Is this Crathes Castle's '˜Green Lady' ghost captured on camera?

A day out to an ancient Aberdeenshire castle left one family spooked after a ghostly figure appeared in the background of one of their photographs.

Bill Andrew of Bridge of Alford took the picture at Crathes Castle near Banchory during the recent visit of his daughter and her family.

After looking through tte photographs, his daughter, Colleen, spotten the shadowy figure in one of the castle doorways, which was locked shut at the time.

Mr Andrew contacted the castle to see if there could be any explanation with a recent surge in unexplained happenings at the castle then coming to light.

Bill Andrew captured an unexplained figure in the doorway in this photo of his daughter Coleen (centre), granddaughter Jessica and great-grandson Findley. Picture: Contributed

Property Manager James Henderson said: “There have been a number of mysterious sightings in and around the castle of late, in particular around Halloween, and the castle guides have reported that things have felt strange. They have reported a chill down the back in an otherwise warm room, odd noises in an otherwise empty building.

“Could this photograph be related to this? Or, perhaps it is a sighting of the Green Lady.”

The Green Lady is one of two female spirits said to inhabit the 16th Century castle with Queen Victoria among those said to have experienced her presence.

She reported a “green mist” floating across one of the rooms at Crathes before it swept up a child-like ghostly figure and disappeared into the fireplace.

• READ MORE: Seven of Scotland’s oddest castles

During renovation works during the 18th Century, the bones of a woman and child were found behind the hearthstone.

Theories endure that the bones were that of a servant who had been impregnated by a member of the Burnett family, possibly in the mid-1600s, with both mother and child killed to save the family reputation.

Another ghost said to frequent Crathes is that of Lady Agnes, who poisoned the lover of her son, Alexander Burnett, in the late 1500s and died suddenly after suspicion fell on her.