic feet of Grierson, looking for his beloved pet...
So please be gentle to your old hotel's peaceful ghosts, for they help to shape the unique character of the place. As it was brilliantly expressed by Henry Longfellow in one of my all-time favourite poems:
"All houses in which men have lived and died
Are haunted houses: through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide
With feel that make no sound upon the floors.
We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.
There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
As silent as the pictures on the wall…"
*****
Modern Rockhall has its own – flesh-and-blood (and -bark), not ghostly – pets: two well behaved, yet playful, red fox Labradors named Rudi and Riley, who quickly became our Tibetan Terrier Tashi's best mates. They managed to lure Tashi briefly to a small picturesque lily-pond on the mansion's grounds, the adventure that had temporarily changed the colour of his coat - from black-and-white to dark-grey.
Staying at an old historic house changes and enriches one's life. As you see, even Tashi, our faithful pet, has succumbed to the transforming effect of Rockhall, which also proved a great base to explore the surrounding area. We visited Gretna, New Lanark and the quirky Scottish town of Moffat – where we had a drink in 'the world's narrowest (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) hotel', the Famous Star – quite a contrast with the larger-than-life hospitality and the boundless splendour of Rockhall.
It was difficult to tear ourselves away as we waved goodbye to Kirsty, Callum and the dogs - the sunshine bathing the grounds and highlighting this beautiful old house which was our home for a short time – with or without the ghosts.
Additional reporting and photography by Christine Bohling
Useful links:
Rockhall Tower, Collin, Dumfries, DG1 4JW
Tel: +44 (0)1387 750 751
South West Scotland Visitor Guide:
https://www.visitsouthwestscotland.com