Glamis Castle

One of the most haunted houses in the UK is Glamis Castle. There's so many haunted houses to talk about so I'll mention this one today. Glamis castle is a beautiful fairy tale looking castle but it has an eerie quality. Some of it's got a few secrets, dark history and ghosts. 

There is a spirit of a tongueless lady with a frightening face. She's been haunting the gardens, and staring out of windows. No one really knows who she is. Another spirit is the Grey Lady, who was the beautiful Lady Glamis, Janet Douglas, who lived a tragic life and then burned at the stake. 

There's a friendlier ghost of a boy, believed to be the spirit of a pageboy who died from cold. The Queen Mother spent her childhood living in Glamis Castle. It's believed that she remembers meeting the pageboy ghost and found him to be quite mischievous. Some people have seen him playing near the Queen Mother's former bedroom where he would also take a seat right outside the door, which is where he died.

The most prominent ghost is the dark figure of Earl Beardie, who frightens people in their rooms, shouting, swearing and wailing. It's believed that he gambled while drunk. When he was alive he'd sold his soul to the Devil. It's also believed that a servant was blinded in one eye by the Devil after peeping through a keyhole to witness the goings on with Earl Beardie in the next room.

In more recent times, the ghost of the "monster" at Glamis castle has been encountered throughout the years. During Victorian times, the heir to Glamis was born severely disfigured and died. Well, legend has it this deformed child was Thomas Lyon-Bowes, who was still alive and kept in the Blue Room, a hidden location still not found today. He grew to adulthood and described as large, hairy with an animal appearance. There is a superstition once that every generation, a "vampire child" is born from the Lyon-Bowes family.  

Another horrific story from Glamis is about the Ogilvy Clan who were locked inside the castle and starved to death. First they sought refuge from the Lindsey Clan, who were their bitter enemies. Lord Glamis, John Lyon, promised them safety in the castle, but he was a friend of the Lindsey Clan, and so he left them trapped inside the castle walls.  After many years of eerie sounds, screaming and scratching on the walls, it was investigated. After removing a wall of bricks, a gruesome discovery was made showing skeletons of the Ogilvy Clan inside. 

Shadow Girl  

Vampire bats

Now it's October, a time for spookiness and creepy crawlies. Vampire bats are a special kind of animal linked to Halloween. They're associated with eerie haunted places, dungeons, caves, castles and graveyards. There's many species of bats, although the creepy ones are vampire bats. 

Author Bram Stoker created Dracula. One of the traits of the vampire nobleman was the ability to shapeshift into a bat. It's always been considered unlucky to dream of bat mainly because they were once thought to be harbingers of death. While bats always have been regarded as creatures of witchcraft and demons, the discovery of blood drinking bats in the New World during the 16th century only increased their reputation into horror lore. Stoker was responsible for bringing vampire bats to Transylvania. All of his vampire bats originally come from the Americas.  

In reality, vampire bats mostly feast on the blood of farm animals and birds, as these are mostly outdoors. They don't suck blood! They sip blood from wounds. Just a small minority of bats drink blood in total of about 3 species, while the majority of bats prefer fruity meals, sometimes with insects and nectar. You can be rest assured that nearly all of the local bats here in Europe are interested in some nice chopped bananas and figs. 

Shadow Girl