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Wednesday 26 October 2011

Spooky tour of Penrhyn Castle at night and a white lady in the King's bedroom!

Today I did a tour of Penrhyn Castle in the dark. It was held at 6 o'clock in the evening and by the time we came out of the castle it was pitch black outside. The shutters had been closed in the rooms and there was only a minimal amount of lighting for safety. I took a group of about 13 adults around the house telling the ghost stories from my blog as we went. I dressed as a Victorian Housekeeper all in black, for added atmosphere. I was carrying an old brass and glass lantern with a flickering battery powered candle in it. The castle was very atmospheric in the dark even without any ghost stories! I explained that all the stories were genuine experiences and that I had interviewed the people myself. I said that I have recorded the stories for a book, which I am planning to write when I have got enough material. I asked if anyone had any feelings or saw anything supernatural on the tour to let me know. They were allowed to take photos without using flash, so I hope that if anything does show up on their photos they will contact me.

We walked around the bedrooms in the Keep and I told the relevant ghost stories there. One of the women in the group looked back into the King's bedroom while we were all in the Slate bedroom. I was telling them about the slate four poster bed, explaining that Queen Victoria refused to sleep in it because she said, "It would be like sleeping in a mausoleum!" When we came back down the steps from the Keep bedrooms and walked along the Grand Hall gallery we were waiting for the people at the back to catch up with us. Suddenly a stone fell down at our feet, as if it had been thrown! The Events manager picked it up and looked at it. It was about 1/2 in across, and looked like a small pebble. The lady at the back who had looked into the King's bedroom was very startled by it. She was just telling her friend that when she was looking into the room she saw a white shape, like that of a woman, moving across the room. We were all very interested to hear about the supernatural sighting and I noticed that the group stayed much closer together after that! We could not work out where the stone had come from. It made quite a clatter on the stone floor.

The rest of the tour went without incident, and everyone said that they had enjoyed the stories. I gave them all a piece of paper with the website address on it so I hope that they will read this and comment on it. I hope that they will let me have any photos which are of interest to put on the site too. They asked if I regularly did ghost tours and I told them that this was the first one. As it seemed to go well I hope that we may make it a regular part of the Penrhyn programme of events in the future.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My family and I visited Penrhyn castle on Wednesday. We were all fine outside the castle and in the servant areas - i.e. the kitchen etc, and we weren't previously aware of any ghostly happenings in Penrhyn as we are usually only interested in history. But when we entered the Ebony room, my husband, my thirteen-year-old daughter and I began to feel very sick and dizzy. My two sons were fine. As soon as I stepped into the stairwell of the grand staircase I suddenly felt really weak and terrified. I could barely make it up the stairs, my legs were shaking so much. I just felt so oppressed, as if there was some horrible presence there. After that I just could not wait to get through the castle in order to get outside again. By the time we reached the dining room I felt I would faint. Another visitor accidently kept setting off the alarms, but all I could do was sit down in the chair in the corner and try not to pass out. I skipped the breakfast room entirely because I felt so ill! As soon as we got to the tea room I broke down in tears, which is totally out of character for me - I never cry, even when I want to. I'm sad to say that I will never enter Penrhyn castle again - despite being a member of the National Trust. I'm not a hysterical person, and I love all historical places, but I am certain there is something awful about Penrhyn.

Gerafon said...

Wow! What an interesting story. Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience but thanks for sharing it with me. There is a man who has sometimes been seen or felt next to the staircase by the Ebony room. He wears medieval clothing and is very unpleasant apparently. Maybe you picked up on him and he followed you round? I hope you will feel able to come back and visit Penrhyn again one day. The grounds are beautiful and we have some great summer holiday activities for families. We are having Christmas weekends in December. The house will not be open apart from the Grand hall, kitchens and stable block.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for reading and replying to my post. I have since read some of the posts by your other readers - and thought I should add that I also felt a warm area on my right leg, below the knee, in the room with the billiard table, before the Ebony room. Perhaps that was the ghost dog that has been mentioned? It didn't feel nasty or unwelcoming, just odd. We certainly enjoyed the rest of Penrhyn -the gardens are very beautiful and we all thoroughly enjoyed the museums (especially my sons, who have told me that we have to come back again to see the engines and carriages!)

Gerafon said...

That is fascinating! I wonder if it could have been the dog that Pauline saw and felt in the Slate bedroom/dressing room? There have been quite a few dogs living at the castle over the years and the last Lord Penrhyn's black Labradors have been seen there.The Ebony Room is part of the original medieval house as is the Drawing room, which is the medieval great Hall. I would be very pleased to speak to you about your experiences if you would like to contact me at the castle some time. Thanks.