| The Legend of the Dromgoole Rock |
| The story begins in Chapel Hill in the early 1830's, when Peter Dromgoole entered the University of North Carolina. Dromgoole was from Virginia and soon after he arrived at school, he fell in love with a local girl named Fannie (last name unknown). But Fannie had already caught the eye of another student, who's name has not made it to the present time. Fannie and Peter began to see each other regularly,until the other young man could stand it no longer and one day, as the two rivals crossed paths on campus, the other student intentionally bumped into Peter hard enough to knock Peter down. Heated words were exchanged, culminating in the young man challenging Peter to a duel, which Peter promptly accepted. Each one chose a pistol and a friend of his to accompany him to the site of the duel, a cliff near campus that is today the home of Gimghoul Castle. The night was, of course, dark and stormy, but neither of the young men saw fit to call off the duel. After they marked off their ten paces, two sots rang out and Peter Dromgoole crumpled to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The other three students panicked and dragged Peter's body away from the cliff and over to a huge boulder. There, they placed the body on the rock while they dug a shallow grave, placed Peter in the grave, and then placed the now blood-stained boulder on top of the freshly dug soil. Ironically, the very rock that now covered Peter had been a favorite spot of Peter and Fannie's to meet and when Peter Dromgoole seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, Fannie would oft-times go to the rock and wait for him. She couldn't explain it and she didn't tell Peter's parents when they came down from Virginia to look for their son, but she still felt Peter's presence at the rock. She also couldn't explain the mysterious reddish stains that had appeared on their rock, but she was ever hopeful that Peter would return to her there one day. That day never came, of course, the rumor at the time was that Peter had run off and joined the army, but a search of the names of the enlisted men never turned up Peter Dromgoole. This story supposedly came from the man who shot Peter, when he was on his death-bed some 60 years later. The castle, though uninvolved with the story, is an oddity in and of itself, thus serving to fuel the stories of Peter's ghost at the site. In the 1950's, two young men committed suicide nearby, also, helping to perpetuate the story. Today, the only clue around, which no one has ever had the courage to dig under, is the rock with the strange reddish stains. Oh, and the occasional sighting of both Peter and Fannie, waiting at the rock for the other to someday return. |