Season 08 Episode 17: Stone in the Blood

he inadvertently knocked a hole in the wall. After the team made further excavations, they discovered a secret room under the tower. Though the empty space is assumed to be nothing more alarming than a small bedroom, news of the discovery made head lines around the world. Adding fuel to the speculative fire was the estate manager's enigmatic suggestion that the room could have been sealed off due to an

unspecified tragedy in the castle's past. Castles, tragedies secrets three ingredients that have come together darkly and deliciously over the centuries. Back in Unexplained Season six, episode one, The Chasm Below, we detailed the legend surrounding the Czech Republic's Hauska Castle. In episode thirteen of the same season a place of forgetting, we plumber the secrets of Lepp Castle, supposedly Ireland's most haunted. Clearly, there is something about the idea of a castle and

its mysteries that just ignites the imagination. Maybe we are conditioned by their prominence in our darker stories, from Shakespeare's to the great Gothic novels. Maybe it's the irony of buildings designed to withstand battle, bombardment and siege being ultimately impotent to withstand the human capacity for manufacturing terror, that no matter how impregnable we make our defenses, we cannot

ever escape ourselves. Or maybe it's just that castles have been the stage for so much horror and violence that they now impose themselves and our psychogeographical landscape just as heavily as they sit on their hilltops, as vast monuments to the worst that humans can do. There is one castle where legend and history is woven so tightly that

the twin strands are now impossible to unpick. A castle where devils are said to have visited, monsters are said to rome, and secrets are kept at any cost, and where it appears there may be more than a little truth to the rumours you're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard mc lean smith. For a thousand years, Glam's Castle, located just north of Dundee in the East of Scotland, has been bound up with secrets and stories. They are as integral to the structure as the mortar between its stones.

In ten thirty four, when GLAMs was still the site of a royal hunting lodge, it played host to the death of King Malcolm the Second of Scotland. The details of Malcolm's demise are lost to history, but documents from the period suggest he was likely murdered. In the late fourteenth century, an early rudimentary tower was built on the site and established as the family seat of the Lyon family as reward for Sir John Lyon's services to the crown. Ten years later, Sir John would also be murdered by

his rival, James Lindsay of Crawford. The castle and its estate was surrendered back to the Crown in fifteen thirty seven, after Jane Douglas, the Lady of GLAMs, was found guilty of witchcraft and intent to poison the king. In punishment, she was burned at the stake, and for the next two centuries, GLAMs bounced in and out of the Lyon family's possession, eventually settling with them when the family was awarded the earldom, though they would later change the family

name to Bow's Lion. They remained the Earls and Ladies of Strathmore and Kinghorn to this day. But even with its ownership secure, GLAMs regularly sat empty, as few of the earls chose to inhabit its coal drafty halls. It is a place of thick walls and heavy atmosphere, consistently associated with the Macarbre. When Shakespeare adapted the real historical Macbeth into one of the most cursed figures in all of literature, where else did he appoint his home but GLAMs.

And just as Shakespeare promoted the castle's notoriety in the sixteenth century, it was another writer who plucked it from obscurity in the eighteenth Walter Scott, the famed author of historical epics such as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy, visited in the summer of seventeen ninety three, requesting the opportunity to

stay overnight in one of the rooms. Forty years later, Scott wrote an account of his stay in his letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, I must own he reminisced, as I heard door after door shut, I began to consider myself as too far from the living and somewhat too near to the dead. Scott was a lifelong scholar of folklore and the supernatural, so it's likely his perception of the half empty Castle was colored by an awareness of its many ghost stories. Several are of a notably cruel

and violent strain. One of the more benign supposed specters is that of Jane Douglas. After she was burned at the stake on trumped up charges of treason, her spirit

was said to remain at GLAMs. Known as either the White or Gray Lady, she is said to appear most frequently in the castle's small chapel, often kneeling at the altar, where she has apparently been seen by some of the most prominent members of the family, including the mother of Queen Elizabeth, the second Elizabeth Bow's Lion, who grew up GLAMs. It has long been traditioned to leave one of the

forty six chapel seats vacant for Lady Jane. Even today, when large family gatherings can quickly fill the space to capacity. No one is allowed to sit in her place. Other tales paint GLAMs in a less wholesome light. It was late one Saturday night in the fifteenth century when a group of drunken noblemen were playing cards in the Old Square Tower, the original core of Glam's Castle. As midnight drew near, the group began to slip away, feeling a

little guilty, perhaps at gambling on the Sabbath. One man, however, had no such reservations, declaring that he would happily play on the Sabbath or until doomsday Hell. He insisted he would play with the devil himself if needs be. In some versions of the legend, this man is Alexander Lindsey, the fourth Earl of Crawford. Other tellings have it that it was the then Lord of Glance himself, Alexander Lyon.

Either way, the outcome is always the same. A heavy knock is heard at the door, and a black cloaked figure passes into the room. Like the drunken Earl, the stranger has no fear of the Sabbath and asks to be dealt in The two play into the early hours of the night, and after some time the Earl's luck begins to falter. First he loses his money, then his land,

and then his title. At one point, it said, he had cause to look beneath the table and saw that a long leg which extended out of his opponent's cloak, ended in a cloven hoof. Realizing he was faced with the devil himself, and with nothing left to up the ante, the earl gambled his soul and lost. Thus the devil cursed him to continue his game, just as the earl bragged he would all the way until doomsday. Some say that the pair are playing still somewhere in the dark

depths of GLAMs. The castle's most grotesque ghost is also perhaps its most telling in several meanings of the word. The so called tongueless woman has apparently been seen many times, most often in the courtyard, with blood gushing from her mouth. Some claim to have seen her appear suddenly in one of the castle's many barred windows, her face fixed in

a silent scream. There is an unverified, yet intriguing specificity to one sighting of the tongueless woman in the mid nineteenth century, An unnamed visitor to Glance was touring the grounds one evening when he looked up to see a woman at one of the castle's first four windows. As he approached, the apparent apparition is said to have disappeared. Moments later, the visitor heard a shriek, followed by the pounding of feet on stone, loud enough that a noticeable

limp could be discerned in the steps. Just then, a wooden door onto the courtyard burst open, revealing the woman, fresh blood caked around her mouth and a stuffed sack on her back. She is then said to have rapidly fled the courtyard and disappeared out of sight. It was some years later when the same visitor who'd apparently seen the bloody woman flee the courtyard at Glance was abroad in Italy. Some bad weather forced him to seek shelter

in a local monastery. In the throes of conversation with the hospitable monks, the man mentioned his experience at GLAMs, only for the monks to become suddenly excited. The monks apparently told the man of an englishwoman living in the local nunnery. She'd been a member of staff at Glam's castle, where she'd unintentionally stumbled across the details of some hideous secret. When she relayed what she knew, the Lyon family had her tongue removed, after which she fled the castle and

the country. When he was taken to meet the still living woman, the Englishman was horrified to find it was the exact same woman he'd seen in the castle courtyard.

The story doesn't clarify whether the man had seen the tongueless woman in the flesh on the night of her escape, or whether he was supposed have witness some kind of crisis apparition, an apparent phenomena that is said to occur during moments of intense stress, in which one person witnesses an event like a holographic film being played out from

a distance. Certainly it's a good story, but like the Wicked Earl's card game, it has the neat yet in substantial logic of folklore, no dates or names to substantiate what is a very tall tale. However, there is one element of the Tongueless Woman's story that bears scrutiny, the hint of a terrible secret within Glans, because it has long been thought that the castle does indeed contain a secret, one that has been glimpsed over the years, with names,

dates and facts attached. And though the violence apparently committed upon the tongueless woman may be a gross exaggeration, there is some evidence that the Lyon family have gone to great lengths to hold their real secret close. If you could even guess at the nature of this castle secret, you would get down on your knees and thank God it is not yours. Those are apparently the words of Claude Bow's Lion, the thirteenth Earl of Strathmore and King Horn.

He took up the lordship of GLAMs on the death of his brother in September eighteen sixty five, and held it until his own death in nineteen oh four. The span of his and his brother's lordship roughly parallels a period in which the so called mystery of Glance was a common topic of conversation in the salons and dinner parties of high society Europe. It centers on rumors of

a secret room hidden within Glams's thick walls. The room was said to be both home and prison for a supposedly monstrous occupant who'd spent his entire life within its confines. One nineteenth century description of the so called monster referred to a human toad. A fuller picture was given by a twentieth century earl who talked about the legend of a figure with an enormous barrel chest, as harry as a doormat, and whose head ran straight into his shoulders,

with toy like arms and legs. Regardless of how unusual its body may have been, the so called Monster of GLAMs had to be cared for, kept safe, and even exercised. That job, it said, was a war or did to the Factor, the man responsible for the overarching administration of the estate. What made this story more scandalous and appetizing for high society gossip was the widely held belief that the so called monster was actually a member of the

Bow's Lyon dynasty. He was thought to be a male heir to the castle, the firstborn son of Thomas George Bow's Lyon and his wife Charlotte. The two married in December of eighteen twenty, and the peerage records note that on October twenty first of the following year, Charlotte gave birth to a boy, Thomas Junior, who it was claimed

died that same day. Whispers immediately began to swirl in the local villages when the midwife spread word that the child had in fact been born deformed as she described it, but was in good health when she left him and his mother, And so when Thomas's death was announced two days later, on the twenty third, it was met with suspicion. Villagers were particularly perturbed by a lack of gravestone to

mark the boy's resting place. Word of the alleged cover up spread rapidly, but only hints ever found their way into print. During the nineteenth century, the author Walter Scott, for one, had mentioned the legend of the secret chamber in his report of his visit to GLAMs, but he made no mention of any occupant. In nineteen o eight, an article in the journal Notes and Queries relates the

mystery of GLAMs as if it was common knowledge. The uncredited author begins by assuming that the reader is aware of the story, which he says was told to him sixty years earlier, when he was just a boy. And though the article repeats the oft quoted theory that the secret is only ever revealed to three living people, the current Earl, his heir and the factor. Word had clearly

gotten out some time ago. In eighteen sixty five, a laborer employed by the twelfth Earl to make repairs to the older parts of the tower struck a seemingly solid wall, only to see it crumble away to reveal a long corridor beyond. The man ventured inside, but was soon stopped by a heavy iron door. Other tellings of the story say that he ran from the sight of a slumped, distorted figure in the shadows. Either way, the man fled

the passage and reported it to his foreman. When word reached mister Ralston, the long serving and loyal factor of the day, he quickly summoned the Earl back from London. According to the conspiracy, Ralston and the Earl interrogated the laborer, then paid him off handsomely on the one condition did he and his family leave on a one way trip to Australia. Other anecdotes suggest there is at least some

truth to Glams' supposedly anomalous architecture. Lord Ernest Hamilton spent many summers of his boyhood at the castle, and returned often as an adult. He wrote how once he was playing in a dressing room known as the Blue Room when he lifted a rug on the floor, only to find a trapdoor underneath it. When he opened it up, he too found a hidden passage. A few years later, a doctor paid a professional visit to GLAMs that required

him to stay for a couple of days. Speaking of the trip later, he explained that when he retired to his bedroom in the evening, he saw that a mark he'd previously noticed on the carpet was now at the opposite end of the room. For some reason, the carpet had been taken up and relaid. Curious to know why, the doctor quickly moved the furniture out of the way and lifted the carpet up, under which he also found

a trapdoor, and beyond that the hidden passage. Moments later, the doctor found himself in a narrow stone walled corridor that ended abruptly at a blank cement wall. When he pressed his hand against it, he apparently found the cement still soft enough to leave an impression. The doctor returned to his room and resettled the carpet and told nobody

of his unnerving excursion. Nonetheless, he was met early the following morning by mister Ralston, who, after presenting him with the check, informed him that a carriage was waiting outside to escort him immediately to the train station. Though all this may sound like a Gothic tinged gossip or an early tabloid scandal, there is compelling testimony to support the rumors. Several prominent members of late Victorian society were willing to

put their name to their experiences. One such individual was Virginia Gabriel, the romantic singer and composer. Virginia Gabriel had a lengthy stay at GLAMs in the winter of eighteen sixty nine and eighteen seventy, after which she was inspired to write the piano composition The GLAMs Castle Waltz. She also returned from her trip convinced that the family and

their castle did indeed ours a horrible secret. Over the course of that winter, Virginia was witnessed to a number of strange incidents, which she relayed to former Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Charles Wood, an ardent collector of ghost stories. In November of eighteen sixty nine, Virginia was at a dance to celebrate the completion of a brand new dining room. The party went on until the early hours, until everyone eventually made their

way to their rooms. One couple, a Missus and mister Monroe, were staying in the red room while their young son slept near by in an adjoining dressing room. The following morning, over breakfast, Missus Munroe regaled Virginia and the other guests with a tale. Deep in the night, Missus Munroe had woken with the feeling that some one was looming over her in the dark. She even felt what she took to be strands of a beard tickling her face. She called out for her husband to find a match to

light the lamp. Seconds later, she saw a shadowy figure moving towards the dressing room door. When she found matches of her own, she lit one, only to be shocked by the sleeping figure of her husband lying beside her in the bed. It was then that she heard her son screaming. When they rushed into his bedroom, the Munrose found the boy in extreme distress, crying about a giant that had come into his room. Shortly after, all three heard a loud crash come from elsewhere in the castle,

as if a great door had just slammed. Another guest at the breakfast table, Lady Trevannion, said that she had been woken at four a m by the same crashing noise. Virginia Gabriel would also go on to give the fullest impression of the castle factor, mister Ralston, a man who seems to always haunt the background of the castle's most intriguing stories. Virginia describes him as a shrewd, hard headed Scotsman who never, under any circumstances, spent the night in

the castle. She mentions one night in early eighteen seventy when a sudden snowstorm blanketed the area, rendering Rolston's route home impassable, but rather than accept the invitation of a bed for the night, the Factor ordered a whole team of gardeners and stablemen to dig out a mile long

path through the snow to his home. Virginia also shared a conversation she had with the lady of the manor, Francis bow'slon or Lady Strathmore, in which Bow's Lion confessed how she had once asked mister Ralston what all the fuss was over the supposed mystery. The factor responded gravely, that it is fortunate you do not know it and can never know it, for if you did, you would not be a happy woman. According to Virginia Gabriel, this

speech from such a man was certainly uncanny. It appears that mister Rolston's warning did not defeat Lady Strathmore's interest in the family secret. Her attempts to resolve the enigma of the hidden room has become one of the most often repeated stories about the castle. It was first mentioned by Horace Rumboldt, Briton's then ambassador to Berlin. In his memoir Recollections of a Diplomatist. Rumbold describes a visit to

Glance during the summer of eighteen seventy seven. The Earl was away on business, leaving Lady Strathmore to host a small gathering of family and friends. Conversation soon turned to the mystery. In all of the stories, the secret chamber was said to have a window, so someone in the party suggested that cloth be hung from every available window. Once this was complete, logic dictated that the secret room

would be literally uncovered. Sheets and towels, and even handkerchiefs were gathered, and visitors and staff joined forces in hanging them from every window they could find. Once they were done, the group gathered outside the castle. Some accounts claim that one window remained clear, others that there were as many

as four. Rumboldt doesn't confirm the result, but he does describe the Earl's unexpectedly early return and the painful scene in which he bitterly remonstrated with his wife for treating so lightly what she well knew was a solemn secret deeply affecting the family fortunes. Considering that the twelfth and thirteenth Earls would be younger brothers of the so called Monster of Glance, its understandable that they felt a particular

discomfort with anyone prying into the mystery. Rumbold writes how Claude, the thirteenth Earl, had seen both his father and brother traumatized by the knowledge that was imparted to them, and that he had asked if he could be spared the burden, but he was not. On his death bed, Claude's brother, the twelfth Earl, is said to have passed on the secret and implored Claude to do all that he could to thwart the sinister in fluenceants that had supposedly been

such a burden to him. Claude's first act as Earl was to refurbish the castle Chapel, where not hours after its completion, he was said to have been found deep in prayer, still wearing his clothes from the night before. He was praying for salvation. It seemed that the first chance he got Claude Bo's lion. The thirteenth Earl of Strathmore,

died in nineteen oh four. Most of the anecdotes and rumors that constitute the mystery of Glance came to light after his death, but they all relate to incidents that took place during his life. Interestingly, there are no new reports after the late eighteen hundreds. Later generations of the beau's Lyon family were relatively happy to discuss the legend and confident that it was just that a legend. In nineteen sixty, the writer James Wentworth Day interviewed the sixteenth

Earl for a biography of the Queen Mother. The new Earl mentioned that he'd heard the legend, and it is he who gave the description of a monster with a hairy barrel chest However, he claimed to have never been told of the reality and responsibility of the secret, as his forebears were said to have been. The Earl reasoned that the story may have died with his father or with his brother, who was killed in the First World War. But there are some who think it isn't word of

the secret that died, but the secret himself. If the so called Monster of GLAMs really was a disabled heir born in eighteen twenty one and sequestered away in the castle's recess, then that man would have been approaching eighty at the turn of the century. It's likely that he would not have long outlived his brother Claude, the thirteenth Earl, and there would not have been any cause for the

fourteenth Eirl to pass the story down any longer. Today, the legacy of the story lives on in the architecture of Glam's Castle. There is a section of parapet that runs along the roofline, and it's there that the newest addition to Glance its roster of apparent ghosts is said to have been seen. Reports describe it as a strange shuffling shadow walking to and fro, as if taking the

opportunity to stretch. Rarely used legs. That section of parapet as a name to the precise origins of w which can't be pinned down in history, it's known as the mad Earl's Walk. This episode was written by Neil McRobert and produced by me Richard McLain Smith. Neil is the creator and host of his own brilliant podcast called Talking Scared, in which he discusses the craft of horror, writing with everyone from Ta Nanerieve Do to the God of Horror himself,

Stephen King. I can't recommend it highly enough. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble Stones and other bookstores.

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