Glamis Castle in Scotland is probably best known today as the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, late mother of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Although a castle has only been here since the 14th century, the site of Glamis has a history which goes back much further, so far in fact that it mixes with legend and myth in the form of associations with Shakespeare’s MacBeth (In 1034 King Malcolm II was murdered at Glamis). The family chapel is said to be haunted by a Grey Lady, the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, who was burned at the stake as a witch on Castle Hill, Edinburgh in 1537, on charges of plotting to poison the King. The ghost of a woman with no tongue is said to haunt the grounds, and to look out from a barred window somewhere within the castle. The restless spirit of the licentious Earl Beardie, who was rumoured to have gambled with the Devil in life, is said to wander the castle, and there have been reports of children waking to find the figure leaning over their beds. In this long and lurid history, filled with tales of murder, treason and black magic, no account is as chilling as the story of a secret room somewhere within the castle that harbours a dreadful secret: The Beast of Glamis Castle.
Top Posts & Pages
Liddell’s Ghost
Click image to read my short story, 'Liddell’s Ghost' in Cygnus, the Journal of Speculative Fiction.
Changed
Click image to read my short story 'Changed' in The Cynic Online Magazine.
First Date
Click image to read my short story 'First Date' in Aphelion, the Webzine of sci-fi and fantasy.
Ghost Walk
Click image to read my short story 'Ghost Walk' in Aphelion, the Webzine of sci-fi and fantasy.
M R James
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Ghosts of Christmas Past
‘There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas,’ wrote Jerome K. Jerome in the introduction to his darkly comic collection Told After Supper (1891), ‘something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails’. Dickens would no doubt agree, […]
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M R James’s Suffolk
The macabre beneath the landscape is not dispelled by nearness to the sea. What Henry James knew, and described in English Hours (1905) – the strangeness present on a flattened seashore – M R James (no blood relation, although the two were acquainted) expressed in two of his best-known ghost stories: Oh, Whistle, and I’ll […]
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A Warning to the Curious
Here’s a real festive treat. In 2000 the BBC produced a series called Ghost Stories for Christmas, with Christopher Lee in which Lee played M R James reading four of his own stories. Lee, who actually once met James, obviously enjoyed making this series and A Warning to the Curious is a real highlight – enjoy!
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Lost Hearts
I have been haunted by the writings of M R James since childhood but when asked what is my favourite of all his ghostly tales I’ve never fully been able to answer. Lost Hearts, an early tale which apparently James didn’t much care for, and which only appeared in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary to […]
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A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Tractate Middoth
Here’s a real treat to conclude the series of Christmas ghost stories that I’ve been posting for the last few weeks – the BBC adaptation of The Tractate Middoth from just a couple of years ago. Fingers crossed they do another one this year!
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