Scotland's Huntly Castle and the Sinister Events After the Death of George Gordon 5th Earl of Huntly

Huntly Castle is a ruined castle and ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon. It is located to the northeast of the market town of Huntley, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Bhalgaidh or Hunndaidh, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain, Alba). The L-plan castle has a five storey tower and attached great hall and is built on the site of an earlier motte fortress, the mound of which can still be seen. The surviving remains on the site enable the story of the development of the castle to be traced, from the motte and bailey of the 1100s, through to the tower house of the later Middle Ages, then on to the stately stone palace of the Jacobean era.

As with many Scottish castles Huntly Castle has a story of being haunted. This one relates to George Gordon 5th Earl of Huntly and the strange events that took place at Huntly Castle at the time of his death on 19th October 1576. The story is based on a contemporary account, written by Richard Bannatyne in his Memorials of Transactions in Scotland, 1569-1573. He tells of how George Gordon collapsed while playing football. George Gordon is described as being carried to his chamber in the castle, where he suffers his final death throes. Shivering, vomiting black blood and bile and foaming at the mouth. He dies shortly after this.

His body is locked in the private room to await his funeral. There follows a period when others in the castle suffer with unexplained illnesses that have some of the symptoms of George Gordons fatal illness. They collapse with cold chills, suffering many hours of shivering and terror. There is a fear in the castle that there could be a curse or evil spirits causing these afflictions. This feeling is compounded when reports are made of strange bangs, moans and voices coming from the Earl’s empty chamber after his death.

The men who were struck with the illness eventually all made a full recovery. The Historic Environment Scotland - Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba webpage for Huntly Castle gives a link to Richard Bannatyne's the account of the earl's death in old Scots on Internet Archive, as transcribed and published by Robert Pitcairn, an antiquarian, in 1836.