Scottish Ghost Stories

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From Stirling Castle itself the English commander, William de Warrenne, watched the rebels assemble. With 50,000 seasoned and heavily armed soldiers under him, he was confident that the ill disciplined, lightly armed Scottish force would be no match for his superior army. A female ghost of unknown identity but dressed in the garb of the 18th century has also been seen about the property, whilst ghostly footsteps, slamming doors have also been known to shatter the silence of the night hours. Spynie Palace is one of Scotland’s eeriest and most haunted buildings, yet it possesses an atmosphere that both captivates and engrosses.

In comparison, I've read most of Peter Underwood's books, and I' The steely grey mountains that fret the skyline and dapple Glencoe in a cloak of sinister gloom, cast such strange shadows that you find yourself constantly on edge, ever vigilant against whatever unspeakable horrors may be skulking in the darker recesses of the eerie terrain. Every Saturday at sunrise, the Stoor Worm would wake, open his cavernous mouth and yawn nine times. He would then demand a meal of seven virgins for as the old tales record: "although he was a venomous beast, he had a dainty taste." The new owners hadn’t been told of any unusual activity and were surprised when one of their guests told them in the morning that the “Ghost had been active last night”. The guests, a young couple, had been staying in one of the rooms in the older part of the house. When they went to bed they had left their mobile phones sat on the bedside cabinets, but at some point during the night they were awoken by one of the phones skipping through all the different ringtones. The only way they could stop the phone was by pulling out the battery. But as soon as they stopped one phone, the other phone started to do the exact same thing and it didn’t stop until they pulled out the battery.

Read it over two days. It’s an excellent collection of tales of hauntings and other weird phenomena reported over many centuries in Scotland- Highlands and Lowlands, from cities and countryside, castles and crofts, involving the famous and the ordinary folk. Whether Spynie Palace suffered damage at this time is not known, but Alexander Stewart - known to history as the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’ - was later appointed keeper of the Palace by King Robert 111, following the death of the then Bishop in 1397. It is known that he went to France in 1298 or 1299, probably to ask for military or diplomatic help. He may also have gone to Rome for the same reasons. It is highly probable that he returned to his campaign of guerrilla warfare and remained a considerable thorn in England’s side.

Only occasionally does Robertson cast doubt on any of these accounts of the supernatural for the most part seeming to take them at face value but is it perhaps a result of that intimately Scottish embrace of a harsh religion for a harsh environment that led to people having - or at least recounting - such strange experiences? In the light of these tales it is perhaps no coincidence that many pieces of Scottish literature deal with meetings with the devil. Urged on by his wife, Ewen persisted in his demands, but his father was adamant. Tempers flared and Ewen, torn between his wifes nagging and his filial duties, threatened to take land by force. However, his bluff was called and an armed confrontation could not be avoided between father and son and their respective followers.

They had soon grown used to sharing their abode with the ethereal inhabitants to whom a fortress of such impressive antiquity is, inevitably, home.