"Is anybody there?" Spooky sensations in the house this week

I took a group of school children on a tour of the castle on Friday afternoon last week dressed as lady Penrhyn! One of the adults who accompanied the group was a mother of a child at the school. She asked me if Penrhyn was haunted. I replied that it certainly was, to which she said that she had sensed it as soon as she saw the castle that morning. I asked if she was sensitive to such things and she told me that she could pick up on ghosts, although she could not always see them. I told her to stay near me as we toured the house so that she could tell me if she felt anything unusual. As we walked through the Drawing room past the Medieval staircase of the watchtower, she suddenly shuddered and rushed into the Ebony room. "What was that?" she said. I asked her what she had felt there and she told me that there was definitely something at the foot of the spiral staircase which had made her shudder as she went past. She did not like it at all. I explained that several people have had similar experiences in exactly the same spot.

The next place she felt something unusual was by the Nursery bedroom, which was Alice Douglas Pennant's room. She felt that it was very "oppressive." She also felt a presence in the Dressing room off the Slate Bedroom, which is where a room steward recently saw a ghost dog. I did not prompt her in any of these areas. She just came up to me to tell me what she had experienced. I confirmed to her that other people had felt the same kind of feelings in those places. She did not like the area at the bottom of the stairs of the Housemaids' Tower. The door swung open by itself as she peered around the door and made her jump! I told her about Polly the maid who is said to have died on that spot after falling down the stairs.

Last week I took a friend of a friend around the house and he was also very sensitive to spirits. David picked up on things in the same areas, but he also said that he felt we were being watched as we walked past the windows of the stable block towards the Barbican Gate.

 Barbican Gate

He was aware of something in Alice's bedroom near the fireplace, which he thought was a man. He also sensed that there was someone near the cupboard in the back left-hand corner of the room. Another visitor last year said that she had seen a young girl in the room, who she later identified as Alice, and her father, who she was afraid of. David was aware of something in the Slate Bedroom dressing room and also in the Drawing Room, especially near the Medieval Tower stairs.  He did not like the area near the large doors of the Stable Block. I showed him the door to the Clock Tower and he stood by the door. He said that something was telling him to go away and he felt very uncomfortable there. Cheralynn said that she did not like the Clock Tower when I took her there last year. She had a bad feeling there and could not wait to get outside again.

He sensed that Penrhyn is a very busy place with a lot of spirits walking about, although he could not see them. He said that he only sees spirits at night. It is a shame that he is not able to come on my tour of the house in the dark on Wednesday! I hope that people do feel that there are spirits around and that they will enjoy the stories I have collected over the past year.

John Pickard positively identified as the ghostly man in the stable block!

John Pickard (1823-1897)

I found this photo of John Pickard on the internet this week. He has a small beard but no moustache in the photo, but he may have grown one at some time during his life. Elaine showed her son the photo and asked if he recognised him. He said that although he doesn't have a moustache, which he did when Rory saw him in the stable block recently, he is convinced that it is the same man. I spoke to him this evening and asked him to describe in detail what the man was wearing. He told me that he was wearing a shirt and waistcoat with a cravat at the neck. He had dark trousers and long boots. He was carrying what looked like a jacket over his arm. He said that he had old fashioned clothing.

John Pickard has been seen in the stables before by a visitor who described him to Sheila, the shop manager at the time. She showed him the photo of John Pickard and the man confirmed that it was him. When Sheila told the visitor that he had been dead for over 100 years he was very surprised! He must have been happy working at Penrhyn for 52 years of service, and perhaps he likes to come back now and again to check on how things are being run in his absence!

New sighting in the Stable Block and strange happenings in the shop!

I received a text message on Sunday from a friend who works at the castle, telling me that her nine year old son had just had a ghostly experience in the stable block. I was travelling back from Barry in South Wales at the time, so I was not able to call her to find out the details until later in the evening. She explained to me that her son Rory was standing at the entrance of the stable block looking towards the Industrial Railway Museum, when he saw a man walking towards him, looking straight at him. Rory said that the man seemed to be moving very slowly and that he was wearing old fashioned clothes. It was a cold, damp day so most people were well wrapped up for the weather. The man was wearing a shirt and waistcoat, trousers and a pair of boots. He had a moustache. As Rory was watching him moving slowly and looking intently at him, a woman walked past the glass doors from the stables on the left towards the shop door on the right. Rory did not take his eyes off the man, but as he looked around the visitor, the man had disappeared. Rory thought it was strange and he went into the stable entrance through the glass doors and looked around for him, but there was no sign of him. He went to find his mother to tell her what had happened. She asked him why he thought it was strange and he explained about the old fashioned clothing and the fact that the man had disappeared so suddenly into thin air.

I wonder if it was John Pickard, the Head Groom of the stables at Penrhyn Castle for 52 years. Part of the stable entrance was converted into a gallery  for temporary exhibitions and it was named the Pickard room in honour of John Pickard. There used to be a picture of him in the stables so I will try to track it down and show Rory to see if it could have been him.

Yesterday I was at the castle and I spoke to the manager of the National Trust shop to see whether he had ever had any strange experiences. He said that he has not seen anything but that every morning when he unlocks the shop door there are things on the floor. He explained that it is as though someone has been in the shop during the night, taking items off the shelves and placing them on the floor. Books, bottles, toys and other items are regularly found lying on the floor in the mornings. Sheila the previous shop manager told me a similar story last week about things being found on the floor, including tea towels neatly laid out flat in the middle of the shop! If they had fallen off a display during the night they would have been in a crumpled heap, not neatly placed. She said it was usually on a Tuesday, when the shop was normally closed. It would be great to set up some recording equipment in the shop overnight to see what is going on. I don't think I will volunteer to spend the night there on my own, as was suggested yesterday. I am not that brave!

I have been asked to give a spooky tour of the castle at night during Halloween week. It will be taking place on 26th October at 6.00pm. I will be doing a tour in the dark and telling ghostly tales as I go. People can book a place on the tour for £10 each by telephoning the castle. I think there will be a maximum of 15 places. Should be interesting!

Ghost dog in the Slate Bedroom

I was working at the castle today in the William Morris room when one of the Visitor Services Assistants asked me if I could go to the Keep to speak to a room steward who had experienced something very strange in the Slate Bedroom. I rushed over to the house with my notepad and two pens (just in case one of them stopped working half way through the story!) I found the lady, who I had not met before. Her name is Pauline and she seemed very pleased that I was interested in hearing about her ghostly encounter. She explained that she had been standing in the Slate Bedroom by herself as there were no visitors in the room, thinking that it is rather a cold room, not as pleasant as some of the other rooms she has stewarded in. She decided to look at a painting which is hanging in the dressing room next door to the bedroom and she took the stewards' room file of information with her to look at while she was studying the painting. She stood in the doorway of the dressing room and as she turned to come back into the bedroom she felt something warm pressing on her left leg. She looked down and saw the shape of a large dog with a grey, crinkled coat standing next to her. She saw it clearly but when she looked down again she could not see it but could still feel it. She said that she felt totally calm and felt the companionship of the dog, as though she had a connection with it somehow. Pauline also described how the feeling in the Slate Bedroom changed as she went into the room. She said that it felt welcoming, as though the dog was warming her to the room. She felt excitement in the air, which was not there before the dog appeared to her.

As Pauline came back into the Slate Bedroom the grey dog stayed close to her and she was aware of it being there, although she could not see it; A couple with a black Labrador guide dog came into the room from the doorway which looks into the King's Bedroom. Pauline had not seen them come into the room, so they must have passed her when she was in the Dressing Room. She wondered if the Labrador would be aware of the ghostly dog but it walked past in its guide dog harness and did not show any signs of being aware of it at all, which surprised her, as dogs are usually very sensitive to ghosts.

I told the story to my friend Cheralynn who is very aware of spirits and she told me that she saw a large Deerhound following my husband when we visited the castle a few months ago. I wonder if it could be the same dog? I will do some further research to find out if there was such a dog living in the castle and with which Lord Penrhyn.

While I was talking to Pauline the Head Steward Lawrie come into the room to check whether she wanted the window open, as it was very warm. I explained what I was doing there and he proceeded to tell me all the ghost stories he knew about the castle. He said that Ros used to be a room steward and she often talked to a maid named Polly, who I know a little about as I have heard several stories about her. Apparently Ros first encountered Polly in the Lower India Room which was the last Lord Penrhyn's bedroom. Ros saw Polly in the bedroom and as she turned to walk out of the room she fell and broke her foot. Ros always maintained that Polly had pushed her! She said that Polly told her that she had broken her foot in exactly the same place when she fell down the stairs many years before.

Another fascinating story which Lawrie told me today was about a hearse which apparently drew up outside the castle one day and a small baby's coffin was brought into the building. The hearse left without the coffin. Very strange! I need to find out more about this story.

He also told me that the stairs by the Keep bedrooms were the scene of a strange occurrence several years ago when a previous property manager called Gwyn was showing a small group of people around Penrhyn. He said that as they came to the stairs leading to the bedrooms one of the ladies in the group fainted. She came round and they did the tour of the bedrooms, only for her to faint again in exactly the same place on the stairs as they left the Keep. The lady visitor explained that a man was trying to drag her away from the bedrooms as though he did not want her to go in there.

Gwyn would not go into the cellars below the Drawing Room, which is part of the original Medieval house. Lawrie told me that if anyone tried to get him to walk into the back of the cellars near the spiral staircase he would fight to get away and would not go near there. That is the area where Cheralynn said that a man called John the Bottler is lurking. He used to work down there apparently and is still hanging around!

Lawrie also mentioned a faceless child which was seen in the Slate Bedroom and that people have been taken out of the room because they feel freezing cold. He said that he has heard that the previous Lord Penrhyn is unhappy about his Sitting Room being opened up to the public this year. He did not elaborate so I will ask him more about that when I see him again. I now have a lot more stories to investigate and some interesting events to hear about in more detail when I have more time. Watch this space....!

Another sighting of the man in the Dinorwic carriage?

David, the Manager of the Railway Museum, spoke to me yesterday and told me that Dafydd, a Railway engineer, had told him about an interesting experience which happened to him on Saturday. I spoke to Dafydd today and asked him what had happened. He said that he was working on one of the engines in the museum and a family came in to see the trains. They were looking at the Dinorwic carriage which used to transport the slate quarry officials and owners, and is very plush inside. The family had a young boy with them who suddenly pointed into the carriage and said something like, "There he is again!" He also said, "He's looking down now." Dafydd looked around quickly to see if he could catch the ghost, but when he looked it had gone. I wish I could have spoken to the family to ask what the boy had seen in the carriage and if it was the same boy who had been startled by the man in the carriage some time ago.

I took this photo of inside the Dinorwic Carriage a few months ago. It looks as though there may be someone sitting in the left hand chair.

The Creepy Corridor

Today I spoke to Louise who cleans the cloakrooms in the Learning and Communications department. She started working at Penrhyn Castle a couple of months ago and I had not really spoken to her properly before. I asked her whether she has ever had any unusual experiences whilst doing her job at the castle. She cleans all the cloakrooms in the building. She told me that she has not seen anything yet but she has felt something strange. I asked her where she had felt it and it was on our corridor! She said that when she comes to clean at the weekends when the department is empty she often feels as though there is someone standing behind her, watching her. She told me that she often has to stop and turn around to see if anyone is actually there. I explained that I am collecting ghost stories about Penrhyn Castle for a book and she will let me know if anything else happens to her, or if she sees anything. I will keep you posted!

Running boy ghost seen again yesterday

When I arrived at Penrhyn Castle this morning I was greeted by Dafydd who works in the Railway Museum. He told me that yesterday he saw a young boy running away from him in the coach house area of the Railway Museum. He has not seen him for a long time. He has appeared to him about five times now. Dafydd told me that he was very real to him, "not like a puff of smoke". He saw him very clearly, in exactly the same way that he has seen him before. He wonders whether there is anything significant about the date when he appeared and will keep a note of it in his diary, in case it happens again the same time next year. I wish I could find out who he is and what happened to him in the coach house which would make him want to run away. Dafydd said that he is leaning forwards as he runs as though he is in a hurry to get away from someone or something. Very interesting.