Stuart: Alright, not everyone enjoys looking at vacation photos, even if from the Amazon (what's wrong with you people??? I could be showing you pics of me and my cousin, Ernie, at the Wisconsin cheese factory while wearing foam cheese-heads.). SO I'm alternating weeks. This week we're still traveling but from the highly reliable tour guide, gothic horror author extraordinaire Catherine Cavendish. Journey with us, if you dare, as Cat takes us into a haunted castle. (And believe me, Cat knows about haunted! Check out her stellar books).
Catherine Cavendish: Grinning skeletons, a radiant blue boy, tragic Lady
Mary Grey and a crying baby. These are just four of the manifestations haunting
Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, reputed to be THE most haunted
castle in England.
With a history dating back to the twelfth century,
its walls could tell tales of many a bloody deed committed on its fortified
premises. In 1298, Edward I (the 'Hammer of the Scots' was based here, as he
prepared do battle with William Wallace ('Braveheart') who, far from being that
nice Mel Gibson with the blue face, was in fact a mass murderer, burning the
local women and children to death. Since then, it has been the site of many a
battle and many unfortunate souls were tortured and murdered here in cruel and
imaginative ways I will not go into here!
The castle has been owned by members of the Grey
family since 1246 and the present owner - Sir Humphry Wakefield Bt.-
has been renovating it for over thirty years. It is a curious place, much of
it still derelict, and the atmosphere is one of quiet expectancy. But what of
the ghosts?
Poor Lady Mary Grey was deserted by her faithless
husband, Ford, Lord Grey of Wark and Chillingham, during the reign of Charles
II (17th century), she can still be heard wandering the corridors in an endless
search for him. Her dress rustles as she passes.
The radiant Blue Boy was frequently reported in
one of the bedrooms. At the stroke of midnight, the agonising cries and moans
of a child in pain were heard and, as these died down, a bright halo of light
would form close to the old four poster bed. If anyone was sleeping there at
the time, they would see a young boy, dressed in blue, surrounded by the
light, approaching them. Curiously, in the wall of that room were found the
bones of a young boy, along with some fragments of a dress. A blue dress.
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Lady Leonora Tankerville, who documented the
castle's ghosts in 1925, recalled having strange experiences of her own,
including a manifestation of a nun praying on the battlements, accompanied, a
few paces behind, by two young men dressed in clothes from the time of King
Henry VIII. She also experienced a visitation by the ghost of a young officer
who, so far as she knew, was actually alive at that time. Only later did she
discover that he had died at the very time she had seen him appear in her room.
Lady Leonora was also responsible for the discovery of the skeletons of a man
and a boy who had been walled up in her bedroom. Indeed, there seems to have
been a fair amount of walling up of people in this castle!
If you are brave enough, you can actually stay at
the castle and many who have done so have reported strange events. Some have
even left before morning, too scared to sleep!
But if you do stay, think twice before taking the
complimentary shower gel or shower cap home. In one of the rooms, letters and
returned items are displayed (including a door knob removed 'by accident').
Reading these letters, you will see that the guests returned the items because
no good came to them while they possessed them. Above the display is a portrait
of a woman, reputedly a witch, who is said to take a pretty dim view of such
thieves. She has a tendency to haunt them... and not in a friendly way.
Meanwhile, my novella Cold Revenge, features ghosts, demons and a whole lot of vengeance.
It has just been released in a new edition from Crossroad Press. Here’s what to
expect:
Some dinner invitations are best ignored...
For no apparent reason, Nadine, Maggie, Gary,
and Nick are invited to dinner at the lavish home of top fashion writer, Erin
Dartford. But why has she invited them? Why doesn't she want her guests to
mingle? And just what is it about the mysterious Erin that makes them want to
run for their lives? Little do they know that as they prepare to eat their
first course, an evil as old as mankind is about to be unleashed. And revenge
really is a dish best served cold...
You can buy Cold Revenge here;
About the author
Following a
varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance, Catherine Cavendish is
now the full-time author of a number of paranormal, ghostly and Gothic horror
novels, novellas and short stories. Cat’s novels include the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy - Wrath of the Ancients, Waking the
Ancients and Damned by the Ancients, plus The Devil’s Serenade, The Pendle Curse and Saving Grace Devine.
Her novellas, Cold Revenge, Miss Abigail’s Room,, The
Demons of Cambian Street, The Devil Inside Her, and The Second Wife have now been released in new editions by
Crossroad Press.
She lives with
her long-suffering husband, and a black cat who has never forgotten that her
species used to be worshipped in ancient Egypt. She sees no reason why that
practice should not continue. Cat and her family divide their time between
Liverpool and a 260-year-old haunted apartment in North Wales.
You can connect
with Cat here:
