Bandaged Eyes at the Foot of the Bed: the Leith Hall Ghost

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 25, 2026 · How we verify

Of everything the Leith-Hay family left behind in Aberdeenshire, the most talked about is a man nobody can see properly. The Leith Hall ghost is described in the same terms again and again: a figure in pain, a dirty white bandage wound over the head and pulled down across the eyes, dark green trousers, a shirt. He is said to be Laird John Leith III, and the story attached to him is not a gentle one. The house he is supposed to walk sits a few miles from Huntly in the north east of Scotland, and it has been open to visitors, in one form or another, since the National Trust for Scotland took it on after the Second World War.

Leith Hall at a Glance

A country house at Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, built in 1650 on the site of the medieval Peill Castle, and home to the Leith-Hay family for nearly three centuries. It stands in a 286-acre estate with gardens. Since 1945 it has been run by the National Trust for Scotland. The gardens and grounds are open all year; the Hall itself reopened in 2013 after several years of closure.

Four Wings, Four Generations: How the House Grew

Leith Hall was not designed in one go, and it shows. The north wing was put up in 1650 by James Leith of New Leslie, on the footprint of the earlier Peill Castle. The east wing followed in 1756. The south wing was added in 1797 by General Alexander Leith Hay. The west wing, which carries the entrance front, arrived in 1868 and finally closed the courtyard, more than two hundred years after the first stones went down.

Inside, the collection is domestic rather than grand: fine china, family portraits, tapestries and a number of interesting clocks. The gardens are arguably the bigger draw. They are laid out in stages, each sheltered by a wall or a hedge, and planted with flowering trees and shrubs, roses, fruit, vegetables and ornamental grasses. A small stream threads through the gravel paths and stone crevices. At the top of the garden, near the 18th century curved stables, the circular Moon Gate opens onto the old turnpike road that was once the main route to Aberdeen.

A Jacobite in Hiding and a Wartime Hospital

Two episodes give the house its wider historical weight. The first is Jacobite: Andrew Hay of Rannes, who fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie, hid at Leith Hall after the Battle of Culloden and later escaped to France. The record as it stands dates his concealment to 1745.

The second is the First World War, when the house was turned into a temporary Red Cross hospital and took in over 500 patients. In 1945 the house and grounds were presented to the National Trust for Scotland.

The Grain Dispute and the Shot to the Head

The ghost story turns on a single act of violence. Laird John Leith III is said to have been shot in the head after reacting angrily to a fellow diner who accused him of adulterating the grain sold from the hall. That is the tale as it is handed down. It is worth being clear that what survives in the popular account is the narrative rather than a documented inquest, and the wound is the detail that has fixed itself to every later sighting: the bandage, the blood, the covered eyes, the impression of a man still in pain.

Elizabeth Byrd’s Fourteen Rooms

The best known modern witness is the novelist Elizabeth Byrd, who rented 14 rooms at Leith Hall with her second husband Barrie Gaunt during the 1960s. In 1968 she reported waking in the night to see John in highland dress, his head covered in bloody bandages, standing at the foot of the bed. She wrote about her time in the house in two books, The Ghosts in My Life and A Strange and Seeing Time, describing the paranormal occurrences she and her husband experienced while living there.

Byrd is a writer, not a neutral recorder, and her account is a personal one. It is also the reason Leith Hall has a reputation at all beyond the local telling. Other apparitional figures have been reported at the house besides the bandaged laird, though these are less consistently described.

Most Haunted Comes to Kennethmont, October 2003

The house was filmed for the paranormal investigation programme Most Haunted during its third series. The episode aired on Tuesday 28 October 2003 on Living TV. As with everything that show touched, the broadcast introduced the hall to a much larger audience than the ghostlore ever had on its own, and it should be weighed accordingly: entertainment first, evidence a distant second.

Walking the Estate and Finding the Moon Gate

The gardens and grounds are open to the public all year round, which makes Leith Hall an easy visit even outside the season for the house. Two nature trails run through the estate, each about one and a half to two miles long, and there are two ponds and a birdwatching site. The Moon Gate near the old stables is the detail most people photograph. The Hall itself was reopened by the National Trust for Scotland in 2013 after several years shut. Check current opening arrangements with the Trust before travelling, since access to the interior has been intermittent in the past.

Address: Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

See Leith Hall for Yourself

Sources

• Property Details for Leith Hall Garden & Estate
• Leith Hall on
• Leith Hall
• White Indian: 1755 The True Story of John Leith
• Leith Hall & Gardens (Scotland)
• Wikipedia: Leith Hall

Ghost Tours Nearby

500 Years of Crime and Punishment: A Self-Guided Audio Tour★ 4.1 (30)from $9Private Aberdeen Dark Side Walking Tour★ 5.0 (2)from $187

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