RYAN O’NEILL and his Scottish Paranormal team head to Crawford Priory in Fife to investigate a spectre of Lady Crawford
The muffled male voice was holding a full conversation with an unheard other. All this from the centre of the ruins we were standing within, and when we did a check of the area, much like we had thought, no one was there. Well, no one physical.
The above was a small occurrence at the latest location we’ve been looking into at Scottish Paranormal. Physical evidence that we can all objectively agree on while scoping out this beautiful yet sadly ruinous building named Crawford Priory.
Pet Loving Noble Lady
We are on the trail of Lady Mary Crawford, of Crawford Priory, the much-liked pet loving noble lady who once owned the estate the priory resides upon.
Crawford Priory is a country house that sits two miles from Cupar, in Fife. This was the official residence of the Earls of Crawford. It lies outside the village of Springfield, and a stone’s throw from the River Eden.
Initially, this was built as Crawford Lodge by the 21st Earl of Crawford around the date 1758; it was substantially enlarged and extended in the early nineteenth century by the sister of the 22nd Earl, Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford, as mentioned above.
A Distinctly Male Voice
The house and the surrounding lands are said to be active with the spirit of Lady Crawford, with many tales of her ghostly apparition being witnessed gracefully wandering throughout the area. Drifting through the ruin, floating through the trees, and said to be in search of her much-loved pets from her time in the physical.
What surprised us more, however, was the fact that while conducting various research experiments, we were to be met with a distinctly male voice chatting inside the same ruined area as us.
The first reaction to such is to find the logical explanation, which in this case would be dog walkers, people exercising or even explorers on a gentle stroll in this remote location.
We were to find none of the above in this case which then had us driving back into our archives, historical books and tapping into the wealth of local information from our friends online who follow our work.
Local History Reveals
One local witness, who has extensive information of the area and history, dropped a nugget of information in our lap. She informed us that the voice heard inside the ruin is the old butler, still active in this location all these years later.
She would go on to say that Lady Crawford was no stranger to paranormal activity when she lived here with all her pets. Funnily enough, this was something our researcher Gregor Stewart had already uncovered in the old archives too.
No Room For A Cat
Allegedly there is a room inside this building that the pets would try to avoid, one cat would even jump into the room rather than walk in. Lady Crawford was well aware of this and being highly religious, she was open to the idea that she had ghostly activity in Crawford Priory.
We are not finished here, not by a long shot, as we are currently digging deep into the history, mystery and new information which is surfacing about the real Crawford Priory, and it’s lovely past owner, Lady Crawford.
Crawford Priory: Intriguing Results
Initial results are intriguing, and we genuinely believe we are tapping into the unknown here. You can follow our progress online via the Scottish Paranormal group on Facebook, the Haunted Scotland page on Facebook and further updates here at Spooky Isles.
Will we find the butler? Will we encounter Lady Mary Crawford? More so, what will our experiments uncover as we prepare to go back for further observations and research? This one is just getting started!
Have you been to Crawford Priory? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
Great article. I love learning about new places
As a kid I stayed over night in the castle before it burnt. I used to play in it with my friends in the 70’s, there were plenty of noises, voices smells plus the worst the strange feeling.
Sounds interesting that you smelt something – I wonder if other people ever smell the paranormal?
I love that it might be haunted. I’ve been researching my family tree and recently discovered that my Great great great grandad died at the priory in 1896, he was the land steward and appears as living on the estate on the 1851 census.
Sounds cool Zeb, I wonder if he ever encountered any ghosts?
I had a paranormal experience I did not realise was paranormal until later once we had looked through the priory. Myself and my friend went ahead of our 3 other friends who had gone back to the car to get their camera. We walked towards the front of the priory, managing to access through a whole in the fence. The property is extremely disheveled and unsafe, overgrown plants and trees are everywhere with piles of rubble. We tried to get through the main front door, but as I described it was almost impossible to get through. Whilst I was looking through the door and into the priory (to see if there was anyway to properly enter) I saw a fully intact staircase with a woman and a little boy walking down it, I then turned to my friend and shouted ‘there’s other people here’ which I knew would be a possibility as it’s a popular spot to explore. We then went round the side of the building to find another entrance, which we did and at the same time found our other 3 friends who had come through a different way. I asked if they had seen or heard people here, they said no. We carried on exploring, seeing and hearing no one else except for the 5 of us. We found a staircase wrecked and ruined, not safe for any adult to walk on but never mind a child, I also did not recognise the staircase as the one I had seen previously, mainly because it was so ruined. Upon further investigation around the priory, I found no second staircase in tact. To this day I do not understand what exactly it was a saw, I can only guess an apparition of a moment in the past when the staircase was there and those who resided in the priory walked down it. If anyone has any information that would make sense of what I saw or pictures of the second staircase I would love to know! Another thing to add is you couldn’t even see the ruined staircase from the front door either!
I also did have a paranormal experience here and wondered if anyone else has ever experienced the same, I was exploring and looking into the room opposite the staircase and as I’m looking I feel a poke straight in the back, this could’ve been no one or anything around. Just wondered if anyone has ever had this happen to them