"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.