IN BRIMS CASTLE

I was taken thro’ Brims Castle,
I stood in its turrets high,
And I heard the summer breeze
Around it softly sigh.

And the soft swish of the salt sea
In its ceaseless ebb and flow
Advancing and receding
On the shingle down below.

And we spoke about the ancient
Days that had been of old,
And mentioned weird, wild legends
That would make your blood run cold.

Spoke of ships and of shipwrecks
That happened there of yore,
When the wild storms of winter
With wreckage bestrewed the shore.

Then in the conversation
That was between him and me
A pause came, while we listened
To the rhythmic sound of the sea.

And the ceaseless swish of the waters
On the polished pebble-stones,
The sigh of the briny breezes,
And the ocean’s monotones.

Our thoughts far away in the old days
Were back in the long ago
With the dead who have gone the journey
That the living have to go.

From cellar unto turret
He took me through it all,
By ancient well worn stone stairs,
And lichened moss-grown wall.

The spell of the past was upon us
And dreams of what used to be,
As we stood in the Castle turrets
And listened to the sound of the sea.

To the tenant of the Castle
A goblet to-day I drain,
Well may he be, and happy,
And long in it may he reign.

H Henderson, “Bard of Reay”

July 24^th, 1909.

Mr and Mrs Begg outside Brims Castle,
Mrs Begg is wearing the same top as in
the photograph that my grandfather took! (see above)

A family group outside Brims Castle

Brims Castle, 1909 - 1910