Scottish General Tam Dalyell who played cards with the Devil

The House of Binns, is the former home of General Tam Dalyell and is now managed by the National Trust For Scotland. The house we now see dates from the early 17th century, but is built on the site of previous manor houses. It is thought that Binns Hill was inhabited from prehistoric times and may have been the site of a Pictish fort. The House of Binns eventually came into the possession of the Dalyell family. Dalyell is a Scottish surname which derives from the Scottish Gaelic Dail-gheal meaning bright dale. The house is reputed to be haunted by a number of ghosts. Not least that of  General Thomas Dalyell of The Binns, 1st Baronet (1615–1685). His ghost has been witnessed on a white horse, galloping across the wooden bridge in the direction of his home. This is the Dalyell who is famously said to have played cards with the Devil on a number of occasions. When Dalyell attempted to win a game by cheating, the angry Devil threw the table past him and it landed in the Sergeant’s Pond. Many years later during a dry summer in 1878, the water of the pond reduced to reveal a heavy carved table. 

General Tam Dalyell fought for both Charles I and Charles II. During the Civil War, he was taken prisoner by the Parliamentarians at the battle of Worcester (1651) and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He escaped, went to Russia and fought with the Tsar's army against the Tartars, Poles and Turks. He returned to Scotland after the restoration of Charles II. His suppression of the Covenanters, a Scottish Presbyterian movement, earned him the nickname 'Bluidy Tam'. The story of him playing cards with the Devil was said to have been invented by his enemies. Or at least that was what was assumed, until on that dry summer day in 1878 the pond uncovered its hidden secret.