As you would expect from a Highland Inn, there are many stories attached to the Old North Inn.

Whisky
One relates to the days when many of the highlanders made their own whisky, which was strictly against the law. The Inn was a well-known haunt of smugglers and illicit whisky makers and as such was often visited by the excise men whose job it was to stamp out the practice. They often lay in wait nearby and tried to ambush the lawbreakers with varying degrees of success.

One evening they were lucky enough to intercept a large cask of illegal whisky and as it was getting late decided to spend the night at the Inn. They took a room on the first floor and in order to safe guard their confiscated goods took the cask upstairs to their room for safekeeping.

During the night the smugglers came to the Inn and being acquainted with the serving maid persuaded her to tell them where the whisky was being stored. They then drilled a hole in the ceiling and drained the whisky into another cask. In the morning the excisemen found to their horror that the cask was empty and they had nothing to show for their endeavours except for an empty cask.

Risen from the Dead
Another tale tells of the days when dead bodies were much in demand by doctors anxious to study the human condition at first hand. Two worthies managed to obtain a fresh corpse from the Wardlaw Cemetery and loaded it on their horse and cart to take away and deliver to their client. It being a very hot day the hard working chaps felt that they deserved a small refreshment at the Inn – but what to do with corpse?

They decided to sit the deceased on the seat of their horse-drawn wagon and dressed it in a coat and hat. They then repaired to the Inn for their well earned glass of ale.

The local magistrate passed and noticing something was a little bit amiss decided to investigate. He soon realised what was going on and removed the corpse from the wagon and took its place on the seat complete with coat and hat. The two grave robbers came out of the Inn and climbed aboard to continue their journey not noticing the switch.

After a short time one said to the other ‘Is it my imagination or is this body still warm’ – whereupon the ‘corpse’ exclaimed ‘you would be warm too if you had to sit out in this sun with not a drop to drink’

Needless to say the two fine fellows didn’t wait around to make conversation and disappeared as fast as their legs could carry them.

The magistrate went back to the Inn and returned the corpse to the cemetery. The horse and cart were advertised locally for sale but not surprisingly the previous owners didn’t stake their claim.

Ghostly Presence
Most ghosts in Scottish Inns are hundreds of years old but the ghost at the Old North Inn is a relatively new one. The story goes that one of the previous owners who spent many happy years at the Inn in the last century reluctantly decided to sell up as he was no longer capable of keeping things running to his satisfaction. The day before he was due to move out he died at the top of the main stairs suddenly, of natural causes and on occasion around the anniversary of his death his restless spirit is said to roam the Inn at night.