A Castle Creature
Posted by: Nick Redfern on August 4th, 2012
“Situated just west of Forfar, Scotland, Glamis Castle is referred to by Shakespeare in Macbeth; Macbeth of its title having killed King Duncan there in 1040. And it is also at the castle where assassins murdered King Malcolm II in 1034. In addition, Glamis Castle was the childhood home of both Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother, and the birthplace of Princess Margaret. And then there is the castle’s very own monster.”
And that’s how I begin my latest Lair of the Beasts post at Mania.com…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
I went to the castle in the mid 1990’s and politely asked an elderly lady guide (she was over 80 she told us all) about the legend of Prince Eddy being hidden there until 1933 when he allegedly died, (despite him officially dying in 1892) she became instantly very angry for no reason, so I do think there is some truth in that monster legend at least being true. The other older monster tradition being true I can well believe too, as the then Earl once heard about a group of students who were staying in the castle, put sheets out of what they thought were all the windows (to see if the truth of secret sets of room was true) apparently the Earl was uncharacteristically furious too.
This is something of a letdown. It appears that much more is known of the Glamis Monster than I had supposed based on a few odd references (like “In Search Of …”). I had been under the impression that the monster was something like an elemental — more genuinely vague and shapeless, and much older than 1821. The story presented here is sad, but neither supernatural nor cryptozoological.