Scotland's castles and grand homes became the place to glimpse glowing or greying presences. Over the centuries, these strongholds witnessed more than their fair share of dastardly deeds. The Scottish nobility were often a wild and ruthless lot, and their treatment of their own families and servants - particularly their womenfolk - was as vicious as their dealings with their bitterest rivals.

Perhaps, though, Scottish ghosts have become a shortcut back to the turbulent past, where the best stories are always to be found. No one would want to have lived through such storms of change, yet temporary time travel is a power to the imagination. We can better imagine how the hard-done-by wife of earl so and so might have lived if we think she might still be waiting in the shadows.

At Glamis Castle in Angus - reputedly Scotland's most haunted castle - visitors often find themselves ushered in by one such dame. The grey lady who haunts the 17^th century chapel has been seen by several reliable dignitaries, including the 16^th Earl of Strathmore. When large parties are shown into the chapel, guides have reported that one place is always left vacant, as if there was already someone there.

Some are less reticent, as well as more vibrantly attired. Although no reason has been attached to the particular colours of ghosts, it seems the large number of green ladies is explained by green being an unlucky colour in medieval times, as well as the colour of fairies.

Ashintully Castle, north-east of Kirkmichael in Perthshire, is where "Green Jean" is said to reside. The story goes that she inherited the lands and the castle in her own right, but her uncle wanted the property, and in one of the castle chambers he murdered Jean, who was wearing a green dress, along with her servant, who he stuffed up the chimney.

There is another Green Jean in Perthshire. The green lady who haunts Newton Castle, Blairgowrie, is said to be Lady Jean Drummond of Newton, who had fallen in love with one of the Blairs of Ardblair. The families had feuded and Lady Jean seems to have pined away with a broken heart, drowning herself after she was betrothed to another man. However, an old ballad tells it differently. It claims Jean had consulted a local witch after her lover spurned her. She was given an enchanted green dress, which won him back, but she died shortly after marrying him.

Tales of young girls falling for the wrong man and being punished for their passions are common. At the Castle of Mey in Caithness, the daughter of the 5^th Earl of Caithness is still said to roam, heartbroken. She fell in love with a ploughman and was locked in the attic by her father. She threw herself from one of the windows and survives only as a green spirit.

Green, of course, is also the colour of envy. Visit Fyvie Castle, in Aberdeenshire, and you might come across the verdant-tinged Lady Lilias Drummond, wife of Alexander Seton, first Earl of Dunfermline. Lilias died in May 1601, possibly starved to death by her husband. He married Lady Grizel Leslie only four months after Lilias' death and his first wife's ghost is said to have scratched her name on the stone window sill of the newlyweds' bedroom, the Drummond Room, on the night of October 27, soon after they were married. The writing can still be seen.

The pink lady who haunts Stirling Castle may be Mary Queen of Scots (who has also been seen at Craignethan, Loch Leven and Hermitage castles). But she could just as well be the ghost of a woman searching for her husband who was killed when the castle was captured by Edward 1. Stirling also has a green lady, said to be the servant who saved Mary when her bedclothes caught fire. Not all the colourful ladies have such good intentions. Though fewer than their innocuous affiliates, certain ghosts are seen as decidedly wicked women. Among them is white lady Christian Nimmo, who roams Corstorphine Castle, west of Edinburgh. She is said to have murdered her lover in 1679 during an argument, for which she was tried and sentenced to death. At Castle Levan, south-west of Gourock, you might bump into Lady Montgomery, who also favours white gowns. She was supposedly starved to death by her husband for mistreating local tenants and farmers. Presumably, the husband got off scot-free for his noble act.

Much more usual among well-to-do husbands were crimes of fired by lust and jealousy. One such took place at Meggernie Castle, eight miles north of Killin in the southern Highlands, and gives rise to perhaps the goriest of female spirits. One of the Menzies lords of the 17^th or 18^th century is supposed to have murdered his wife in a fit of anger, cutting her in half with a mind to dispose of the body. It is said he stored the top half in the attic thinking to get rid of it later, and the poor woman's upper body can still be seen wandering the top floors of the building. The bloodied lower half is said to haunt the ground floors, as well as the family burial ground, where it was reportedly laid to rest. There is hard evidence to support this particular spook - in the 19^th century, the upper bones of a woman were discovered in the building.

Typically, though, the most famous Scottish ghosts are all men. In fact, even the most renowned Scottish witch was a man. From 1649-50, Major Thomas Weir commanded the City Guard of Edinburgh, having been a leading Presbyterian light in Lanarkshire. But underneath his respectable "Angelical Thomas" cloak were dreadful deeds and the darkest character. He eventually confessed to a catalogue of sins including an incestuous relationship with his sister, womanising, bestiality and black magic.
He and his sister Jean were arrested and condemned to death. Weir was burnt alive, but before his ashes were cold his base spirit was back in Edinburgh's West Bow, in Anderson's Close or the "Stinking Close" as it came to be known. His black thornwood staff, carved with heads of satyr-like beasts, began taking walks of its own and a black coach was seen arriving and leaving in the area. For more than 100 years, no one would consider inhabiting his house - the first tenants were scared off by a calf-like creature in their bedroom. Back at Glamis, Alexander Lindsay the 4^th Earl of Crawford - or "Earl Beardie" - can still be heard cursing through a game of cards in a walled-up chamber. He is said to have engaged in a poker game with the devil, after being accused of cheating in a previous game by Patrick, the first Lord Glamis. Earl Beardie is the best-known of several other Glamis spirits, including a little black boy (supposed to have died from hypothermia after being scolded and forgotten), a tongueless, handless woman (supposed to have unearthed a family scandal) and a "monster" (supposed to be the ghost of a deformed child born to the Glamis line).
Meanwhile, dirty deeds are still being done by Black Andrew Munro at Balnagown Castle, north-east of Alness. He was hanged from one of the castle windows for his dark doings, mostly with women. True to character, he appears mostly to the fairer sex.

A black coach carrying the corpse of James Carnegie, the 2^nd Earl of Southesk who died in 1669, has been seen repeatedly at Kinnaird Castle, west of Montrose. Carnegie is said to have studied in Padua, where he learnt much about black magic and managed to lose his shadow. It is thought the devil came to collect his own when he died. Scotland's spirits are not limited to human realms - at Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway, a yellow monkey or similar creature has appeared time and again to guests, while there is said to be a canine ghost at Edinburgh Castle. Then, almost inevitably, there are the drummers and pipers. The most famous of these can be heard at Cortachy Castle, north of Kirriemuir, built by the Ogilvie Earls of Airlie. A ghostly drummer is said to signal the death knell for members of the Ogilvy family - reported incidents preceded the deaths of the 7^th Earl's first and second wives. The drummer is thought to be a spirit from the Leslie family, who was either slain or thrown from the battlements.

At Gight Castle, East of Fyvie the sound of ghostly bagpipes has been heard ever since a piper was ordered to explore a tunnel under the castle and never returned. However, if you want to take pot luck with your ghost-hunting, the best place to go is the west coast of Sutherland. The area between Lochinvar and Cape Wrath has seen everything from encounters with dead sailors to face-to-face exchanges with mermaids. Sandwood Bay, now in the hands of the John Muir Trust, boasts far more spectres than it does people. Sandwood Cottage is one of the loneliest cottages in the country and both cottage and beach are said to be extremely haunted. But perhaps it's all to do with solitude and too much of the fiery Highland spirit. Never mind the grey ladies, sceptics might say - spend a night alone with the Glenmorangie and you'll be seeing purple by morning.