Ghostly Garden Guides

A friend called Shan visited Penrhyn Castle for the first time on a school trip in the Summer of 1984, when she was about 7 years old. She told me this evening that she wandered away from the rest of the group, as she often did as a child, and got hopelessly lost in the Walled Garden. She was very scared and sat down under a huge bog plant crying "inconsolably". She did not know what to do or how to get back to her group. She suddenly heard two voices trying to calm her down, telling her which way to go to get out of the garden and onto the right path back to the entrance. She described them as having "posh English voices". Shan is Welsh speaking. She said that they sounded like a man and a woman, "very old fashioned, like Edwardian people." She caught a glimpse of the man out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was wearing a striped jacket and straw boater hat. She did not see the woman.

Shan felt very safe with them as they guided her through the bog garden, out of the Walled Garden, and back onto the path which led her to the castle entrance. The voices stayed with her all the way back. She could hear them talking to each other, as well as giving her directions and reassuring her that she would be all right.  She was not at all scared by them and said that they were a "comforting presence". She said that they were very "motherly and fatherly" towards her and made her feel looked after, "as though they were walking on either side of me, holding my hands". When they reached the entrance gate and she was reunited with her school group, who were just about to board the coach, the man and woman left her. Her teachers asked her where she had been, and how she had found her way back to them. She told the teachers about the ghostly guides, but they did not believe her. She also told her mother about them when she got home, but she did not believe her either. Shan said that there is no way that she could have found her own way back to the coach, because she did not know her way around the grounds at all.

Shan also told me that her sister saw a woman in grey in one of the bedrooms when she visited Penrhyn Castle. She is going to ask her sister to phone me with more details, so watch this space...!

A spooky cold spot in Lord Penrhyn's Sitting room

On Thursday last week I was asked to take a group of secondary school teachers around the castle. It was the first time most of them had visited Penrhyn. I took them to see the newly opened Lord Penrhyn's Sitting Room. One of the room stewards was a lady who helped to get the room cleaned and ready for opening to the public with me a couple of months ago. She spotted me as I came into the room with the teachers. After I had explained to them what the room was used for, she came over to me and asked me to walk along the floor between the settee and the huge marble fireplace. She said that there was something she wanted to show me. I was obviously very curious and walked to where she had directed me. As I got near to the right side of the marble fireplace the air became noticeably colder. It was freezing! I stepped out of the cold area and felt warmer. I walked back into the same spot and felt cold again. She asked me what I could feel there. I said that it was very cold. She said that she had felt exactly the same thing in that spot. We both wondered if there could be a draught from the fireplace, but I dusted and hoovered the fireplace a few weeks ago and had not felt a draught. The chimney is closed. We both felt that perhaps there was someone in the room, whose presence could be felt by the coldness we experienced there. I will be asking other room stewards in Lord Penrhyn's Sitting Room if they have had any comments from visitors or other staff about similar feelings in that spot. The school teachers were very interested to know what was going on and I explained about the cold spot. Some of them were fascinated to hear about the ghosts. I hope they will read this blog and comment on the stories I have collected so far!

Play it again Sam

On Monday this week I started my new job at Penrhyn Castle as  a Learning Assistant in the Education Department. As I have been a volunteer there for more than 10 years I thought it was about time I tried to get a paid job! I was lucky enough to be considered for the post when a vacancy was advertised. I was at Penrhyn on Monday for an induction meeting and as I was leaving one of the Conservators asked me if I had been told any new stories recently. He said that he had experienced something very strange that morning. I told him that I had not had any new stories for a few weeks and would be very pleased to hear about his experiences. He was in rather a hurry to get to a dentists appointment so I was told them very briefly. I will try to get more details when I next see him. He said that he had been in the Grand Hall playing the piano, when he felt that someone was watching him. He could see someone standing behind him out of the corner of his eye, but did not turn around straight away to see who was there because he presumed that it was one of the other conservation staff. As soon as he had finished playing the piece he turned to speak to the person behind him, but nobody was there. He looked around the Grand Hall but he could not find anyone in the area at all. 

John also told me that he had been upstairs in the corridor near the Nursery Bedroom in the Keep. He could smell alcohol very strongly, "as though someone had been drinking heavily in that area." He wondered if it could have been the last Lord Penrhyn who was very fond of his drink. He died on 26 June 1949 at the age of 54 in the Breakfast Room.

I will be keeping a close eye on things going on in the house now that I am going to be there four mornings a week. I wonder what interesting stories I will hear next time? 

Smoking ghosts seen in the Breakfast Room!

Ethne is a room steward. She was working in the Breakfast Room last summer when a visitor appeared at the door. She told me her story a couple of weeks ago. I asked her to write it down for me which she did, and she gave it to me last week. She said, "A gentleman stood in the doorway and he did not seem to want to enter the Breakfast Room. The room was empty at the time. I went over to speak to him and he told me that he could smell cigar or pipe smoke in the room. Surprised by his statement I explained with reference to the smoke alarms that there could not be any smoke in the room. He reply was, "Oh, I don't mean now, but in the past!" He said he could see or sense three gentlemen sitting around the table holding a "convivial" conversation. I explained that the Breakfast Room was used as the family dining room when not entertaining. (If the family was entertaining guests they usually used the Dining Room). I asked the man again whether he would like to come into the room to see the paintings, including the Rembrandt, but he declined. I asked whether he was a spiritualist and he said that he was. He seemed genuine. He refused to come into the room and I was left there alone feeling very spooked!" The Breakfast Room is where the last Lord Penrhyn died at the breakfast table. This is the first ghostly story I have been told about it. I wonder whether anyone else has ever seen or sensed the ghostly smokers?

Fascinating new story

I was at Penrhyn Castle today to help clean and prepare Lord Penrhyn's sitting room and his valet's room for the  public to see when the castle opens in March. It was a fascinating experience and I was very excited to meet some of the room stewards I have not met before as they were also there to help with conservation and cleaning.  One of the stewards told me about an incident which happened last Summer. She has promised to write it down for me and give it to me next week. I will add it to my collection of stories when I get it.

Some interesting new stories

On the 17th December 2010 I attended a Christmas dinner at Tre-Ysgawen Hall near Llangefni, Anglesey with other volunteers and staff from Penrhyn Castle. During the meal I was able to talk to several people and heard some new ghost stories. Elaine (Education Officer) told me that a couple of days ago she was in the women's' changing room on the Education corridor after a schools Christmas hands-on session had finished. She was alone as everyone else had packed up and left. She was getting changed ready to leave with her back towards the door to the ladies toilets, when out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a foot wearing a black Victorian style ankle boot and the hem of a black skirt stepping through the door, which was shut! She said that she did not see anyone coming into the room and there was nobody in the toilets. She thought about it later that night as she was lying in bed and decided that it was very strange. She did not look up to see the rest of the person, and only saw the foot and bottom of the skirt. I wonder if this could be the ghost who sighed in her ear when she put the lights off in the same room a few weeks ago.

I also chatted to a room steward called Jackie who told me of an experience she had about a year ago in the same ladies toilets. She said that she has always felt uncomfortable in there, and senses that she is not alone. She was in a cubicle one day and felt very strongly that there was someone in the room. She heard the rustling of a dress, as though somebody was walking around the room. She came out and looked around but there was nobody there. She was not aware of Elaine's experiences, so I introduced them and let them compare notes!  She also told me about the visitors who came into the Drawing room and as they passed her near the Medieval Tower doorway the man suddenly shouted and fell back against the wall. She asked if he needed to sit down but his wife told her that he was a Medium, and that he had felt something there. This was the place where Cheralynn saw a man in medieval clothing standing and looking very stern. I wonder if it was the same man who startled the visitor.

The new Property Manager had a strange and startling experience in the Education Corridor a few days ago too. He told me that he was going to make a cup of tea but he realised that he had forgotten his mug which he had left on his desk. He turned back to get it when he heard a loud noise from further up the corridor. He was working there alone and knew that nobody was in the department. He went to investigate and found that the door to the men's changing room had been slammed shut. He checked to see whether there was a window open which could have created a draught, but the windows were closed. He said that it was a very loud slamming of the door, as though someone had been behind it and given it a hard push, not just the click of the door swinging shut. It really startled him and when he was in his office early on the day of our dinner, on his own, he made sure that all the lights were on and that they stayed on!

Later I was talking to Mike the Head Gardener who told me that when his children lived with him in the rooms which are now the Education Department, his young son who was 3 or 4 had an imaginary friend who he called "Gunner". He would say that he was going to talk to Gunner in his bedroom, which was the room we now use as the Toys and Games room. Mike said that he used to think that his son had a good imagination but Gunner seemed so real to him that he wondered if there really was someone there.

When I came back to Caernarfon I went shopping for some Christmas gifts and called into a shop in the High Street called H & H where they sell perfumes and hand made soaps. I mentioned to the lady who runs the shop that I had been to a Christmas dinner at Tre-Ysgawen Hall with the volunteers and staff from Penrhyn and she told me that she loves visiting Penrhyn and often calls in for tea and a scone in the Tea room. I explained that I was writing a book about the ghosts of Penrhyn Castle and she said that something strange had happened to her there. She told me that her friend Jenny grew up at Penrhyn because her parents worked in the castle. They had an apartment in one of the towers. One day when she had been visiting Jenny they came down the stairs to go outside. Jenny came down ahead of her, leaving her to walk down by herself. As she came down to the bottom of the stairs she said that she had an overpowering feeling of dread which seemed to suffocate her. She was terrified and ran out of the area to catch up with Jenny. I asked her which stairs she had used and whether it was the Grand Staircase. She said that it was a back staircase. I asked if it was the one which comes out near the tea room and she said that it was. I explained that it was on those stairs that a maid apparently fell down and that she had died at the bottom of the stairs. She said that it would explain the awful feeling she had there. I will go back to see her again and get some more details from her, including her name! I will also talk to her friend Jenny who runs a shop in Palace Street, Caernarfon. I will be very interested to hear of any ghostly experiences she or her family may have had whilst living at the castle. Quite an eventful day! I never know when I will hear a new story. Watch this space......

A ghostly girl in a bedroom and other strange goings on at Penrhyn Castle.

Today I was at Penrhyn Castle where I heard some very interesting new stories and cleared up a mystery. I was told about a lady in her 70's from Anglesey who visited the Toll House at Conwy Suspension Bridge recently. She spoke to the Toll Housekeeper, whose partner works at Penrhyn, about her experiences there. His partner at Penrhyn gave the story to me today. The lady told the Toll house keeper that she would never go to Penrhyn again after what happened. She said that she was looking into one of the bedrooms and felt a very strong presence there. She described seeing a girl who had fallen in love with a gardener and was locked in the room by her father. She was so disturbed by the experience that she could not walk past the room. When she got home later that day she drew a sketch of the girl she had seen in the room. When she came to Penrhyn again she saw a photograph of the family outside the main doors of the castle taken at the time of the visit by Edward Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra in 1894. She was able to identify the girl she had seen in the room on the photograph. I wondered whether it could have been Alice Douglas Pennant, as she has scratched her name on the window pane in the "nursery" bedroom in the Keep as previously described. The lady said that she had seen the girls' portrait downstairs and it was identical to the face she had drawn. Unfortunately the Toll House keeper did not get the visitor's name or telephone number. I would have loved to talk to her myself and hear the story in her own words, but I was very excited to get the story, even though it was handed on to me.

I spoke to one of the gardening team today. He told me that when he was living at Penrhyn Castle a few years ago he was sitting in his lounge one evening when he  thought about going outside for a smoke. He said that suddenly the fire alarms went off. He had not even picked up his cigarettes or lighter. He told me that when the Fire Brigade arrived they checked to see which alarm had been triggered, and it was the one in his lounge! Mysterious!

One of the conservation team told me that he had explored all of the castle since working there but only ventured up the Medieval staircase in the Drawing Room recently. He told me that a few years ago a conservator called Wendy went up the tower with another conservator and when they got to the top all the lights went out. It was pitch black. The man told her to wait there and he went down to sort out the lights. She crept down the spiral staircase on her backside rather than being left up there on her own. The conservator told me today that the house is very strange and that a lot of peculiar things happen there which have no rational explanation.

He also told me that a baby's skeleton had been found in the house. I asked him if he know where it had been found and when.  I have heard that story many times so far, but have not yet found out exactly where and when it took place. He said that there was something about it in a book in the conservators room and took me to show me the file. The baby's skeleton was found in a window frame in the Ebony Room, part of the original Medieval house, in 1836 when the house was being altered. He is going to photocopy the information for me. Apparently the baby had been hidden with a gold ring which seemed to have been cut off its finger! Strange. I wonder who it was and where the ring is now?

I was talking to my friend Elaine who is an Education Officer and she told me that there has been some trouble with locked doors in the kitchen area recently. She was getting ready for a school group a couple of weeks ago, when a door which she had unlocked was suddenly locked and it would not open with the key. Elaine and Vanessa, also an Education Officer, looked in the crack of the door and saw that it was locked. They tried all the keys and wriggled the handle, but to no avail. Eventually they gave up and went to get someone from the House Office to open it. When Sarah arrived she went to the door and it was unlocked. She was surprised as they had definitely seen the lock closed in the crack of the door.

The same thing happened with the Brushing Room door, which is near the kitchen door. Again the door was opened with the keys and Elaine and Vanessa were setting up ready for the school children. When they tried to open the door it was locked and they had not got the keys. They went to find Geoff who had the keys and he said that he had not locked the door as he was busy setting up the scullery. He went to try the door and it opened for him. Could this be the Housekeeper up to her old tricks, as happened in the shop a few years ago?

Last week one of the ladies in my Art class in Coleg Menai gave me a story which she had written for me, about her memories of Penrhyn Castle during the Second World War. Her best friend lived there as her mother was Lord Penrhyn's Housekeeper, and her father was the Groom. She said that there was a rumour even back then that there was a ghost in the kitchens. She thought that it was felt or seen in the corridor near the China Room. I was getting some things from the store room there earlier on today. I was all on my own. It was very creepy! I had to keep singing and chatting to whoever might have been there to stop myself being too scared. Luckily I did not see or hear anything. I am excited to have got a few new stories today. I always wonder what will the next visit bring?

I am going to be Lady Penrhyn as part of the schools Christmas hands-on Programme. I will have to wait in the Library for the children to be brought down to the house by the Butler. I do not plan to be there by myself. I will have a friend with me at all times. I may be interested in ghosts but I do not want to meet one there when I am on my own!