Spooky Behind the Scenes Tour

I have not been working at the castle so far this year apart from volunteering on some of the Fun Days,which is why I have not been able to add any new ghost stories since the 1st March. I was very excited to see this evening that I have had over 30,000 views on this blog and a new story from a recent visitor to the castle which I am giving its own title and space here. I hope the writer will not mind me using her story:

Hello! I replied to one of these blog posts last summer when I first visited the castle. On entering the small toilet room at the top of the grand staircase (last year) I became instantly much colder despite the general warmth of the day. Yesterday, (for the first time since then), I came to the castle and entered the same room. This time however, I felt nothing. Prior to exploring the house with my friend we went on one of the new (and fantastic) secret rooms tower tours. On walking into Lord Penrhyn's study our tour guide began to tell us of the son who died in WWI. He then moved on and I walked towards the stone placed on the desk. As I did so I shivered violently and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up - it felt as if someone was watching me despite everyone else being at the other end of the study. As we walked past the room again later on I felt similarly uncomfortable. The presence had not left. The original nursery also disturbed me slightly, though this may have purely been due to it's disrepair and the general 'haunted' quality many abandoned nurseries have, due to their associations in horror movies. I am in the process of writing an amateur historical fiction surrounding the life of Lady Alice (inspired by my trip last year.) In her room I felt nothing but both my friend and I agreed that the painting above the fireplace had an eerie feel about it. Down in the kitchens I entered one of the dark but open pantries. Stepping into it I again felt cold, a sensation of foreboding crept over me and I left swiftly, glancing nervously over my shoulder as I went. The castle is my favourite of the National Trust properties and I love the improvements in terms of attractions/tours for this year. Hope to see you soon!

28 June 2014 12:34

 

I hope this experience will encourage those of you with an interest in the supernatural to come on the tours. They start at 11.00am. Meet at the main entrance to the castle. Please let me know if you experience anything unusual.

Open Day 1st March 2014... a busy day for the ghosts of Penrhyn Castle!

Penrhyn Castle re-opened to the public on Saturday 1st March 2014, which was also St. David's Day. Over 900 visitors poured through the doors of the castle, explored the gardens and visited the Industrial Railway Museum. The weather was sunny and the carpets of snowdrops were magnificent. Inside the castle the ghosts were apparently as active as the National Trust staff and volunteers who have worked so hard to get the property ready for the opening day. I was volunteering as the face painter in the old shop in the stable block. I painted 30 children's faces that day! There were various crafts and activities for children in the stable block and I was on my own to keep an eye on it all.

I managed to have a 20 minute break about 1 pm to give me enough time to go into the house to hear the Welsh harps being played in the Grand Hall. I met a friend who had brought several of her friends with her, some of whom had not visited Penrhyn Castle before. One of them was a young girl of 16 called Alice, who is apparently very psychic. She has had many experiences of seeing people who have died and can describe them in some detail. I went with her and her family to the bedrooms in the Keep. She stood by the door of the Nursery bedroom and described a young woman who was standing by the window. She said that she was crying and was leaning her chin on her hand and she gazed out of the window. She felt her great sadness. She described her as very slim and that she had her long fair hair curled at the front, with the sides swept up and the back loose over her shoulders. Her dress was a pale silvery grey colour, although she could not see it clearly. Cheralyn and Alice both sensed that she had been in a relationship with someone who worked in the grounds, but not a gardener, as some people have felt.

Her experience in the room sounds very similar to one which I described a couple of years ago when an elderly lady saw a young girl in the room and could feel her sadness. She later identified her as the Honourable Alice Douglas Pennant from the photograph of the family in the entrance lobby. Alice saw a young baby in the King's Bedroom.

We went into the Slate Bedroom after the Nursery and Alice immediately said that she did not like the feeling in there. She had a sudden headache, which she described as pressure in her head. Her mother came in behind her and said that she did not like the room and had a headache as soon as she walked in too! Two of my friends also visited the castle on the Open Day and told me the next day that they had a bad feeling in the Slate Bedroom and in the Scullery. They sensed something telling them to get out of there as fast as possible. Neither of them told the other one what they had felt until later that evening when they found out that they had both experienced the same thing in the same places! Both of the locations are where a "black whoosh" has been seen. Cheralyn described it as an earth spirit, one which came from the land where the castle is built, not from the people of the castle itself.

I had to go back to the stable to do the face painting so I left them to continue their tour of the house. Afterwards they came to find me and told me a few of the things they had seen and felt there. Alice saw a man standing on the Grand Hall Gallery looking down into the hall. Cheralyn saw him too and asked her to describe him. It was Hugh Napier, the 4th Lord Penrhyn. He has been seen in the same place several times. He always appears to be grumpy. There is a photograph of him in the library, so she was able to confirm that it was him.

In the Library Alice saw a woman with dark hair standing in the corner of the room. She pointed her out to Cheralyn and told her that she had gone into the small tower room off the library. When she came out again Alice described her and Cheralyn asked her to look at the desk in front of the window. She pointed to a photograph of a young lady in a ball gown. It was the woman she had seen and described. The lady she saw was Lady Janet Douglas Pennant who inherited the castle from Hugh Napier and gave it to the National Trust in 1951.

She went into the Drawing Room and felt very uncomfortable near the spiral staircase. She said that there was an unpleasant presence there. She did not see anything but felt as though she need to move quickly into the Ebony Room. She did not like the cold unwelcoming feeling in that room. She said that it felt weird.

She told me that she had seen a woman in the chapel who was wearing a dark coloured dress and had a large bunch of keys dangling from her waist. She looked very disapproving and followed the party around until they came to the kitchens. They thought that she was probably the Housekeeper as she would have had a bunch of keys. The Housekeeper poked Alice in her arm in the kitchen, which made her jump! A young maid called Polly was seen near the kitchen. She was running. Alice said that she could hear a lot of shouting as soon as she entered the house.

Cheralyn saw Alice Douglas Pennant standing near the grand piano. She also saw the 2nd Lord Penrhyn in the entrance hall. She had the feeling that he was saying, "This is mine!" There was a distinct feeling of dominance from him. Cheralyn said that whenever he was around his daughter Alice Douglas Pennant disappeared as though she was afraid of him.

When the group went into the Ice Tower Alice said that she looked into the hole in the tower room where the ice was taken out in a bucket and could see a man standing in the hole looking up at her. She could smell a horrible decaying smell, like something rotten. The hole is dry and there is not usually a smell in the tower room. She could smell it very distinctly and said that is made her feel sick!

Did anyone else experience anything unusual there? I would love to hear your stories. Please add your comments below. Thanks.

Ghostly footsteps and a mysterious rattling door!

I was at Penrhyn Castle today for a Winter talk for staff and volunteers in the Gallery. I am always interested to hear about any ghostly experiences which have happened since I was last there. Two of the Visitor Experience Assistants who are working at the castle over the winter season told me about their recent spooky encounters. One of them was upstairs in the office above the stable block last week when she heard footsteps coming along the corridor. She knew that she was the only person in the building so she was surprised to hear someone walking past the office. She said that it was definitely the sound of shoes on the quarry tiled floor but then she heard the rustling of a dress. She went into the corridor to check if anybody was there but she could not find anyone. She said that it felt very creepy!

The corridor

The other Visitor Experience Assistant said that she was working in the stable entrance a few days ago. She was wiping the tables in the Coffee Shop when she heard a rattling sound. It was coming from the door of the storeroom where the Christmas decorations are kept when not in use. The rattling stopped when she looked at the door. It sounded like someone was trying to open the door from inside the storeroom. She continued wiping the tables, wondering what could have caused the rattling noise when it started again. She felt frightened and decided to challenge whatever was doing it. She said, "Stop it! I am here on my own. You are going to frighten me!" The rattling sound stopped and did not happen again. She said that it could not have been caused by a draught as it was not a windy day and the door does not rattle in the wind.

The storeroom door

I am going to another talk in two weeks time. I wonder if I will be told any more interesting stories?

A mysterious heart on the bedroom floor!

Last week I was talking to some of the conservators at Penrhyn when they told me about something strange they had discovered that morning in the Slate Bedroom. They had rolled up the carpet the previous day ready for the windows to be taken out and painted. The furniture was covered up and everything ready for the painters to start working there. They had been on their hands and knees rolling up the carpet and had not noticed anything unusual about the floor. They went into the room that morning to check that everything was ready for the painters to start on the windows when they suddenly noticed that there was a heart on the floor!

The floorboards in the Slate Bedroom

It had not been there the previous day when they were rolling up the carpet. They were completely mystified and told me to go and look at it. I went up later with my camera to take a photograph of it. They wondered if it could be a message from someone who had lived there? I did not know what to make of it. Many strange things have been seen in that room over the years. What do you think?

The tale of the trembling Christmas tree!

A few days ago one of our learning assistants was in the scullery next to the Victorian kitchen. She was in charge of baking some gingerbread biscuits which I had been making with a group of school children. The children had gone to see Lady Penrhyn in the Breakfast Room with the other kitchen programme assistants. She was in the scullery when she heard someone moving around in the kitchen "being busy" and went in to see who was there. She really thought that someone was in the room but the kitchen was completely empty. She walked over to the cooker when the Christmas tree started moving as though someone was shaking it! A cracker fell off one of the branches at the back of the tree and it made her jump. She said that she did not brush past the tree when she went to check on the cooker. She walked around the table and did not go past it at all, so she did not knock it and make it move. She wanted to go out of the room but she had to stay and watch the cooker until the biscuits were done.

Very strange!

The Christmas tree in the Victorian Kitchen

The strange incident of the bolted door!

I heard a great ghost story today at Penrhyn Castle which was told to me by a friend's son who is working part time in the tea room. He said that a couple of months ago the tea room supervisor Delyth was sitting in the dark oak panelled tea room office, which is next to the Housemaid's tower staircase. It was about 6 o'clock pm and she was working on the accounts. She left the office to go into the kitchens to get something. When she returned to the office a few minutes later the door would not open. It had been bolted from the inside! She had to get help from the duty officer to break the bolt to get into the office. Nobody was in the office. There is no access to the office from any other door. I looked at the bolt today. It was a brass bolt about 1 cm wide and 10 cm long. It would have been difficult to break it to get into the room. There was no way it could have slid into place as Delyth shut the door. It would have had to be firmly pushed into place. Very mysterious! I spoke to Cheralyn, my psychic friend. She said that it was probably the housekeeper who would have been in charge of the keys and locking the doors. I will speak to the catering staff when I am in Penrhyn next week to see if anyone has had any other similar experiences in that office.

                         
      The broken brass door bolt receiver has been replaced with a silver coloured one.

                                          The door to the Tea room office


Please let me know if you have ever experienced anything ghostly at Penrhyn Castle. Thanks.

Ghostly goings-on on the ghost tours!

On October 30th and 31st (last Wednesday and Thursday evening) I did a guided ghost tour of Penrhyn Castle. Fifteen people bought tickets for each evening tour and they all turned up. It was very dark in the castle. I had made sure that we had some light in areas such as stairs for safety reasons, but the rooms we visited were as dark as possible with only a few battery-powered candles to light the way and occasionally a small table lamp. People were asked to bring a torch with them. Some rooms were too beautiful to leave completely dark, such as the dining room, so we put on the lights on the table to create a really dramatic scene.

                                             The dining room at night

I met the group at the main door of the castle in my black housekeeper's costume, with my face painted white for a ghostly effect! People said I looked very spooky looking out of the small window near the front door as they walked towards it. I carried an electric candle in a brass lantern and had a bunch of old keys on an iron ring hanging from my waist.

The group seemed very interested in the stories. Several people had not been to Penrhyn before. One lady called Sharon, who is very psychic, said she sensed that a man with a withered arm was following us. His name was John. He met the group outside the front door and came around on the tour in the downstairs rooms apparently. The only ghost called John that I am aware of is John the Bottler who lurks in the cellars under the Drawing room, part of the original Medieval house. I asked my friend Cheralyn who had told me about him the next day, if there was anything unusual about his arm. She told me that he had a withered arm!

                                                   Grand Hall Gallery

When I was telling the story about the pebble being dropped in the Grand Hall Gallery during the first ghost tour I did two years ago, Sharon and her daughter both saw a shadowy shape which went past me and through the door of the room I was standing outside. They didn't see whether it was a man or a woman, just a dark shadow. They said that they both suddenly felt sick. I told the group about several people telling me that they had a horrible feeling outside the door of that room. I have no idea what happened in the room, but there must have been something to give people a bad feeling there.

Steps up to the Keep Bedrooms

Two of our Visitor Services Assistants who were helping me on the tour saw a shadowy shape moving across the large mirror at the top of the stairs by the Keep bedrooms. They said, "What was that?" and made us all jump! It had moved towards the bedrooms just before we went to see them. Very creepy!

When we went to see the Nursery bedroom, which was Alice Douglas Pennant's room, Sharon suddenly became very hot. She started taking off her coat and handed her bag to her daughter. She said that she could sense something very disturbing about the room. She sensed three dead babies there. She could hear children giggling in the room and felt strongly that they had died there. She also sensed a woman being forced to do things against her will, and the man who had done it to her then drank heavily to cope with his shame. She was very disturbed by the experience.

We went downstairs to the Dining Room. Sharon could smell wine very strongly at one end of the room.

In the kitchen she was drawn to the Pastry Pantry but was not sure what was in the room. She would like to come back to see the castle in the daylight. She will try to sense more things and let me know what she experiences there. Unfortunately the castle is closed until the week before Easter, so I will have to wait until then to add any new experiences which she has there.

On Thursday evening one of the Visitor Services Assistants went to the kitchen on the corridor above the stable block to get a jar of coffee, as she had run out. She had to unlock the door to the corridor as everyone in the offices had left. While she was in the kitchen she heard keys rattling and someone moving around. She presumed it was me and that I was getting changed in the ladies toilets near the kitchen. As she walked past the toilets she called my name and when there was no answer she went to check if I was in there. I was still sitting downstairs in the Stewards Room in the main house eating my lunch, as I had been face painting all day for the Penrhyn Goes Batty Fun Day and had not had time to eat it until 5.30 pm! When she came back to the Stewards Room she was as  white as a sheet! She asked me if I had been upstairs and was shocked when I said that I had not left the room. She said that she definitely heard keys rattling and someone walking around up there. I told her that lots of people have heard things when they have been alone in the area. A good start to a ghost tour evening!

                         Footsteps and rattling keys were heard in this corridor

The Thursday tour also went well. Everyone on this tour had been to Penrhyn before. Some people said that they had come just to see the castle at night! One man said that he was a sceptic. He had just come to keep his wife company. At the end of the tour when I was selling copies of my ghost tour booklet he told me that he had felt someone behind him turn him around and push him towards the door of the kitchen! He looked behind him but there was nobody there. He said that it was not a rough sensation, just firm. He bought six copies of the booklet and asked me to sign them all! I felt like a real celebrity for five minutes.

I explained to the people on the tour that the money from the booklets goes to a charity called Sarva, which helps children with leprosy backgrounds in India to go on to further and higher education. The charity was set up by my brother and no money is spent on administration. As a former school teacher and college tutor I feel that it is a very worthy cause. I am glad to be able to help support children who would otherwise be forced out onto the streets to beg. With financial support they can train and get qualifications which will enable them to support their families and communities. Please click on the link below to read more about the fantastic work this charity is doing.
sarva.org.uk

I have had a lot of positive feedback about the ghost tours. The Property Manager said that there will definitely be some more tours next year. If you missed out on this year's tours make sure that you book up early for next year! They sold out very quickly this year. If you came on the tours and have any interesting photos or experiences you would be willing to share, please let me know. Thank you.