Murdoch Grant

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Murdoch Grant, who died on March 19, 1830, was a traveling peddler and murder victim. The case is famous because a tailor named Kenneth Fraser said he had a dream that helped solve it. Grant had gone to Assynt in the Scottish Highlands to attend a wedding on March 19 but disappeared on March 11 between Drumbeg and Nedd. Four weeks later, a farm servant found his body by Loch-for-na-eigin near Drumbeg. Grant’s pockets were emptied, his backpack was missing, and there were signs of foul play. The crime remained unsolved for a time.

A clue came when a postmaster told Sheriff Lumsden that he had changed a £10 note for a suspicious man soon after Grant disappeared. The sheriff questioned schoolteacher Hugh Macleod. After Macleod denied involvement, the sheriff searched his house but found nothing. Just before the sheriff was ready to release him, Fraser claimed he had a dream in which he saw Macleod’s cottage and heard a Gaelic voice saying, “The merchant's pack is lying in a cairn of stones, in a hole near their house.” Fraser led investigators to Macleod’s home, where items belonging to Grant were found under a pile of stones. The dream was met with doubt, but a pair of stockings found in Macleod’s possession helped bring him to trial.

Macleod stood before Lord Moncreiff in Inverness on September 27 and was found guilty of murder, and he later confessed before his execution.