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Cammo House
At around 3am
on a cold clear night during 1969, a telephone call to the West End Police Station
in Edinburgh was made by Percy Tennant who was reporting lights and suspicious noises
coming from his house in the woods of Cammo Estate.
When you are
very young in the police, especially when you are the 'spare man' in the van,
you get all the work thrown at you. I dealt with road accidents, sudden deaths,
fires, thefts, you name it, I got it and it came as no surprise to me
when I was dumped near to the
driveway leading to the woods at Cammo House. The van went off to
another call, which to the driver and my sergeant, was more important. I
watched the police van hurl around the corner into the main Queensferry Road with tyres screeching and
it's blue light flashing as it
roared away.
I had heard
all the stories about Percy Tennant, the grand events that had taken
place at the house in the latter part of the 19th century when he had been a young boy.
How his brother had apparently left for America and the mother, broken
hearted had lost the will to maintain herself and the house. Over the
years for whatever the reasons, Cammo House started to disintegrate and
it became uninhabited. Percy had moved to the farmhouse in his old age
for company and care. As in most cases the story became tinged with the
supernatural and his mother was
supposed to be buried on the estate and her ghost now walked the lawns at
night. Also there was the story about the howling and barking of dogs in
the darkness.
I slowly walked up the driveway towards Cammo House which was hidden amongst the trees deeper into the estate.
It was more like a lane and it was overgrown with bushes, weeds,
He said, “hello
sonny, climb the gate” and as I landed on the other side, I was avalanched by
about thirty crazy dogs of terrier size as they set about trying to tear
off my trouser legs at the ankles, with Percy jumping around like a
demented demon shouting and screaming at them “Don’t mind the doggies,
Constable, they think your an intruder." Don’t mind the doggies, I
thought, as I fought with their hairy faces; much growling, yelps and
barking followed as we all staggered up the main driveway towards the
house. By the time I got there, they had all calmed down, I think mainly
because they all had a piece of my trousers. So much for the dogs
howling at night, now I only had to meet the ghost of his mother.
The front of
the house was impressive and the walls were very high. The view down
from the front, spread across a huge lawn which extended into a long
grass driveway with a view of Edinburgh through the trees.
I stared at Percy
under the yellow light of his lamp, he was a strange old man. He gestured to the back of the
house and we (dogs and all) forced our way through the undergrowth to
the back yard of the house; ever seen the Dracula Movies and you get
the picture. Percy fought with the door to open it, while I kept staring
in every direction as I scoured the area for the ghost of his mother. The door
finally opened and we all stepped up, a step I thought,
and a strange feeling under foot. I shone the torch down and saw dog
excrement all over the floor, generations
Finally we
reached the main room upstairs and it was filled with paintings and old
furniture. All the chairs had their springs up through the cloth (rotted
by dog urine) and the furnishings were yellow and discoloured. I shone my
torch around and suddenly I jumped back against the wall as I realised
the middle of the floor was missing and was in fact downstairs in the
room below. I peered through the dark hole and at that point
I developed a distinct weakness at the knees and an acute inability to
walk or even move. Percy was jumping around on the solid parts of the
floor, which he obviously knew and gesturing at empty spaces where the
thieves had stolen paintings from the walls. I decided to retrace my
steps very carefully.
Downstairs,
I took the theft report and left him standing in the middle of the
grounds, surrounded by his dogs, yellow lamp swinging, the glow on his
face, the full moon over the house and somewhere the old lady was
watching it all. My heart went out for Percy, I still see him today,
I re-visited
the Cammo Estate in 2010 and discovered that the grounds had been turned
into a country park, used by tourists, dog walkers and families out for
a picnic. The walkways had been
tidied
up and the main entrance driveway had been refurbished and was a great
deal wider.
The
farmhouse where Percy had spent his last days, was now derelict and
overgrown with trees and bushes. It was
What would
Robert Louis Stevenson make of it today, as it stands
demolished to the
ground and overgrown? Has the soul of Percy found peace at last and
moved on or has the story become embellished? Perhaps Percy has found his mother, perhaps when
there is a full moon
you will be able to see them walking in the grounds,
hopefully without those dogs.
2019 - The farmhouse has now gone, it was demolished and replaced by
flats and a car park for the residents.
Adapted from 'The Dragon Project'
Richard Lawrence
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