Ghostly boy seen on Grand Staircase

I received an email today from a visitor to Penrhyn Castle. She had a very interesting experience there a few days ago. She said,

"My friend and I visited on Thursday 26th May. Now I must say I think that I am mad as well as others thinking so as I have only just recognised what I was seeing is probably true, so I'm not a seasoned believer in ghosts or such like.

Whilst walking up the stairs in the grand staircase I was behind my friend and noted what I thought was a little boy, thought, because he looked a bit like a girl as he had long blond hair and a white dress on, but he looked like a boy and probably was appropriate for the time.  He was running playfully up and down the staircase looking between the balustrades on the next to top flight of stairs before the guest suite, whilst we were in the guest suite he was 'hiding' under the bed just like in a game of hide and seek.  When we got into the dining room on the ground floor he looked exactly like he boy in the big picture of the family. He was the one standing to the left of the boy with the dog.

On the landing with the big mirror at the other end of the corridor a woman looked like a servant walked from the doorway on the left but when a member of staff walked toward her she turned and hurriedly went back through the doorway. 

Like I say I don't know what I believe but I do know that I did see this more now as a friend of my friend that I had never met before saw the same thing as me at Chirk Castle, so I do believe more than I did!

An amazing story! I wonder who the little boy was that she saw on the staircase? Please let me have your comments on this latest story. I am always interested to hear about ghostly experiences visitors and staff have at the castle.

Ghost caught on photo in the library

I have just received an email from a visitor who came to the castle with her son on Saturday 14th May. He took a photo in the library at Penrhyn and when they looked at it they noticed a ghostly lady reflected in the mirror. They asked the shop assistant whether there are any ghosts in the castle and showed her the photo. She asked me if I could contact them so that they could email the photo to me. They said there was nobody standing near the mirror when the photo was taken, which is why they were so surprised to see the figure in the photo.

Ghostly figure in the Library fireplace mirror

I would be very interested to hear what people think about this photo. Thanks.

Man in black in office doorway

This evening I spoke to one of the Shop Assistants from Penrhyn Castle and she told me a fascinating ghost story. She said that she went up to the offices above the stables at 10.30am one morning a couple of weeks ago. She was in a good mood and said "Hello" or "Good morning" and smiled at the staff who were in their offices as she walked along the corridor towards the ladies cloakroom. As she walked past one of the offices near the ladies cloakroom she saw someone standing in the doorway. It seemed to be a tall man wearing a black coat with the hood up. She instinctively felt that she should acknowledge the man but something told her not to turn her head or speak to him. She thought about what had happened and decided to look for a simple explanation. When she left the ladies cloakroom she walked back past the office and looked inside the room to see if there was a coat stand with a long black hooded coat on it near the door, but there was nothing there. The wall was white and there was no coat stand. The office was empty. There was nobody in the corridor wearing a black coat. It was a warm, sunny day and it seemed strange that someone would be wearing a hooded coat indoors. She said that when she saw the figure in the doorway she had an inexplicably strong feeling of "keep walking!"  She told me that she always has a weird feeling in that corridor.
     

Other strange things have happened to her in the National Trust shop. She was working in the Castle shop today. She put the CD player on and turned the volume down to 20 as it was too loud. It is a digital CD player and she likes to use numbers with a 0 in them so she knows it was set to 20. The shop was empty and she was working in the main room which used to be the servant's hall, when suddenly the CD player was turned up loud. She went into the book room to check the volume and it had been turned up to 23. There was nobody in the shop. This has happened before when another shop assistant was in there.

Last Thursday she went into the stable shop to cash up at 4 pm after the shop had closed. The shop lights were switched off and she was working by the desk light. She was concentrating on what she was doing when suddenly she heard a loud crash at the end of the shop where the books are displayed. It made her jump! She thinks she may have screamed. She said it was a shock. She went over to see what had made the loud noise and discovered that a large book had fallen off the shelf display. It was on the floor a couple of feet away from the shelf. She thought that if it had simply fallen off it would have been next to the shelves but it looked as though it had been thrown off. There seemed to be no reason for it to fall off the shelf. The other books behind it had not moved at all. If it had slipped it would have dislodged the other books around it. There was nobody around and the other shop assistant was in the castle shop. When she spoke to her she said, "Don't tell me! Was it a book?" She knew exactly what she was talking about. I wonder if she has been in there and had a similar experience. Other shop assistants have told me similar stories. She also told me that several times she has opened up the shop and found stationary such as note cards in the middle of the floor. Very strange.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Book displays in the shop

                                   

Black ghost dog seen in the Breakfast Room

I was talking to one of the Visitor Experience Assistants at Penrhyn Castle on Saturday when she told me of an interesting experience she had there a few months ago. She was on duty in the Grand Hall welcoming visitors when she had to go to another part of the castle. She walked past the Breakfast Room and as she passed the door she noticed a black Labrador standing in the doorway. She carried on walking then suddenly wondered what a dog was doing in the castle. She went straight back to the room and looked for it but there was no dog around. There were visitors in the room. She asked the Room Guide if he had seen a black dog but he said that he had not. She looked around the Grand Hall and Dining Room but there were no dogs. It was a busy day and there were a lot of people about. She is convinced that it was the ghost of Lord Penrhyn's dog Pandy who was a favourite gun dog. There is a painting of him in Lord Penrhyn's study.

Several people have reported seeing dogs at the castle and in the grounds. Perhaps they were happy there and do not want to leave!

Spooky experience for shop assistant in office corridor

I attended the launch of the Artists in Residence project at the castle this week. I met up with one of the NT shop assistants at the event. She told me that she had a very scary experience the previous evening when she went upstairs to the offices above the stable block to find a laptop. She went into the room which used to be the Learning Department toys and games room. She could not find the laptop and turned towards the door to leave the room when she suddenly felt very uneasy. She said that she had called out when she first went up to the offices to see if anyone was around but the staff had all gone home. She went into the corridor and closed the office door behind her. As she started walking towards the end of the corridor to go down the stairs she heard a low growling sound behind her and something whooshed past between her and the noticeboard on the corridor wall. Her long hair blew out in front of her and all the notices pinned to the board flapped about as it rushed past. She did not see anything but was absolutely terrified. She ran to the stairs and down to the outside door into the courtyard. A Visitor Experience Assistant was coming towards the stairs to go up to the offices The shop assistant warned her not to go up there and told her what had just happened. She told me that she was dreading the next time she has to go up there to the offices after her terrifying encounter.

                                                   Office corridor above the stable block

I also spoke to one of the conservation team at the event and he had an interesting story for me too. He said that a couple of weeks ago one of the Lead Guides was about to lock the door to ground floor rooms of the Keep at the end of the day, when someone told them not to lock it as they had just seen two men go up the stairs towards Lord Penrhyn's sitting room. It was after the main entrance had been closed for visitors so they went to check who could be there. They did not find anyone. I wonder who it could have been? Possibly Lord Penrhyn and his valet? I am trying to find out exactly who saw the two men so that I can ask them for more details. I am very pleased that there are still ghostly sightings and spooky things going on at the castle, as I have not had any new stories for a few months.



Please let me know if you have had any experiences there or have any comments on the stories I have collected so far. Thanks.

Black whoosh seen in State bedroom

I was visiting Penrhyn Castle recently with a friend when we went into the State Bedroom at the top of the Grand Staircase and spoke to a room steward I had not seen before. He explained that he had heard of me due to my name being on the cover of the Penrhyn Ghosts book but had never met me before. He said that he had recently had an experience that he wanted to tell me about. He was standing at the top of the Grand Staircase whilst being a room steward when he suddenly became aware of a horrible smell. He described it as, "A smell like something had died!" He looked around to try and find out where the smell was coming from. He went into the State bedroom but nobody was in there. He walked past the dressing room, past the toilet and onto the top of the secondary staircase. He still didn't see anyone or anything that could be responsible for the awful smell. He said that as he walked back into the State Bedroom he saw a black shape move past him very fast and it disappeared towards the top of the Grand Staircase. I said, "It was a black whoosh!" He was surprised that I knew what he was talking about. I explained that several people have experienced similar things happening in different parts of the castle, such as the Scullery and Slate Bedroom. He said that he wondered at the time if it could have been his own shadow, so he went back the way he had just walked and came into the State Bedroom again, to see if he could recreate the back shape and movement. It did not happen. It was definitely not his shadow.

He also told me that he had taken a photo of the large mirror at the top of the stairs by the Nursery Bedroom in the Keep. He put the photo onto his computer at home and was very surprised to see a black figure standing behind his left shoulder in the photo. He said that when he took the picture nobody was around.

Can you spot the reflection of the black figure behind the man taking the photo in the centre of the picture?

Please let me know if you have had any experiences at the castle either as a room steward or as a visitor. This week is Halloween week and lots of interesting things have been planned. Hope to see you there!
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/penrhyn-castle/things-to-see-and-do/events/

Poltergeist activity in the National Trust shop

The book room

Yesterday I was volunteering at Penrhyn Castle as a Room Guide in the keep bedrooms. Afterwards I spoke to the supervisor of the National Trust shop. She told me that some strange things have been happening in the room next to the Servants Hall, where there are bookshelves and a comfortable seating area. She said that books have been appearing on the floor which belong on the shelf opposite the door into the Servants Hall. It is usually a children's colouring book. It appears on the floor on the other side of the room before the shop is open and usually happens in the morning. She hasn't seen one flying across the room yet but is on the lookout for any strange goings-on.

The colouring book

I spoke to one of the shop assistants about the flying book last week and she said that she has found it on the floor too. She also told me that she saw someone walk through a door which leads through a small side room onto the bell corridor before the shop was open a few days ago. She said that she saw them out of the corner of her eye when she was near the till. She went to see who it was and found that the door to the corridor was still locked and that nobody was there. She reminded me of the incident last year when a musical birthday card went off by itself on the stand when she was in the shop, and when the CD player suddenly went very loud and nobody was near it. Very strange! I would be interested in any comments, especially if you have had any similar experiences at Penrhyn Castle.