Fascinating new story

I was at Penrhyn Castle today to help clean and prepare Lord Penrhyn's sitting room and his valet's room for the  public to see when the castle opens in March. It was a fascinating experience and I was very excited to meet some of the room stewards I have not met before as they were also there to help with conservation and cleaning.  One of the stewards told me about an incident which happened last Summer. She has promised to write it down for me and give it to me next week. I will add it to my collection of stories when I get it.

Some interesting new stories

On the 17th December 2010 I attended a Christmas dinner at Tre-Ysgawen Hall near Llangefni, Anglesey with other volunteers and staff from Penrhyn Castle. During the meal I was able to talk to several people and heard some new ghost stories. Elaine (Education Officer) told me that a couple of days ago she was in the women's' changing room on the Education corridor after a schools Christmas hands-on session had finished. She was alone as everyone else had packed up and left. She was getting changed ready to leave with her back towards the door to the ladies toilets, when out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a foot wearing a black Victorian style ankle boot and the hem of a black skirt stepping through the door, which was shut! She said that she did not see anyone coming into the room and there was nobody in the toilets. She thought about it later that night as she was lying in bed and decided that it was very strange. She did not look up to see the rest of the person, and only saw the foot and bottom of the skirt. I wonder if this could be the ghost who sighed in her ear when she put the lights off in the same room a few weeks ago.

I also chatted to a room steward called Jackie who told me of an experience she had about a year ago in the same ladies toilets. She said that she has always felt uncomfortable in there, and senses that she is not alone. She was in a cubicle one day and felt very strongly that there was someone in the room. She heard the rustling of a dress, as though somebody was walking around the room. She came out and looked around but there was nobody there. She was not aware of Elaine's experiences, so I introduced them and let them compare notes!  She also told me about the visitors who came into the Drawing room and as they passed her near the Medieval Tower doorway the man suddenly shouted and fell back against the wall. She asked if he needed to sit down but his wife told her that he was a Medium, and that he had felt something there. This was the place where Cheralynn saw a man in medieval clothing standing and looking very stern. I wonder if it was the same man who startled the visitor.

The new Property Manager had a strange and startling experience in the Education Corridor a few days ago too. He told me that he was going to make a cup of tea but he realised that he had forgotten his mug which he had left on his desk. He turned back to get it when he heard a loud noise from further up the corridor. He was working there alone and knew that nobody was in the department. He went to investigate and found that the door to the men's changing room had been slammed shut. He checked to see whether there was a window open which could have created a draught, but the windows were closed. He said that it was a very loud slamming of the door, as though someone had been behind it and given it a hard push, not just the click of the door swinging shut. It really startled him and when he was in his office early on the day of our dinner, on his own, he made sure that all the lights were on and that they stayed on!

Later I was talking to Mike the Head Gardener who told me that when his children lived with him in the rooms which are now the Education Department, his young son who was 3 or 4 had an imaginary friend who he called "Gunner". He would say that he was going to talk to Gunner in his bedroom, which was the room we now use as the Toys and Games room. Mike said that he used to think that his son had a good imagination but Gunner seemed so real to him that he wondered if there really was someone there.

When I came back to Caernarfon I went shopping for some Christmas gifts and called into a shop in the High Street called H & H where they sell perfumes and hand made soaps. I mentioned to the lady who runs the shop that I had been to a Christmas dinner at Tre-Ysgawen Hall with the volunteers and staff from Penrhyn and she told me that she loves visiting Penrhyn and often calls in for tea and a scone in the Tea room. I explained that I was writing a book about the ghosts of Penrhyn Castle and she said that something strange had happened to her there. She told me that her friend Jenny grew up at Penrhyn because her parents worked in the castle. They had an apartment in one of the towers. One day when she had been visiting Jenny they came down the stairs to go outside. Jenny came down ahead of her, leaving her to walk down by herself. As she came down to the bottom of the stairs she said that she had an overpowering feeling of dread which seemed to suffocate her. She was terrified and ran out of the area to catch up with Jenny. I asked her which stairs she had used and whether it was the Grand Staircase. She said that it was a back staircase. I asked if it was the one which comes out near the tea room and she said that it was. I explained that it was on those stairs that a maid apparently fell down and that she had died at the bottom of the stairs. She said that it would explain the awful feeling she had there. I will go back to see her again and get some more details from her, including her name! I will also talk to her friend Jenny who runs a shop in Palace Street, Caernarfon. I will be very interested to hear of any ghostly experiences she or her family may have had whilst living at the castle. Quite an eventful day! I never know when I will hear a new story. Watch this space......

A ghostly girl in a bedroom and other strange goings on at Penrhyn Castle.

Today I was at Penrhyn Castle where I heard some very interesting new stories and cleared up a mystery. I was told about a lady in her 70's from Anglesey who visited the Toll House at Conwy Suspension Bridge recently. She spoke to the Toll Housekeeper, whose partner works at Penrhyn, about her experiences there. His partner at Penrhyn gave the story to me today. The lady told the Toll house keeper that she would never go to Penrhyn again after what happened. She said that she was looking into one of the bedrooms and felt a very strong presence there. She described seeing a girl who had fallen in love with a gardener and was locked in the room by her father. She was so disturbed by the experience that she could not walk past the room. When she got home later that day she drew a sketch of the girl she had seen in the room. When she came to Penrhyn again she saw a photograph of the family outside the main doors of the castle taken at the time of the visit by Edward Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra in 1894. She was able to identify the girl she had seen in the room on the photograph. I wondered whether it could have been Alice Douglas Pennant, as she has scratched her name on the window pane in the "nursery" bedroom in the Keep as previously described. The lady said that she had seen the girls' portrait downstairs and it was identical to the face she had drawn. Unfortunately the Toll House keeper did not get the visitor's name or telephone number. I would have loved to talk to her myself and hear the story in her own words, but I was very excited to get the story, even though it was handed on to me.

I spoke to one of the gardening team today. He told me that when he was living at Penrhyn Castle a few years ago he was sitting in his lounge one evening when he  thought about going outside for a smoke. He said that suddenly the fire alarms went off. He had not even picked up his cigarettes or lighter. He told me that when the Fire Brigade arrived they checked to see which alarm had been triggered, and it was the one in his lounge! Mysterious!

One of the conservation team told me that he had explored all of the castle since working there but only ventured up the Medieval staircase in the Drawing Room recently. He told me that a few years ago a conservator called Wendy went up the tower with another conservator and when they got to the top all the lights went out. It was pitch black. The man told her to wait there and he went down to sort out the lights. She crept down the spiral staircase on her backside rather than being left up there on her own. The conservator told me today that the house is very strange and that a lot of peculiar things happen there which have no rational explanation.

He also told me that a baby's skeleton had been found in the house. I asked him if he know where it had been found and when.  I have heard that story many times so far, but have not yet found out exactly where and when it took place. He said that there was something about it in a book in the conservators room and took me to show me the file. The baby's skeleton was found in a window frame in the Ebony Room, part of the original Medieval house, in 1836 when the house was being altered. He is going to photocopy the information for me. Apparently the baby had been hidden with a gold ring which seemed to have been cut off its finger! Strange. I wonder who it was and where the ring is now?

I was talking to my friend Elaine who is an Education Officer and she told me that there has been some trouble with locked doors in the kitchen area recently. She was getting ready for a school group a couple of weeks ago, when a door which she had unlocked was suddenly locked and it would not open with the key. Elaine and Vanessa, also an Education Officer, looked in the crack of the door and saw that it was locked. They tried all the keys and wriggled the handle, but to no avail. Eventually they gave up and went to get someone from the House Office to open it. When Sarah arrived she went to the door and it was unlocked. She was surprised as they had definitely seen the lock closed in the crack of the door.

The same thing happened with the Brushing Room door, which is near the kitchen door. Again the door was opened with the keys and Elaine and Vanessa were setting up ready for the school children. When they tried to open the door it was locked and they had not got the keys. They went to find Geoff who had the keys and he said that he had not locked the door as he was busy setting up the scullery. He went to try the door and it opened for him. Could this be the Housekeeper up to her old tricks, as happened in the shop a few years ago?

Last week one of the ladies in my Art class in Coleg Menai gave me a story which she had written for me, about her memories of Penrhyn Castle during the Second World War. Her best friend lived there as her mother was Lord Penrhyn's Housekeeper, and her father was the Groom. She said that there was a rumour even back then that there was a ghost in the kitchens. She thought that it was felt or seen in the corridor near the China Room. I was getting some things from the store room there earlier on today. I was all on my own. It was very creepy! I had to keep singing and chatting to whoever might have been there to stop myself being too scared. Luckily I did not see or hear anything. I am excited to have got a few new stories today. I always wonder what will the next visit bring?

I am going to be Lady Penrhyn as part of the schools Christmas hands-on Programme. I will have to wait in the Library for the children to be brought down to the house by the Butler. I do not plan to be there by myself. I will have a friend with me at all times. I may be interested in ghosts but I do not want to meet one there when I am on my own!

Rosa Speed seen at Penrhyn?

Yesterday I went to the Conwy Feast, an annual Food Festival with my friend Elaine, a Learning Assistant at Penrhyn Castle. I spent three cold, wet and windy hours sitting behind a table in a gazebo on the old suspension bridge, next to the toll house. I was helping to man a display about food rationing in WW2 for the National Trust. We only had one visitor who refused the free seeds we were giving away because she only liked flowers and we were giving away free packets of vegetable seeds!

After dismantling the gazebo in a gale, we packed everything away and went to enjoy the Festival. We visited Aberconwy House, a Medieval Merchant's house in the town centre built in about 1418-1419, a National Trust property. It is the oldest town house in Wales. I had read about the ghosts in Aberconwy House in a NT book about ghosts by Sian Evans. We asked the room steward upstairs in the house whether she had ever seen the ghost of Mr Jones, who lived there in the 19th century. She said that she hadn't seen him but had had many supernatural experiences there. She told us that she heard someone knocking loudly on the kitchen door and when she opened it there was nobody there. This has happened several times. I explained that I was collecting ghost stories from Penrhyn Castle. She said that she had seen a ghost there a few years ago, but had never told anyone in case they thought she was mad! I said that I would be very pleased to hear all about it and took notes as she recounted her story.

Margaret said that she lives near Penrhyn Castle and often takes her dog for a walk in the grounds. One day she had been walking the dog and had parked her car near the stable block, overlooking the sea. She got into her car to eat her lunch and enjoy the spectacular view. She suddenly noticed a young girl of about 12 years of age standing about fifteen feet in front of her car. She was wearing a long dress made of fine fabric, pastel in colour and down to the floor. The girl was also looking at the view over the fields to the sea, so Margaret could not see her face. She was wearing a small bonnet. Margaret said that she was struck by the beautiful dress, with its fitted waist and long sleeves. She sensed that the girl was unhappy and that she felt very lonely. She looked at the girl for a few minutes, then glanced away for a couple of seconds. When she looked up again the girl had completely disappeared! Margaret looked along the driveway in both directions but she could not see her. She has wondered who the girl was and whether she was a member of the Douglas-Pennant family who lived in the castle. She asked me whether there is a portrait matching her description in the castle. I promised to investigate and let her know.

I wondered if the girl could be Rosa, the daughter of Walter Speed the Head Gardener at Penrhyn, who died at the age of 11 in 1878. According to her niece she came home from school as usual, sat down in a chair and died. She had not complained of feeling ill and the doctors were completely baffled as to the cause of her death. Some subsequent events have increased the mystery, since a traveller by the name of David White recorded an entry in the Church Visitors' Book, stating that he was there to visit Rosa. This happened in August 1987, over a century after Rosa's death. David White was totally unknown to the surviving members of the family, and nobody could explain his connection. He visited the churchyard at least three times between August and October 1987, and each time he recorded a comment about Rosa in the Visitors' Book.

Penrhyn Cottage

Walter Speed and his large family of 14 children lived in a house called Penrhyn Cottage, which is just a short walk from the place where Margaret saw the young girl.


After hearing this story Elaine and I walked up to one of the Food Festival areas near the castle. We saw Geoff an Education Officer from Penrhyn, who we had been working with that morning. He was with his family, including his daughter Joanne. I related the story of the ghostly girl in the bonnet to them and Geoff was sceptical as usual, as he says that he does not believe in ghosts. His daughter Joanne said that she had had a ghostly experience at Penrhyn last Easter. She was standing in the Bell Corridor near the Servants' Hall looking up at the rows of bells. A man came up behind her and stood by her right shoulder. She assumed that it was her father Geoff and turned to speak to him. When she turned around there was nobody there. She had not told her Dad because she did not think that he would believe her. Several people have had similar experiences in the area around the Bell Corridor so I assume that there is a ghost there who likes to be sensed but not seen!


I am going to an end of season meeting next week at Penrhyn Castle, so I will hopefully be able to talk to a lot of room stewards, staff and volunteers. I hope to gather some more stories. Watch this space.......!

Updates today - more spookiness

Today I visited the castle with a friend. I spoke to all the room stewards as we went around the castle to ask if they had any interesting ghostly tales for me. The first one I spoke to was Penny who has been a room steward for 11 years. She has never seen anything supernatural herself but has heard a lot of stories from other staff and volunteers. She told me about a conservator called Wendy who used to work there a few years ago. She said that Wendy had to clean the rooms in the Keep above the bedrooms open to the public, which used to be used by Alice and Blanche Douglas-Pennant. The bedrooms on the third floor are largely derelict and infested with flies, as are the ones on the fourth floor. They are only accessible by two narrow stone spiral staircases so are not open to the public. Wendy was vacuuming the dead flies in the third floor rooms. She came back downstairs and said that she felt very uneasy, as she was convinced that there was someone watching her while she was in there. Penny said that several people have told her that they do not like the feeling in those rooms and that they will not go up the spiral stairs on the left, only on the right. There is a spiral staircase on each side of the Keep bedrooms.


A few weeks ago I was going around the house with my son Jason, talking to the room stewards, as I did today. When we went into the Drawing Room I spoke to a lady also called Caroline who was the room steward.  She told me that she was the wrong person to ask about ghosts, as she does not believe in them! I asked if she had ever had any reports of visitors feeling anything unusual when standing near the doorway of the medieval staircase. She said that she was not aware of anyone experiencing anything there but she did have a strange experience herself in that room a couple of years ago. She said that she felt as though her chest was tightening and she could not breathe. She thought she was having a heart attack. She used to be a nurse and was aware of the symptoms. She moved away from the doorway to sit down and immediately felt better. This has happened twice and she said that it was probably angina. She told us that she lives in an old Penrhyn estate house in Abergwyngregin. Her husband and children have all seen a man in a tall black hat and cloak standing on the stairs, but she has not, so she does not believe in ghosts!


My psychic friend felt exactly the same feeling of tightness around her chest when standing at the doorway to the Medieval staircase a few weeks before. She said that it was becoming hard to breathe and that she felt as though she was being squeezed from behind by a man who did not want us to be there. She had to move away from him. Cheralynn said she did not like it in there at all, as she could sense the man standing by the tower door was very hostile and domineering, and that he resents people being in his house. Could this be Gwilym ap Gruffydd (d. 1431) who lived in the medieval house with his wife Joan?  He had the look-out tower built. Their coat of arms used to be seen in the windows of the library until 1764. Cheralynn stood in the spot where he stands and said that she had a very tight, oppressive feeling. She felt very cold and had a sudden headache. 


She also told us that she sensed a presence in another room below us, under the floor. Cheralynn felt that John the Bottler (not butler) was working in the cellar below us.  When we spoke to Richard the House Manager later he told us that there are beer and wine cellars below that room, which were part of the original medieval house. Cheralynn said that John had a throat problem, which killed him. We visited the cellars about three weeks ago and Cheralynn could see John clearly. She described his dark clothing with a leather sleeveless tunic over a shirt. She said that he was drunk. She started to get very giggly and started acting as though she was drunk! Her husband told us that she does not drink alcohol. She had to go out of the cellar before she started to feel sober again.


Penny told me today that the name of a medieval servant who had responsibility for the beer and wine was a Bottelier, a word which developed into the word Butler. Interesting! I had not heard that word before. That must be what John the "Bottler" was trying to tell Cheralynn.


I saw my friend Pat today who has often worked as a steward in the kitchens. Pat said that she feels a presence in the Pickard room in the Stable Block and also outside the China Room, next to the kitchens. She feels this when she opens the kitchens in the mornings before the visitors arrive. When she leaves the door closed in the corridor next to the kitchens, she feels that someone is there. Other people have told me the same thing about the area by the China Room. It is quite dark really but looks light in the photo because I used a flash. The China room is the door to the left of the photo. It is where a specially trained maid used to wash the valuable china.

China room

Area outside China Room

Ghostly sigh in the changing room

My friend Elaine told me a fascinating story today. She was in the Education department for a course on Tuesday. She went into the changing room to get something and as she left she switched off the light. Just as the light went off she heard a loud sigh right next to her ear. She didn't dare to turn her head in case there was somebody behind her, so she left the room and did not go back in there until later. There was nobody else in the department. She wondered if she could have brushed her hand against some of the costumes hanging up on hooks near the light switch so she plucked up the courage to go back into the room and moved the costumes to see if she could recreate the sighing noise. She could not make the same sound at all. I asked the ladies who work in the Servants' Hall in the house about the sound they said they have heard in the Doll's Museum when they go in firs thing in the morning and switch the lights on. They described it as a sighing sound, exactly as Elaine described it. The Dolls museum is in the same corridor as the changing room. Spooky! I got changed in there today before I heard Elaine's story. Luckily I was not on my own. I don't think I ever want to go in there on my own again!

Education Department corridor

Changing room

A ghostly visitor in the tea room

The lady who phoned my husband yesterday told me a very interesting story on the phone this evening. Sharon used to work in the kitchens at Penrhyn Castle about 15 years ago. She was working in the kitchen opposite the door to the Tea Room. She had opened up and was on her own when she caught a glimpse of someone in the Tea Room behind her, standing near a glass cabinet, which had scones and cakes in it. It looked like a man wearing a black cloak. She could not see the face clearly as he seemed to be wearing a hood. She called, "I'll be there now!" and went to see who it was and what he wanted. There was nobody there. She wondered if he could have gone out into the corridor, so she went to look for him, but he was not there either. She said that if he was a visitor she would have caught up with him. She was talking to some of the other women who worked there a couple of days later, when she told them the story. They did not seem surprised and said, "Oh, so you've seen the ghost then?" After that she did not like being there on her own. She only worked there for one season.

I have asked her if she could possibly contact any of the people she knows who worked there with her, in the hope that they might have had a ghostly encounter. I will wait and see what stories they have to tell....!

Cake counter in the Tea Room