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.

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!