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.

Strange story from the National Trust shop

I heard a very strange story today by someone who works in the National Trust shop at Penrhyn Castle. The shop is now in the Servants hall in the house and so far I have not heard of any strange goings-on there until today. This is the story I was told:

 "I had a fright in the servants hall/gift shop today. One of the sounds greeting cards, the duck one, started quacking all on its own without being opened by anyone. When I went to fetch the card it stopped. I opened the card and it did not work at all. Spooky or what!?"

People have told me stories about sensing someone walking up behind them in that room and when they turned around to see who it was there was nobody there. This is the first story I have had about anything strange happening since the shop was relocated to the Servants Hall. The shop used to be in the stables and there were several strange incidents recorded there, such as door being locked with the shop manager inside and objects being lifted up off displays and dropped on the floor by an unseen hand. These incidents and others are in described some of my earlier posts.

Tickets for my Penrhyn Castle Ghost Tour on Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st October are on sale in the Visitor Reception hut in the lower car park. Please book up early as quite a few tickets have been sold already. Bring a torch and camera if you are coming. Please phone the castle for further information on 01248 353084. Hope to see you there!

Spooky black shape seen on the Scullery stairs

I was told a fascinating ghost story today at Penrhyn Castle. One of our volunteer learning assistants also volunteers as a room steward. Last week she was showing a group of visitors around the Victorian Kitchen and Scullery. She showed them the Wet and Dry Pantries and let them out of the back door. It was about 4.00 pm. She walked along the narrow passageway leading to the scullery and glanced up to the top of the stone staircase which led to the scullery maids' bedrooms. She said that she was aware of a dark shape at the top of the stairs. She stared at it and wondered what it could be. Suddenly the shape moved quickly to the left, as though it was going through the door into the bedrooms. The door is always locked because the bedrooms are used as castle archives and store rooms. They are not open to the public.The shape did not make any noise and the volunteer said that she could not make out any features on the face. She went quickly back into the kitchen and thought about how strange it was that a shadow had moved up there, because there wasn't any light on the stairs, as the bulb has gone. I told her about the other sightings of a black shape in the scullery and sounds of footsteps heard on the same stairs that have been experienced by other staff. She said that she does not want to be on her own in there again!

I am doing another guided night time ghost tour of Penrhyn Castle on Wednesday 30th October and Thursday 31st October. There will be a maximum of 15 people allowed on each tour. Phone the castle to book a place if you are interested. The tour will take place at 7.00 pm and the castle will be fairly dark, so please bring a torch. You may take photos inside the castle without flash. I hope this year someone will be able to capture something spooky on their camera. To book a place please tel: 01248 353084. For further information look at the National  Trust website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/penrhyn-castle/visitor-information/

Hope to see some of you there!

Man seen again in Dinorwic Carriage

My friend Cheralyn received a text last week about the man who has been seen again in the Dinoriwic carriage in the Industrial Railway Museum at Penrhyn Castle. Her friend Heather said, "Just seen a man sitting in the Dinorwic Carriage. Reddish big beard and big hair!" This lady is quite psychic. I have asked Cheralyn to find out more details as soon as her friend is back from holiday. A man has been seen on several occasions sitting in the carriage. He has frightened children who have seen him and parents have complained to the Museum Manager that the mannequin is too realistic! There is no mannequin there and there has never been one in the carriage. 

Ghosts seen on photo of servants corridor

Today I was at Penrhyn for a recruitment meeting for prospective volunteers. I was very excited to be told when I arrived that an email had been received by the office with photos of ghosts taken in the servants corridor in the house. After the meeting I looked at the photos and was amazed at what I saw. Later I contacted the lady who took the photos to ask permission to use the story and photos on my blog and she told me more about what happened. She said that when she was taking the photo she had an uncomfortable feeling, as though she was being watched. This is what she said in the email:

Dear Penrhyn,

I am writing this email as myself, my partner and two friends, recently visited the castle. Having never been before I did not expect it to be of such a magnitude in terms of size. It was fantastic!

I took approx. 287 pictures as the building is amazing. Anyway to cut to the chase, I have an image which may interest you. In an archway in one of the corridors (I believe as you head towards the kitchen areas) I took a picture of my partner through my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (No flash). What I caught on this image is astounding!! I have asked people to look at the photo and tell me what they see and so far everyone has commented on the same thing which I spotted. Straight away I knew this was no trick of the light, this was genuine and whilst exciting it was also very very daunting.

I won't tell you what is on the image, I shall let you see for yourself. These are two photos, both with a clear orb at different positions, but this is not all. You will need to download the picture to zoom in.

I shall be revisiting again!

Kind regards

Lona

Lona also put a comment on one of my other blogs:
Hi, I visited Penrhyn Castle on Sunday 30th June and I have to say I was in awe of the whole building. As a usual visitor I took plenty of pictures and felt nervous in the dark doorways and the black abyss under the main staircase. Whilst walking towards the kitchen etc, we came across a long dark corridor, I asked my partner to go to the end so I could take a picture and when reviewing the picture there appears to be what can only be described as a green orb on the floor. This happens in two pictures and appears to move slightly from one picture to the next. Also, I have another picture from which I believe to be from the room before the Ebony room which looks like a blue glow between a sofa and the floor. Would Penrhyn ever consider Paranormal investigations like those at Bodelwyddan? 

Here is the photo which Lona took in the corridor. She has used a filter to make it clearer in the photo on the right. What do you see?

Ghostly apparition caught on camera in the Nursery Bedroom!

Today I was told about a very interesting ghostly encounter which happened a couple of weeks ago. A woman visitor was on a private tour of the family rooms at Penrhyn Castle with a group of people before the castle was opened for the public. She was standing in the corridor in the Keep by the door of the Nursery bedroom and she took a photo of the room looking towards the fireplace. She checked the image on the camera screen and could see a white shape which completely obscured a teddy bear. She wondered what it was and immediately took another photo of the same view. When she looked at the camera screen again the white shape had disappeared! I hope that she will read this blog and submit her photo for inclusion with this story.

I also heard another story today from one of the visitor services team. She said that she was in the Servants' Hall before it was made into the National Trust shop a few months ago. A woman came into the room at the end of her tour of the castle saying very loudly, "He doesn't like it at all you know!" The Visitor Services Assistant asked what was wrong and the lady explained that she had seen a man near the Keep bedrooms who said he was Lord Penrhyn. He was very unhappy about other people interfering with his property!

The other story I heard this week was from one of our conservation team. He said that last week a woman come to the castle and said that she had never been there before but she felt as though she knew every part of the building, as though she had once lived there. Her son came over to her as she was talking and apparently he looked exactly like Richard Douglas Pennant, son of Lady Janet Douglas Pennant who gave the castle to the National Trust in 1951. Several people have commented to me on the likeness between the man and Richard. Very strange!

I always wonder what stories I will hear next whenever I am working at the castle. I have had some more copies of the ghost guide book printed today and I hope that more people will buy it and take an interest in the supernatural goings-on there. It is such a busy castle with ghosts seemingly popping up all over the place. I haven't actually seen one myself yet but I keep hoping that I will meet one. I will keep you posted!

The Pale Lady of Penrhyn

I received this comment on another post on this blog and thought it would make a great story on its own.  It came from someone called Robert. 

He said, "I would just like to firstly say: I have never seen anything spooky or scary in Penrhyn Castle. It's a lovely place, full of history and now as a grown man I can fully appreciate its beauty. 

However, a friend of mine's grandmother did see something weird there or at least claimed to have… 

During school holidays in the mid to late 1980s, myself, my friend Dave and his grandmother Edith, used to go for days out to Penrhyn Castle on a number of occasions and we used to picnic on the grass in the summer sun.

On the way home to Bethesda after one visit, his grandmother told us that the next time we wanted to go to the Castle, someone else would have to take us because something had upset her. Being a kid, I thought nothing of it and that was it.

A number years later, when I was in my early twenties. My friend Dave told me that his grandmother had claimed to have seen an apparition of a young woman standing at the bottom of the stairs and when she turned to call us to look it was gone. She said the woman was pale/white, with a blank look on her face and she was overcome with a feeling of sadness.

Apparently, over the years what she claimed to have seen that day, became a family joke and his grandmother was mocked for saying to the family that she would never step foot in the castle again, they’d refer about the woman as the ‘Pale Lady’.

My wife always asks me about this story and say’s it gives her the shivers. Like I said earlier, I've been back to Penrhyn Castle a number of times since that day and I haven't seen anything spooky at all or felt uncomfortable at any time. I was on the stairs that day when she would have seen the ghost and my friend was also – we didn’t see it… My only explanation for what she saw was that; her imagination was playing tricks on her, or that certain people may have a sense that enables them to see ghosts, etc… Or that she simply made it up!

However, she was a religious woman and to the best of my knowledge an honest person. My friend Dave always says his grandmother was true to her word and never stepped foot in the Penrhyn Castle again. Despite her other grandchildren asking her to take them there to show them where ‘Pale Lady’ was stood.

Edith sadly died a few years ago.

I know live in Cambridgeshire and I have fond memories of those days out to Penrhyn Castle. Hopefully, one day I’ll get to take my grandchildren there…"

What a fascinating story. This fits in very well with other sightings and feelings picked up by staff and visitors. I wonder if it was Alice again? I hope to hear from Robert again or that he will come and visit the castle soon.

Ghostly lady seen in the State bedroom.

While I was out shopping in Caernarfon today I met one of the Room Stewards from Penrhyn Castle. She told me that her daughter recently visited Penrhyn and had a ghostly experience there. She was at the top of the Grand Staircase with her husband and children. As she walked through the doorway into the State bedroom she felt someone go past her. She looked back onto the landing and her husband and children were still standing there. She looked at the oak four poster bed and saw the figure of a woman. She described her as being very slim with an hourglass figure, as though she was wearing a corset. The Room steward and I both said, "Alice!" We thought that it was probably Alice Douglas Pennant.

Alice Douglas Pennant (1863-1939)

The State bedroom at Penrhyn Castle

She looked at the woman then glanced back to her husband and children who were walking into the room. When she turned back to look at the bedroom, the ghostly figure had completely disappeared.

A few minutes later, as she was walking with her 19 month old daughter along the Grand Hall Gallery, the little girl started giggling and pointing into a corner near a doorway. She put her finger to her lips and said, "Shhhh!" Her mother could not see anyone but her daughter clearly could and was interacting with them. She continued laughing and pointing until they moved away from the area towards the bedrooms in the Keep.

What a fascinating experience! I will try to get some more details about the figure in the State bedroom next time I see the room steward at the castle. I would like to find out what she was wearing and if it really could have been Alice. Watch this space...!

New ghostly experiences email received today!

Today I received an email from someone who used to work at Penrhyn Castle. He said, "I worked in the Castle in the early Seventies when there was a pottery in what is now the kitchen. I remember there was a series of servants bells along a very low corridor where we kept pots for sale.  At times the corridor and the kitchen area would become icy cold at any time of the day and I was always looking behind me as I got the feeling someone was with me. Often the hairs on the back of my neck would rise and I would rush to lock up and get away at night."

How interesting! I have replied to him and hope to hear some more details of his experiences soon. Please contact me if you have had an similar spooky experiences or feelings in the castle. Thanks.

Alice Douglas Pennant's etchings story in newspapers

I recently discovered this article about the etchings on the windowpane in the Nursery bedroom in the keep at Penrhyn Castle. The story about Alice being in love with a gardener and her father locking her in her bedroom started here with a story I wrote in November 2010 after an elderly lady visited the castle and said that she saw Alice in the room. It is from BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-20048410

Penrhyn Castle Alice Douglas-Pennant 'love story' uncovered

The writing etched on to the glass pane was thought for many years to be in Latin

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Staff at a castle believe they may have shed new light on a decades old mystery and uncovered an aristocratic Victorian love story.

For several generations workers at the 19th Century neo-Norman Penrhyn Castle in Gwynedd have been aware of writing etched onto the glass pane of a window in one of the towers.

It was long believed the graffiti was a confused jumble of Latin words.

However, an Italian named Resi Tomat was taken on to the staff at the National Trust landmark and promptly came up with another explanation.

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“Start Quote

The story goes that he forced her to stay in the nursery to keep her away from her love”

Clare TurgoosePenrhyn Castle steward

"Resi pointed out that the graffiti, 'essere amato amando', was actually in Italian, albeit with a few grammatical errors, and it actually reads, 'to be loved, whilst loving'," explains Clare Turgoose, house steward at the castle near Bangor.

The realisation encouraged Ms Turgoose and others at the castle to try to uncover more about the circumstances in which the graffiti came to be written.

In the late 1800s the castle, situated between Snowdonia and the Menai Strait, was inhabited by the second Lord Penrhyn, George Douglas-Pennant (1836-1907).

Formerly the Conservative MP for Caernarvonshire, Lord Penrhyn became prominent for his battle against trade unions at the Penrhyn slate quarry at Bethesda.

Lady Alice Douglas-Pennant was one of 15 children

This battle culminated in one of Britain's largest industrial disputes, The Great Penrhyn Strike of 1900-1903.

But, as Ms Turgoose discovered, it may not have been Lord Penrhyn's only conflict.

As she delved into the family's affairs she heard rumours of a falling out between Penrhyn - twice married with 15 children - and his second daughter, Lady Alice Douglas Pennant (born 1863).

'Gardener'

"We knew the nursery had once been Lady Alice's bedroom, and that she'd scratched her name on another window pane so it was fair to assume that the writing was probably hers," says Ms Turgoose.

The Douglas-Pennant family rebuilt the castle with money from sugar plantations and slate

"And when we began to dig a little we kept coming across the same story, or perhaps rumour might be more accurate, that as a young woman Lady Alice had fallen for one of the castle staff, possibly a gardener.

"Such a crush would not have gone down well with her father… and the story goes that he forced her to stay in the nursery to keep her away from her love."

The National Trust says it has discovered no documentary evidence as yet to corroborate the story and is undertaking further research into family diaries in a bid to do so.

And it may be that this story of a lovelorn young woman hidden away in a castle tower by her domineering father remains no more than a latter-day fairy tale.

True or otherwise, it had a sad ending. Lady Alice, who became an artist, died in London at the age of 76 in March 1939.

She was unmarried.