Hell’s Most Loyal Laird

The Southwest of Scotland saw some of the worst suppression of Covenanters. They were people who wanted to freely worship as Presbyterians rather than follow the orders of the Episcopalian Church. One man took more delight than any others in punishing those secretly worshipped in the hills and glens. His name was Robert Grierson, the Laird of Lag.

Lag was said to be a man without a single redeeming quality, ruthless with his judgement and swift with his actions. One old man appealed to his merciful side, asking for just a moment to pray before his execution. Lag exclaimed that surely, he’d spent plenty of time praying in the hills already, before shooting him dead.

People believed that a man so evil must have sold his soul to the Devil and wild stories began to spread. When Lag eventually lay on his deathbed, he asked to bathe his feet in cold water. As soon as they were immersed, it immediately started to boil with an infernal heat.

Lag’s funeral procession was even followed by an unnaturally large raven as if the Devil was keeping an eye on him. He was hated so much by the locals that years after his death, people would dress up as the Laird of Lag around Halloween to play tricks and scare the children.

A later legend claimed that on the day the unpopular laird died, a strange storm whipped up in the Solway Firth. As one ship was trying to sail towards safety, the crew noticed a strange ship overtaking them. It turned out not to be a ship at all, but a dark coach pulled by half a dozen black horses with a hooded coachman. The skipper called out to ask where it was heading and where it had come from.

The reply came “To meet with Lag, Dumfries! From Hell!”