Glamis is the ancestral home of the Lyon, now Bowes-lyon family. At the head are the Earls of Strathmore, who, though ennobled three times before, became Scottish Earls in 1677 and UK Earls only in 1937, when Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Duchess of York, became Queen of England, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother who's childhood home was Glamis. Princess Margaret was born at Glamis and it also has the room where King Malcolm of Scotland died after being wounded in battle. The Castle was visited by Mary Queen of Scots on 22nd August, 1562. The famous secret chamber is said to be known only to the Laird and his heir. The Castle has many legends and secrets surrounding it.
It is said that The Lord of Glamis and "Tiger" Earl of Crawford played cards with the Devil himself on Sabbath. So great were the resulting disturbances that the room was sealed up 300 years later permanently.
The second story of this event goes that one stormy night when the Earl was alone in this chamber in the Castle, he called for a pack of cards and ordered his servants to play cards with him. They refused, because it was Sunday. This made the Earl furious, an he shouted, "I'd play with the Devil himself if he were here!"
There was an immediate knock at the door. And when the Earl said: "Enter in the fiends name!" The Devil himself walked in.
Before long the servants heard horrifying sounds coming from the room. One of them tried to peer through the keyhole and was blasted by a sheet of flame. Since then, claims the story, the Devil and the Earl have been playing cards in that room non-stop for hundreds of years.
It is also said that the chamber contains the bones of Scottish clansmen who sought refuge from enemies. They were admitted by the lord of Glamis, and led to this chamber. The doors and windows were bricked in and the clansmen were left to starve to death.
Another story tells of a stonemason who accidentally saw inside the room, the horrors he saw were so great that they caused him to die from shock. The stonemason's wife was given several thousand pounds compensation, and packed off to Australia to prevent any scandal.
A prominent Edinburgh lawyer was driving to Glamis on a visit a few years ago, he and some friends had been invited to dinner there. As they drove into the castle grounds they saw the shadowy figure of a woman dressed in white. To their astonishment she glided along so swiftly she kept pace with the car-and accompanied them right up to the castle doors. Then she vanished. At first they thought she was one of the maids out for an evening stroll. But they were soon informed that all the maids were indoors that night. However, because of the strange appearance of the woman and the speed and manner with which she had moved, the lawyer admitted that he believed she had been a ghost.
This ghost is believe to be of the Lady of Glamis who became Lady Campbell after her husband's death. A trumped-up charge of witchcraft was bought against her by King James V. Although she was a woman of impeccable character and a very beautiful and popular lady she was imprisoned. After a long imprisonment in a dark dungeon, she was almost blind. She was burned alive at the stake outside Edinburgh Castle. Even her young son was condemned to death and imprisoned only to be released after the king had died.
Her ghost known as "The White Lady" has haunted Glamis Castle for hundreds of years.
There is also a Gray Lady who roams the castle and the grounds, but as history does not record anything about her sad past, she is a complete mystery. However, more than 100 people present in the castle on one occasion saw her glide past them.
A ghost of a small boy servant is often seen waiting patiently on a stone seat just inside the Queen Mothers Sitting Room.
A woman guest once saw a Ghost in Armour. One night as she could not sleep, she kept a candle burning, and during the night a chilly blast swept through the room, blowing out the candle. The woman looked around and she saw the huge figure of a man in a suit of mail armour, silhouetted against the glow of a nightlight which was burning in her baby's room, and glowed through the open adjoining door. The specter seemed to be seeking some way into the child's room, and on finding the door it went in. Seconds later, the mother heard her child screaming with terror.
Frantically the mother rushed into the room . . . but the child was alone, sobbing out something about a giant who had come into the room and leaned over her face.
Another guest saw on a moonlit night as he was gazing out of his bedroom window another window directly opposite. Looking back at him from there was another face. This did not alarm him. He knew there were other guests staying at the castle. Then he took a second look at the face and noticed what he had not observed before.
The face was too transparent and misty to be that of a human and as he looked at the sad face of the ghost and wished there was something he could do to help it, it disappeared. Shortly after the face disappeared he heard a faint, horrifying scream coming across from the window, he thought that it sounded like a man being tortured. He then saw a bent figure of an old woman carrying a heavy bundle across the grounds below. The woman walked a few steps then disappeared.