Brigadoon

Brigadoon is remembered through its destruction: in 1702, the Checquy’s Rooks led a four-pronged assault that burned every structure there. Some inhabitants were killed; the rest were deported to Wales and forced to mine lead. The mines’ properties kept the extraordinary captives from escaping, and all of them perished in captivity.

Destruction and Captivity

The assault made Brigadoon a site of organized violence rather than a place the account describes in ordinary civic or geographic terms. The Rooks led the attack, and the destruction extended beyond the burning of the settlement: the surviving inhabitants were removed, confined through the conditions of the mines, and ultimately died there.

A Later Claim to Brigadoon

The account connects the ruined settlement to a later figure who surfaced in the late 1960s, claiming to be “the last son of Brigadoon.” He wreaked havoc for years before being subdued and dissected. His claim gives Brigadoon a continuing presence in the story after its inhabitants’ deaths, while the account does not establish his identity beyond that claim or explain how he survived.