Haunted Castles and Northumbrian Ghosts

The ancient kingdom of Northumbria, which today covers the four northerly areas of Durham, Northumberland, the Tees Valley and Tyne and Wear, is especially rich in historic remains. Over this land battles were fought, castles were built, strange deeds were performed and ghosts roamed. The legends of those times still live on and many of the houses, castles and other relics still exist to act as tangible memorials.

County Durham

Beamish

The Grey Lady of Beamish Hall is said to appear near Beamish Burn after suffocating in a trunk where she hid to avoid an unwanted arranged marriage.
Also at Beamish, The Sun Inn is said to be haunted by Wandering Willie, who hanged himself after a broken love affair and moved with the pub when it was dismantled and taken from Bishop Auckland and rebuilt at the museum.

Blanchland - Lord Crewe Arms

The story concerns the Forster family who in 1651 were accused by the Roundheads of helping the Royalists. Indeed in 1715 Thomas Forster of Bamburgh and the Earl of Derwentwater together set off to go to the aid of the old Pretender, they had little but their enthusiasm to help them and without even a sniff at a battle, Forster was captured and imprisoned.

His sister Dorothy, however, made a skeleton key and rescued him. She brought him to Blanchland and hid him in a secret room built into the kitchen chimney of the Lord Crewe Arms pub. Later she managed to smuggle him out of the country to France, but it is said that Dorothy never stopped thinking about her brother. Even today, 250 years after her death, her ghost is still trying to persuade hotel guests staying in what was her room, to deliver messages for her.

Durham City

At the foot of the steps down from Elvet Bridge to Brown's Boathouse lies the entrance to what was for years the old County Gaol. Jimmy Alien, once piper to the Duchess of Northumberland and a notorious horse stealer, was confined in this dungeon prison in 1803 awaiting transportation. He was a very old man and the sentence was never carried out. The Prince Regent, seven years later wrote Jimmy's pardon but it arrived on the day of his death. There is an old story that his pipes can still be heard in the cells.

(Rushford, F.H. - This is Durham (1964) pp. 37-38)

Durham Castle itself is also said to be haunted by a ghost known as 'The Grey Lady'. The ghost of the wife of a former Bishop of Durham who fell to her death from the Castle's black staircase.

Lumley Castle

The castle is haunted by the ghost of Lily of Lumley, who was the first wife of the builder of the castle Lord Lumley. While her husband was out of the area two priests tried to lure Lily back into the catholic fold. This was unsuccessful so the priests decided to kill her. They threw her body in the well and it is said that her ghost comes up via the well and haunts the castle.

Raby Castle's Three Ghosts

Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, has been seen floating upstairs to the Baron's Hall where in 1569 he sat at the head of a huge table and planned the Rising of the Northern Earls. The company had decided against it when his wife stormed into the hall. She called them cowards and knaves that they dared not fight for their faith. And so, flamed by her foolish words, they fought and lost. He fled to Scotland and then to Holland. The Nevilles lost everything, Raby and their titles. He lies buried in Dutch soil - by day. At night and every night, he is back at Raby.

Henry Vane the Younger also carries a grudge from the grave. He was imprisoned when the Stuarts returned to Raby Castle and executed under a trumped up treason charge. They wouldn't let him speak to his people at the execution and the sheriff ordered the trumpeters to blow loud to drown out the sound of his voice. He was still speaking when his head rolled off. Every night Sir Henry sits writing at his desk in the library at Raby. There is something strange about him. His body ends at the shoulders. His head lies on the desk facing him, the lips moving as if dictating a letter or making a speech.

Raby Castle's final and most often seen ghost is that of the first Lady Barnard or the 'Old Hell Cat' as they called her. She is a fearsome old lady who stalks the castle each night with wild glowing eyes and knitting with white hot needles, remembering how her son Gilbert married against her wishes.

NORTHUMBERLAND

Bamburgh Castle

Visitors to Bamburgh Castle have been known to report the sight of a young woman with a bundle in her arms descending the steep steps from a small postern gate north of the clock tower. As she descends she stumbles and cries out, falling down the narrow stairway. From above the sound of heartless laughter. Upon rushing to her aid, visitors have reported that there is no sign of either the young lady or the bundle she was carrying.

The best explanation for this occurrence is that the young lady is the ghost of a local girl called Jane who was sent by her impoverished family to beg for food at the Castle. After being abused and then turned away by the guards Jane, overcome with weakness, stumbled and fell to her death, along with the baby that she carried in her arms. This phantom is often called 'Green Jane' because of the striking colour of her cloak.

(Kristen, C. - Ghost Trails of Northumbria (1992) pg 60)

Many visitors to the Castle have reported sensing something in the air or even feeling that they have been touched, then turning to discover no one there, while others have seen or heard furniture being moved around when there was no one in the room.

Dilston Castle

It was from the walls of Dilston Castle that the last Earl of Derwentwater rode forth in 1715 to take part in the luckless Jacobite Rising. Tradition has it that the wraiths of the Earl and his bride still haunt the bridge which joins the wood rimmed field to the Castle grounds.

Dunstanburgh Castle

Dunstanburgh Castle is said to be haunted by, among others, its creator Thomas, Earl of Lancaster who, having come into conflict with another King was executed in the hall of Pontefract Castle. Unfortunately the executioner was some kind of 'stand-in' axeman and took eleven blows to complete the execution which should have taken only two or three blows at most. It is said that even battle-hardened soldiers fainted during the proceedings.

( Kristen, C. - Ghost Trails of Northumbria (1992) pg 55)

Elsdon

In 1791, three miles north of the village of Elsdon, an old woman named Margaret Crosier was robbed and viciously murdered in her home. Eye witnesses pointed the finger at a desperate character, William Winter, who along with two female accomplices was caught, tried and then hanged at Westgate in Newcastle. Local Feeling after 'Meg' Crosier's death was so strong that Winter's body was brought back to Elsdon in a cart to be hung in chains at a specially constructed gibbet within sight of his victims house.

'Winter's Gibbet' as it was called came to be regarded with a certain amount of superstition and it was believed by many that toothache could be cured by rubbing the affected teeth with wood chips taken from it. The site of the gibbet on the moorland road to Harwood Head is still marked by a wooden block.

Lindisfarne Priory

Photographs taken at the ruined 12th century Priory occasionally depict the image of a 'white monk' standing in the archway that is now the visitors entrance to the Priory. Aside from appearing on the photographs the monk is invisible and there are no historic records to indicate who he may be.

TYNE AND WEAR

Hylton's Cauld (or Cowed) Lad

The ghost of a servant slain by the Lord of the Manor in a fit of rage is said to haunt the castle with his head in his hands. A lady who lived in the castle when it was last inhabited in 1905 alleged that the noisy goings on were so distracting that sleep was impossible in the room where the murder is said to have taken place.

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Stage carpenter Robert Crowther was killed in 1887 when his skull was fractured by a cannon-ball from a thunder sound-effect device in Newcastle's Tyne Theatre. His ghost is said to stalk the theatre gallery to this day.

Another theatrical ghost is that of an actress who committed suicide in the Theatre Royal in 1935 and is said to still be walking the aisles.

Seaton Deleval

One Hallowe'en night a witch was caught practising evil spells and sentenced to be burned at the stake. She appealed to the people and asked for two bowls made from hazel wood unused before, and water in which to cleanse her feet. When these were provided she stepped into them and rose into the air. All the other witches rose with her on their broomsticks, but she lost one bowl and fell to her death in Druridge Bay (the Bay of the Druids).

Seaton Deleval Hall itself has it's own ghost, 'The White Lady of Seaton Deleval'. She keeps a lonely vigil in what is now known as 'the ghost chamber' awaiting the return of her lord. She has been waiting for 200 years.