The 'gruesome' tale behind the Scottish Parliament's 300-year-old resident ghost

The last thing you expect to see when wandering the corridors of power is a 300-year-old ghost.

But like many buildings in Edinburgh’s Old Town, the Scottish Parliament holds a “gruesome” secret.

People might not realise it from the outside, but a small part of the Parliament is housed inside Queensberry House, a 350-year-old stately home that was once home to the Duke of Queensberry - and his murderous son who slaughtered his kitchen boy in a hunger-fuelled rampage.

An ancient drawing of Queensberry House. | TSPL

It takes rewinding back to July 22, 1706, and the signing of the Treaty of Union, which formally brought Scotland and England together to create the United Kingdom.

Caroline Vevers, a visitor services officer at the Parliament, said: “The treaty was quite controversial - some were pro, some were not.

“The Duke of Queensberry was a signatory to it and very high profile in making it happen.

The haunted fireplace/oven during the renovations of Queensberry House. | Jenny Calcott

“On the night the treaty was signed, he took his whole household up to Parliament House to trumpet how well he had done.”

While the rest of the household was a few hundred metres up the Royal Mile, there were only two people left behind in Queensberry House - the duke’s ten-year-old son James and a kitchen boy tending that night’s dinner over the massive fireplace in the kitchen.

Ms Vevers said: “This mysterious son never saw the light of day because he had special needs.

“The support was nothing like what we have today. He would have been fed and watered and very little else, and kept out of the spotlight.

The outside of Queensberry House. | Jenny Calcott

“But that night he got out of his room hungry and made his way to the kitchen.”

The story goes that James “attacked” the meat spit-roasting in the fireplace in a frenzy, before turning on the kitchen boy and roasting him alive as well.

“When the family returned there were bits of roast and bits of boy all over the kitchen,” Ms Vevers said. “It was a pretty gruesome discovery.

“The boy’s ghost now wanders around the house saying ‘I would have made you a sandwich’.”

The massive kitchen fireplaces can still be seen today in the Parliament’s bar. And there are records of many staff and visitors having since reported seeing the kitchen boy forlornly wandering the ancient halls of Queensberry House.