This supernatural novel was first published in book form in 1884, after being serialised in Macmillan’s Magazine. The story centres on the dissolute youth Walter Methven, who is surprised to find himself heir to the family fortune. However, he is less pleased to discover that a stipulation of the will involves him having to spend part of every year at a haunted castle on Loch Houran, where the evil spirit of his dead ancestor, the Warlock Lord of Erradeen, is said to roam.
An entertaining Gothic yarn, this novel bears a resemblance to an earlier Oliphant story, ‘The Secret Chamber’, while the troubled relationship between Walter and his mother seems to be based on that between Oliphant and her own difficult son Cyril.