One thing you could never accuse this ghost of is being shy. She has been seen by a whole host of people, including Queen Victoria when she came to stay at Crathes Castle. And it seems she is active to this day and can be caught on camera
The building itself is a picturesque Jacobean edifice standing in glorious countryside on the banks of Loch Leys in Aberdeenshire. Building was started here by Alexander Burnett of Leys in 1550, and not completed until 1590 but its most famous inhabitant – known simply as the Green Lady of Crathes – seems to have been haunting the area long before the castle was constructed. According to some traditions, she may have lived in an earlier edifice that stood on the same spot - the stones of which were incorporated into the present structure.
Another – and more widely held – legend states that she was either a servant girl or a ward of the Laird of the present castle, during the late 1500s. Sadly, we have no name for her and she is alleged to have disappeared shortly after giving birth. Given the cited circumstances, we can hazard a guess as to the identity of the baby's father.
Whatever the truth of her identity may be, this ghost manifests herself in a particular room which, for obvious reasons is known as the Green Lady’s Room, where – dressed in the green robe that gives her its name - she glides serenely across the floor until she stops by the fireplace and lifts up a baby, apparently out of thin air. She then cradles the infant in her arms. In a sinister turn of events, when renovations were carried out on the room during the 1800s, skeletal remains of a young woman and a baby were discovered under the hearthstone.
The Green Lady never threatens or harms anyone although her sudden appearance is signalled by temperature fluctuations and some visitors have reported feeling a palpable sense of dread on entering her room. However, she has been known to appear to members of the Burnett family, and to them she represents a warning of impending death or other disaster.
In November of 2016 a photograph, taken by Bill Andrew of his family outside the castle, shows a ghostly figure in the doorway behind. Apparently, there has been something of an upsurge in paranormal activity at the castle of late.
The castle does seem to be something of a hive of supernatural activity and the Green Lady isn’t the only spectral presence. Archives record the frightening appearance of a luminous block of ice, moving as if it were a human walking. Not surprisingly these appearances go hand in hand with a sharp and dramatic drop in temperature.
A further ghost – known as the White Lady – turns up from time to time. She is thought to be Alexander Burnett’s young lover, Bertha. Burnett’s mother – Lady Agnes - deemed her unworthy of becoming her son’s wife and poisoned her.
Lady Agnes also haunts the castle and returns on the anniversary of her death.
The castle is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, having been given to them by the Burnett family in 1951, and is a popular tourist destination. It is famed for its incredible, ornate painted ceilings and magnificent furniture, as well as possessing extensive, beautiful grounds and gardens. Certainly one to put on your list of places to visit this summer.
May all your ghostly encounters be friendly ones.
Meanwhile, step back to 1940 and you'll find some truly restless spirits residing in Chanterlands...
“You don’t belong here. None of you do. None but us….”
1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly, the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, and Bunny, ever practical and down-to-earth.
But Chanterlands is home to more than just the living and some of them do not rest in peace. There’s the long-dead lonely boy whose room she sleeps in - and that’s only the start.
Pamela discovers the long-neglected attic and, as she sorts through the assorted detritus accumulated over generations of her forebears, more ghosts stir, and an ancient feud reveals just one of the sinister secrets of this once-great house.
But, in the grounds, there is much more danger awaiting Pamela during that summer long ago when war waged all over Europe and the safety her mother had wished for her took a dark and fatal turn.
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Nick Wells/Flame Tree Press Studio
