UNINVITED GUESTS AT BRITAIN’S HAUNTED HOTELS
by Lindsay Hunt
Many of Britain’s
hotels have taken on a ghostly aura. Far from scaring off potential
visitors,
inexplicable
phenomena seem to attract the curious these days.
In accomodation throughout the land, Grey Ladies (or Ladies in Black,
or White, or Blue, occasionally a daring shade of Red) are reported to
drift through walls and float over lakes, accompanied by spectral orbs
and sudden icy chills. Hooves clatter at midnight, ghostly legions
march past along old Roman roads, doors lock and unlock of their own
accord, and hidden children laugh or sob on secret stairwells.
Britain has many historic buildings in atmospheric surroundings
which take the lead in these
alleged phenomena, coaxing medieval monks, Victorian serving girls,
and unhappy lovers to revisit old haunts. If some grisly tale of a tragic
death can be unearthed from bygone days, or better still, a skeleton
in a cupboard somewhere, the psychic portents abound. Specialist
short-break operators can arrange all sorts of hair-raising experiences
involving séances, dowsing rods and ouija boards for hopeful
ghost-hunters, or at least, a promising setting in which they might
just happen. Of
course, nothing is guaranteed and the chances are you will enjoy
a perfect night’s rest.
For most
of us, the faint chance of some other-worldly experience adds no more
than an amusing tease
to a
hotel stay – at least, in
broad daylight. For others, it’s a serious quest to prove there
are more things in heaven and earth, undertaken only with quantities
of recording equipment and a determination to stay awake all night.
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Certain hotels crop up repeatedly on the paranormal lists. Cornwall, in South-West England, famed as a land of myths and legends, is a classic venue for ghosts. Guests and staff of the Wellington Hotel in Boscastle have experienced many strange apparitions, mysterious shapes and unexplained sounds, including a figure in period dress vanishing into a wall and an old woman passing through a closed bedroom door. Not to mention the mystifying case of a visitor's dog, which suddenly got up and trotted out one night yapping and wagging its tail as if being taken for a walk by some unseen presence.
Immortalised in Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Jamaica Inn, once on a wild and lonely turnpike road across Bodmin Moor, has strong associations with smugglers. Disembodied voices speak in the long-dead Cornish language, and a coach and horses crunches across the gravelled courtyard at midnight ... In fact, that courtyard was resurfaced with cobbles recently, yet the noise of the metal-rimmed wheels remains the same as in olden times. Odd, isn’t it? But even odder is the stranger in 18th-century dress repeatedly observed sitting on a wall outside the inn. He neither speaks nor moves, but bears an uncanny resemblance to a former guest summoned by a message to meet someone outside. He left the bar and his half-finished tankard of ale, and was later discovered murdered on the moor. Has he returned to finish his drink?
Haunted Coaching Inns
Coaching tales are a recurrent theme in some of our fine old former coaching inns. The Molesworth Arms in Wadebridge is reputedly visited by a ghostly stagecoach at midnight on New Year’s Eve, its four horses whipped on by a headless coachman. At Dartmouth’s Royal Castle in Devon, a mysterious coach and horses draws up at the entrance to collect an unknown passenger and vanish into the night. The 15th-century Holt Hotel at Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire is haunted by the notorious highwayman Claude Duval, a former footman to the Duke of Richmond. He was apparently so popular with lady victims that tearful petitions for his pardon accompanied him to his execution.
A handsome timbered inn called The Feathers in Ludlow, Shropshire has several interesting ghosts. One is a woman who tries to drive rivals away by pulling their hair (beware Room 211 if you’re the female half of a couple staying here). Another is a Victorian gentleman with a dog, and a third seems to be a more modern apparition who confines her appearances to men only. She’s a pretty thing in a miniskirt and a see-through blouse who walks straight through cars parked outside. One shocked guest who witnessed this young lady felt in urgent need of a restorative brandy. Relaying his experience to the hotel barman, he was soon interrupted with the news that she had appeared to several guests on previous occasions.
London Haunted Hotel
One of London’s most haunted hotels is the five-star Langham opposite the BBC’s Broadcasting House. Its spectral residents include a silver-haired doctor who murdered his bride while on honeymoon, and a German officer who killed himself shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Room 333 is said to be a haunted bedroom, as numerous BBC journalists attest.
Ruthin Castle Hotel in Denbighshire, North Wales, has a resident Grey Lady, believed to be the wife of one of King Edward the First's lieutenants. She murdered her husband’s mistress with an axe in a jealous rage and was later executed herself. The hotel is noted for its medieval-style banquets.
Another Grey
Lady ghost can be found at Littlecote
House Hotel in Berkshire near Hungerford, said to be the distraught
mother of an infant tossed into a fire by "Wild" William Darrell.
Get tickets for London day trips, discount travel cards, and all BritRail passes here.
Not all ghosts are sinister or ill-intentioned. In the spa town of Cheltenham’s De La Bere Hotel, a 15th-century manor house once used as a girls’ school, a former matron paces the corridors at night to check that her charges are behaving. In Scotland, Edinburgh’s four-star Royal Terrace Hotel is another much-haunted venue, whose blithe spirits include a nurse in 19th-century uniform, a child from the 1800s, and a gentleman enjoying a drink at the bar. There are also reports of cupboards opening and unbidden noises and movements.
Maybe some royal ancestor from your British past family history genealogy is rattling chains in an English hotel. Duke, Earl, Baron, or just a yeoman in Tudor England, your ancestor might still owe you a record of land deed to a baronial manor.
For details of supernatural
stays in some of the hotels mentioned above, contact Haunting
Breaks;
tel: 01686 420301.
A websites for spooky happenings is www.paranormaltours.com.
To plan every aspect of your holiday in Britain,
and search a comprehensive
database of quality-assured accommodation, see www.visitbritain.com.
Haunted Hotels featured in this article
Wellington Hotel, Boscastle, Cornwall.
Jamaica Inn, Bolventor, Launceston, Cornwall. A paranormal investigation night on October 31st costs £90 per person including dinner and psychic research.
Molesworth Arms, Wadebridge, Cornwall. .
Royal Castle Hotel, Dartmouth, Devon.
Holt Hotel, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire.
Feathers Hotel, Ludlow, Herefordshire. Special breaks include a group tour, psychics, séances and dowsing.
Langham Hotel, London W1.
De La Bere Hotel, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Murder mystery weekend in November.
Ruthin Castle, Ruthin, Denbighshire, North Wales.
Royal Terrace Hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland. Two-night Haunting Breaks in October 13th and January include ghost detecting with a psychic using dowsing techniques, séances, digital photographic equipment and a ghost tour.
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Article Courtesy Visit Britain
See Also:
MUNCASTER
CASTLE & COACHMAN'S QUARTERS
Haunted Castle in North England's Lake District
ETTINGTON
PARK - MOVIE GHOSTS
Magnificent historic manor house hotel in Warwickshire, close
to Stratford,
Blenheim Palace, the Cotswolds and Warwick used as the exterior for Robert Wise's
motion picture "The Haunting".
ENGLISH
KINGS & ALE, WITCHCRAFT AND FOOTBALL
B&B with a bit'o history - Stapleton's Chantry North Moreton
A bed and breakfast with an 800 year history in one of
Oxfordshire's historic small villages
THE SHERLOCK HOLMES
PUB - LONDON
For Sherlockiana
fans a can't miss stop in London
GHOST
DINNERS IN HAUNTED YORK
Ghost Walks and Candelit Dinners at York's haunted Black Swan Inn
