A haunting we will go

[Lana]

This was on our morning news!

I got excited because it was Scottish...

A haunting we will go

By Claire Harvey
August 14, 2009 12:00am

THERE is something slightly unnerving about being dispatched to the dungeon immediately after drinks.

"Everything's ready for you … downstairs," an attendant says as we sit around in the library of Dalhousie Castle, the ancient, supposedly haunted Scottish fortress that is now one of Britain's most elegant small hotels.

It sounds ominous; the sort of thing a matinee-movie medieval torturer might say, just before the hero is dragged below, strapped to the rack and introduced to the red-hot pokers.

Dungeon delights

So we clatter down the stone stairs and emerge into a torture-chamber straight out of old Hollywood: there's a vaulted ceiling; a few sinister crevices just perfect for housing whips and thumbscrews; a ghostly suit of armour; a collection of battle-axes displayed in a jaunty fan arrangement on one wall.

We dine on smoked duck and delicately grilled aubergine, chocolate crème brulee and local cheeses – and there's not a single howl of agony.

No ghosts either, although Escape video-journalist Helen Parker later returns to the dungeon to scare the wits out of herself by attempting to conjure up the ghost of Lady Catherine – a lovelorn young woman who supposedly starved herself to death.

The next morning, in the sanity of daylight, Dalhousie seems not scary, but thoroughly romantic. The castle has its own falconry, housing the birds of prey that once served as a hunting aid and pastime for the Scottish aristocracy. Guests can learn how to handle hawks, falcons, buzzards and owls, and participate in Dalhousie's Hunting With Hawks days in the surrounding countryside - or, for a memorable wedding, arrange to have one of the owls deliver wedding-rings to a ceremony in the castle grounds.

Read more HERE

[Templar]

Having a look at the video that accompanied the story, again you do come to a conclusion that perhaps the reporter got spooked by no more than just sounds of a natural occurence and because she's in a dark and menacing old house!

She says the chair - off camera so the viewers can't judge for themselves - rocked, making the sound that caused her to run out. Her camera of course set to not take in all around her so we can't see if there's anything there that's the cause. At least she wasn't filming with a low light level camera. That makes a change!
One bit that does raise a question. At the end and she's sitting on the stairs? According to the video it's around 2:00am. There's a light source to her left side that looks very much like daylight though. Was it a window or an artifical light? Oh, and not certain but did the reporter mispronounce Dalhousie? Not a big thing if she did. The amount of times I've heard non Scots - heck, even anyone from other parts of the UK - mangle place names....!