In Search of Britain's Haunted Castles E-Book

Marc Alexander

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 182

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Britain's reputation for its ghostlore remains as intriguing as ever. This book is for those interested in ghostlore – and castles – and for those who wish to visit the scenes of paranormal legend. It could easily be said that in the UK we are spoilt for choice when it comes to atmospheric historic buildings and certainly Britain's many castles are liberally scattered all over the country. The castles selected in this book have been chosen for their prevalence of spectral tales and the legendary events associated with them: whether grisly executions or bloody battles, their names have become synonymous with their history. This handy pocket history and guide locates and describes over sixty haunted castles and their ghostly inhabitants. Featuring entry information, maps and photographs, and detailed research revealing where supernatural legends associated with castles mirror historical events, this book offers far more than just a collection of spooky tales.

Leseprobe

Warwick Castle.

CONTENTS

Maps

Introduction

Alnwick Castle

Arundel Castle

Bamburgh Castle

Berry Pomeroy Castle

Bramber Castle

Caerphilly Castle

Caister Castle

Carlisle Castle

Castell Coch

Castle Rising

Cawood Castle

Claypotts Castle

Closeburn Castle

Corfe Castle

Corgarff Castle

Cortachy Castle

Crathes Castle

Culzean Castle

Dacre Castle

Dilston Castle

Dover Castle

Dunstaffnage Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle

Duntrune Castle

Dunvegan Castle

Edzell Castle

Featherstone Castle

Fyvie Castle

Glamis Castle

Goodrich Castle

Greystoke Castle

Hastings Castle

Haughton Castle

Hermitage Castle

Herstmonceaux Castle

Hever Castle

Huntingtower Castle

Hylton Castle

Inveraray Castle

Jedburgh Castle

Lowther Castle

Ludlow Castle

Lympne Castle

Meggernie Castle

Moy Castle

Muncaster Castle

Naworth Castle

Powis Castle

Prudhoe Castle

Rait Castle

Rochester Castle

Roslin Castle

Scotney Castle

Sherborne Castle

Spedlin’s Tower

St Donat’s Castle

Taunton Castle

Thirlwall Castle

Tintagel Castle

Tiverton Castle

Tower of London

Triermain Castle

Warkworth Castle

Warwick Castle

Windsor Castle

Map

1. Alnwick Castle

2. Arundel Castle

3. Bamburgh Castle

4. Berry Pomeroy Castle

5. Bramber Castle

6. Caerphilly Castle

7. Carlisle Castle

8. Castell Coch

9. Cawood Castle

10. Castle Rising

11. Claypotts Castle

12. Closeburn Castle

13. Corgarff Castle

14. Cortachy Castle

15. Crathes Castle

16. Culzean Castle

17. Dacre Castle

18. Dilston Castle

19. Dover Castle

20. Dunstaffnage Castle

21. Dunstanburgh Castle

22. Duntrune Castle

23. Dunvegan Castle

24. Edzell Castle

25. Featherstone Castle

26. Fyvie Castle

27. Glamis Castle

28. Goodrich Castle

29. Greystoke Castle

30. Hastings Castle

31. Haughton Castle

32. Hermitage Castle

33. Herstmonceaux Castle

34. Hever Castle

35. Huntingtower Castle

36. Hylton Castle

37. Inveraray Castle

38. Jedburgh Castle

39. Lowther Castle

40. Ludlow Castle

41. Lympne Castle

42. Meggernie Castle

43. Moy Castle

44. Muncaster Castle

45. Naworth Castle

46. Powis Castle

47. Prudhoe Castle

48. Rait Castle

49. Rochester Castle

50. Roslin Castle

51. Scotney Castle

52. Sherborne Castle

53. Spedlin’s Tower

54. St Donat’s Castle

55. Taunton Castle

56. Thirlwall Castle

57. Tintagel Castle

58. Tiverton Castle

59. Tower of London

60. Triermain Castle

61. Warkworth Castle

62. Warwick Castle

63. Windsor Castle

INTRODUCTION

In Italy when a traditional ghost story is told it often begins with the words ‘C’era una volta un castello in Cornovaglia … (‘There was once a castle in Cornwall …). Such an opening indicates that Britain’s reputation for its ghostlore remains as intriguing as ever. This book is for those interested in ghostlore – and castles – and for those who wish to visit the scenes of paranormal legend.

The length of the entries varies greatly. The reason is that the wordage reflects what is known about the haunting. For example, some sites are merely haunted by an anonymous white lady whose story has long been forgotten. There is little that can be written about her. On the other hand, many castles have spectres that go back far in history and their stories are well documented, such as the case of a man found guilty of murder on evidence based on trial and the appearance of an apparition at Cawood Castle.

A number of haunted castles have royal ghosts which is not surprising when one considers the role of the castle in British history. No one realised the potential of the castle more than William the Conqueror. In 1066 he brought six prefabricated wooden castles across the Channel, and as soon as he was King of England began building castles to control the subject population and hold back the undefeated Celts of Wales and Scotland. Through castles William’s feudal system was maintained.

To the conquered Saxons the new Norman motte and bailey castles – built on earthen mounds with protected courtyards – must have appeared as bitter symbols of oppression, especially when the first hurriedly erected wooden fortifications were replaced with frowning stone keeps. But apart from being a symbol of oppression, the castle also offered security to the local population when the baron’s cavalry rode out across the drawbridge to counter reivers and bandits.

But in times of anarchy, such as in the reign of King Stephen, masters of castles could become laws unto themselves – as noted by the authors of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

Every powerful man built his castles and held them against him (the king) and they filled the country full of castles. They oppressed the wretched people of the country severely with castle building. When the castles were built they filled them with devils and wicked men. Then both by night and by day they took those people they thought had any goods both men and women, put them in prison and tortured with indescribable torture to extort gold and silver … I have neither the ability nor the power to tell all the horrors or all the torments then inflicted upon the wretched people in this country. And that lasted nineteen years while Stephen was king, and it was always going from bad to worse.

It is of little wonder that many castles became haunted.

In this book the question as to what ghosts are, or even if they exist, does not arise. The fact that down the centuries thousands of people have believed in them is enough and, in order to avoid the boring repetition, words and expressions referring to ghostly manifestations in castles as ‘reputed’, ‘alleged’, ‘it is claimed’, or ‘some say’ are omitted. Here ghosts are written about as factual. Disbelief is suspended and phantoms do walk castle walls and re-enact tragedies.

Many of the castles mentioned in these pages are open to the public. Because opening times can vary or be cancelled – for building work or special functions, for example – it is advisable to check when planning specific visits, especially if a long journey is involved. As most castles open to the public have websites, up-to-date information is easily available on the internet. Ruins that do not need a permanent custodian may be visited at any reasonable time.

Castles on private land, or closed to the public, can still be viewed from road or path without invading the privacy of their residents – but it must not be forgotten that an Englishman’s castle is often his home.

Marc Alexander & Paul Abrahams, 2012

Unless otherwise stated, all photographs were taken by the authors.

ALNWICK CASTLE

Today Alnwick Castle retains an aura of magic due to being portrayed as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. It is a castle that one would expect to be haunted as stretching back through its long history nine of its lords have died in violent or mysterious circumstances. Yet it was not a spectral knight or white lady who frightened those who once lived under its shadow – it was something much more terrifying.

Guarding the Border town of the same name, the castle is often referred to as ‘The Windsor of the North’ and is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. Its origins go back almost a thousand years to when Gilbert de Tesson, who had been Duke William’s standard-bearer at the Battle of Hastings, became the first Norman master of the region. After he rebelled against William Rufus, the site passed to Yvo de Vescy who began to build a fortification there as a protection against Scottish raiders.

The present castle was begun by his son-in-law, Eustace Fitzjohn, in 1140. It was attacked on several occasions by the Scots, and in 1403 Henry IV captured it when its then owner, Henry Percy, rebelled against him. It was besieged again in 1462 during the Wars of the Roses but escaped the attentions of both sides in the Civil War due to its owner’s neutral policy.

In 1755 the 1st Duke of Northumberland commissioned Robert Adam to restore it and it is to him it owes its Gothic appearance and the lead statues stationed on the battlements which are such a striking feature today.

The being that once terrorised Alnwick was one of the rarest found in British folklore – a vampire. In his Historia Rerum Anglicarum William of Newburgh, the chronicler who lived around 1135 to 1200, described how a deceased master of the castle – ‘a stranger to God’s grace and whose crimes were many’ – would rise from his tomb during the hours of darkness to prowl the streets of the sleeping town.

The local priest told the historian how his body left such a stench of death and corruption behind him that pestilence broke out. Many townsfolk fled to escape the fate overtaking so many of their neighbours. A number of men, blaming the vampire for the plague, banded together to rid themselves of the menace.

Alnwick Castle.

In Newburgh Priory William wrote:

They armed themselves, therefore, with sharp spades and betaking themselves to the cemetery, they began to dig. And whilst they yet thought they would have to dig much deeper, they came upon the body covered with but a thin layer of earth. It was gorged and swollen with a frightful corpulence …

One of the men struck the bloated body with the edge of his spade and from the wound came a gush of fresh blood, proving that it was indeed the vampire. Immediately the corpse of the erstwhile master of the castle was taken beyond the precincts of Alnwick and burned to ashes. After this the pestilence subsided.

Visiting Information

Situated in the town of Alnwick, Northumberland. Open daily 1 April to 30 October.

ARUNDEL CASTLE

Arundel Castle, the home of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for seven centuries, has often been described as Windsor Castle on a smaller scale. It is complete with a round keep, upper and lower baileys and stone steps protected by battlemented walls leading up to the keep. And like Windsor Castle it has its ghosts.

The building of the castle began during the reign of Edward the Confessor on the high ground above the River Arun, although it was not until William I gave the fortress to his relative, Roger Montgomery, that stone began to replace its timber construction.

One of Roger’s sons, Earl Robert, rebelled against Henry I who besieged the castle in 1102. The fact that it was able to hold out for twelve weeks against a royal army indicated its strength.

When Henry I died, his queen, Adela of Louvain, retired to the castle where she fell in love with its lord, William d’Albini. He was a supporter of the Empress Matilda in her war with King Stephen in the chaotic years when, as a chronicler graphically put it, ‘Christ and his saints slept.’

William d’Albini was known as ‘William of the Strong Hand’, and his nickname together with the lion rampant on the Albini arms is said to have originated when he was in Paris contending in a tournament. He performed so well in the lists that the Dowager Queen of France made it clear that she would not be averse to him as a husband. He made it equally clear that he was already betrothed to the Dowager Queen of England.

Feeling insulted, the French queen tricked d’Albini into a grotto in her palace garden where a hungry lion was waiting. D’Albini rushed at the animal, wrenched its jaws apart and pulled out its tongue.

After returning to England and marrying Adela he became the Earl of Arundel. When the Empress Matilda arrived in England to claim the throne he allowed her to stay at Arundel Castle. King Stephen surrounded it with his army and soon had the empress in his power, but the king was too much of a gentleman for his own good. Many a monarch in those days would have seized the opportunity to remove his rival by a stroke of the headsman’s axe, but Stephen merely gave her safe conduct to Bristol.

Arundel Castle.

She repaid this courtesy by joining with her half-brother, Earl Robert, against the king and soon became mistress of the West of England.

When her son, Henry II, became England’s first Plantagenet king, William d’Albini was rewarded for his services by being given command of the king’s army in Normandy, and it was during this period that the Arundel’s round keep was built on the motte within the castle walls.

In the Civil War, Parliamentarian forces besieged Arundel for eighteen days, bombarding with a canon placed in the tower of nearby St Nicholas’s church. The marks left by the cannonballs are still to be seen on the walls of the barbican towers.

Cromwell’s artillery sounded the death knell for castles as places of military importance, and Arundel was left a ruin until 1716, when the 8th Duke of Norfolk began to restore it. This work was carried on by his descendants until today Arundel stands in its former glory.

As one would expect from such a historical background, the castle has its fair share of ghosts. These include the silvery shape of a young girl sometimes seen in the moonlight near one of the towers. It is believed that she threw herself from it as the result of an unhappy love affair.

Another ghost, the Blue Man, has appeared in the library bending over an ancient book. Dressed in a blue garb dating from the time of Charles II, he seems to be seeking some piece of information which he fails to find.

In the castle kitchen during the dead of night there is sometimes heard the rattle of pots and pans, the sound of a scullion hard at work. It is a supernatural echo going back two centuries when a kitchen lad was brutally ill-treated there.

From time to time, a more impressive sound echoes from the past: the noise of the Parliamentarian artillery which pounded the castle walls during the Christmas siege of 1643.

It is an old Arundel legend that when one of the family is about to die, a mysterious white bird is observed fluttering desperately against the panes of one of the castle windows.

Visiting Information

Situated in the centre of Arundel, Sussex. Open 31 March to 4 November, Tuesday to Sunday.

BAMBURGH CASTLE

As befits a castle with a tradition of once being Sir Lancelot’s ‘Joyous Garde’, Bamburgh Castle is haunted by a knight who appears in the massive twelfth-century keep. The castle is an apt setting for such a phantom. Looming majestically over stretches of pale golden sands and dunes, it has a storybook atmosphere, heightened by the restoration work commissioned by the 1st Lord Armstrong of the Vickers Armstrong Company.

The castle has witnessed the spectrum of English history – the setting up of Aidan’s monastery on nearby Lindisfarne, raids by the Vikings in the ninth century and rebellion against William II, the hated Red King.

Its lord during the rebellion was Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, who was captured in the fighting when the castle was besieged by royal troops. King William II took the fettered earl within sight of the battlements and sent a message to the earl’s lady, who still held the castle, that unless the gates were opened she would see her husband’s eyes gouged out. Bamburgh surrendered.

The Scots also besieged the castle during the unhappy reign of King Stephen, breaching a wall and slaying a hundred of the garrison. During the reign of King John the castellan had a profitable sideline in piracy, preying on coastal vessels.

It was besieged again by Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses when a new weapon was eroding the supremacy of the castles – the cannon.

In the siege of 1464, Edward IV was so sorry to see artillery used on such a fine fortress that he warned the Lancastrian defenders that for every shot fired one of them would pay with his head when it fell. Later Bamburgh became the first British castle to surrender to the power of gunpowder. After this the castle was allowed to deteriorate, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century it passed into the hands of the Crewe family, one of whom was Thomas Forster, who became the famous ‘Pretender’s General’ in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715.

Soon afterwards it was handed over to a charity run by Dr John Sharp, the curate of the village of Bamburgh, who, after having seen so many ships wrecked off the treacherous coast, started a lifeboat service. Thus the castle became Britain’s first lifeboat station. The most spectacular rescue to take place near here happened in 1838, when Grace Darling and her father rowed through a gale from their lighthouse on the nearby Farne Islands to rescue survivors from the wrecked steamship Forfarshire.

Bamburgh Castle.

It is not known to which period in the castle’s colourful story its ghost goes back to. When he has been seen, his figure has been described as grey and indistinct but the fact that he is wearing armour is apparent from the clank of steel and the metallic sound of his footsteps. He is, in fact, a clanking ghost.

If visiting Bamburgh Castle it is worth spending a little time at the Grace Darling Museum in the town.

Visiting Information

The castle overlooks the sea, close to the village of Bamburgh, Northumberland. Open daily from 11 February to 31 October, weekends 1 November to 15 February.

BERRY POMEROY CASTLE

Ruined Berry Pomeroy Castle, dating back to the Norman Conquest, is noted for its ghosts. The least horrific are a pair of lovers who have been glimpsed vainly trying to touch each other with phantom hands above the gatehouse arch. Long ago the baron’s daughter fell in love with a member of a family with whom the Pomeroys had a deadly feud. This Romeo and Juliet situation ended when the girl’s brother slew them both for the honour of the family.

The history of the castle goes back to the Norman Conquest when it was built by Ralph Pomerai who was one of the adventurers who crossed the Channel with William the Conqueror. The lurid events in the castle’s story are illustrated by one of his descendants, Henry de Pomerai. When Richard Coeur de Lion was away on a crusade Henry sided with Prince John, who was intriguing against the king. When Richard returned from the Holy Land he had doubts about Henry’s loyalty. He therefore sent a herald to Berry Pomeroy to report on Henry’s real allegiance. When the herald had gathered evidence against Henry the king challenged Henry to appear before the High Court on a treason charge.

Henry’s answer was to kill the herald with a dagger and flee to Cornwall, where he took over the castle on St Michael’s Mount. Here he was besieged by forces under the command of the Archbishop of Canterbury. When he could no longer hold out against them he committed suicide in the Roman fashion by having his veins opened by a surgeon. It is not known if his spirit ever returned to Berry Pomeroy to become one of the castle’s ghostly community.

The castle’s best-known story tells of two sisters, Margaret and Eleanor Pomeroy, who fell in love with the same man. Lady Eleanor, the elder of the two and mistress of the castle, locked her sister in a dungeon, now known as St Margaret’s Tower. Here she starved to death after a long imprisonment.

Eleanor may have won the man she desired but her crime was never forgotten as Margaret’s tormented spectre returns as a reminder of the murder. According to a pamphlet on Berry Pomeroy Castle by S.M. Ellis: ‘Now on certain nights of the year, the lovely Margaret is said to arise from her entombed dungeon, leaving St Margaret’s Tower and walk along the ramparts in long white flowing robes and beckon to the beholder to come and join her in the dungeon below.’

Berry Pomeroy Castle.

Another unhappy ghost is known as the Blue Lady who, wearing a blue hooded cape, searches the castle grounds for her baby. She is said to have had an incestuous relationship with her father, one of the lords of the castle. When his daughter gave birth to his child he strangled it with his own hands. Another version of the legend suggests the girl smothered the infant herself.

An account of this haunting was written by Sir Walter Farquhar whose dedication to medicine was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1796. Called to Berry Pomeroy, where the wife of the caretaker was dangerously ill, he was asked to wait in a dark but handsomely furnished room. After a few minutes a young woman in blue appeared silently. Ignoring the doctor she ascended a flight of stairs where light from a window caught her features before she moved from sight. Afterwards Sir Walter wrote: ‘If ever human face exhibited agony and remorse … if ever features betrayed within the wearer’s bosom there dwelt a hell, those features were then presented to me.’

The doctor forgot the strange figure when tending his ailing patient but next day, his patient rallied and he inquired about the mysterious woman.

‘My poor wife! That it should come to this!’ cried the caretaker and then explained, ‘You have seen the ghost of the daughter of a former baron who bore a child to her own father. In that room the fruit of their incestuous intercourse was strangled by the guilty mother. Now, whenever death is about to come to the castle the crazed phantom is seen at the scene of the crime. When my son was drowned she came – now it is my wife!’

‘Your wife is better,’ said the doctor. ‘It is absurd to talk about omens.’ But, according to his testimony, the caretaker’s wife died an hour later.

An unusual aspect of this castle’s hauntings is that its phantoms have been seen in daylight.

Visiting Information

Situated close to Berry Pomeroy village, north of Totnes, Devon. The ruin is open to visit.