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Haunted Palaces and Royal Hauntings

Bess of Hardwick

Location: Chatsworth (Derbyshire) - Chatsworth House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century?
Further Comments: Wayne Anthony, in Haunted Derbyshire and the Peak District, writes that Bess, who finished constructing her home around 1560, is one of several shades to haunt this house. Mary Queen of Scots is rumoured to walk where she was once held captive, while a grey lady and a white woman haunt other parts of the building. The library is haunted by a transparent figure which drifts from shelf to shelf. The bridge on the grounds is haunted by a screaming woman who was forced to watch her baby drowned after it was thrown into the river by her partner.

Phantom Coach

Location: Coltishall (Norfolk) - Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 19 May (reoccurring) (coach)
Further Comments: A ghostly coach and four passes over this bridge once a year. It is said to be driven by a headless Sir Thomas Boleyn and is one of eleven bridges that he passes over on the night of his daughter Anne's execution. A headless Black Shuck is also reputed to cross this bridge once per night.

Catherine Parr

Location: Compton Bassett (Wiltshire) - Compton Bassett House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2009
Further Comments: TVNZ reported that performer Robbie Williams would often feel the presence of Catherine at his home, which was once her barn, although the entity was not scary.

Possibly Mary

Location: Crossford (Lanarkshire) - Craignethan Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mary unknown, other activity circa 1990s
Further Comments: The headless woman reported in the castle grounds could be Mary Queen of Scots, though her relationship with the building appears to be minimal. Workmen on the site claimed to have seen a figure in the ruins and heard voices. A visitor alone in the caponier during the 1990s could hear a woman singing, although another visitor nearby failed to hear anything. Another story says that a Historic Scotland work crew could hear the sounds of a banquet emerging from the hall but could see no one there.

Walking Mother

Location: Croydon (Surrey) - Old Croydon Palace
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once an orphanage, it is thought the ghost of a woman that walks the corridors is a mother searching for her lost child. It is unclear whether the same entity is to blame for the wailing and screaming also reported onsite.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Location: Culloden (Highland) - Culloden House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This shade is said to haunt the hotel, though much of the original building has been replaced.

We Three Kings

Location: Dacre (Cumbria) - Dacre Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These three kings occasionally return, re-enacting a scene that happened in the dark ages when they first met to discuss the Norse threat. Another phantom reported here is Lady Dacre - she was walled up alive with her dead lover after her husband discovered her illicit affair. Her phantom sobs and screams can now be heard.

The Black Prince

Location: Dartford (Kent) - A2 road between Dartford and Bexley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: Dressed in black armour, this ghostly figure was observed several times walking along the road during the Second World War.

John Mayne

Location: Dinton (Buckinghamshire) - Folly close to A-road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Mayne, said to have been King Charles I's executioner, spent the last years of his life in a cave in this area after being stripped of his property and funds. His ghost is said to haunt the folly, even though it was constructed many years after his death.

Queen Henrietta?

Location: Ditteridge (Wiltshire) - Cheney Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: No one can say for sure whether the ghost reported is that of Queen Henrietta, who once resided here.

James II

Location: Donore (County Louth) - Athcarne Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: James II stayed here just before his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, and now his shade lingers on. He is not alone here, however. A crazy looking girl walks around the area with her hands caked in blood, while a soldier has been observed hanging by his neck from a tree.

Monkey

Location: Drumlanrig (Dumfries and Galloway) - Drumlanrig Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: World War I
Further Comments: This yellow monkey has been seen several times, though only recognised as being a monkey recently. Two other ghosts have been seen here; Lady Anne Douglas walks carrying her severed head, while a little girl has been seen in a bedroom, floating a few feet off the floor.

Gentlemanly Escort

Location: Dudley (West Midlands) - Dudley Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: A phantom couple are said to walk arm in arm through the gatehouse of the castle ruins. A ghostly Lady Jane Grey has also been reported on site, as has a grey lady who is thought to be Dorothy Beaumont - she may be the entity which pushed a man down the keep's spiral staircase in 1998. Finally, the clash of swords has also been heard here.


Haunted by Prince Charles?

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Location: Dumfries (Dumfries and Galloway) - County Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1936
Further Comments: Looking concerned, this ghost seen near Prince Charlie's room has been named as the man himself, though others say it is more likely to be another Jacobite.

Coach

Location: Dumfries (Dumfries and Galloway) - Dumfries House
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 8 October 1900 (MacRae encounter)
Further Comments: A coach is reportedly heard when a member of the Hastings family is due to die - here it was perceived by Lady Margaret MacRae the night before her father's death. In 2018, during an ITV interview, Queen Camilla claimed to have encountered a ghostly presence while walking into the building. After renovations had been carried out on the site, Camilla said the presence had gone.

Catherine Tylney Long

Location: E11 (Greater London) - Wanstead Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Long died of complications from a stomach ailment following her husband's bankruptcy (although many myths incorrectly state she committed suicide after she lost her fortune to a series of bad judgements of an immoral lover). Her ghost lives on in the park. Elizabeth I's spectre is also rumoured to pass across the grounds in a coach, en route to meet the Earl of Leicester.


Old black and white photograph of Balmoral Castle.

John Brown

Location: Easter Balmoral (Aberdeenshire) - Balmoral Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The close friend of Queen Victoria, Mr Brown has been reported on site post-mortem.

Headless Duke

Location: EC1 (Greater London) - Charterhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Duke of Norfolk, who spent much of his time and money here, lost his head after upsetting Queen Elizabeth and now ascends the staircase of the great hall. Outside the buildings, a monk has been seen flitting between the courtyards of Washhouse and Masters.

Smothering Action

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, as of 2009, armour on display in the White Tower
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area in which Henry VIII's armour is normally stored has an evil reputation; several stories exist of guards being either attacked or feeling threatened by an unknown force. The armour is now on display in the White Tower, and it is not known whether this force has relocated.


The Bloody Tower at the Tower of London.

The Two Princes

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, Bloody Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Princes possibly heard in 1990, Raleigh unknown, female phantom seen August 1970
Further Comments: Believed to have been killed on the instruction of Richard III, the two young princes have been seen holding hands, cowering in various rooms of the tower. In 1990, two Coldstream Guards heard two young children giggling just outside the tower, accompanied by a bouncing sound. The Bloody Tower is also home to the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh, who wanders around the area and along the battlements now known as Raleigh's Walk. One visitor reported seeing a phantom woman in a long black dress standing by a window; the witness had time to see the figure was wearing a white cap and a gold pendant before the figure melted away.


Salt Tower at the Tower of London.

Lady Jane

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, Salt Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 12 February (reoccurring), but least seen 1957
Further Comments: The phantom of Lady Jane Grey once haunted this tower, though it is now over fifty years since last being spotted standing on the roof.


St Peter ad Vincula church within the Tower of London.

Procession

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, St Peter ad Vincula church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century?
Further Comments: The bodies of the executed were placed under the floor of this building during the Tutor period. In 1876, Queen Victoria instructed the flagstones be lifted and all bodies removed, identified, and given a correct burial - the remains over two hundred were discovered, though identification was nigh impossible. Soon after this, an officer on patrol reported looking into the church late at night and seeing many people in period costume apparently walking around, following a woman who looked like Anne Boleyn. After a few minutes, the scene faded away.


The Wakefield Tower within the Tower of London.

Henry VI

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, the Wakefield Tower
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 21 May, midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Murdered in the tower in 1471, Henry's spirit appears a few minutes before midnight, walking around the area in which he died.

Margaret's Execution

Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Tower of London, Tower Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 27 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Refusing to kneel before the axeman, Margaret Pole was chased around the area and hacked to death by him instead. This horrid scene has been witnessed several times, as have the spirits of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey.

Isabella and Hungerford Fight

Location: EC4 (Greater London) - Greyfriars Churchyard and ruins, Newgate Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Queen Isabella and Lady Alice Hungerford are said to engage in a bout of fisticuffs in this churchyard, both jealous of each other's beauty. A small ghostly greyhound is reported to run between the gravestones, while on occasion, groans and odd lights were reported to emerge from the land. Finally, a female figure in white with hateful eyes once lurked floating around the churchyard.

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