Among the many ghosts said to haunt Glamis Castle, the woman with no tongue is one of the more well-known. She is said to race around the grounds on moonlit nights, frantically pointing to her hideously mutilated mouth.
Standing near the town of Forfar in Angus, Glamis is one of the largest and most impressive of Scotland’s castles. The childhood home of the Queen Mother and the birthplace of Princess Margaret, the castle is the ancestral seat of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and has been home to the Lyon family since 1372.
There have been several ghost sightings at the castle, and numerous supernatural tales have accumulated over the years. The notorious ‘Tongueless Woman’, also known as the ‘Weeping Woman’, is one of the oldest. Her origins remain obscure, although she has been tenuously linked to a very odd incident dating from the 19th century.
It’s said that a guest at Glamis, staying up late one night, was standing at his window when he noticed someone looking back at him from a window opposite. A ghostly face, deathly pale, and with large sad eyes which appeared to be trying to attract attention. While the bewildered guest looked on, the strange face suddenly vanished, as if snatched away by superhuman force.
There then followed a series of horrible screams, further alarming the guest as they thundered through the castle and out into the night.
Still feeling shaken, even after an hour had elapsed, the guest returned to the window. However he was only to be further disturbed. Someone was prowling about in the courtyard below. A sinister figure, resembling a decrepit old woman, slowly skulked into the moonlight. She was almost bent double with what appeared to be large bundle or bag on her back. The guest watched as she slowly faded into the darkness.
Who did the ghostly face belong to? And what was in the bag borne by the sinister old woman? A number of people, including staff at the castle, have claimed to have seen the face, still starring out of a window. There are those who believe it belonged to a servant, claiming that she was an unfortunate witness to some ghastly crime. The removal of her tongue was to brutally silence her, and an alternative version tells of how the poor woman’s hands were severed as well.
The account goes on to relate that some years later, our former Glamis guest was travelling in a remote part of Italy. While visiting a monastery, he was given some rather alarming news. A monk told him of a woman who resided at a nearby nunnery. Apparently she was very beautiful and used to work at a great house in Scotland, where she had received horrific injuries. The guest learnt that her hands had been chopped off. And her tongue cut out.