The Strange Case of Archie MacPhunn

“Archie MacPhunn of Driepp Was hung for stealing sheep On a boat on the loch He sat up, gave a cough And said Agnes, there’s no need to weep”

On the 15th January 1691, Archibald MacPhune of Driepp appeared before the Court at Inveraray. Though it has gone down in legend that he was arrested for stealing sheep, the real charge appears to have been murder. The story goes that, one day in late 1690, the inn that Archie MacPhunn and his wife ran was visited by Duncan Campbell, a local landowner. The Campbells were an old enemy of the MacPhunn family- Duncan’s father had reportedly evicted Archie’s family from their lands. MacPhunn fatally stabbed him and was sentenced to death by hanging by the judge in Inveraray Justice Court. The sentence was duly carried out.

When his body was being taken over Loch Fyne for burial, he began to show signs of life and was brought round by a dram administered by his wife Agnes. Because the sentence had already been carried out, according to Scots Law he could not be tried and punished again. He lived for another 40 years and was known thereafter as half-hung Archie.

As told in the play ‘The Strange Case of Archie MacPhunn’ by Gordon Neish, presented by the Strachur and District Local History Society. ‘In fond and respectful memory of Leif Brag, whose Motor Neurone Disease was only diagnosed last year and who sadly passed away in November 2021. Leif carried his camera in the outdoors and indoors, and he it was who took the photographs at the ‘Half-Hung Archie’ performances in 2013.’

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