Scottish Ghost Stories

by Elliott O'Donnell

Ghosts, witches, unexplained mysteries, and the supernatural are the basis for this fascinating Ghost Series which relates ghost stories from Great Britain.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Paranormal, Scotland, Short Stories, Classics, Ghosts

Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Elliott O'Donnell was an Irish author known primarily for his books about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost, described as an elemental figured covered with spots, when he was five years old. He also claimed to have been strangled by a mysterious phantom in Dublin.

He claimed descent from Irish chieftains of ancient times, including Niall of the Nine Hostages (the King Arthur of Irish folklore) and Red Hugh, who fought the English in the sixteenth century. O'Donnell was educated at Clifton College, England, and Queen's Service Academy, Dublin, Ireland.

In later life he became a ghost hunter, but first he traveled in America, working on a range in Oregon and becoming a policeman during the Chicago Railway Strike of 1894. Returning to England, he worked as a schoolmaster and trained for the theater. He served in the British army in World War I, and later acted on stage and in movies.

As he became known as an authority on the supernatural, he was called upon as a ghost hunter. He also lectured and broadcast (radio and television) on the paranormal in Britain and the United States. In addition to his more than 50 books, he wrote scores of articles and stories for national newspapers and magazines. He claimed "I have investigated, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other people and the press, many cases of reputed hauntings. I believe in ghosts but am not a spiritualist."

Reviews

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes we are so delighted by an author that we are instant fans and anything they write is a pleasure. Elliott O’Donnell is so much my kind of person, I feel relief at encountering “Scottish Ghost Stories” in a charity shop. It came out in 1911 and was republished in 1975. He lived for 93 years before I was born. I hope he is pleased from above, at my thrilled discovery of him in 2019, whereupon I seek to buy all of his books that I can. He is personable and hilarious, having been an actor. He is a true raconteur and the most eloquent kind of writer, with the lusciousness that time gives his bygone cultured speech. I would be engrossed by anything he narrated.

It puts me utterly over the moon that this masterful writing to savour, comes from an honest to goodness, famous and well-reputed, paranormal investigator! You see what I mean, that I was sure to know of him eventually. I am a frequent reader of non-fiction spirit phenomena but no collection has the riveting quality, as those assembled by the researcher of the cases. Nothing draws us as closely to the incidents and testimonies we are reading, as receiving them from the person who experienced them, or to whom they were personally told. There are a few famous locations but nearly all the chapters entailed individual, unique stories that few of us would know.

When I am fortunate to obtain Elliott’s other books, I have no doubt they will easily garner five-star reviews. My appreciation herein is reflected in four stars, because a few stories were disturbing for my taste. Secondly, clarity was needed a couple of times, between Elliott relating his own story and someone else’s. Nevertheless, his writing and presentation are pure gold!

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone may wonder if I'm excited for Hallowe'en, with all these books I'm reading lately! Scottish Ghost Stories is a good book, written in the 19th century in the same style as those other great classics. This particular book is an outline of various reported hauntings across the Scottish countryside. The stories are dark, speaking very much to the Victorian or Edwardian mind and their fascination and fear of the supernatural.

What I like is that most stories have an explanation of the haunting appearance of some sort. I would definitely recommend this book to all, though parents may be very sensitive with some of the stories as they involve the murder of children and infants, and the doomed souls of those that perform such heinous crimes.

[Angie Lisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded my copy of this book as a free Epub from Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org).

This was a quick read but I really enjoyed it. Granted, I read this book while sitting in a creaking one-hundred and fifty year old farmhouse (reportedly with a couple ghosts of its own) during a raging storm. I definitely had the right atmosphere for enjoying ghost stories. None of the tales were overly terrifying or horrific; creepy is a more appropriate description.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is always something interesting in cupboards, particularly old and roomy cupboards, when it is night-time and one is about to get into bed.

This is a collection of short stories, mostly written as if they were collected by a ghost hunter. There are, here and there, simple horror stories that break that mold, just to make sure the reader knows the book is fiction.

One of the ideas running through this book is that the reason some people see ghosts and some do not is that some people are psychic and some are not. Psychics can sometimes be identified by their physical characteristics:

She was of medium height, and dainty build—a fairy-like creature clad in rustling silks, with wavy, white hair, bright, blue eyes, straight, delicate features, and hands, the shape and slenderness of which at once pronounced her a psychic.

The ghostly presences reveal themselves in various ways, from candle flames suddenly turning blue, to mental control—often merely immobilizing the person in the presence of the ghost, but sometimes even controlling their actions—to actual apparitions. The apparitions are usually human, but not always:

Thinking it was one of the other servants, she turned round, pleased to think that some one else was up early too, and saw to her horror a dreadful-looking object, that seemed to be partly human and partly animal. The body was quite small, and its face bloated, and covered with yellow spots. It had an enormous animal mouth, the lips of which, moving furiously without emitting any sound, showed that the creature was endeavouring to speak but could not. The moment Letty screamed for help the phantasm vanished.

And the horror in some is not in the apparition, but in what replaces it:

The Admiral and his family left Pringle's Mansion the year Letty became Miss South's nurse, and as no one would stay in the house, presumably on account of the hauntings, it was pulled down, and an inexcusably inartistic edifice was erected in its place.

Ghosts are no-nonsense creatures, despite their antics. In one story, a Lady Adela wants to see the haunting, but expects that the reason the ghost never appears is that the rest of the people in the house…

…were so intensely supercilious and silly, and Lady Adela felt that their presence in the house minimised her chances of seeing the ghost. No apparition with the smallest amount of self-respect could risk coming in contact with such inane creatures, so she sent them all out for a motor drive, and, for once, rejoiced in the house to herself.

Some of the references are lost on me, and, I suspect, most modern readers. Praising the artistic sentiment of a pair of sisters, the narrator writes:

Their library—a large one—boasted a delightful harbourage of such writers as Jane Austen, Miss Mitford, and Maria Edgeworth.

I recognize only one of those authors, and had to look up the other two to be sure they weren’t made-up names.

This is a fascinating collection of older ghost stories, as much for the alien past as for the occasionally repetitive prose.

…that fear was not of the darkness itself, but of what the darkness suggested.

[Kid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little book, but extremely repetitive in the writing. Ie: mr/s. y remembered a story about x location to the author, and while they were a skeptic/firm believer in ghosts, at 2 am, they become frightened and unable to move. Then a ghostly thing happened, and they left the location the next morning. Rinse and repeat.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful ghost 👻 listening 🔰😮

Seventeen will written Scottish ghost 👻 short by Elliot O'Donnell about his or other peoples experiences. I would highly recommend this novel to readers of fantasy Sci-Fi adventures. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or 🎶 listening to 👍 novels 🔰🏡🏰 2022

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good old fashioned ghost stories of varying scariness that take place in Scotland, mostly in their castles.

[Banana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this book since Peter Underwood kept mentioning Elliott O'Donnel in his books.

First of all I was reluctant to buy this version of the book since it had far less pages than the ones that are pretty much a complete reproduction of the original version published 1911. But after looking up the original, it seems that there's nothing of text missing and the extra pages in the original was due to a lot of blank pages and pages that only had the title of the story and so on.

Even though a lot of the stories have pretty much the same formula, they are still filled with different interesting details and it's obvious O'Donnel added a "little" extra just to keep the reader entertained.

By formula I mean that it starts out with an introduction describing place, characters and so on in great detail. Then person either goes to bed, down a basement or similar. Apparition starts to appear, person is paralyzed so it is time to describe the apparition in great ghastly detail. Right before the apparition is close enough to touch it the person faints. Person wakes up later and there is an explanation for why the apparition haunts the place.
I think he makes pretty much all the female main characters faint, just because he could not make the story longer due to whatever reason.

[Johan D'Haenen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schotland heeft een reputatie waar het spookhuizen en -kastelen betreft. Je kan er zelfs spookvakanties boeken die je van de ene locatie naar de andere brengen.
Wel, de verhalen in deze bundel zouden heel goed kunnen dienen als achtergrondmateriaal voor een dergelijke spookvakantie. Je weet maar nooit hoe Schotland z'n reputatie waar kan maken.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m interested in the evolution of the ghost/horror story. This collection was old-fashioned, but surprisingly horrific in parts. Stay away from old castles, crossroads, and large pieces of bedroom furniture.

[SJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old fashioned ghoulery

Most stories seemed a bit silly but I will say one or two had me thinking I shouldn't be reading it before bed.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think these are works of fiction rather than alleged true accounts.
Were okay for a hundred year old, free collection.

[aerithhh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely got the chills reading this late at night!

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection of ghost stories. The more "horror" ones were better than the simple "my friend told a story about seeing a ghost" narratives

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of Ghost Stories from Scotland. Well illustrated too

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A varied selection of supposedly true ghost stories from all around Scotland.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and spooky. Stylistically well done. Stories themselves often understated, which I personally enjoy with my ghost stories.

[Oz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is not Scottish, and his attempts at writing out dialect phonetically border on offensive, but for the most part it just makes the narrator come across as one of the crowd of “educated Scots”. These stories don’t really go anywhere or stand out in any real way – probably would be more interesting if I couldn’t immediately access wealths of better ghost stories online. Most of these stories are the type of haunted house rumour primary school kids might share about the local abandoned building.

[JK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite an old, rare book, written back in the 19th century. My uncle gave it to me about ten years ago and I have no idea where he managed to procure it from. I really should find out, because it's a strange little read.

The stories here are written in a very old-fashioned style, which I think adds to the suspense and atmosphere O'Donnell creates. They are extremely dark, and almost Victorian, and there are no clues whatsoever as to whether or not they are true accounts. I believe they may be true stories at the core, but there does seem to be some dramatisation involved on O'Donnell's part. Further research into his personality has reported him as a lover of melodrama, so perhaps the stories only have a tiny element of truth to them. Nevertheless, I was scared!

The locality of the ghost stories is slightly disturbing. There was one set in a house in Blythswood Square, and I was a bit freaked since I'd been there only a few days ago!

The illustrations were also a bit much for me. There was one at the beginning of every new story, but now and then one would pop up mid-narrative and they'd usually be quite disturbing.

I really like it when I ghost story has an insight into the ghost's history - why they are there, how they died, why they are angry - and each of these stories did their best to explain the ghost's motives, which I really appreciated.

I'd recommend giving this one a read - if you can find it! It is, however, extremely old-fashioned and requires a wee bit of patience since O'Donnell is very randomly descriptive.

[Elvenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one can be found for free here (in Project Gutenberg).

The book- published apparently in 1911- gathers Scottish ghost stories that- according to the author- were referred to him in his various travels, both by friends and strangers.

The book is full of stories about apparitions and strange happenings and, even if some of them are quite traditional, I still found them interesting, perhaps because of the huge amount of details given by the author, who seems to have invested a great deal of time in gathering information about the towns, families and castles in which the events take place, trying sometimes to find the cause- either natural or supernatural- of what was described. Also, I was pleased to discover the language used to convey the stories- probably because the book was published in the 20th century and not in the 19th or the 18th- is quite straightforward and helps one get into the story without having to read long romantic descriptions of moor, dark and moonshine (there are a few shorter descriptions of nightly promenades but, well, it's a book about Scottish ghosts...).

Rating: 4.5 stars

[Teamhair · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very much of the time (1911). The stories are tame comparatively to the more modern type of ghost story. What I most liked about this book is the smug classist attitude of O'Donnell, which seems so redolent of the time period. In one story he recounts the necessity of the lady of the house sending the servants away in order to make contact with the supernatural presence and he strongly condones her actions on the basis that no presence worth its salt would appear in front of the proletariat! An amusing and very easy read.

[Anne-marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

These aren't terrifying ghost stories, or even ones that are slightly creepy. The real value in these stories is that they provide a window onto what was considered thrilling paranormal adventures back in the 1900's. Also the stories are relatively short and a quick read. Just don't expect there to be a lot of answers to the hauntings in the book, the "why?" not being explained as much as the supposed experiences of the people undergoing the haunted episodes. Lots of in-the-moment description, less background.

[penelopewanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

On a loan from a colleague. Ironically, one of the things I liked least about this book were the illustrations. I think it's so important to let imagination run free for this type of tale, and not only were there frequent illustrations to block that, but the drawing itself, surely intended to be gruesome, was just ugly in my opinion, and definitely not to my taste.

[Lisa Haertel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not everyone will appreciate this collection of 1800's ghost stories from Scotland, but I find them a great way to wind down in the evening before bed! Each story is just long enough to relax me, but not scary enough to frighten me and keep me awake. I find the behaviors of the ghosts in each story fascinating and enjoy the old fashioned narrative style.

[Julia Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories are tame compared to modern day horror stories about ghouls and ghosts. However, it's definitely got the creep factor. And the fact that the stories are more of instances reported rather than full tales, it makes the writing that much more chilling, and enjoyable.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really only enjoyed a few of the stories. I wasn't chilled or scared. That is why I read ghost stories! I read this as a selection for book club (picked by our scottish member) and I don't feel too bad about it because I got in on Amazon for free!

[Aurora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Very repetitive and not terribly creepy.

[Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. It sent big chills down my spine :D

[Parul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not scary, but definitely entertaining!

[H. P. Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes old horror stories are dated in a way that makes them just a bit spookier. These, sadly, are just dated.