Baron Hugo Gifford, Wizard of Goblin Hall

The Wizard of Goblin Hall tells the story of Baron Hugo Gifford, a medieval Scottish nobleman associated with a mysterious underground chamber beneath Yester Castle. In the story, the cavern, known as Goblin Hall, is believed to have appeared through magic, and Hugo is remembered as a wizard who used unusual knowledge to protect Scotland during a time of conflict: The Wizard of Goblin Hall.

The real Goblin Hall still exists in Scotland today. Medieval accounts describe it as a vast stone chamber carved beneath the castle, appearing suddenly and without visible labor. Because advanced engineering was poorly understood at the time, extraordinary construction was often explained through legends of magic, goblins, or supernatural power.

This children’s book is also inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s 1808 epic poem Marmion, which preserves older traditions about Baron Hugo and Goblin Hall in Canto III, “The Host’s Tale.” Scott’s work reflects how history, folklore, and literature often intertwine, especially when written records are incomplete or contradictory The Wizard of Goblin Hall.

I researched this story after I discovered that Hugo Gifford, sometimes called “the Wizard of Yester,” may appear in my own family’s historical record many generations back.

I include this lineage (click on book pages below) not as a claim of ownership, of course, but as an invitation to inquiry (and as entertainment for my own grandchildren). When records thin and certainty disappears, stories often survive in altered forms through poetry, legend, and imagination. This book, while planting only a seed for a child’s future learning “connections,” explores how people in the past explained what they couldn’t understand, and how those explanations became stories that still echo today.