The medieval Provan Hall is one of Glasgow’s oldest surviving buildings with 500 years of stories -including ghost stories - to tell.

Consisting of two parallel buildings and a courtyard, the category-A building dates from the 15th century and was built as a hunting lodge for Glasgow’s bishops.

It became the residence of judge William Baillie and his wife, and in 1667 it was bought and maintained by the city of Glasgow, before reverting to private ownership a century later. In the 1930s it was acquired by the National Trust for Scotland, who then leased it to Glasgow City Council.

It has since lost its rural setting and is now surrounded by council houses and the nearby Glasgow Fort outdoor shopping centre.

Glasgow Times:

But half a millennium of history does not come without its myths and legends, and there are several ghost stories associated with the estate.

Paranormal investigators have visited the building and made some startling discoveries.

Staff have recalled seeing the ghostly face of a woman looking out from the dining hall window, while there have been multiple reports of people seeing Reston Mather, the last owner of the Hall before his death from sickness and pneumonia in 1934. While walking up the stairs, paranormal investigators began experiencing an overwhelming feeling of nausea.

Glasgow Times:

Legend has it that when a soldier returned to the Hall to discover his wife had given birth to a son with another man, he murdered them both in a fit of rage, stabbing her and cutting the child’s throat.

It is thought that his ghost haunts the master bedroom where the horrific attack was said to have taken place. Investigators claim to have seen a ‘man with a helmet’ and hear the clinking of armour in the kitchen. The spirits of the woman and young boy are also thought to be haunting the Hall.

There is even an urban legend that the ghosts of James V and Mary Queen of Scots roam the hall as they would have in life as regular visitors.