The childhood home of the late Queen Mother, Glamis Castle, has been declared one of the most haunted places to visit in the UK this Halloween.
Located in Angus, Scotland, Glamis Castle has royal connections that go back over a thousand years, and grisly spot where Malcolm II of Scotland was murdered in 1034.
Even before the castle was built, there were warnings that the land was cursed, and its original location was changed from a nearby hill after workers claimed to hear a voice say: “Build not on this enchanted spot, where man hath neither part nor lot, but build down in yonder bog, where it will neither shake nor shog!”
Ghosts claimed to haunt the walls of Glamis Castle include the Tongueless Woman – a maid said to have been murdered after discovering a secret of the Earl. She is rumoured to appear with blood spilling from her mouth.
Then there is the Grey Lady, known in life as Lady Janet Douglas, the wife of the sixth Lord of Glamis, John Lyon, who was burnt at the stake for witchcraft after being accused by King James VI and I of Scotland.
Reports about the number of ghosts in the castle vary, but there are believed to be around nine, including Thomas Bowes-Lyon, who was said to have been removed from the line of succession after he was born with a severe deformity.
While official records state that he died the day he was born, on October 21, 1821, it is rumoured that he survived and was kept hidden away by his family until he died in the 1920s, having been only allowed out to exercise at night.
But despite the many ghosts said to haunt the location, the late Queen Mother held the home in high regard, and the late Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle in 1930.
Even after the Queen Mother’s eventual move to London and marriage to George VI in 1923, she was known to regularly visit her childhood home until her death at the age of 101 in 2002.
The castle was built in 1372 and gifted to Sir John Lyon, Thane of Glamis, by Robert II, and has remained in the late Queen Mother’s family since then.
Now occupied by Simon Bowes-Lyon, the 19th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the castle is open to the public, who have taken to TripAdvisor to comment on the castle’s eerie nature.
The Express reports that the prevalence of haunted goings-on ranks Glamis Castle as one of the most haunted castles in the UK alongside the likes of Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, which also has royal connections.
Glamis Castle is said to have 41 haunted keywords used in every 1,000 of its reviews on TripAdvisor. One visitor even claimed that a guest on their tour “complained of actually being touched by some unseen visitor.”
They added: “[It’s a] truly scary place – not for the faint of heart. I visited this place around Halloween last year. If you want to go to a real haunted castle put this at the top of your list.”
Modern visitors are not alone in picking up on the eerie atmosphere of the castle, however, and there have been hundreds of accounts of the supernatural’s alleged presence within its walls.
Legendary Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott applied to stay in Glamis Castle for a night in 1780 and later wrote in 1930: “I must own, as I heard door after door shut… I began to consider myself as too far from the living and somewhat too near to the dead.”
For those brave enough to visit the castle in October, tours called the Ghosts of Glamis are running this month and are available in adult-only and child-friendly formats.
The Independent has reached out to a representative for Glamis Castle for further comment.
