Nearly all the residences of the British Royal Family are reputedly haunted. So I guess it's no real wonder the Royal Family have a lively interest in the occult. After all, don't they say seeing is believing? But how do I know this juicy piece of gossip given that the Royals don't know me from a bar of soap? It really comes from a Frenchman by the name of Francois Veran who has close ties to British Royalty. He says he has reliable information that seances have taken place in Buckingham Palace. What's more, Queen Elizabeth II has confided in friends that her late father, King George VI, has appeared to her after his death. The Queen has seen her dead father no less than six times. It is common knowledge both father and daughter had a particularly close relationship before he passed on. But what many do not know is the promise he made his daughter before he died. King George VI reportedly assured his daughter he would always be with her in her hour of need. But even Queen Elizabeth could not have guessed how seriously he meant it. He has stuck to his word, even from The Great Beyond. But the Queen is not the only member of the Royal household with ties to psychic phenomena. Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister, is also interested in psychic research. Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, has gone one step further. He has boldly gone as far as lending his name as patron to a research effort by a leading parapsychologist, Dr. Douglas.
And of course, we all know how Princess Diana often consulted mediums about her future. You can't help wondering why there is such a strong interest in matters to do with the Other Side among the Royals. Could it have been sparked by the hauntings that surround them in their everyday life? Take for instance Windsor Castle in Berkshire, the official residence of the Royal Family. Windsor Castle is said to be haunted by at least four royal ghosts. The most famous apparition and perhaps the most persistent, is a female phantom who stalks the rooms of the Queen's Library. The domestic help and the Royal Family have come to accept her presence as commonplace. But others are not that relaxed about her. There is a famous documented incident to do with this ghostly apparition that relates to a particular lieutenant from the Grenadier Guards, Lieutenant Carr Glynn. He was casually reading a newspaper in one of the rooms of the Queen's Library when he saw something from the corner of his eye that made him look up. A lady stood straight ahead of him, dressed in black. She wore a black dress with a lace scarf of the same colour over her hair and shoulders. She certainly was not dressed like a female domestic helper in the Castle. The lieutenant wondered who she was. As he sat there looking straight at her, she walked across the room and right past him. He remembered hearing the sound of her shoes on the polished wooden floors. But although he sat there looking at her, she did not even glance at him. Yet she was so close to him, he could have reached out and touched her as she walked past him and disappeared into a corner. He assumed she had gone into the adjoining room.
As he sat there puzzling over who she was, within moments a castle servant walked into the reading room. The lieutenant could not resist finding out who he had just seen. He knew the servants in the castle not only knew the ins and outs of the palace like the back of their hands, they also knew of every soul who came and went from the building. The lieutenant casually asked the male servant the identity of the lady in black. The servant raised his eyebrows in surprise, indicating he knew of no such person. He also insisted he had not seen anyone enter the room the lieutenant was in. But the lieutenant was adamant. He insisted there had been a woman in the room with him seconds before the servant had entered. To prove he was right, he rushed into the next room to produce the lady in black he had seen only minutes before. That room had no exit by which the mysterious lady in black could have left. She would have had to come back into the room where the lieutenant was sitting if she wanted to leave the Queen's Library. But the room was empty. The lieutenant was stunned by her mysterious disappearance. He walk back into his room looking rather shaken. On seeing the lieutenant so upset the servant looked hesitant, as if he knew of something he did not want to let on. But finally he nervously cleared his throat and spoke up. He said the lieutenant must have seen the ghost of Queen Victoria. She has been seen on many occasion walking across the library exactly the way the lieutenant had described.
So there you go. Mind you, there are other royal ghosts that still haunt Windsor Castle. And there are more such phantoms if you start to count the servants and foot soldiers of years ago that still walk the castle grounds. But as creepy as all this sounds, Windsor Castle cannot quite match the ghostly reputation of Galamis. Galamis Castle, in the heart of Scotland, has the dubious honour of being by far and away the most haunted Royal Castle. The castle's mysterious ghosts range from a tongueless female phantom to a supposed vampire. It is the family home of Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother. Their ancestors have held it for six long centuries. And it is not hard to see why the castle has such a spooky reputation when you look back into its long and brutal history. But let me first introduce you to this massive mansion through my eyes. When I first set eyes on Galamis four years ago, it was a warm summer's day. The sun's rays bounced off the castle's massive high walls of reddish stone and seemed to give the place a fairy tale like feel to it. There were throngs of people milling all over the place. I wasn't surprised. You see the castle is open to the public between the summer months of July right through September. Many come because they are fascinated with the castle's spooky mysteries that date back to when it was first built in the second half of the seventeenth century. But the mass of people milling around the place when I first went there gave it a rather festive air. But coincidentally, four years on when I headed back there determined to investigate the ghostly background of this old and brooding castle, it was almost as if the building knew I had come to uncover its dark and ugly secret.
Gone were the crowds, and even the sun had deserted the castle. The sky overhead was dark and threatening and it seemed to cast a menacing, evil quality on the whole castle. The bricks that once looked so warm and pretty now looking grey and sinister. The massive castle loomed before me cold and gloomy. I almost lost my nerve to proceed with the whole 'investigation'. Galamis seemed shrouded in a sullen, gloomy veil of secrecy and it sent a sharp, cold chill right down my spine. But why does this castle have such a deadly reputation? Some believe a good luck family charm brought to Galamis centuries ago by a man who married into the family is responsible for the castle's evil history. The charm in question, mind you, was a mere cup. But they believe when it was moved from its original home into Galamis Castle, instead of bringing luck to those who owned it, it bestowed doom on them instead. And we thought we Singaporean were a superstitious bunch. If you are wondering what sort of doom we're talking about, well, you'll have to multiply by a thousand fold the doom and gloom in any Chinese serial on TV. For starters, the chap who brought the dreaded cup to Galamis Castle was killed in a duel. And remember the famous Macbeth? He was chief of the Galamis clan. And it was here in Galamis that he is believed to have stabbed Duncan. The murder took place in a gloomy room still known as Duncan's Hall. And I don't have to remind you of what happened next, I don't think. Remember Lady Macbeth, the master mind behind the murder? Well, she went stark raving mad, didn't she?
She was obsessed with the stain of blood she could not seem to get off her hands. But Macbeth and wife were not the only ones that drew blood under the doomed roof of Galamis and later paid for it in blood themselves. Malcolm II was also assassinated at Galamis seven years before Duncan. For generations the very real stain of Malcolm's blood remained on the floor. Then there was Janet Douglas, widow of the sixth Lord of Galamis. She was accused of attempting to kill James V of Scotland by witchcraft, in collaboration with her son and her second husband, Archibald Campbell. The trio were sentenced to death. But Campbell fell to his death while trying to escaped from his prison. His death was merciful compared to Janet's. She was tossed onto a burning stake. Legend has it that Janet was a young woman in the prime of her life. She was also a kind and stunning beauty, much loved by the people of Galamis. And they say she suffered her fate with 'manlike courage'. But it seems Janet has not quite quit Galamis. Her ghost has been seen by many surrounded by a lurid halo floating above the castle clock tower...
Tall Tale
With all these gruesome deaths in Galamis Castle, it is no surprise other ghostly phenomena are also commonplace there. A well known incident at Galamis involved a young mother and child. They were staying in the castle for a few days. On the second night they were there, the woman noticed something strange while she was reading in bed. A cold blast of wind suddenly stole into the room and exactly at that moment, the lights in her room flickered and went out. She felt a cold stab of fear as she was certain someone else was in the room with her. The mother had to put her young, four year old to sleep in a cot in the room next door. She had left the bedroom door connecting the two rooms open, so she could keep an eye and ear out for her child. What she saw by the dim light in the child's room scared the living daylights out of her. A tall, hulking male figure walked out of the room she was in, straight into her child's room. Just as she saw this, she heard a frightened shriek from her child. As petrified as she was, her maternal instincts overpowered her fear ans she wasted no time in rushing to the side of her child. She found the child alone in the room, quivering in fear. He insisted a giant had leaned over the cot and stared at him. Many others who have stayed in the castle have said they have either seen or dreamt of a man whose description is almost identical to the letter. They always recall a huge man, with a very long beard and a huge stomach. But there is one other chilling detail they always add about this demonic man. Although his stomach would rise and fall as he breathed, they insisted he was a ghost for one simple reason. His face was that of a dead man.
Face To Fate
But a more bizarre tale at Galamis Castle has a strange twist. A guest at the castle was up late one night when he decided, out of the blue, to look out the window of his bedroom. He saw a black coach drive up to the castle and pull up right below his window. There was nothing unusual with that, except that when he later reflected on it he realized the coach had been noiseless. In the silence of the night it had not made a sound, not even the usual crunching of wheels. A few minutes passed before the driver of the coach decided to look up at him in the window. The coach driver gave the guest a very cold stare, flicked the reins of his horses and raced off into the darkness of the night. The guest was taken aback by his face, it was horribly scarred. The next morning the guest remarked to the Lord of the castle, Lord Strathmore, 'You had a very late arrival last night.' He then went on to describe what he had seen. On hearing the story, the blood seemed to drain from Lord Strathmore's face. He replied very quietly that no one had come to the castle late that night. There was an awkward silence that hung in the air after that remark, but the guest decided to let the matter pass. But a few weeks later when the same guest was staying in a hotel in Paris, the incident came back to haunt him. He was on the third floor of the hotel when he pressed the button for the lift. But when it came, he was so shocked at who he saw, he did not get into the lift. The lift operator was a splitting image of the coach driver that had come to Galamis that late night. When the guest recoiled in shock at the strange coincidence, the lift operator gave him the same, cold stare he had given him in Galamis and impatiently slammed shut the door of the lift. But an instant later a cable in the lift snapped and the lift hurtled down the shaft. All the occupants in the lift were killed in the crash.
Top Secret
In another incident at Galamis, a dean of a prestigious university, Dr. Nicholson, confessed rather unexpectedly at a dinner party that he had had a frightening experience at Galamis Castle when he stayed there overnight once before. He saw a strange man in his room in the middle of the night. The man was tall and distinct and he materialised from nowhere in the dean's locked room. He wore a long, dark coat which was fastened by a clasp at the throat. The figure hovered near his bed for a fleeting moment but after a few seconds, he vanished through a wall. When the dean confessed the incident, his friends around him ribbed him for his fantastic imagination. But there were two people at the dinner who were not laughing, the Lord of the castle, Lord Strathmore, and the dean of another university. There was a long pause before the other dean spoke up. He said quietly and confidently, 'I too saw the exact, same figure when I stayed in that room on a previous occasion.' No one laughed this time. After hearing this and believing the very two incredible witness, both the bishop and the Vicar of St. Paul's Knightsbridge, who were also guests at the dinner party, offered to hold on exorcism at the castle.
Strangely enough, Lord Strathmore, Lord of the castle, refused to allow the exorcism. Yet he looked visibly afraid. But as hard as they tried, they could not convince him to proceed with the ceremony. Obviously he knew something he would not or could not tell. This brings me to the secret of Galamis that I find absolutely fascinating because of the chilling mystery behind it. You see, the castle has a secret room that is perpetually locked, and the entrance to it is blocked with a wall of stone. In this room lies a secret so horrible, the Royal Family refuse to reveal it. Infact, the whereabouts of this mysterious room, the passage to it and and the secret locked within it, is known only to three members of the Royal Family at any one time. Because it is a secret room an the passage to it is a secret, only the Lord of the castle, his heir apparent and any third person whom the two of them trust, know the route to this secret room and the horror that lies within. This secret has been passed down to the present Royal Family since I kid you not, the seventeenth century. And when one of the three people who knows the secret dies, the remaining two, by an oath that have taken, nominate a third person to share the secret with them. Heavy stuff, don't you think? But it gets creepier when you start speculating what this dark secret could be. There are so many possible theories spinning around, it's hard to decide which could be right. But let me share with you three of the most popular.
The walls in Galamis Castle are rock solid thick to the tune of 15 feet in some places. And somewhere between these walls lies the Galamis secret, a mysterious room where a previous Earl is supposed to have kept hidden a family shame. He fathered a hideous monster, a son born half man, half beast. This is by far the most popular theory put forward as the secret of the hidden room. It has been reported in the British newspapers. The deformed chil was result of a curse laid on the family; they were so embarrassed by it, they kept the child hidden away. Too far fetched, I hear you say? Aha, but wait. There is one historical fact that lends support to this legend. You see, in the drawing room of Galamis Castle stands a huge portrait of the first Earl and his sons. The painting shows the Earl, two boys and a peculiar little dwarf. People say the monster lived in the castle for 150 years, kept hidden in the secret room. He only left the room to crawl about in the dead of the night. There is a strong rumour in circulation that he imprisoned monster died in 1921, so the length of time it must have survived does bring in a paranormal element. But others believe the secret has nothing to do with the Royal Family directly, but rather it has to do with a faithful servant that served the family for many moons. The servant his a monstrous secret for years but was eventually caught out. He was a blood thirsty vampire. When the truth was known, he was locked in the secret room where he remains in a motionless trance, his ancient flesh uncorrupted and his blood thirsty appetite waiting to be slaked with the unsealing of his vault like prison.
But another, more horrific theory about the secret, sealed room dates back to feudal days. back then there was a bloody war in Scotland between two family clans, the Lindsays and the Ogilvies. During the battle between the two clans, the Ogilvies were defeated. Soon after, a group of defeated Ogilvies turned up at Galamis Castle and begged for protection. The Lord of the castle did not want to fall foul of the desperate Ogilvy clan. But at the same time he knew if he was found helping them, he would be in the bad books of the Lindsays. So he reluctantly invited the grateful men in and showed them to a remote room in the castle. He assured them they would be safe there and he then locked them in the room. And there they stayed for hundreds of years. They were not found until Victorian times when the door was unlocked and the beholder swooned on seeing what was left of the imprisoned group of men. A group of skeletons lay in the room, their bony arms between their teeth, starvation having driven them to eat their own flesh. They say their frantic knocking can still be heard to this day. Whichever story you choose to believe, the fact that the secret room in Galamis Castle exists is beyond doubt. But those who know the secret will go to great lengths to protect it. Some guests at Galamis recounted years ago how they tried to secretly locate the mysterious room while their host was away in Edinburgh on urgent business. Mind you, Galamis Castle has over 100 rooms. So it was no easy task for the mischievous guests. But they devised an ingenious method. They hung a towel out of the window of every room it was possible to enter.
They confirmed they did see a window without a towel. But while they were trying to locate the room, the Lord of the castle unexpectedly returned. The guests said he was emerged when he found out what they had been up to. But when you hear stories of what happens to those who do find out the Galamis secret, it makes you think more than twice whether you would want to be counted as one of them. There is story that goes back years about a servant girl who happened to stumble on the deadly secret in Galamis. When the relevant people found out, they did the unthinkable to the girl. They cut her tongue and amputed her hands at the wrists. She was then deported to a mountainous region in Italy where a group of monks were paid a large sum of money to maintain her. The monks say they believe she had been mutilates in this way for one reason alone. She would never be able to reveal the terrible family secret at Galamis. But perhaps she is still trying. One of the ghostly apparitions sometimes seen at the castle is the very frightened face of a girl at a high window, believed to be the poor, mutilated young girl. This story is corroborated by information given by one of the wives of Lord Strathmore, Mrs. Maglagan. She related what happened when her husband became the new Lord Strathmore and he was told the family secret by the lawyer and the agent of the estate, after the funeral of the old Lord. He later came to Mrs. Maglagan and said, 'My dearest, you know how often we have joked over the secret room and the family mystery. I have been into the room; I have heard the secret; and if you wish to please me you will never mention the subject to me again.'
But that is not all. The new Earl was determined to improved the castle, and one of his plans included the construction of a staircase from the lower hall known as the crypt to the chapel. While the family were away in London, one of the workmen hired to do the renovations accidentally stumbled on an ancient door that locked as if it had not been used for ages. Curiosity got the better of him. He opened it and walked in. There was a long, dark passage ahead of him. He took a few steps forward but then he suddenly stopped. He sensed something that so frightened him, his curiosity evaporated all at once. He lost his nerve altogether, turned around and fled out the door faster than he thought he could ever run. Once he got out the door, he felt compelled to report his finding to the Chief of Works. Breathless and bathed in sweat, he approached the Chief and blurted out what had happened. On hearing his story, the Chief turned a ghostly shade of white. His upper lip trembled as if he was holding back a scream. He immediately ordered the work be stopped and the construction crew leave the premises. But the man who walked through the door was not allowed to leave. The Chief of Works telegraph the Earl in London and his lawyer in Edinburgh. Both of them got back, they interrogated the workman as to what he had and had not seen. The workman and his family were then subsidized and forced to emigrate. No one heard from him ever again.
Gone were the crowds, and even the sun had deserted the castle. The sky overhead was dark and threatening and it seemed to cast a menacing, evil quality on the whole castle. The bricks that once looked so warm and pretty now looking grey and sinister. The massive castle loomed before me cold and gloomy. I almost lost my nerve to proceed with the whole 'investigation'. Galamis seemed shrouded in a sullen, gloomy veil of secrecy and it sent a sharp, cold chill right down my spine. But why does this castle have such a deadly reputation? Some believe a good luck family charm brought to Galamis centuries ago by a man who married into the family is responsible for the castle's evil history. The charm in question, mind you, was a mere cup. But they believe when it was moved from its original home into Galamis Castle, instead of bringing luck to those who owned it, it bestowed doom on them instead. And we thought we Singaporean were a superstitious bunch. If you are wondering what sort of doom we're talking about, well, you'll have to multiply by a thousand fold the doom and gloom in any Chinese serial on TV. For starters, the chap who brought the dreaded cup to Galamis Castle was killed in a duel. And remember the famous Macbeth? He was chief of the Galamis clan. And it was here in Galamis that he is believed to have stabbed Duncan. The murder took place in a gloomy room still known as Duncan's Hall. And I don't have to remind you of what happened next, I don't think. Remember Lady Macbeth, the master mind behind the murder? Well, she went stark raving mad, didn't she?
She was obsessed with the stain of blood she could not seem to get off her hands. But Macbeth and wife were not the only ones that drew blood under the doomed roof of Galamis and later paid for it in blood themselves. Malcolm II was also assassinated at Galamis seven years before Duncan. For generations the very real stain of Malcolm's blood remained on the floor. Then there was Janet Douglas, widow of the sixth Lord of Galamis. She was accused of attempting to kill James V of Scotland by witchcraft, in collaboration with her son and her second husband, Archibald Campbell. The trio were sentenced to death. But Campbell fell to his death while trying to escaped from his prison. His death was merciful compared to Janet's. She was tossed onto a burning stake. Legend has it that Janet was a young woman in the prime of her life. She was also a kind and stunning beauty, much loved by the people of Galamis. And they say she suffered her fate with 'manlike courage'. But it seems Janet has not quite quit Galamis. Her ghost has been seen by many surrounded by a lurid halo floating above the castle clock tower...
Tall Tale
With all these gruesome deaths in Galamis Castle, it is no surprise other ghostly phenomena are also commonplace there. A well known incident at Galamis involved a young mother and child. They were staying in the castle for a few days. On the second night they were there, the woman noticed something strange while she was reading in bed. A cold blast of wind suddenly stole into the room and exactly at that moment, the lights in her room flickered and went out. She felt a cold stab of fear as she was certain someone else was in the room with her. The mother had to put her young, four year old to sleep in a cot in the room next door. She had left the bedroom door connecting the two rooms open, so she could keep an eye and ear out for her child. What she saw by the dim light in the child's room scared the living daylights out of her. A tall, hulking male figure walked out of the room she was in, straight into her child's room. Just as she saw this, she heard a frightened shriek from her child. As petrified as she was, her maternal instincts overpowered her fear ans she wasted no time in rushing to the side of her child. She found the child alone in the room, quivering in fear. He insisted a giant had leaned over the cot and stared at him. Many others who have stayed in the castle have said they have either seen or dreamt of a man whose description is almost identical to the letter. They always recall a huge man, with a very long beard and a huge stomach. But there is one other chilling detail they always add about this demonic man. Although his stomach would rise and fall as he breathed, they insisted he was a ghost for one simple reason. His face was that of a dead man.
Face To Fate
But a more bizarre tale at Galamis Castle has a strange twist. A guest at the castle was up late one night when he decided, out of the blue, to look out the window of his bedroom. He saw a black coach drive up to the castle and pull up right below his window. There was nothing unusual with that, except that when he later reflected on it he realized the coach had been noiseless. In the silence of the night it had not made a sound, not even the usual crunching of wheels. A few minutes passed before the driver of the coach decided to look up at him in the window. The coach driver gave the guest a very cold stare, flicked the reins of his horses and raced off into the darkness of the night. The guest was taken aback by his face, it was horribly scarred. The next morning the guest remarked to the Lord of the castle, Lord Strathmore, 'You had a very late arrival last night.' He then went on to describe what he had seen. On hearing the story, the blood seemed to drain from Lord Strathmore's face. He replied very quietly that no one had come to the castle late that night. There was an awkward silence that hung in the air after that remark, but the guest decided to let the matter pass. But a few weeks later when the same guest was staying in a hotel in Paris, the incident came back to haunt him. He was on the third floor of the hotel when he pressed the button for the lift. But when it came, he was so shocked at who he saw, he did not get into the lift. The lift operator was a splitting image of the coach driver that had come to Galamis that late night. When the guest recoiled in shock at the strange coincidence, the lift operator gave him the same, cold stare he had given him in Galamis and impatiently slammed shut the door of the lift. But an instant later a cable in the lift snapped and the lift hurtled down the shaft. All the occupants in the lift were killed in the crash.
Top Secret
In another incident at Galamis, a dean of a prestigious university, Dr. Nicholson, confessed rather unexpectedly at a dinner party that he had had a frightening experience at Galamis Castle when he stayed there overnight once before. He saw a strange man in his room in the middle of the night. The man was tall and distinct and he materialised from nowhere in the dean's locked room. He wore a long, dark coat which was fastened by a clasp at the throat. The figure hovered near his bed for a fleeting moment but after a few seconds, he vanished through a wall. When the dean confessed the incident, his friends around him ribbed him for his fantastic imagination. But there were two people at the dinner who were not laughing, the Lord of the castle, Lord Strathmore, and the dean of another university. There was a long pause before the other dean spoke up. He said quietly and confidently, 'I too saw the exact, same figure when I stayed in that room on a previous occasion.' No one laughed this time. After hearing this and believing the very two incredible witness, both the bishop and the Vicar of St. Paul's Knightsbridge, who were also guests at the dinner party, offered to hold on exorcism at the castle.
Strangely enough, Lord Strathmore, Lord of the castle, refused to allow the exorcism. Yet he looked visibly afraid. But as hard as they tried, they could not convince him to proceed with the ceremony. Obviously he knew something he would not or could not tell. This brings me to the secret of Galamis that I find absolutely fascinating because of the chilling mystery behind it. You see, the castle has a secret room that is perpetually locked, and the entrance to it is blocked with a wall of stone. In this room lies a secret so horrible, the Royal Family refuse to reveal it. Infact, the whereabouts of this mysterious room, the passage to it and and the secret locked within it, is known only to three members of the Royal Family at any one time. Because it is a secret room an the passage to it is a secret, only the Lord of the castle, his heir apparent and any third person whom the two of them trust, know the route to this secret room and the horror that lies within. This secret has been passed down to the present Royal Family since I kid you not, the seventeenth century. And when one of the three people who knows the secret dies, the remaining two, by an oath that have taken, nominate a third person to share the secret with them. Heavy stuff, don't you think? But it gets creepier when you start speculating what this dark secret could be. There are so many possible theories spinning around, it's hard to decide which could be right. But let me share with you three of the most popular.
The walls in Galamis Castle are rock solid thick to the tune of 15 feet in some places. And somewhere between these walls lies the Galamis secret, a mysterious room where a previous Earl is supposed to have kept hidden a family shame. He fathered a hideous monster, a son born half man, half beast. This is by far the most popular theory put forward as the secret of the hidden room. It has been reported in the British newspapers. The deformed chil was result of a curse laid on the family; they were so embarrassed by it, they kept the child hidden away. Too far fetched, I hear you say? Aha, but wait. There is one historical fact that lends support to this legend. You see, in the drawing room of Galamis Castle stands a huge portrait of the first Earl and his sons. The painting shows the Earl, two boys and a peculiar little dwarf. People say the monster lived in the castle for 150 years, kept hidden in the secret room. He only left the room to crawl about in the dead of the night. There is a strong rumour in circulation that he imprisoned monster died in 1921, so the length of time it must have survived does bring in a paranormal element. But others believe the secret has nothing to do with the Royal Family directly, but rather it has to do with a faithful servant that served the family for many moons. The servant his a monstrous secret for years but was eventually caught out. He was a blood thirsty vampire. When the truth was known, he was locked in the secret room where he remains in a motionless trance, his ancient flesh uncorrupted and his blood thirsty appetite waiting to be slaked with the unsealing of his vault like prison.
But another, more horrific theory about the secret, sealed room dates back to feudal days. back then there was a bloody war in Scotland between two family clans, the Lindsays and the Ogilvies. During the battle between the two clans, the Ogilvies were defeated. Soon after, a group of defeated Ogilvies turned up at Galamis Castle and begged for protection. The Lord of the castle did not want to fall foul of the desperate Ogilvy clan. But at the same time he knew if he was found helping them, he would be in the bad books of the Lindsays. So he reluctantly invited the grateful men in and showed them to a remote room in the castle. He assured them they would be safe there and he then locked them in the room. And there they stayed for hundreds of years. They were not found until Victorian times when the door was unlocked and the beholder swooned on seeing what was left of the imprisoned group of men. A group of skeletons lay in the room, their bony arms between their teeth, starvation having driven them to eat their own flesh. They say their frantic knocking can still be heard to this day. Whichever story you choose to believe, the fact that the secret room in Galamis Castle exists is beyond doubt. But those who know the secret will go to great lengths to protect it. Some guests at Galamis recounted years ago how they tried to secretly locate the mysterious room while their host was away in Edinburgh on urgent business. Mind you, Galamis Castle has over 100 rooms. So it was no easy task for the mischievous guests. But they devised an ingenious method. They hung a towel out of the window of every room it was possible to enter.
They confirmed they did see a window without a towel. But while they were trying to locate the room, the Lord of the castle unexpectedly returned. The guests said he was emerged when he found out what they had been up to. But when you hear stories of what happens to those who do find out the Galamis secret, it makes you think more than twice whether you would want to be counted as one of them. There is story that goes back years about a servant girl who happened to stumble on the deadly secret in Galamis. When the relevant people found out, they did the unthinkable to the girl. They cut her tongue and amputed her hands at the wrists. She was then deported to a mountainous region in Italy where a group of monks were paid a large sum of money to maintain her. The monks say they believe she had been mutilates in this way for one reason alone. She would never be able to reveal the terrible family secret at Galamis. But perhaps she is still trying. One of the ghostly apparitions sometimes seen at the castle is the very frightened face of a girl at a high window, believed to be the poor, mutilated young girl. This story is corroborated by information given by one of the wives of Lord Strathmore, Mrs. Maglagan. She related what happened when her husband became the new Lord Strathmore and he was told the family secret by the lawyer and the agent of the estate, after the funeral of the old Lord. He later came to Mrs. Maglagan and said, 'My dearest, you know how often we have joked over the secret room and the family mystery. I have been into the room; I have heard the secret; and if you wish to please me you will never mention the subject to me again.'
But that is not all. The new Earl was determined to improved the castle, and one of his plans included the construction of a staircase from the lower hall known as the crypt to the chapel. While the family were away in London, one of the workmen hired to do the renovations accidentally stumbled on an ancient door that locked as if it had not been used for ages. Curiosity got the better of him. He opened it and walked in. There was a long, dark passage ahead of him. He took a few steps forward but then he suddenly stopped. He sensed something that so frightened him, his curiosity evaporated all at once. He lost his nerve altogether, turned around and fled out the door faster than he thought he could ever run. Once he got out the door, he felt compelled to report his finding to the Chief of Works. Breathless and bathed in sweat, he approached the Chief and blurted out what had happened. On hearing his story, the Chief turned a ghostly shade of white. His upper lip trembled as if he was holding back a scream. He immediately ordered the work be stopped and the construction crew leave the premises. But the man who walked through the door was not allowed to leave. The Chief of Works telegraph the Earl in London and his lawyer in Edinburgh. Both of them got back, they interrogated the workman as to what he had and had not seen. The workman and his family were then subsidized and forced to emigrate. No one heard from him ever again.
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