We take a trip to Chillingham Castle in Northumberland to attend one of their legendary ghost tours, hoping to see for ourselves some of the Castle’s long dead residents……
As we make our way up the long drive toward the castle, the afternoon is already growing suitably grey and damp with what appears to be a huge black cloud descending overhead, and drizzle in the air.
Chillingham Castle is over 900 years old and was of huge strategic importance in the medieval feuds between England and Scotland. It was used as a staging post for English armies heading to Scotland and was also attacked by Scottish armies who made it over the border. Due to its remote location Chillingham became an interrogation site during the conflict. Prisoners of war were brought here; most were tortured and never left. Many people have died in horrific circumstances here and this is thought to have contributed to the unusually high levels of paranormal activity.
We park up and head for a set of heavy looking doors where we are greeted by Don, the gardener and sometimes caretaker. Immediately inside we notice an unusual smell, not unpleasant, a sort of earthiness tinged with perfume.
“You’re brave”, Don tells us, on finding out that we will be staying in “The Lookout”. We exchange nervous glances as we follow him up a narrow stone staircase to the third floor. On the way, we ask him if he has ever “seen anything” and he gives us a matter of fact “oh yes”, then proceeds to tell us about two figures in white hoods dancing in the distance, and deep voices and mumbling when locking up the chapel. Reports of dogs barking in the grounds at night when there are no dogs, and of children playing in the courtyard when there are no children. With all this before we even reach our apartment door, we wonder what we have let ourselves in for!
The Lookout is an aptly named three-bedroomed apartment with views of all sides of the castle grounds including the beautiful Italian garden. Once Don leaves us to get settled in (but not before telling us about a previous occupant who had been so terrified she had left in the middle of the night and escaped to the nearest B&B!) we read extracts from the visitor books, some from guests who describe various unsettling experiences and others who didn’t see or hear anything remotely unusual and just enjoyed their stay in a beautiful old castle. We decide to err on the side of caution and share a room “just in case.” The apartment is decorated with a lot of artwork, most notably paintings of animals. One, featuring a dog, can be seen twice in our apartment as well as elsewhere in the castle, which seems odd and somehow adds to the feeling of unease.
We feel cold spots in the apartment, a sort of static cold that makes your face tingle, and every time we are near a window there is a draft which comes from the opposite direction to the window. My colleague feels as though her hair is being gently pulled at certain points in the lounge area.
We take a walk around the grounds and woods whilst it is still light and immediately notice how quiet it is. There is no birdsong, no small mammals rustling in the undergrowth, just silence. We decide we find this peaceful, rather than eerie.
We visit St Peter’s Church and upon entering feel a deep sense of peace and a feeling this must have been a place of solace from the horrors taking place on the rest of the estate. The 15th Century tomb of Sir Ralph Grey and his wife Elizabeth, once castle residents, is stunning.
Later, we meet in the courtyard as the clock strikes eight and the darkness is almost upon us. With around a dozen others we are greeted by Mark, our Ghost Tour guide. Mark tells us to use all our senses and focus on what we feel, hear and smell, and not just what we see.
Mark tells us that when he first started working at Chillingham he was very sceptical about the existence of the supernatural. Three years later and he is convinced that there is something here.
Every room here tells a different story. The Still Room has the sled of famous explorer Norman Vaughan suspended from the ceiling as well as another sled which belonged to the Sir Wakefield’s Great Uncle Arthur who reached 500 metres from the summit of Everest 30 years before Hillary and Tensing. You can see Sir Wakefield’s personal touch all over the castle. He wants to share his heritage and the history of the castle with you and doesn’t want you to have to stand behind a rope to do so.
The painting of the haunting witch hangs in the Still Room. She is said to have written a gypsy curse on the back to punish anyone stealing from the castle. Arranged on the shelf below are a range of items with accompanying letters from people who have stolen from the castle but felt compelled to confess and return them, such were the effects of the curse that befell them.
The Still Room also houses the dungeon where prisoners were held before being taken to the torture chamber. Prisoners often resorted to eating the dead to survive. One of the most famous inhabitants was William Wallace, Guardian of the Kingdom of Scotland during the Scottish War of Independence. He was held at Chillingham after his capture, before eventually being taken to the Tower of London to be tortured and executed. His initials can be seen carved into the walls alongside lines counting the days of his imprisonment.
Outside, we walk down the driveway in the dark. Prisoners would have been displayed on the yew trees that lined the driveway when they were dead or dying, earning it the nickname “Devil’s Way”. Mark leads us onto the “Monk’s Walk” part of the path to the local monastery and beyond. Monks would often try and rescue people from the “hanging trees”. The trees along the walk are twisted at various impossible angles, some growing almost horizontally, but still alive and growing. We choose to view the life of the trees as a positive thing, of life over death. We notice again the absolute lack of any signs of animal life here.
On re-entering the castle, we are met with that now familiar but still undefinable smell. We cross the courtyard to the torture chamber where the various methods of medieval torture used at the castle are explained to us, illustrated by representations of the instruments used.
The site of the torture chamber during the conflict was not here but below another room that is today used as the tea room. In here Mark tells us the story of a colleague who was locking up and turned around to see a dark hooded figure with piercing eyes. The figure moved around the room, finally disappearing through a far door before re-appearing on the balcony above. The piercing eyes never left his. Many of the staff can recount similar stories that are part of daily life here, and not tales of days gone by. Mark turns the lights off for a couple of minutes so that we can take in the atmosphere but we don’t see or feel anything unusual.
Next is the story of Lady Mary Berkeley one of Chillingham’s best known ghosts. Her husband, Lord Grey, had an affair with her sister and left Mary and her baby alone in the Castle. She reportedly died of a broken heart in 1719 and her presence is said be felt all over the castle particularly in the form of a smell, like roses, which would come from the pomander that she used to carry everywhere. At this point we realise that “rose” describes the “perfume” aspect to the smell we smelled at the front door perfectly. So, it seems that Lady Mary has accompanied us on part of our visit!
The Great Hall features an impressive looking table set for a medieval banquet, complete with candles. Lady Leonora Tankerville, resident in the early 20th Century encountered such a level of paranormal activity at the castle that in 1925 she detailed her findings in a book. In the Great Hall, she discovered a hole in the wall covered by a painting and upon further investigation she discovered a rusty ball shaped object that smelt of roses which turned out to be a pomander.
Upstairs in the Edward I Room (so-called because Edward I stayed here during his feud with William Wallace in 1298) the lights are turned out again. I feel cold chills twice down one side of my body in this room and for the first time I feel the sense of oppression that Mark mentioned earlier. My chest feels tight and I am relieved when the lights are back on. Mark recounts stories of visitors who reported being “stabbed” in the neck with and unseen sharp object in this room and of others who suddenly burst into tears, and have no idea why they are crying.
On the way downstairs, we pause outside the entrance to The Pink Room, and Mark recounts the story of the Blue Boy. A little boy was reportedly bricked up behind one of the fireplaces and was often seen as a blue light or a figure with a blue “glow” around him. During early 20th Century renovations a skeleton was discovered alongside remains of blue fabric. The remains were buried in the church, however sightings of a blue orb in the Pink Room are still reported from time to time.
It seems they save the scariest rooms for last as The Chapel feels just as oppressive when we walk in and take a pew. We are told the story of Eleanor, a little girl who died here and often makes her presence felt in one corner of the chapel. Female visitors report being touched on the cheek. One of our fellow visitors sitting in this corner says she feels cold and that there is something touching her leg.
As the clock strikes ten Mark concludes the tour and we head back to our apartment. Tired from the journey and the tour we fall asleep easily and don’t give in to the temptation to leave one of the lights on, our logic being that if something is coming for us we don’t want to see what it looks like!
I am awake every hour with the chiming of the clock bell above us, but will swear that it doesn’t chime at either four or five o’clock! I hear the laughter of children inside the apartment and experience a strange dream like sensation that starts with dreaming about being pushed against a wall with my hands behind my back and then waking with a whooshing feeling as if I have just been dropped down on the bed from a height. At one point, I hear footsteps on the stair below but thankfully this turns out to be the people downstairs returning from their evening out. My colleague tells me she slept like a baby and didn’t hear a thing!
The next morning, we catch up again with Don who kindly opens some of the rooms again so we can see them in daylight and takes us out onto the roof to take in the spectacular view of the grounds surrounding countryside. It is a bright, sunny day, a total contrast to the gloominess of the day before and as we walk back down the Devil’s Way to say hello to Sir Wakefield’s horses and take a last look at the gardens it seems hard to believe that this place has seen so much death. This has been a fascinating experience overseen by welcoming, knowledgeable people and one that we will never forget!
(Originally published in 2019)
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