Armadale Castle Poem by Laurence Overmire

The Home of Clan Donald

Flora MacDonald was married here
In 1750
Johnson and Boswell visited
In 1773

In 1925, the MacDonalds
Moved to a smaller house
Leaving Armadale to the
Wind and rain

Photographs show
As late as 1965
It was still a glorious place

A main hall
Lavishly furnished with a
Drawing room off
To one side
And a billiard room
Off to another

A staircase at the far
End
Leading to a suite of
Bedrooms and a
Library

But what was once
So magnificent
Is today but a shell
Of its former self

In so short a time
What was vibrant
And full of life
Becomes but a sigh

That ever so discreetly
Slips like a phantom
Into the last fading wisp of
Twilight.

~ Laurence Overmire

(Previously published in The Ghost of Rabbie Burns: An American Poet's Journey Through Scotland, Indelible Mark Publishing,2016)