The Ghost of Glamis Castle and other true Scottish Ghost Stories

The castle underwent extensive renovations in the 17th and 18th century with the original tower house remaining at the centre of the castle centuries later. With the brief background above all said and done, let us get into some of the tales and folklore that are part of the history of Glamis.

The first haunting tale begins in the family chapel where Lady Jane Douglas appears in the chapel. Douglas, accused of witchcraft, was burned at the stake on Castle Hill in Edinburgh in The charges, contrived for political reasons include her scheme to poison the king. Witnesses claim to have seen her emerge above the Clock Tower as well.

Another tale that has made the rounds is that of a tongueless woman haunting the grounds. She is said to peer from a barred window of the castle as well as walking through the park pointing to her disfigured face. There is no record of who this may be. There is also the young boy, a ghost of a black servant mistreated a few hundred years ago.

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The most popular of the spirits that spook the Scottish is that of Earl Beardie. He roams the castle in the dark of night and is said to hover over the beds of sleeping children. Oher stories have him playing dice in a secret room where some have reported hearing the distinct rattle of dice and vulgarity, typical of a gambling hall.

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Additional legends that have made the rounds is the castle being haunted due to an incident involving a chalice and Sire John Lyon. The story is Lyon removed the family chalice from their seat at Forteviot thus bringing a curse upon his family. Shakspeare also mentions Glamis in the play Macbeth.

The murder of Malcolm II supposedly took place in one of the castle rooms although it is rather doubtful. Lord Glamis joined King James on a trip to England where the sovereign joined the two crowns in It may be likely Shakespeare might have taken some creative license, using some of the stories he heard and incorporated them into Macbeth. There are likely to be more ghastly tales from Glamis.

One version of the story says that the drummer was stuffed inside the drum and thrown from a tower window. The Drummer was last heard at the turn of the 20 th century and there seems to have been no occurrence of his spectral tattoo for over a century. A legend says that it was planned to build the castle on a nearby hill.

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But every morning when the builders returned to the site they found that the stones were scattered and broken. They rebuilt the walls, but each day the same things happened.

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Eventually a supernatural voice warned them: Another name for this hill is Fierypans, and it is thought that this comes from a time when great ritual fires blazed on the summit. Ok, Macbeth may not have had much to do with Glamis, but plenty of other Scottish royals were associated with the castle and the area over the centuries. King Malcolm II of Scotland was probably slain in a minor battle here in the 11 th century, though the details of who actually killed him and what occurred and quite sketchy.

The estate was the possession of Scottish royalty before it was given to the Lyon family in the 14 th century. It reverted to the crown for a brief time in the 16 th century after King James V had the Lady Glamis of his time condemned and burned as a witch. Happily, the castle reverted to its rightful owners.

Careful if you take a drink from the Lion Cup in the castle. This silver vessel, is the shape of a lion, holds nearly a whole bottle of wine and visitors were often made to drain the cup in one go before they left the building. Apart from getting guests very drunk, there is a shadowy tradition that the cup has brought bad luck to the castle and its resident family, though no-one knows where the cup came from or exactly why it has such a sinister reputation.

The writer, Sir Walter Scott, visited the castle in and was made to follow the custom of swallowing the contents of the Cup. He was so befuddled when he left the building that he set off in the wrong direction and had to be put on the right road by a couple of locals. What strange things lurk in the hallways of haunted Glamis Castle in Scotland?

One theory is that a severely deformed, though long-lived heir to the Strathmore estates was born in the family in the early 19 th century, or even before. There was no question that the unfortunate child would take its place at the head of the family and eventually inherit its wealth, so it was kept alive and cared for within Glamis Castle, kept in a specially concealed secret room.

The child grew up and survived to an incredible age.

Ghostly Tales of Glamis Castle - The Grey Lady

Sometimes it was exercised within the castle grounds when no-one was nearby; at other times it was allowed to walk on the castle parapets, out of sight. A popular rhyme once proclaimed that this river claimed a human life every year: Another version says that that it took a life one year, then spared a life the next year.



A third version insisted that the Dean only killed someone by drowning once every seven years, which seems a more modest appetite. Many Scottish waters are haunted by water-kelpies, blood thirsty spirits in the form of horses. The River Dean did not have one of these, as far as we know, but the broad valley of Strathmore which it runs through certainly had other rivers which demanded sacrifice, the most renowned of which is the River Ericht, several miles to the west of Glamis.