Joe Mackenzie, Sir William’s son, sold the Kirkfield home in 1927 for one dollar to the Sisters of St. Joseph. He was killed a very short time later in a car accident just outside Kirkfield. The estate remained a convent/orphanage until the 1970s when it was purchased by the MacDonald-Ross family.
In 1936, the historic village hall was burned to the ground. The Wawinette, Sir William’s impressive yacht on Balsam Lake was sold to a hockey hero in the 1930s. He and his friends were boating on southern Georgian Bay when they hit a rock, the boat sank, and 20 lives were lost.
The golf course disappeared under vegetation and the dairy barn was vandalized. The racing stable was eventually demolished. By the 1960s the Mackenzie’s summer home on Balsam Lake had gone to rack and ruin.
Biddy Young probably had no idea how true her prophecy would ring.
The Kirkfield estate itself has known several different owners at different times. By the time Paul and Joan Scott discovered it, the estate was in a sad condition. The Scotts knew they were destined to own it, however. They, too, had been drawn into the mists of time and had envisioned the estate in its grandeur. As if by magic they could see it! They could also see what few can sense — a presence! They restored the home, furnished it with antiques, and opened a bed and breakfast.
The Scotts had a passion for preserving old buildings and history. Paul loved to tell a story and was quite at home on the Mackenzie estate. If the interest was there, Paul toured his guests and other tourists through the old building, sharing the Mackenzie story. Sometimes others had stories too — ghost stories!
I had often reminisced by the fire in the front room of the old house with the MacDonald-Ross family, as they recounted stories of bumps in the night and eerie noises in the gatehouse. The stories always seem to match the atmosphere. Is Sir William still here or is it Lady Mackenzie who walks the halls of the manor? Are they unable to leave their dream?
The Scotts had been open just over a year when a young woman we will call “Julia” registered for bed and breakfast at the inn. While she sat on the front veranda the next day Julia asked Paul, “Is this house haunted?”
Taken aback for a moment, Paul hesitantly responded with “I’m not sure.” He then asked her what she did for a living.
Julia answered, “I am a musician of sorts, an ordained minister, a writer, and a house cleaner.”
She explained that she wasn’t a house cleaner in the traditional sense. Julia could feel the presence of spirits in a house and, if necessary, clean them out. She is what is sometimes called a “sensitive”. Julia could feel the presence of spirits in this particular house and asked Paul if he would explore the premises with her.
How could he refuse? On their tour her feelings were strongest around the long-unused third floor. When the Scotts first bought the place, plaster was missing from some of the walls and there were gaps in the floor boards. Originally the third floor had housed the Mackenzie servants and a nursery and it was also used later by the nuns. This section of the home was eventually restored by Paul and Joan to house some of their overnight guests and the area included five bedrooms, a bathroom, and a large sitting room space. Each room was named for places and characters associated with the Mackenzies and their business accomplishments.
Once on the third floor, Julia exclaimed, “Oh, I don’t like the individual who lived in that bedroom (now called The Tony Griffin Room) to the right. He was a cruel and very sick person. And he is still here in his room.”
They then turned left and climbed three steps into the main section of the third floor. Julia looked into the bathroom on the right and turned to peek into the bedroom across the way. Immediately she remarked, “I hear children laughing and babies crying. This must have been the nursery.” She was right!
An old rocking chair sat in that room and Julia could see a little old lady sitting there. She said the woman had shocking white hair. Paul explained that this rocking chair had belonged to his Aunt Miriam. After she died he had been given that chair. Julia clearly described his Aunt Miriam. He added, “On two separate occasions last year, customers saw a little old lady sitting in this platform rocker with bright white hair.” Had Aunt Miriam stayed with her chair?
Julia and Paul proceeded to a small room on the left. She said this room had once been used to store trunks. Straight ahead was a room (The Canadian Northern Room) overlooking the main street. Julia felt this to be a very peaceful room.
The sitting room was located in the middle of the third floor. Another room off the sitting room also overlooked the main street. This room was called the George Laidlaw Room. Julia sensed it to be the “most serene room in the house.” Paul added, “We have people who come into this room and automatically feel entranced.”
A rocking chair belonging to a deceased aunt of the current owners sits in one of the guest rooms at the Mackenzie Inn. Several guests have reported seeing the chair rocking on its own, seemingly powered by an unseen force.
The next bedroom was the TTC Room. Julia felt this room to be a very uncomfortable space and although she sensed something there she was unable to describe her feelings.
Directly across from the Laidlaw Room was a small storage room that still housed the old water system of the house. Outside this doorway Julia began to quiver and weep. She could not move, she was traumatized. “I won’t go in there. Someone has been abused and murdered here. She was drowned.”
Paul was caught by surprise and didn’t know what to say. Meanwhile, Julia was feeling enormous pressure on her head, her knees felt weak, there were shivers up the back of her neck; she could not enter the room!
“She started to tremble. Tears welled up in her eyes,” stated Paul. “I can’t, I can’t go in there — there is too much trauma. It’s overwhelming me with sadness. I see a little girl choking, no, drowning. Yes, drowning, death, sadness, Oh, I can’t stay up here any longer,” Julia uttered.
Paul asked Julia what he could do about this newfound presence in the house. She replied, “You could try taking out all the wood in the room as it has absorbed the negative vibrations or another way might be to put out containers of Epson Salts. They might absorb the negative vibes.”
Paul added, “Tearing out all the wood wasn’t really an option so we proceeded to buy a large quantity of Epson Salts. This often prompted questions from people who toured this area in the year that we tried this solution, but as the many unsolicited stories of feelings and sensations kept coming from those who had no knowledge of the situation we summarized that it wasn’t working. The salts were removed.”
Paul showed me this storage room. Just inside is a place for cleaning supplies. To the left of this space is a small doorway that leads to a room containing the old water system — a 2,000-gallon, lead-lined water cistern! The entire space felt odd, especially since I already knew Julia’s story. Julia felt that the trauma felt by the victim had been impregnated into the very fibre of the room.
Paul elaborated, “The next year a friend of mine came up for a visit from Florida. One day he ventured into this space that Julia refused to enter and he remarked to me, ‘Paul, do you know a six-year-old was drowned in this cistern?’
“I asked him, ‘How would you know this?’
“He replied, ‘It simply came to me while I was in there. And furthermore, the individual responsible was demented.’”
Paul returned to the story about Julia, “The next day Julia and I were on the veranda. She looked me straight in the eye and wanted to know if I was related to a man she named. She said he was the man who lived on the third floor. I told her I was not but I would ask around.”
Paul discovered that there was once a man by that name who worked on the estate at one time. He lived in the back room