Haunted Castles

Loch Lommond Arriving at the train station, we felt the heavy weight of our backpacks as we realised that we still had a 3.2km trek to the hostel! I always wondered why the hostels were so far from the train stations. The hostel was an old manor house, built like a castle and resting on 300 acres. It was over-looking Loch Lommond. They say the view is fantastic, but the area was hidden in wispy fog when I was there. The castle was built in 1866. I was pretty impressed to be staying in a youth hostel with a fountain in the driveway and a huge three way archway leading to the impressive front doors. I felt a little less like a dusty, dirty backpacker and a little more like a fancy-pants in a castle.

A hostel in a castle building – it had to have a haunted tale! It did. The ghost was a girl, hopelessly in love with a farm hand. She was locked in an upstairs room to prevent her from seeing him again – though from where I stood in her room, she had a fantastic view of his working area. She eventually threw herself out the window in utter despair, like any good Wuthering Heights heroine. I was a little suspicious of her markings on the door – they looked a little like someone had stuck some paper on the door and painted over them... but you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. One of the cleaners who took us up there had turned a fancy shade of white and couldn’t wait to get out of there... so maybe... I was happy to go along with the idea anyway.