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Dalhousie Castle


Bonnyrigg, Midlothian EH19 3JB
01875 820153

The castle is said to be haunted by Lady Catherine, "The Grey Lady." When she was alive she was the mistress of the laird but his wife imprisoned her in a turret where she died of starvation. In addition to sightings of her (usually in the turret, staircase and dungeons), the rustling of her gown has been heard, as has tapping and scratching at doors. Another ghost is that of a young boy who was at the castle when it was a temporarily a school in the 20th century; he allegedly jumped his death from the roof. There is also a phantom dog, which also fell from the castle and perished. Other activity includes that of hair being pulled and staff members being tapped on the shoulders.

Update 21/7/22: I contacted the castle asking about any recent phenomena and they sent a document to me: "One paranormal tale is that of Lady Catherine (‘The Grey Lady’) who died here c 1720, and in the castle she can be seen wearing a grey dress, around the stairs, dungeon and 'Black Corridor' originally the lower battlements; she died of a broken heart and hunger, after she was retained in the castle by her father, and forbidden to marry her sweetheart - Andrew xxxx. The Castle Pipe Sergeant hotel has seen her presence several times during his 26 years of service, when she is around as his bagpipes mysteriously go 'off tune'. Some years ago, he spoke with an elderly gent staying at the hotel, who shared the same sightings as his mother and grandmother had worked at the castle, when he was a boy!
Two more recent ghost stories centre around the castle's main (Drum?) tower ... in the 1930’s the castle was run as a primary school, and a 5 year old boy threw himself from the tower to his death; some years later in the 1980's a small dog, Petra, plunged to its death from that same tower after suddenly been startled, both little spirits still haunt the area. A young boy staying at the hotel in the 1990's with his family for Christmas, spoke of having a friend his own age in the room with him, no other mortal children were staying at that time. The bottle dungeon has its own spine-chilling atmosphere and is nowadays a wine cellar stocked with fine vintages, however its past is more sinister. This dungeon measures about 3 m square (10 ft 3 x 10 ft 10), and is where prisoners would be lowered down on a pulley, rope marks can still be seen on the stone staircase leading to it, once incarcerated there was no escape through the 3.5m (11 feet) stone walls, and no window!"

Link: The Scotsman

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