Top 6 Haunted Listed Buildings in Scotland | Glaze & Save

It’s Halloween and it’s time to revel in all things spooky! So that means our love of all buildings listed and historic takes a darker turn as we look at Scotland’s top six haunted listed buildings.

Dare you spend a night in any of them?

Glamis Castle, Angus

Glamis Castle in Angus is a category A listed building , with ground that are included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. It is also widely known as one of the most haunted places, not just in Scotland, but in the whole of the United Kingdom. Glamis Castle has numerous spectres and ghouls stalking it rooms and corridors.

The family chapel is said to be haunted by a Grey Lady. This sad apparition is said to be the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, burned at the stake as a witch on fabricated charges of plotting to poison the King. Her ghost has been seen in the chapel on multiple ocassions. She is also said to appear above the Clock Tower.

The mutilated spectre of a women with no tongue is also said to haunt to castle, where she has been seen running around the park or staring out of a barred castle window, pointing to her tongueless face. A stone seat by the door of the Queen’s bedroom is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy; a servant said to have been treated badly two hundred years prior.

Perhaps the most infamous ghost to haunt to grounds of Glamis Castle is Alexander, Earl of Crawford, better known as Earl Beardie. By all accounts, the Earl was a cruel and wicked man, and one night stalked the halls of the castle shouting and cursing for a partner to play cards with. Upon finding a partner, he excused himself from the game to poke out the eye of a servant peeping through the door. On his return to the game, he found his partner had been the Devil himself, and that the Earl had inadvertently sold his soul to the Devil as he cursed in the castle halls.

His spirit is said to wander the castle, and there have been reports of children waking to find the figure leaning over their beds. He is also said to be gambling for all eternity in a secret room with the Devil, people have reported loud swearing and the rattling of dice.

Edinburgh Vaults

The Edinburgh Vaults is a category B listed structure consisting of a series of chambers in the nineteen arches of the South Bridge in Edinburgh. The Vaults were completed in 1788 and were initially intended to house taverns and tradesmen, but quickly degenerated into a place of ill repute housing brothels, illicit materials, and even said to be where notorious serial killers Burke and Hare hunted for their victims.

Conditions in the Vaults deteriorated rapidly, and the businesses left, leaving the Vaults to become slum housing for the very poorest of Edinburgh’s citizens. Their lives were wretched, living in damp, dark conditions with poor air quality and no sanitation. Many people died in the squalor of the Vaults.

According the paranormal investigators, the Vaults is one of the most haunted locations in the world. The most famous ghost is “Mr. Boots,” an evil spirit who is said have been a murder in life, and kept the body of one of his victims in his vaulted home. This malevolent spirit attacks those who dare sit in the spot where he kept the dead woman, and can commonly be heard stomping the vaults in his thick, heavy boots.

The vaults are also plagued with the ghost of a child who tugs on the clothes of women and children visitors, and that of a well to do gentleman with a sinister presence.

Airth Castle, Falkirk

Airth Castle is a category A listed buildin g , largely of medieval construction, overlooking the village of Airth and the River Forth. The castle currently operates as a hotel and spa, but is said by many to be haunted: it even has Tripadvisor reviews complaining of how haunted it is!

Many ghosts and apparitions are said to haunt the castle and its grounds. These have included sightings of a nanny with two young children who are said to have died in a fire at the castle. It has also been widely reported that children can be heard playing in several of the rooms. Heavy footsteps can also be heard, along with the screams and cries believed to be those of a maid who was attacked by her master and left to die.

Not only that, but there is said to be the ghost of an ankle biting dog roaming the hallways! Quite the array of ghouls.

Ackergill Tower, Caithness

Ackergill Tower is located north of Wick , Caithness. It was built in the early 16th century, and is a category A listed building .

One sad ghost is sad to haunt Ackergill Tower, that of a beautiful young woman named Helen Gunn. Kidnapped to be the wife of the castle lord John Keith, she flung herself from the highest tower of the castle to escape the advances of her captor. Her spirit is said to still be seen on in and around the castle grounds.

Queensberry House, Edinburgh

Queensberry House is a 17th-century Category A listed building in the Canongate , Edinburgh , and now part of the Scottish Parliament. It has a somewhat macabre past, being the home of the apparently unpopular 2nd Duke of Queensberry.

The Duke’s son, James Douglas, was said to have been kept a secret for years and was chained up in the ground floor rooms as a “wild madman” . Legend has it that on returning from a night of canvassing, the Duke found to his horror that James had escaped his chains, and sat in the kitchen devouring the flesh of a young kitchen boy, the body still turning on a spit.

Unsurprisingly, given the gruesome nature of this story, the building is said to be haunted by the ghost of the poor kitchen boy, and James Douglas is better known as the Mad Earl of Drumlanrig.

Birkwood Castle, Lesmahagow

Birkwood House, affectionately known as Birkwood Castle to local residents, is a category B listed building an former psychiatric hospital in South Lanarkshire. It was built around 1860, making it the youngest building on our list. But that does not make it any less attractive for ghosts. Indeed the building has been designed with many hidden rooms that can only be accessed from the castle tower.

Apparitions includethe smell of cigar smoke throughout the building, and footsteps heard in empty corridors. The former hospital is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a small boy riding a bicycle while clinging to a teddy bear. A sobbing girl can also be heard throughout the building.