Chillingham Castle

Last night I went with a group of friends on the Chillingham Castle Ghost Tour.

Chillingham castle was built in the 12 century, and as our guide informed us, originally it had a round tower but this was subsequently replaced by the square design you see today. The castle itself became fully fortified in 1344 which was necessary as it was after all, on the front line of the ongoing skirmishes and battles between the English and Scots.

The tour officially started at 8pm by our group, along with three others, were champing at the bit to get going and we left the central courtyard of the castle to start our tour just after a quarter to. Our guide warned us that when we heard the castle clock strike six, it was actually eight o’clock. (Just one of those oddities of Chillingham)

The first thing we were told was this was a ghost tour, not a ghost hunt, and not to expect to encounter anything para-normal, though if anything did, it would be a bonus. I think the guide was setting expectations here upfront in true Northumbrian style. So off we went on the tour.

Rather than entering the castle we were taken back outside, along one of the high walls towards the woods to the “Monks’ Walk”. This was a route used, as you may have guessed, by monks, walking to and from their church. However, the monks were barely tolerated by the locals, so in order to stay out of sight, they walked through the woods instead of along a track. Nothing too contentious there you may think.

Woods can be scary at night. This one in particular has a history. As it is on the north side of the castle, prisoners from the battles in the area, local criminals, or general miscreants would be hung from these trees by their wrists or ankles and left to die of dehydration. This was because it trouble was coming, it was always be those Scots from the North.

Often they would last three or fours days, hanging naked with no clothes on. Our guide informed us at the time, the monks found this to be offensive. Not the hanging, nobody would dare cut anyone down, but the vitcims’ lack of clothing. So the monks would use squares of unrefined black and white wool to protect the modesty of victims.

Around this tree, people have reported to hear the sounds of children laughing and playing. Quite surprising given what would have been hanging all around them at the time. However these were hard times indeed. Parents would send their children to retrieve the squares of black and white wool from the corpses to use for their own clothing and children being children, they would make a game of it to distract themselves from the horrors all around.

Whilst the Yew trees made great hanging trees due to their large numbers of limbs, they were difficult for adults to climb but presented little challenge to children who could easily squeeze through the small gaps. They also provided a source of wood to produce the classic English Long Bow. A very effective weapon of its day.

Having followed “The Monks’ Walk” to the driveway, we turned back up the hill to the castle to start the interior tour.

On reaching the courtyard, our guide gave us a brief history of the castle, it’s structure and how it was built, before we started the climb up the south western tower to the King Edward I room.

Built specifically to accommodate King Edward I, this room was used frequently in his absence by a very disturbing character by the name of John Sage.

Sage had been sent to the castle by the king, with two demands. He was to be acommodated in the King’s quarters when it was not in use by His Majesty or other nobles, and was also be found gainful employment at the castle. Sage was wounded by a spear to the leg and result of his torturing activities inflicting pain and suffering on up to fifty people a week, as well as his distinctive walk, earned him the nickname of Dragfoot. This presented a quandry for the castle, what role could be given to this dashing, yet disabled man?

Sage, himself picked the role of “meeter and greeter” of prisoners at the castle which meant in reality, he was the torturer.

Sage was suspected in the killing of at least two children in this room and would often lock himself away in there for days on end getting up to who knows what with the women of his choice.

Whilst on our tour a gauntlet fell off a suite of armour which was in the corner of the room. Was that Sage giving us a warning sign or did someone on the tour get too close and knock it off. We’ll never know.

Our next stop was the Great Hall.

This was the main dining area of the castle and a great long table was set out along virtually the entire length of the room.

Now I took the picture to the left generally zapping around the room when the group had started to leave and noticed a blue anomaly at the far end of the room on the camera screen.

However, this turned out to be the gas bottle shown in the insert rather than anything to do with the ghost of Lady Mary Berkeley who is said to walk this room on the far side of the table away from the fireplace.

The guide explained how he personally had an experience in the Great Hall with one of the heavy candlesticks falling over and rolling off the table on to the floor.

He had also smelt the rose petal perfume of Mary Berkeley on a number of occasions.

Watching him deliver his talk in here, it was interesting to note that he stayed on the fireplace side of the table at all times. Entering the room, delivering his speech, then leaving the room. Always on the fireplace side, away from the route Mary Berkeley was said to walk.

As we left the Great Hall, the group were asked to put the candles out as we went. One lady, so engrossed in the speech replied, almost involuntarily, “No Chance”. Much to the amusement of the rest of us.

The next room we were to visit was the castle chapel.

Haunted by the ghost of a young girl called Eleanor who died in the chapel, it was in this room that poltergeist activity got a mention. Rattling of the elements of the lanterns, as well as extreme cold spots had been reported by nothing occurred during our visit. We were all asked to turn our torches off and the darkness in this room was amazing. You literally could not see your hand in front of your face at all.

We moved on through the minstrels’ gallery and down into what is now used as a tearoom during the day.

For me, one of the most best sights of the tour, was the huge Irish Elk antlers on the wall. The picture cannot truly convey the shear scale of these things and the must have been about twenty feet in width. All supported by a relatively small head.

These antlers were recovered from a bog which had preserved them amazingly well and they formed an impressive centrepiece.

Now it was in this room where things started to get a little weird.

Several of us heard knocking and banging from the direction of the minstrels’ gallery whilst the guide carried on delivering his talk. Other members of the group on the tour, reported similar noises from completely the opposite direction.

Also, Julie took a photograph of the corner diagonally opposite where we entered the room and got an anomaly. I took a picture with a different camera completely and was surprised to get something similar.

I’ve no idea what it is, why it should appear on two different pictures, from two different cameras. I think all we can say if we can rule out any camera fault.

Again, on leaving this room, I made sure I was one of the last to leave in order to take pictures. However, as the group had moved away and there were only three of us from my group left in the room, the noises from the direction of the minstrels’ gallery happened once again.

Nobody commented on them at the time and I just assumed that the tour was being followed round at a discrete distance by the estate manager, locking up the rooms behind us as we went along the route.

My suspicions this was happening were further strengthened once I had taken this picture.

Just after I took this shot. Clear as a bell I heard a cough. It has to be someone locking up behind us. Yet talking to the estate manager on the way out, at the end of the tour, he told us that nothing had been locked up and he still had to do that. Even after some pressing questions he maintained he had to see us down the steps and to our cars and then lock up. So I cannot explain the noises or the cough, but I know I heard both.

The tour continued into a room showing the types of torture equipment that John Sage would have used in his day and crossing the courtyard once again, we ended the tour in a room where you could take a peek into the dungeon of the castle down the oubliette.

Stepping back out into the courtyard, I took some final pictures in the dark.

There are a few things going on in this picture however it was raining at the time so the flash picked up raindrops rather than anything else. At least that is what I thought at first. On looking at the full size picture in Photoshop, some of the anomalies were blurred, except the blurring was at the bottom rather than the top. Why is this significant? As the rain falls to the ground you expect to see the blurring on the top, forming a little tail a bit like a comet. If the blurring is on the bottom, whatever it is, must have been traveling upwards. Rain doesn’t go up. Does it?

It just one of the many mysteries of Chillingham. Like Royston Vasey, you may never leave.

Chillingham