Leith Hall, Aberdeenshire

Leith Hall’s Haunted History

Situated in the rugged, yet beautiful countryside surrounding Huntly in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is the enigmatic Leith Hall. It has stood against natural elements for roughly three and a half centuries and has seen many people walk its corridors, today it is home to only a handful of people, dedicated to keeping the past alive, yet these people share their home with hundreds of visitors at a time, most coming to spend time in the lavishly decorated rooms, to stroll its wonderful gardens, to be amazed by the Militaria on display on the top floor, some people come to see another side of the grey building set against its green background. Some people come armed with all manner of devices. Devices designed to try and find out just who else is walking the corridors of Leith Hall, for the magnificent tower house is quickly gaining a reputation as being one of the most haunted sites in the Highlands, if not the entire country.

Leith Hall was built as a home and local court around the year 1650, though extensions, renovations and re-developments have been going on sporadically every so often since then. It is thought to have been built right on top of an older fortification known as Peill Castle. From its first foundation stone up until 1945 the house remained in the possession of the Leith family, with the last of the Leith-Hay’s dying in 1963, still residing at the Hall. The Laird of the land was responsible for governing the people who worked on his land, although the Highland way of life continued for centuries west of the Great Glen to the east by the 17th century much of Aberdeenshire was becoming more like the south of Scotland. This led to the building of Leith Hall, not as a defensive building but as a true home and office for the Laird. Should a man be sentenced to death, either in the Hall itself or more likely on a court erected in the grounds outside then he would be hung from the nearest convenient “Hanging Tree”. At Leith Hall the “Duel” tree is still standing, and although one of the branches appears to have rope marks on it this may in fact be caused by owls using the same branch over and over as a perch from which to watch the surrounding ground for a moonlight snack or two, it is common for Owls to do this, though it doesn’t mean it is not the same branch from which justice was meted out to the criminals of the surrounding area. Leith Hall’s surrounding grounds have been designed and re-designed just as much as the house has, and they are also just as haunted. Bagpipes have been heard braying on the midnight winds while drums have been heard in the gardens too, this occurrence may be explained by the fact that the Laird was also responsible for the Military activities on his land, men fought for the Laird as he was responsible for their lives, the Laird in turn fought for his King or Queen and had to keep a semi-professional force of armed men to be at the said King or Queens disposal.

One ghost dressed in Military attire has also been seen walking the grounds, both inside and out. He has been identified as Charles Arthur O’Neill Leith-Hay, he was the last male Leith-Hay to pass away and did so in tragic circumstances on Saturday 16th September 1939, just weeks after Hitler’s jackbooted Nazi hordes had invaded Poland, and Britain had declared war on Germany. Charles was a member of the Royal Artillery, born in Edinburgh on 18th May 1918 to parents Charles Edward Norman Leith-Hay and Henrietta Valdivia O’Neill. They also had two other children in their lifetime, Louisa (b1909) and Bridget Anne (b1911), both sadly died in infancy, each holding onto their mortal coils for just twelve days. It is thought Charles Arthur was given his name in honour of his uncle on his mother’s side who had fought and died at Ypres during the Great War, Captain Arthur Edward Bruce O’Neill was in the 2nd Life Guards and also a member of Parliament, he in fact was the first M.P to be killed in the war in November 1914.

This military tradition stemmed from long before his uncle, and the family was well connected to the aristocracy of the period. Charles Arthur was educated at Eton College and went on to the Royal Military Academy in Greenwich, before selecting the Royal Artillery and training at Larkhill, Wiltshire. He joined the 91st Battery, 12 Field Regiment at Dunbar close to Edinburgh in early September, the battery however was already planning to move to Northumberland for further training in the Otterburn area, site of a ferocious Battle in 1388 between the Scots and the English, it was in 1939, and still is, home to artillery training. On the morning of 16th September Charles visited the nearby town of Bellingham, whether on military or personal business no one is sure, but on his return journey his large trench-coat became trapped in the spokes and gears of his motorcycle, this sent Charles spinning through the air to hit a stone wall headfirst with enough force to knock him unconscious, William Beattie, a local postman, witnessed the incident, he was travelling back to Bellingham on his bicycle when he passed Charles at Sandysyke Junction travelling at moderate speed and on the correct side of the road, seconds later William heard a grating sound and turned to see Charles being flung through the air. He returned to the scene and administered what first aid he could before leaving to phone for the local doctor to come and help. Doctor Rochester of Bellingham arrived and around midday a Police Sergeant arrived to take notes, he examined the bicycle and found it to be in good running order, good brakes, yet a broken headlamp, upon examining the mackintosh trench-coat he found a chunk had been torn from it and came to the conclusion that this is what had caused the injuries. Charles was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle and admitted at 3:35pm, Charles never regained consciousness and died of his injuries at 4:05pm. This came as a double blow for his redoubtable mother Henrietta for earlier in 1939 her husband, and Charles’ father, had died, now leaving the poor lady alone to live and eventually die at Leith Hall.

Whilst staying at Leith Hall in 1968 novelist Elizabeth Byrd found inspiration for her own ghost story when she saw the spirit of what is believed to be the Fourth Laird, John Leith. She described the ghost as wearing a white shirt, green trousers and holding a large dagger in his hand, known as a Dirk. He also had a large bandage about his head which partially covered his eyes he was also in some pain for he was moaning as if wounded. This frightened Elizabeth somewhat and she shouted at the figure to “go away!”, at this point the figure stopped rambling towards her and hesitated, she shouted again in a more forceful voice “GO AWAY NOW!” and the spectre turned towards a window and vanished. The reason it is believed to be John Leith’s ghost comes from his head wound, as well as the Dirk which was a traditional weapon in the 18th Century. John Leith was killed as the result of a duel fought not in Leith, but in Archibald Campbell’s Tavern, in Aberdeen. On 21st December 1763 John Leith and Abernathy of Mayen became embroiled in a dispute about the standard of grain grown by Leith’s tenant farmers, this argument was fuelled by plenty of alcohol and it is not known for certain what happened next, did the pair fight an honourable duel or did Abernathy pull his gun without warning? We will never know, but what is known for sure is that John Leith was hit in the head by a pistol ball and taken to a nearby house on Castlegate in Aberdeen where he passed away, on Christmas day, 1763. John Leith’s widow, Harriot Leith, tried to have Abernathy convicted of the crime but Abernathy fled to foreign climes, he did return and was charged with murder, however no witnesses came forward to say if it was murder or a duel and so Abernathy remained a free man, though he did have to pay a £150 to Harriot Leith, scant recompense for the man she loved.

As well as the events described above Elizabeth Byrd and her husband witnessed a vast array of strange phenomena. They had rented 14 rooms at Leith Hall shortly after their wedding and soon the ghosts of Leith Hall had all come to say hello in some strange way, a lady dressed in Victorian clothing was seen in the Leith Bedroom, footsteps on the third floor heard and could not be distinguished between a child’s or a small dogs scampering footfalls, various forms of Poltergeist activity occurred throughout the house with doors banging shut, pots and lamps moved around or even sent crashing to the floor. Above all the master bedroom, and the bed within it in particular, seemed to have a life of its own, many people, including Elizabeth Byrd, her actress friend Isabel Beggs, her husband, Graham Stewart, himself a film director, another friend Mary Poulton and her husband Barrie Gaunt all had the sensation of being watched by something terrible as they passed by the bed.

All of these strange tales Elizabeth wrote about in her book A Strange and Seeing Time which raises a question in itself, did Elizabeth really witness all of these strange events, or for the purposes of selling her work did she fabricate some legends about the Hall? Personally I have seen some very strange events at the Hall whilst on an Investigation with Paranormal Tours in October 2007, doors closing on their own and lights hovering around a certain bed. One thing is for sure. Leith Hall IS haunted and I for one would not like to live there. However, I know someone who does.

Abigail Quinn lives and works at Leith Hall, although a Sassenach for most of her life she has lived in the North of Scotland for many years and even at one time lived in a flat in Aberdeen which was haunted. Yet it is at Leith Hall where Abigail has seen the majority of her ghostly experiences, in her own words “I have been told that a little girl likes to spend time with me and around my things, my brushes, make up, perfume, etc. I have felt her with me quite a lot, among others. One evening I was going to bed with a hot drink and a book and the light was off on the staircase. As I got to the top, I saw the little girl standing at my bedroom door. She was solid but appeared to be less colourful than real life. She was not smiling and I immediately thought of The Shining, which freaked me out. I always feel safe and comfortable in my bedroom and felt I had to get to it, so I shamefully ran through her and slammed the door behind me. I immediately felt terribly guilty and continue to apologise, but she hasn't shown herself again. When my pillow was tugged the other day, I thought it was someone playing and immediately thought of her… “

On other occasions Abigail has witnessed phenomena such as seeing a large ball of light appear from the corner of a room, this occurred on Halloween a few years ago, right in the middle of a story about the ghost of John Leith! Abigail also recounts two other strange occurrences at Leith Hall “I Was working late one night in the office in the house alone (it was dark) when suddenly the temperature dropped so suddenly that I could see my breath. I then heard whistling from outside the door (inside the house) but initially dismissed it until I heard it again and it was joined with loud distinct footsteps on wooden floorboards in the same location. I felt trapped there for about half an hour while I plucked up the courage to rush through the whole house back to my apartment! As well as this I have frequently seen a lovely looking young man running in the grounds. He wears an army uniform and was initially quite normal looking until I realised the khaki of the uniform was different to nowadays, and most distinctly, his puttees were tightly bound up to his knees, something I believe, that isn't done today. Basically, he looked like a World War I soldier. He disappears into thin air. I still see him and at night he is a pearlescent shimmer that goes past one of my windows but not the other. “ So, could a World War One soldier haunt Leith Hall too? It is more than acceptable to assume so, during the Great War (as it was known then, World War One was coined much later) up to 500 wounded soldiers at a time used Leith Hall as a convalescent hospital where they would come after surgeries including amputations, however the more romantic part of my soul wishes to believe it is the ghost of Captain Arthur Edward Bruce O’Neill, the brother of the last living Leith-Hay to reside at the Hall. It is undoubted that he would have visited Leith Hall to see his sister, the brother and sister were so close that Henrietta named her son after him, which of course has been covered previously.

It would seem that the ghosts of Leith Hall not only like to make contact with Abigail, for many times Abigail’s friend Karmen Waldron has come to visit. Both are old University friends and share their love of the paranormal and regularly take part on ghost hunts and investigations, yet it was in more bizarre circumstances which Karmen witnessed her own piece of Leith Hall’s paranormal history. In her own words Karmen recounts her ghostly tale “I had worked all day, got stuck on the motorway on the way up to Birmingham and then my plane was delayed, so by the time I got to Leith I had been up for about 30 hours. As soon as I got there I went upstairs to run a bath but with in minutes the fire alarm went off so Abigail and I evacuated and waited outside for the firemen. They came and did there bit, during which time I did not re-enter the house, I was stood outside talking to a couple of the firemen (well, it would have been a shame not to!!). Once they had left Abigail went to check the lights were off upstairs and asked if I would check the lights were out along the tea room corridor. The corridor lights were on, and all the other lights were off, but as I entered the tea room the biggest rush of energy hit me and I saw a man sat in the middle of the room in a white open collared shirt and green striped waist coat (a la Upstairs Downstairs). He had dark hair and a tash and was just sort of sat, looking at me.

Now, intrepid investigator that I am, I stood and looked at him for about 10 seconds and then ran back down the corridor to find Abigail so some one else could see what I had seen, and because I was bricking it!! By the time she got to the tea room he had gone, but she described the same energy rush hitting her that I did.

I have spent the last year or so trying to convince myself that I did actually see a 'ghost' but I can't get round the facts that I was probably hallucinating because:

1. I was very tired

2. I was really, really, stressed with work and having flooded family staying with me plus the added

inconvenience of problematic travelling. (during the time of the 2007 floods)

3. I was apprehensive about staying at Leith because it was one of my first visits up there.

However, what I can't explain is that the apparition I saw was smoking a cigarette. When I explained to Abigail what I had seen she turned the light on and showed me that the man was positioned directly underneath the smoke detector in the tea room, and that was the detector which had been triggered by the fire alarm. This does make it more interesting, but I reserve my position as to whether I saw something, or my time as come for the funny farm!”.

It is most certain that this area of Leith Hall would have been the servants dining area, even in the early 1900’s anywhere from 30 to 100 people lived and / or worked at Leith Hall, perhaps this butler was simply having a quick break from his duties and was shocked to see a guest come into the room, something which most definitely would never have been allowed to happen in Leith Hall’s Edwardian hay-day.

And so in the heart of the North of Scotland still stands a truly haunted house, replete with an abundance of ghostly apparitions of former owners, residents and staff. Yet anybody visiting Leith Hall today could never hear about its fast growing reputation, they could be oblivious to the tales of the darkness, they could wander its halls and rooms taking in the breathtaking pieces of artwork, the magnificent architecture, or the fantastic gardens outside. All the while beside them, looking over their shoulder is the spirit of a long lost soldier from the Great War, or sitting next to them having a cup of coffee is a Butler having a smoke break, or even passing them on the staircase is the ghost of John Leith, forever in torment, for reasons we will never know. 

So if you ever find yourself in the North of Scotland and have nothing to do in between Inverness and Aberdeen, then take a slight detour for Huntly, and nearby is Leith Hall, ready and willing to turn your visit into yet another ghost story.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.