A Christmas Ghost Story: Omens at Midwinter

Not all Christmas ghost stories have frightening apparitions or ghostly chaints rattling. Sometimes these stories begin with something simpler — a sound beneath a room, figures moving across a field, or a moment that only makes sense later on. In this Christmas episode, I explore two Scottish Midwinter hauntings recorded in the nineteenth century, both linked to Christmas and both rooted in firsthand experience rather than folklore built up over time. The first takes place at the historic Cortachy Castle, where guests and travellers reported hearing unexplained drumming during the Christmas period - a sound the Airlie family believed appeared only when a death in the family was approaching. The second comes from the Highlands, where villagers spoke of figures seen playing games in the snow near a parish church on Christmas Day, returning year after year as part of a story tied to a specific place and a long-remembered transgression. Thank you for spending part of your Christmas here, and for supporting the channel throughout the year. Lang may yer lum reek.