In November 1676, a man named Donald McIlmichall from Appin was travelling between Ardtur and Glackiriska near Port Appin when he noticed strange lights on a nearby hill.
Curious, he approached and discovered what he described as a gathering of men and women inside the hill, lit by many candles.
Among them was an old man who appeared to be their leader. Some of the group wanted Donald to leave, while others encouraged him to stay.
He claimed they danced around the candle lights and made him promise to return to them regularly.
According to his confession, he first met them on a Saturday night and continued to meet them repeatedly over a period of time.
Donald said these meetings began about 20 days after Hallowmas [believed to be a time when the boundary between the natural world and the supernatural was thin] and continued until around 20 days before Candlemas [the end of winters darkest period].
He believed the people he met were not ordinary men and women or godly individuals. A woman among them took a promise from him, and although they asked if he had been baptised, they did not give him a new name.
He later admitted that he met these figures not only near Glackiriska but also in Lismore and at a place known as the Shian of Barcaldine [a fairy mound, on the South side of Loch Creran, near the ferry to Appin].
He again saw the old man, described as tall and reddish in complexion, and said he was sworn to secrecy. However, he eventually told a man named Robert Buchanan from Glackiriska about the encounters.
For this, he claimed he was physically struck by the group. However, he continued to meet them on Saturday nights, as he was bound by promise and played music from the Jew’s harp for them while they danced.
More seriously, Donald confessed that he had consulted these “spirits” about stolen goods.
He said they told him about the theft of two horses from a man named McAllister McLauchlane in Ballegowne, Isle of Lismore.
He also claimed that at other times he was given information about lost goods, which he then passed on to their rightful owners.
Based on this confession, he was charged with theft and with consulting evil spirits. With the involvement of a procurator fiscal, at Inveraray Court, a jury unanimously found him guilty, as read out by chancellor [foreman] Archibald McCorquidill.
On 17 November 1677, Donald McIlmichall was sentenced to death.
He was ordered to be hanged at Inveraray on 19 November, and all his possessions were to be confiscated.
Whether Donald’s story was truth, belief or something shaped by fear, it ultimately cost him his life.