The Blythswood Ghost

We all hope one day that we’ll find the perfect home, and it was on one such search that a gentleman had a viewing in Blythswood Square, Glasgow.

He found it to be perfect. Light and bright, spacious and homely, that is, apart from a cold and dreary bathroom, that for some reason gave him chills. But it was nothing a bit of paint wouldn’t fix, so he bought the house and moved his family in.

It made for a lovely home once they had redecorated to their tastes, but the bathroom, even with a spruce up, continued to make him feel uneasy. He didn’t much like locking himself in, so would often leave the door open, much to his wife’s distress. So one day he sought to be rid of his discomfort he decided to have a nice long relaxed bath, with a candle and a closed door. And that, is when things started to go wrong.

With barely a foot in the bath he started to hear strange noises from the fire grate, for it was an old house and many had fireplaces from times gone by. He couldn’t ignore it, so went to investigate, and that’s when the candle went out, and plunged him into darkness.

Trying to grab hold of his terror he took a moment to orientate himself but failed, tripping and falling to the floor, and before he could get himself righted again, his terror took on a new reality, when he heard a loud splashing was coming from the bath. He had barely a moment to take that in before, with a rush, the cupboard door in the corner opened, and ghostly figure of a woman stepped out. With a rustling of skirts and leaving a trailing smell of strong perfume, she made her way to the bath, neatly stepping on his back as she made her way to the source of the splashing.

There she struggled with something in the water that he could not see, her spectral white face, beautiful but twisted into a sneer of pure hatred. It was at point he’d had enough and lurching to the door, managed to get it open and stumble through.

Confessing in his family, none would believe him, until one day the man’s young son found a dead man floating in his bath water, and his screams alerted the others. They found nothing and were about to ridicule him also, until a beautiful dark haired woman again strode past them and back into the cupboard in the corner of the same bathroom.

Needless to say they left with haste, and it was only later when making enquiries that they found out a wealthy man who had married a woman with a violent temper, had been found drowned in his bath one morning in suspicious circumstances. No charges were ever brought and she’d left the country shortly after, never to be seen again.

The Blythswood Ghost is an inspiration for one of the short stories in my and Kirsty Logan’s new chapbook/zine that is available now.

Sources for further reading:

Scottish Ghost Stories, Elliot O’Donnell

https://www.spookyisles.com/blythswood-squares-haunted-bathroom/

https://www.british-paranormal.co.uk/ghost-in-the-bath-blythswood-square-glasgow/