Laura Wright 
Hermitage Castle
Few figures in Scottish history acquired a reputation quite as sinister as Lord William Soulis II.
Remembered as a cruel and oppressive landowner, Soulis became surrounded by stories of murder, black magic, demonic assistance, and almost unimaginable brutality. Over the centuries, history and folklore became so thoroughly intertwined that separating the man from the monster became increasingly difficult.
At the center of his legend stands Hermitage Castle, an ancient Scottish stronghold with a dark history of its own.
And according to one of the most enduring stories about Soulis, his reign of terror ended in an extraordinary manner.
He was wrapped in lead.
Placed inside a cauldron.
And boiled alive.
Who Was Lord William Soulis?
Lord William Soulis died in either 1320 or 1321.
He was the grandson of Nicholas de Soulis, one of the original 13 claimants to the Scottish crown, and was descended from an illegitimate daughter of Alexander II.
Soulis enjoyed a privileged early life that included service to England. He eventually became known as Lord William de Soules.
His possessions were extensive.
Soulis acquired lands in Liddesdale, Westerkirk, Kirkandrews, Dumfriesshire, Gilmertoun, Nisbet, Longnewton, Caverton, Maxtoun, and Mertoun.
Whatever his earlier life may have been, later tradition remembered him very differently.
The Scottish Gilles de Rais
As an adult, Soulis developed a reputation as a ruthless tyrant.
His cruelty became so legendary that he was sometimes called the “Scottish Gilles de Rais.”
Some of the stories attributed extraordinary acts of barbarity to him.
One legend claimed Soulis surgically connected servants to devices resembling yokes so they could be used to move heavy objects like beasts of burden.
He was also credited with the death of the Cout of Keeldar, a Northumberland warrior who had himself acquired a reputation as an oppressive baron of Tyndale.
According to the story, Soulis’s men held the Cout beneath the water with spears until he drowned.
But physical cruelty represented only part of Soulis’s reputation.
He was also accused of practicing the black arts.
Lord Soulis and Black Magic
Legend claimed Soulis used sorcery against anyone who dared oppose him.
He was also closely connected with the Scottish crown and may have desired it for himself.
Eventually, Soulis became involved in a conspiracy against King Robert the Bruce.
Accounts differ regarding his exact role. Some portray Soulis as the architect of the conspiracy, while others describe him as an accomplice in a scheme intended to place someone else upon the throne.
Whatever his involvement, the conspiracy proved disastrous for the Soulis family.
The family had played an important role in Scotland’s history.
After William’s downfall, it virtually disappeared from it.
“Boil Him, If You Please”
According to legend, reports of Soulis’s cruelty became so relentless that Robert the Bruce finally lost patience.
The king supposedly declared:
“Boil him, if you please, but let me hear no more of him.”
Legend claims that his subjects took the command quite literally.
A force of 360 knights and squires gathered to arrest Soulis.
But there was a problem.
How do you execute a sorcerer who cannot be killed?
The Invincible Sorcerer
Rumors claimed Soulis’s magic had made him nearly invulnerable.
Steel could not cut him.
Cord and hemp could not bind or hang him.
Water could not drown him.
His captors therefore devised a more elaborate method.
According to the legend, Soulis was wrapped inside a sheet of lead.
Pieces of the metal were supposedly taken from Bruce’s castle.
Soulis was then carried to Nine-stane Rig, also associated with the Nine Stone Circle.
There, a great cauldron was prepared.
And Lord William Soulis was supposedly boiled alive.
The Black Parliament
History offers a less supernatural version of Soulis’s downfall.
According to another account, Soulis was brought before Robert the Bruce, tried, and convicted of treason.
He lost his property and was sentenced to confinement for the remainder of his life.
The conspiracy involved numerous members of the nobility, and the resulting punishment was so extensive that the Parliament of 1320 became known as the Black Parliament.
Soulis died in either 1320 or 1321.
The historical account and the legendary version therefore lead to the same destination.
Lord Soulis disappeared from Scottish political life.
But folklore was only beginning with him.
The Curse of Hermitage Castle
Soulis’s most famous stronghold was Hermitage Castle.
According to legend, the evil committed there during Soulis’s lifetime permanently affected the building itself.
When Soulis died, part of the castle supposedly collapsed and sank into the earth.
There was also said to be a mysterious chamber inside the castle.
Its door possessed no key.
Once every seven years, the door opened by itself.
According to tradition, this was the room where Lord Soulis conducted his dealings with infernal powers.
The Key Thrown to the Demon
When Soulis was dragged away to his legendary execution, he supposedly took the key to the mysterious chamber and threw it over his left shoulder.
The key was given to a demon.
No human being would possess it again.
The mysterious room was eventually identified as part of the castle dungeon.
But Soulis’s supposed dealings with supernatural forces involved more than a hidden chamber.
He was also said to possess a familiar.
Robin, the Familiar in Red
Soulis’s supernatural companion was called Robin.
Robin appeared in the form of a man dressed in red.
The creature supposedly assisted Soulis with his occult practices.
Tradition also claimed that Soulis had learned the black arts from the famous Scottish warlock Michael Scot.
Over time, these stories helped transform a medieval nobleman accused of treason and cruelty into something considerably darker:
A sorcerer protected by infernal forces.
Was William Soulis Really a Monster?
The full story may never be known.
Even the historical reputation for extreme cruelty presents difficulties.
Another member of the family, Sir Rannulf de Soules of Liddel, was reportedly murdered by his own servants nearly a century earlier because of his cruelty.
It is therefore possible that stories surrounding different members of the Soulis family became confused over generations.
William Soulis may have inherited more than property and a family name.
He may also have inherited someone else’s legends.
The Ballad of Lord Soulis
Stories of Soulis survived in poetry and song.
One surviving version describes his legendary execution:
“On a circle of stones, they placed the pot,
On a circle of stones, but barely nine,
They heated it red, and fiery hot,
Till the burnished brass did glimmer and shine.“They rowed him up in a sheet of lead,
A sheet of lead for his funeral pall,
They plunged him into the cauldron red,
And melted him, lead, bones, and all.”
The terrible death of Lord Soulis became inseparable from the folklore surrounding the place most closely associated with him.
Hermitage Castle.
The Mysteries of Hermitage Castle
Hermitage Castle possesses mysteries extending far beyond William Soulis.
There is not even a definitive record establishing exactly when the castle was constructed.
Some accounts credit Rannulph de Soulis, an ancestor of William, with building it around 1244.
Others suggest Walter Comyn, Earl of Monteith, constructed the castle during the early thirteenth century.
That theory presents problems because the de Soulis family had occupied the region since the reign of David I of Scotland. It would mean the Earl of Monteith constructed a castle on de Soulis property.
Another tradition credits Nicholas de Soulis with building the castle around 1240.
What Was There Before Hermitage Castle?
Some obscure records suggest a family dwelling existed on the land before the castle.
The settlement was called Clintwood.
An abbey was also reportedly established in the area during the time of Prince Henry in 1152.
Whatever its precise beginnings, Hermitage Castle had become important by the middle of the thirteenth century.
Established records identify it as one of the reasons Henry III invaded Scotland in 1244.
A Castle That Couldn’t Keep an Owner
Hermitage Castle developed an unusual pattern throughout its history.
Owners repeatedly lost it.
Some died.
Others fell into disgrace.
Several were murdered.
Again and again, ownership of the property returned to the Crown.
William’s father, John de Soulis, served as guardian of Scotland for the English king between 1302 and 1304.
Hermitage was eventually granted to the English knight Sir John Wake.
Wake died in 1300, and the Crown once again gained control of the property, much to the distress of his widow, Joan.
In 1306, she lost the property to William Soulis, although records state that she received compensation.
The castle’s bloody history continued long after Soulis was gone.
Alexander Ramsay and the Dungeon
In 1342, Sir William Douglas captured Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie.
Ramsay was imprisoned inside part of the dungeon at Hermitage Castle while still astride his horse.
Then he was abandoned.
Both the man and the animal were left to starve to death.
Douglas was sometimes called the “Flower of Chivalry,” although the title referred to his abilities as a knight rather than any reputation for romantic behavior.
Centuries later, the chamber was reportedly rediscovered.
The bones and sword remained where they had rested since the crime occurred.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Another famous figure eventually became connected with Hermitage Castle.
Mary, Queen of Scots, reportedly traveled there to meet a wounded man who has often been described as her lover.
The romantic interpretation was later challenged by Sir Walter Scott, who became an important authority on the history and folklore surrounding Hermitage.
Scott argued that claims of an illicit meeting were intended to defame Mary.
According to this interpretation, the queen was attempting to learn what had happened to one of her most important lieutenants after he was ambushed by a freebooter known as Elliot of the Dark.
Hermitage Falls Into Ruin
After the reign of James I, Hermitage Castle gradually deteriorated.
Eventually, the great fortress became a ruin.
Sir Walter Scott later helped draw attention to the importance of preserving the site for future generations.
Then, in 1806, something remarkable was discovered inside the castle.
The Key in the Dungeon
The Duke of Buccleuch was clearing accumulated debris from the dungeon in 1806.
Among the rubbish, he discovered an enormous and ornate metal key.
The key was badly rusted.
By then, the legend of Soulis and his mysterious chamber had been circulating for centuries.
People naturally wondered whether the object could be the key Soulis had supposedly thrown away when he was dragged from Hermitage to his execution.
There was no way to know.
But the discovery gave physical form to one of the castle’s oldest legends.
Is Hermitage Castle Haunted?
Hermitage Castle accumulated centuries of violence, political intrigue, imprisonment, murder, and legend.
It also developed a reputation for being haunted.
Among the spirits reportedly associated with the fortress is the ghost of Mary, Queen of Scots.
But the shadow of William Soulis remains particularly difficult to escape.
His supposed chamber was there.
His familiar supposedly appeared there.
His black magic was practiced there.
And according to legend, the evil committed during his lifetime was so great that the castle itself partially sank into the earth when he died.
Lord Soulis and the Hermitage
The difficulty with the story of William Soulis is determining where history ends and folklore begins.
There was a William Soulis.
He possessed extensive lands.
He became involved in a conspiracy against Robert the Bruce.
The Black Parliament occurred.
Soulis fell from power.
Hermitage Castle existed and acquired a long history of violence and tragedy.
Around those events grew something much darker.
Soulis became an invulnerable sorcerer.
A demon guarded the key to his secret chamber.
Robin in red served as his familiar.
Hundreds of men were required to capture him.
And because ordinary weapons supposedly could not kill him, his enemies wrapped him in lead and boiled him alive upon a circle of stones.
Perhaps some of those stories belonged to another Soulis.
Perhaps generations of retelling transformed a brutal medieval nobleman into a supernatural monster.
Or perhaps the legend simply provided a fitting villain for a castle whose later history would contain more than enough bloodshed of its own.
Either way, Lord William Soulis and Hermitage Castle became inseparable in Scottish folklore.
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