Episode 5 Haunted Castles & Palaces

Behind county walls and royal halls, some stories were never buried. From abandoned castles cloaked in mist to grand palaces echoing with whispers of the past, these places hold secrets that refuse to stay silent. Guests have reported shadowy figures drifting through corridors, phantom footsteps and empty chambers, and chilling encounters with spirits said to belong to kings, queens, prisoners, and betrayed souls trapped between history and legend. So keep the lights on, because tonight we step inside the world's most haunted castles and palaces, and some of them may still be occupied. My name is Grim Mill.

My name is Karen Flemston.

And welcome to Lights On Still Scared.

You can hide from what's already here. Something in the dark remembers me. No matter what I do. That feeling doesn't go. Still think. How are you doing? Darren?

I'm very well. How are you? I'm fine. How's you been since the last time we chatted?

I have been very well, thank you. Had a wee trip to Dublin.

Good stuff. Well, there's a little bit in in my in your in your in your your spiel, as they say. So today we're going to be talking about castles and palaces. Um both myself and Karen have visited a fair few of these establishments in our time, and we're going to be sharing stories from both Scotland and England. And today I'm going to be kicking off with Needpath Castle. I don't know if you've been to Needpath Castle, Karen.

I haven't been. Now whereabouts is that?

This is Peebles. So Peebles to the borders of Scotland. Indeed. I've been to the borders. Very nice, isn't it? It's beautiful.

It's okay.

It's alright.

But there you go. I'd say no more.

There are many castles there, many houses, many palaces, and many stories connected to the area. And our first stop is a 14th century tower built by Sir Gilbert Hay. This building, typical like many others, of its ilk, is now a functioning hotel, stroke events place, and they use it for weddings and such like, but it's a fantastic building and very old with very great history. And of course it's meant to be haunted, and that's why it's been mentioned today. And uh in this instance, I actually spoke to someone in person about the ghost, which is always good.

It is, yes, yes, it gives that verification. It does.

Um it's always nice to speak to someone. Uh today there are some fantastic stories that have been given firsthand, so we'll kick off with this one right now. So this building was owned by the Weems family, um, and it still is. And I was told that recently um the youngest member of the Weems family was married, and uh they had to have the house cleansed or blessed in you know before the wedding because of the various uh spiritual things that have been gone on there in the past, ghost sightings, etc. Um, and the ghost, of course, has a name and it's called the Grey Lady.

Not the Grey Lady. The Grey Lady gets around.

She does get around. It's not the same Grey Lady, we hope, but yeah, there's a lot of grey, green, and white ladies in Scotland that seems to be a or everywhere in Britain, certainly seems to be a thing for sure. Um now typically the the ghost is is that of a woman who suffered through unrequited love and met her end at the hands of either her lover or her father. Um the story goes that she was bumped off by her lover who oh well he basically organised the bumping off by bribing her father. I mean, what a family, and killed this poor woman so he could go off with his other lover. So the story goes. But of course, typically there's no names attached, there's no real evidence of this. But what we do have is ghost stories, and so as a result, in modern times, some of the phenomena has included uh people hearing footsteps in the building, polar guised activity, the usual kind of thing. However, there's also been uh the management has said that infrequently they've heard people coming into the building when they've been in and see nobody there but walking up the stairs, and you know, it's quite disconcerting for them, and this has been on for a long, long time. Two American psychics came along recently, and they, you know, it depends if you believe in psychics or not, believe that they have the you know the actual power to connect with spirits. Some people believe it, some people don't. But they came there and they said that these two psychics, that this woman was trapped there, and uh she'd suffered a terrible fate. But only her, because of course we've also got a Victorian servant being seen there, and a jester type figure, which is a bit unusual. A bit of rent a ghost, really, that one, but you know, showing your age, Grace. I know, tell me about ghost, yes. The later episodes, obviously.

Yes, yeah, I do remember rent a ghost. I've shown my age too, but I know.

But um one family I spoke to recently um said that when they went there for a visit, the woman and I have I do know her, I have spoken to her, said that she had a very bad experience, and she felt this evil presence. She describes a cloak of blackness over her, following her the entire time she was there. So no matter where she went in the building, this whatever it was was at her back and it was causing her really making her very anxious and nervous, and uh so much so that she actually took the kids out and she felt that there was something right behind her on the staircase, like literally shoving her. So the husband, of course, being less um spiritually inclined, shall we say, uh, he was like, What's this all about? He couldn't feel anything, and he wanted to carry on looking around the building, but she left and said it was a god-awful feeling. And she said she never forgot this, and I said it's 20 years ago, she never forgot this feeling, so really, really bad. Um, I don't know if it's her, the Grey Lady or what, but certainly something very peculiar there. The family, of course, owns quite a big estate, and next to it, and this is the one other place, but it's kind of connected, it's called Barnes Tower. Barnes Tower is 15th century, and again, it is uh accommodation, like an Airbnb, I suppose. Well a nice one, you know. And um it's had some very, very strange things going on there. Probably the best story I received was from uh one of the cleaners there, and um she was saying that one time she was working in a corridor, and uh she saw something at the end which you couldn't quite make out what it was, but it was there and it looked a bit misty, and then it started to walk towards her, and it turned out it was the shape of a woman, very cloudy, uh giving off a strange light, and it came towards her, and she couldn't do anything, there's anywhere to run, so she stood there with this figure, came at her fairly quickly, and went right through her body, out the other side, and vanished. She was left frozen, frozen in the spot literally, and frozen in temperature. Very scary experience. Who or what that is, I've no clue. But that's those two buildings that are connected. That's Barnes Tower, Needpath Castle, owned by one family which has multiple ghosts, and yes, I will try and find out more.

Lovely.

Yeah, sounds very interesting. Yes.

I do fancy going.

Right. So not far from Beebles, like hop skipping across the border, is uh Chileum Castle. Very good. In Northumberland. Yeah. Um said to be the most haunted castle in England.

Um now. I did hear that actually. It's got a real reputation.

Yeah, it's said to have a hundred ghosts. Now, how they know it's got a hundred ghosts, I don't know. Perhaps perhaps they've done a roll call. Maybe they did. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of ghosts. That is a lot of ghosts. Um and the most famous one is the blue boy, which I'm gonna quickly go over that in front of go over the history of the place, because I think that has a bit of a bearing as to why it's got so many ghosties there.

Right, yeah.

Um, so originally the Origins of the 12th century most likely to be a fortified manor, that's how it started off. Okay. And then in the 13th century, which is a circular 1246, it was officially fortified as a castle uh with permission from the crown. Um, and obviously, because of where it was with the English and Scottish borders, it was quite strategic when it comes to uh the wars going on between the Scots and the English.

Right, yeah.

It's hosted by loads of kings, notoriously the one of Edward I, who used it as a base during the campaigns for those said wars against Scotland. Medieval time expanded to a fortified residency rather than a military base, so it started to use it as a residence, um, and it's passed down into the ownership of the Grey family, uh Grey Lady, Grey Family Um uh who held this uh property for centuries. Right. Um and gradually it was transformed from a fortress to a stately home. And then from the 17th to 18th century, it continued to be a resident. And this is where I think the majority of the castle's legends and the ghosts all come in during that period. You know, they they liked their ghost, especially in the 18th century.

They certainly did. It does seem to be true. They did, yeah.

Um and also roundabout at that time period, uh it declined in the material military importance as the border conflict needs. So we begin as English began to like the Scots.

That's very good that I like that.

I don't think the Scots like the English very much still, but they're no we h we we do. For a moment, you know. Indeed. Uh right. And during World War II, I didn't know this, but during World War II it was used in an army barracks. And it did suffer quite a bit of damage during the the war as well, and it went into after the war it went into a little bit of neglect, so and it fell into a semi-rug repair.

It's such a common theme. How many castles, palaces across Britain that were used during the war for s for hospitals or or prisoners of war, and then become derelict and some resurrect themselves and some never do. It's such a fascinating thing.

So it was restored like mid-late 20th century under the Grey family. So I feel that I think that they actually brought it back from who it belonged to before. I suppose if it was an army barracks, it would have been the state that we ended before. I'm not sure. Didn't quite look into that butt. But anyway. And uh it was gradually repaired and reopened and it was preserved both historically and tourists, and now it's a tourist attraction.

Yes.

So now we can go on to the hauntings. Okay. The blue boy, the blue boy is the most famous one of all. Yeah. He supposedly was a boy who discovered documents in the castle relating to the Spanish invasion in 1588.

Okay.

And apparently they bricked him into the war with the papers to keep him quiet.

Really?

So I can understand why perhaps he wants to do a little bit of haunting then. So he's said to appear in the pink room. The pink room is a bedroom, apparently.

Yeah.

And he um arrives at midnight, accompanied with the sound of a child crying in pain, which I would have thought the sound of a child crying in pain would be bad enough without him actually seeing himself in a few.

Yeah, true, true.

Um, and also witnesses describe him as a like a blue halo and a blue figure near the bed.

Okay.

And apparently in the 1920s, they've done a bit of renovation work and they actually did find a child's skeleton and blue fabric in a wall. So that was interesting. Obviously, go with the stories. So um, but apparently the sightings did decrease somewhat.

So obviously, yeah.

He was a little bit happy they'd been found, but he still hovers about um because multiple witnesses still see him. Apparently, he likes touching arms.

Okay.

So he's more of a uh they say he's more of a guiding presence rather than a threatening one.

Right, yeah.

Um, and yeah, several people have reported seeing him. Uh there's a flash of blue light, the agonizing cries at midnight, and there's rustling of silk, apparently, has been heard, and a sudden drop in temperature, which is very it's it's common with spirits. But they seem to think that that is due to another spirit uh linked to a Lady Mary Berkeley, who is a grey lady. Now they get around. Um so Lady Mary Berkeley was very wife of Lord Grey of Wark and Gillingham, um, who said in 1682 ran off with his wife's sister, Henrietta.

Right.

As you do. So it wouldn't be that there's any like wim girl code, there would also be no sister code going on there. So you know, so she was left in Gillingham with her baby daughter, and I think she was there for about twenty years, so she died in 1710. And they seem to think that that's when her ghostly reputation kind of like hovered about. And so she'd obviously described as someone who passes close by, and she's a presence rather than a fill.

Okay.

Um and of visitors online reports have said that doors open by themselves, the the staff just treat this as routine because it often it's so frequent. And then they staff say that they see figures appearing briefly, then vanishing. Um and then strange lights on photos, apparently. But yeah, the ones with photos though, you can say it's dust or it's a bit mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's true. It's very difficult to say what is or isn't unusual because you know so much light anomalies naturally occur anyway. But yeah, if there are if there are really, you know, it's slightly unusual ones, I suppose they're always worth a they're worth a second look.

Yeah, I guess. Um but I mean obviously over the over the centuries the the oldest accounts are from the actual families that live there and they describe the ha they they describe the halo of light of the blue boy. And claim interesting claims of portraits where figures seem to step out.

Mm, a bit Harry Pottery going on there. But Harry Potter. Yeah, isn't that so odd, isn't it?

That's a bit weird, so I don't know why that was anyway. Um previously mentioned Edward the First.

Yes.

So there's um yeah. Um in 1912 ninety-seven.

Right, yes.

That was a longer time ago.

Not the no, but I know where you're coming from, but I do know where you're coming from.

Yes, anyway, yeah, so the Scottish War of Independence broke out back then. So um that same year, uh the forces of William Wallace uh raided Chillingham and burnt local women and children live in the church.

Oh crikey. Right.

You didn't see that in the film, did you?

No, you did not. No.

No.

There's a lot of things in the film that you probably shouldn't have seen, but won't go into that.

So the the following year, Edward I made Chillingham his base, as I said, because of the strategic placing of the castle at the time. Um so the dungeons apparently began to fill up with enemy prisoners. Scottish women and children, as well as the soldiers and spies.

Right.

So it's getting quite packed in there. And Legend had that King Edward's personally pointed the man to deal with them. Now, this man was called John Sage. Have you heard of John?

The name does ring a bell. I think he was described as a rather cruel man with opening.

Well, he certainly liked his job, let's just say that. Supposedly, he was a soldier who'd risen through the ranks to become a lieutenant in Edward's army. And he had a leg injury which forced him to retire from combat. And he went to the king, apparently begging him for a so basically he said gizzard job.

Yeah, yeah.

Um and Edward appointed him as tut torturer of the castle.

Craigy.

So over a three-year period, he allegedly tortured some 30 pri 50 prisoners, rather, not 30, 50 a week. Oh my god. So when the the war ended, they thought, well, what do we do with all these prisoners? So John said, Right, well, let's burn them, the remaining prisoners alive in the grounds of the castle. Well, their children, because you remember when they had children there as well, children watched them being burnt. So they watched their parents being burnt. Um, and they the room where they watched it from is known as either the Edward's room or the killing room.

Right.

And what did he do with the children? Do you know what he'd done with the children?

I don't know if I do want to know this. It's getting a little darker than I'd anticipated, I have to say. Oh. Go for it.

So apparently he hacked the children to death. Oh with an axe that is still displayed in the castle.

Jesus.

So you can still see that.

Yeah, so that is brutal.

So someone who they do say that, you know, if you find a job that you like, you know, Yeah, he certainly liked his.

No, exactly. He was obviously a sadist.

So 7,500 Scottish prisoners died at Chillingham. And their bodies were apparently dumped in the lake. So do you know what happened to John?

I'm hoping something very bad, and I know it makes me sound like a bad parent. No, I hope he didn't skip off. No, was he uh wasn't it?

No, he was English anyway. He wouldn't have gone scared. Was he caught? Well, no, well, apparently one evening he killed his lover. Elizabeth Chilton, who allegedly strangled her during a I shouldn't laugh, a sex game on the rack.

Really?

In the three.

Where did you get this information from? Didn't know such things happened back then. Well, nor did I. I mean, she obviously was a game girl, wasn't she? Really? Never mind.

It was the end of that then, was it? Well, yes, so he's killed her, but apparently her father was the leader of the powerful border revivors.

Ah, yes, yes.

Um so they were outlaws of the gangs, weren't they? They played the Borders. But they were vital to the English against the Scots. So rather than lose them, he Edward handed John over to them. Ah okay. Politics. Indeed. Um and he was sentenced to hang at Chillingham. But instead he was torn apart, still alive.

Torn apart? It's torn apart. Who did the deed? I don't know.

Well, obviously the border readers did, yeah. So he's the one that uh apparently uh haunts the castle and yeah, he's a dark present, apparently.

Darmo's alive and well.

Indeed, indeed. So finally, this this did tickle me, I must admit. I looked on um TripAvisor. So the castle current currently is owned by Sir Humphrey Wakefield. And he's owned it since 1982, which I did say previously. Right, yeah. 1980, um, 20th century, it's they started to repair it. And apparently this is his wife's ancestral seat, so obviously she descends from the Greys. Yeah. And he was advised by a psychic apparently not to buy it uh because of all the ghosts. Obviously, he didn't listen, but so he brought it anyway. And when he asked a priest to bless the house, the priest said, No, there's too many. I can't deal with it. So, uh yeah, so had a quick look at Triple Visor, and I must admit, this this did tickle me. I mean, there is several on there that does say about footsteps in empty rooms, that you can hear people running above the apartments above you, and they know that that apartment is empty.

Right.

And they actually hear a woman humming as well. But this particular one, I just put my glasses on so I can read it properly.

That's outrageous. That's ah man, that's uh no wonder people are queuing up to do spooky investigations there. It's very difficult to get your foot in the door there.

So, um anyway, so they said um this lady said I stayed at Gillianham for the second time for four nights and stayed again in the grey apartment. Beautiful large room with four kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms, and a lovely log burner fireplace in the living room. That sounds quite nice. Delightful, yes, I have to see. Everything perfect as it was the first time we stayed. Is it haunted? Well, I'm a sceptic personally, however, Gilliam Castle is the only place that's made me question this. Her first few nights were pretty quiet. The fireplace tools did swing around on their own. She's put in brackets draft, question mark. Okay. And there was a weird recurring noise of fabric sweeping on the carpet, which could be the ghosty of the skirt. Yeah. Um and then she said old bearding making weird noises. But on the final night, we kind of felt like we'd outstayed our welcome. Well, obviously three nights and you're out. Yeah, right. The wardrobe door swung open just I was getting into bed. Put it down to dodgy hinges. But why did it happen before this? We'd already been there three nights. Husband jammed it shut with a bit of cardboard, but unfortunately it then proceeded to rattle and bang throughout the night, as if someone wanted to open it. But I don't believe in ghosts, so nothing to worry about, right? Well, I admit I was scared at that point. Husband woke up in the middle of the night after hearing bagpipes, and I woke up to the sound of horses' hooves in the courtyard. And this is a bit like that made me chuckle. Uh, we bumped into Sir Hemp Humphrey on the way out. Who had overheard us joking about the wardrobe ghost. He told us he'd spoken with the ghosts in that room before about messing about with the furniture, and he's very disappointed to hear it was still happening. He walked off saying, It is completely unacceptable. It did make me laugh.

Oh God. That's brilliant.

So that did that did make me chuckle. I thought, there you go, after all the doom and doom. How dare you? But you know, I mean they do say you stay there overnight, so perhaps a road trip might be in order if we bring it up.

I mean, actually, um, to be fair, I kind of puts me off staying. I mean, not that Ratley Wardrobe, that's the least of my worries, but the fact that John Sage Even in the dungeon, unless of course you want to sleep in the dungeon. I do not want to sleep in the dungeon. No, no, no, no.

Sleep on the road.

I don't know. Everyone asleep, you've seemed to be a little choice. You're not getting much skip. Get that priest back.

Well, you can't deal with it. It's too many ghosts. Too many ghosts.

That's wild.

So there you go. That is chilling back.

That's very interesting.

So you can understand why it's classed as the most haunted.

Yeah. With a horrible history like that, with the layers of dreadful things that have happened in the past, it's got to leave some residue, or at least people believe that to be the case. The one I'll talk about now is Barony Castle, which is actually again in the borders. And again, it's a it's a it's a you know, obviously, a fairly old building that's undergone many changes and is now uh like a hotel. But you know, there's been things that fire fairly recently. There's a few people killed fairly recently in a fire, well at least 30 years ago, but um it's got a long dark history, and uh what's the ghost there as well? The guy that's uh the the manager uh I contacted him about a year ago. What a very obliging man, I have to say. No, but he was really up for it, and he says, Oh, I've been collecting stuff, they've collected the stories for years, they're really diligent about them. And they yeah, here you go. This is all what's happened, this is what happened to me. So I was like, Wow, okay, fair enough. So these are really cool stories. Um I hasn't got a John Sage, I think I think I think top that's like.

No, that sounds like it, doesn't it?

Yeah, so the doorway above into the entrance of the wells has uh has a carving that says prepare to meet thy God, which is a bit ominous when one arrived there, I think. Uh so the guy's called John Boswell, anyway. What the staff do is they give the ghost funny names to make it, you know, to make it all more palatable because you know it's scary. So one guy called Stevie discovered a ghost and it's now called Stevie's Screamer.

Oh.

Which is really cool. Yeah.

Does it scream then?

It does scream now. Yeah. Um, and there's another one called Ald Ricky, because he reeks of tobacco. Oh. And he's he's a Murray. He's a they think he's a Murray, uh, one of those you know, long line of people who owned it. But a Murray from kind of rarely recent times, probably early 9th, 20th century Murray. But Stevie Screamer, yeah, it's um what happened was basically the guy, Stevie, was was looking out the window one evening, and there's a gazebo in the back garden, if you like the grounds, and this blue flashing light went boom, appeared, and at the same point this really horrific scream, and he was like, and so he went running out to see what was going on, assuming somebody had, you know, had an accident or fallen or something, but there was nobody there. So it was very disconcerting. But the scream has been heard a few times, and guests have reported it, and it's always at the gazebo point to hear the scream. Turned out they believe that a young girl drowned in the river Tweed nearby um a few years ago, so whether this is something to do with it or not. But there was a guy walking there early one morning, uh, and this is more recent times, and it was early. I mean, we're talking about half past six in the morning kind of thing, and it was becoming light, and there was a big girl walking in front of him, and uh he thought, it's a bit odd, you know, because she's about eight years old and it's early. So he followed her, and she was sort of walking through the woods, and he followed her, and then he got to a patch of grass and a field, and she's still a bit ahead of him, and he's a bit odd. And then at that point he stopped because he realised when he looked at the ground the dew was undisturbed, so this figure had been walking ahead of him hadn't left any marks at all on the grass, and he that's the point he the penny dropped, and he kind of thought, I don't think I'll be walking.

Yeah, I don't think I'll be walking any further there.

Scuttled back. Um so that did happen, which was really odd. The Alexander Murray um guy who we call Al Drakey, um usually when he manifests it's the smell of tobacco, but he has actually been seen in person with or without a dog. Sometimes he's in the company of a dog, which they've called the blue dog. Oh the blue dug. So you see him with the dog, sometimes not in the grounds, but he was seen recently sitting by what apparently was his favourite fireplace. He had a lovely little fireplace in what would have been a small study. Now it's been converted since then, so it's all bricked up. But I witnessed saw him sitting by the bricked-up fireplace with his pipe, except he wasn't sitting in a chair, but the body position was of a man sitting in a chair. I mean, isn't that weird?

That's interesting.

Yeah, he was sitting in the shape of somebody sitting in an armchair, but no chair, just like literally suspended in the air, which was a bit disconcerting. Um so that's happened a lot. The one that I think for me that's the most interesting is one when the night manager was called to a disturbance in a room upstairs, and one of the guests was standing there in his dressing gown looking very angry, saying, What are you gonna do about the noise? This bloody noise has been going on for ages, battering, bashing in the room. So the guy went to the door of the room in question and was attentively knocking, and uh he wasn't getting a response, but he said he could feel something or hear some battering about, and something would hit against the door now and then, uh, which he described as like a soft body, and he was like, I'll try and get in and see what's going on, but he forgot his keys. So he bolted downstairs to get the keys from reception, gathered a colleague with him, then he went back up. Then they debated who's gonna go in the room, because obviously the noise is continuing, and one guy eventually is picked to do it, and I'm sure it's the subordinate, of course. He gets sent in and he goes in and the room's been wrecked. Now there's no guest being in that room, it was hired, but the bedclothes have been ripped off the bed, furniture was appended, and it was quite terrifying. So they supplicated the guest, he went back to bed, they went downstairs, and uh, day or two later they'd call in uh an engineer to look at the telephone which had been broken. And the engineer said, What happened were the big scratch marks behind the door?

Oh.

So they wondered if it was the blue dog.

Oh, okay.

Because it sounded like an animal moving up.

Yeah.

But that was a really odd one. A few years ago, Napier College in Embra was invited to come along, some students for a kind of charity fundraising spooky night, and they went in there and were, you know, recording things. I'm not seeing anything particularly happen because that's the you know it was nothing stance, startling. By the end of it all, they're in the bar having a drink, and they'd got two mediums involved as well, and a couple of members of staff, and they had this porter guy there, he's been there for years, he was there, and uh they said to one of the mediums said, Oh, by the way, uh to the porter, um you remember a couple of years ago it was a bloke looking in the window at you in the middle of the night and you've got a scare, and he was like totally white faced by that point, he says, Yeah, because he'd never told anybody about this. I do remember that. He says, Well, he just wants to say sorry, he was only joking with you. That was wild. So uh yeah, so the guy had to continue working there, but that was pretty unusual. He'd never told anybody about the event, but yeah, somebody had looked in at him two years ago. Well, anyway, that's uh that's our little barony castle. And there's more, I mean there's much more we could go into, but it's just a wee flavour of flavour of what there is, so who knows? What's checking out? I'm gonna try. I'd be hoping to blag a visit. That'll be good. You know, the old uh ooh, I'm interested in ghosts and see if they'll give me a free night, you know, in the in the in the interest of scientific discovery or such likes. I'll try anyway. Try. Yeah.

Right. Okay, right, so the next one is still that I've got is still in Northumberland. Not that far, I think about ten miles away. And that's Walworth Walkworth Castle.

Okay, I've not heard of that castle at all.

I thought I thought I haven't heard that one, so it's one of the less known ones, but it has got a grey lady.

Oh, creaky.

They get around, so she the grey lady is apparently described as a pal female spirit wandering around the castle ruins. So by the sounds of it, it's it's partly ruins.

Right, yeah.

And she's often reported seeing near the keep and along the walls at dusk. And she believed to have been in for due to folklore um to be a grieving noble woman or someone connected with the Percy family. So I assume that the Percy family owned it at some point. I did not look into that, and I do apologise for that.

For the Percy's. I'm not sure. I haven't heard the Percy's. Obviously, somebody well to do.

Someone well to do, indeed, especially if they're noble womans. Um, and it it's got quite a few uh centuries of haunted reputations, apparently, and its history um they think contributes to that. It was built in the 12th century, so it's quite old. Site of conflict during the Anglo-Scottish Border War, so the same war as and obviously it's in a similar area as Chillingham as well. So it's not that far. Um, and again it's associated with imprisonment, sieges, and political violence, apparently. Yeah, but apparently visitors um feel sudden cold spots, hear footsteps, uh, feeling of being watched, right? Um, and strange noises in empty sections of the castle. And near the uh the castle there is Walkworth Heritage, which also adds to the folklore. And it's uh a medieval chapel, apparently, that's carved in the rock beside the river. Coket. I don't know where the river Cokette is, how do you do that at all? I know I'll have to look in the geography of that as well. It's just a small tributary one, maybe.

Can't pronounce the word, but I can't pronounce one of them little a stream.

I did Google it and practice it several times, but uh still uh and it's connected with uh tragic romantic legends and gothic storytellings, apparently, and it inspired the Hermit of Warwick, which is an 18th-century ballad by Thomas Percy.

Oh, okay. Hermits, yeah.

Know it well.

I don't know at all, but I know what hermit is.

Yeah, a lot of rich people like to install the hermit in their uh so the uh the atmosphere of the the site apparently is uh isolated and eerie.

Okay.

Especially haunting at dusk and in misty weather. Um and it's hands by the ruined medieval architect in the riverside setting, so that's typical like spooky setting, isn't it?

Indeed, yes, yes.

Uh so there's no specific evidence providing paranormal activity at the castle, it's mainly folklore and legend, right, and a visitor's experience as well. So um, but apparently there was a paranormal uh investigator called Richard Jones.

Uh no, I have heard of him.

Yeah.

He is an author.

He wrote the haunted castles of Britain Islands.

Right.

And uh he described the lower floors of the keep as having a distinctly chilly aura.

Yeah.

He also claimed dogs also refused to enter certain areas. It was a good sign, yes indeed. And children becoming unusually quiet inside the keep.

Okay. Again. Common.

Children seem to have abilities perhaps that we've forgotten and mind you, if you're a particularly noisy child, perhaps you just push them into the keep.

It's a great way of keeping your kids quiet by traumatising them taking a haunted building.

Indeed. So yeah, the Grey Lady, she's she's back again. Yeah. Um, there's been multiple local legends describing seeing a power woman wandering on the castle towers. Right. Um, and witness offers described her as a silent female apparition in a grey or white flowing dress.

Right, okay.

Suddenly disappears near stairways and walls. So, yes, I mean it's all I suppose the majority of our grey and red ladies is down to their attire.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes, and along the battlement, apparently there is a young man um that apparently can be seen running along the castle walls, and then he'll suddenly vanish when he's approached.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of it is residue, I think. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. From what yeah, from what went on rather than yeah.

Yeah, and apparently near the heritage side there is a a solitude hooded um nightlike figure.

Okay.

Uh an apparitions walking near the roofs and the w river paths. So I think it's just a case of um don't walk there in the dusk, in the dark. So, yeah, so that's that little bit there. A little unknown, uh not well known, I think, Castle, but it's got quite a bit of a haunted reputation there.

I do find it interesting that a lot of these buildings have, you know, um something, um whatever you want you describe it as, but at least a sort of residual air that's maybe given it the reputation. And I don't know, I mean I guess if you believe that ghosts are spirits, people's spirits, that perhaps don't want to be hanging around necessarily for centuries later and somewhere where they had a probably pretty miserable time. I don't know, maybe that's one theory anyway, but it's really interesting. And I like to say a lot of these castles the stories are almost legendary, but what's interesting is when you get to the 19th century when the you know the ghost story tradition became a thing and and people got into more interest in it and record it, and that's when you get the stories that seem to be you know the ones that stick. Um yeah good stuff. Um now have you ever been to Melville House Hotel? Oh just outside Edinburgh.

I think I might have a couple of times.

Yeah, it's quite nice. It's got some nice grounds. It was it's a it was a family home. I think Henry Dundas owned it at one point George and Mansion. I mean, I had some pretty important people stay there.

Ah, yes, now that you said that, I I have been there. I haven't stayed there, but uh I've um I have been there, yeah.

So Sir Walter Scott stayed there as well, a few other people like that. Yeah, Queen Victoria. George IV, he stayed there. No. George IV, you know, he came there. Ember was a little kilt. He did, yes, he came here there. I mean, you know, he got to change in his more suitable attire. And uh it's maybe haunted, and uh I stayed there, I did I did I should stay there one night, and it was rather nice. Uh but we're in the bar chattering, and the bar staff came along and they were very happy to chat about the ghost days, and they'd all had weird stories, and um uh the basically there was a sort of doorway that I think's been bricked up or boarded up now, but that was the main doorway into the dining area, and this figure's been seen sort of wandering about there, which is a woman described as looking like a queen, but it doesn't mean it's a queen, just somebody who's the lady of the house, perhaps. Yeah, so um and that's th the the gist of it. But there are some really creepy stories. There are some really creepy stories, and and a lot of them have appeared in TripAdvisor. Of course they have. TripAdvisor is great for getting spooky stories as a gold mine. I mean, God, I don't know how these hotels function, these terrible reviews. People in trauma. But this one, this one appeared anyway, and and uh, and you know, when you read them, I mean I I mean I'm a bit cynical. I'll read them like is this is this baloney? Is this guy just is this just nonsense made up to you know get a few hits or whatever, or is it actually a real genuine thing? So I'm like it sounded genuine to me because the guy had also experienced someone when he was young, so he said, but the detail was really interesting, and I think he was American. He never said he was American, but just the language suggested to me from the States and he stayed there uh 20 odd years ago when he was a kid with his wee brother, and they'd gone out in the grounds of Melville during the day to kick about the football. And at the back of the hotel is a fantastic open area with a little wee um ornate pond and all sorts of stuff, it's a lovely area, and playing with there, and then mum and dad took him into town, which I'm assuming must have been in Edinburgh for dinner, and they went back at night to their room and uh fell asleep. And then he had this terrible nightmare. He dreamt that uh there was children being brutally murdered on the lawn, and he woke up with a terrible scare. And when he woke up, first thing he saw was this woman in rags floating above his head, floating suspended above his bed, and he uh he was frozen in fear basically, and she sort of drifted to the edge of the bed, kept looking at him and then went through the wall. And he put the light on, his brother woke up and saying, What the hell's going on? kind of thing, and he was babbling about this because the parents were called through, and uh absolutely terrifying experience. Anyway, that's what he said happened. Um but as he said when she moved the shadows in the room were moving with her, so it seemed like it was like almost like something solid in the room. Oh very, very strange. Anyway, but that's what happened. So what happened afterwards when they checked the guest book, um this whatever it was had been seen by other people, so it wasn't as if it was like a one-off. It's few people report seeing the same thing. It's strange. So do they know who she is or any idea or no, because well, so you've got this queen-like figure that could be the lady of the house of Dalrymple, potentially. You've got the woman in rags, no idea. Maybe somebody who suffered a terrible fate was she the mother of the children. I really don't know, it's strange. But another family had said the same thing that they'd stayed in the room that they'd stayed in, which is room room 106, in case you're interested. And um they'd seen the same thing because one of the boys then had woke up and saw a girl suspended from the ceiling upside down.

Oh.

Which is really weird.

Yeah, it's weird. Yeah.

Um basically in the same room as the previous boys had had that experience, which was really, really odd. So I don't know. Um he said after I quote, I had to sleep the light on in my room after seeing a woman. It was freaky, but okay. But yeah, she was suspended upside down from the ceiling, uh, same room as the boys who slept in, room 106.

So that really was a case of lights on, still scared. Indeed, it was.

Yeah, I I well done. No, I wouldn't know if it yeah. I mean, what would you do in that situation? I mean, you know, you and then of course ghost sightings don't necessarily have to be in the dark. So I think as a mastermind of ghost sightings seen during the day, see even the lights on, you'd probably stole it.

When I've seen them, they've been during the day. They have been at night.

Yeah, yeah. I know that's there's a story that's completely unconnected to this at the moment, but just very briefly, that uh I've gotten off a guy for future purposes, and um he saw this ghost of a wound in his bedroom when it was actually um literally broad daylight, but in summertime. So, you know, in that situation, what does one do? Well, what he did do was he put the covers over his head, and he lay there with the covers of his head like this. But the thing is, the strange thing was he felt the wound approach the bed and then lean over him. So he was cowering in the bed, you could feel the woman's presence above his head. He lay there wait 20 minutes till it sort of went normal and then he cut kicked out and she'd gone. So that's terrifying.

Yeah.

So yeah.

I don't like the thought of them standing near me or being by my bed at all, not when I'm sleeping, no.

No, and it's not like they might be bad people, but it's like if you don't know someone, if you don't know someone, you wouldn't want some strange No.

No, you wouldn't want any weird people standing alive, let alone dead.

Well, I know, Jesus, I know. But anyway, that's that is Melville House Hotel.

I keep the hallway light on, but the shadows never fade. Every corner whisper secret, so the choice is that I made There's a tapping at the window, though the wind is standing still, and the chill runs down my spine like something moving at its wound. It's almost just cake. The silence feels louder than before. Still it's here. You can't hide from what's already here. Can't run, can't breathe. Something in the dark remembers me. No matter what I do, that feeling doesn't go in light. Still the haunting's never feel there's a shadow in the doorway where I swear no shadow should be. And it moves just like a memory. I'm too afraid to see. Every picture on the wall Seems to watch me as I pass. Like they're waiting for the moment when my courage doesn't last. I whisper little prayers to keep the nightmares from my bed. Something sits beside me, breathing echoes in my head. Still scared. You can't hide from what's already here. Can't run, can't breathe. Something in the dark remembers me. No matter what I do. That feeling doesn't go away. Like some still scared. The hauntings never fade. Maybe it's just trauma, maybe ghosts are made of fear. But every night I swear I feel a presence drawing near Who can say there's nothing there? But tell me if that's true. Stand still, don't breathe. Something in the dark won't let me be even when I scream. The silence answers every shade. Lights on still sale. Some haunting.