Chillingham Castle

The Blue boy, poor, wandering, Lady Mary, a tortured child, the Royal procession and so many other famous stories. Chillingham retains them all because the Castle stays calm and unaltered ever since ancient battling days. With all its beauty and calm, Chillingham Castle has many ghosts…. Of course, it has. Quite apart from Lady Mary and her friends, the Castle family lived exciting and romantic lives, they served Kings, but then, as William Shakespeare notes, they rebelled, too.

With a record eighteen Knights of the Garter, the family also had no less than eight famous, well recorded, executions. Some were hanged, drawn and quartered. While alive, they were cut down from the Gallows to have their entrails removed. Still living, the failing body was cut into quarters. The head was displayed on city gates, as a warning. Other members of the family, more fortunate, simply had their heads chopped off.

The White Pantry Ghost In what is called ‘The inner Pantry’ a frail figure in white still appears. The silver was stored here and a footman employed to sleep here and guard it. Historically, one night, when the footman had turned in to sleep, he was accosted by this lady in white Very pale, she begged him for water. Thinking it was one of the Castle guests he turned to obey. Suddenly he remembered he was locked in and no visitor could have possibly entered. This same pale figure is seen today, and it is thought the longing for water suggests poisoning.

Not all of Chillingham Castle’s ghosts are those we see. Some are merely felt as ‘Impalpable impressions on the air,’ as the poet Tennyson says. There is this sense of something unseen yet distinctly moving, it can be a chill dark creeping sensation, or maybe just an oppressive atmosphere. Besides the Great Hall, the voices of two men are often heard talking. It is never possible to follow their words, and they stop talking if one makes serious efforts to trace them.

The moonlight casts the shadows of the battlements across the worn flagstones, and it is positively hard not to see the shades and shadows come to life.