Hello and welcome to this fireside folklore episode of Stories of Scotland, where we are heading out to the inner Hebrides and visiting the most haunted castle on sky.

I'm Jenny, a drunken ghost.

And I'm Annie, a wailing ghoul.

And I'm really quite happy because this episode features a lot of my fellow spectral family.

So for once, it's not just our wailing being heard, but we're feeling really seen too.

Just a wee content warning that because this episode is about ghosts and a prerequisite to becoming a ghost is that you must have your life extinguished,

unfortunately this episode is mostly stories about death, so please listen

with care. On the far northern tip of sky, the ruins of a once great castle sit atop a rocky

outcrop that juts out into the wild waters of the minch. Ragged crumbling walls are slowly tumbling down the black cliffs into the waves below,

which surround the castle on three sides.

On the southern side, where the land is attached to the Isle of Sky,

runs a deep ditch, meaning that the castle that once stood here, Duntulm Castle,

was very well protected on all four sides.

The location is ideal for a defensive structure.

And though there hasn't been much research into the pre-castle past,

local accounts suggest that before the castle was here,

the site was originally home to a Pictish brooch.

Stories of this tall stone tower that would have looked like a big rocky beehive,

say that it was called Dan Gevy or Dund David.

And as with many significant coastal buildings that were standing at the end of the first millennium,

this would have definitely been a target for invading Vikings.

Yes, because although nowadays it seems very far removed from everywhere,

...