Haunted History – Unit 731

So, next up, we’re gonna talk a little about the atrocities of war and the ghosts of those victims that still linger today.  Typically, when we hear war atrocities, we think back to the German concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of folks were tormented, tortured and eventually killed.  It’s no big secret now, as to what was going on in these places then.  No way you can cover up that much evil, right?!

Though the Nazis and their SS men have certainly left a monstrous footprint in history, they are not the target of discussion for now.  Did you know that during the same time that the Germans were running freakish and grotesque experiments on their prisoners, that the Japanese were doing the exact same thing, at their own concentration camps?  Yeah, don’t feel bad, not many people do.  In fact, the madness that was going on over there has just recently begun seeping it’s way out to the public.  Like I said, no way to cover up that much evil.  It’s time to talk about unit 731.

Gruesome and unthinkable horrors were performed daily at Unit 731.  Hidden under the guise of an epidemic prevention and research facility, experiments for germ warfare and its effects on the human body had been covered up by the Imperial Japanese army for decades.  Those responsible for the torture and torment of hundreds of thousands of victims lived out full lives surrounded by the wealth that they acquired during these dark times.  Many of these sick bastards were awarded with medals or compensated with prestigious jobs or positions within the Japanese government in return for their keeping the facility a secret.  Japanese authorities adamantly denied the atrocities that took place at unit 731, the truth only started coming to light in 1984 when photographic evidence began to surface.  Now the site has been excavated and the research has begun.  The once tormented souls that had found peace are beginning to stir again since the site has been disturbed.  It’s no wonder either, listen to what I’ve found.

Up to 10,000 people per day were murdered at this facility, recent research estimates nearly 600,000 lost their lives under unimaginably horrific circumstances.  95% of these victims were Chinese or Korean, many were civilians but some were soldiers, the remainder was mostly represented by prisoners of war taken by Japanese Allies.

Tortures ranged from psychological to any and all forms of physical abuse that can be imagined.  The lightest of the experiments took place in the rape room where Fathers were forced to rape daughters and sons were forced to rape their mothers in hopes that pregnancy would ensue.  Those that didn’t become pregnant suffered through some of the most gruesome mutilation of genitalia that could ever be imagined, and that was before they were murdered.  Those that did become pregnant would be tied down and were forced to watch these ghoulish doctors cut the babies from them all while unsedated.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the mothers would then be forced to watch as the doctor’s would murder the infants by performing living autopsies.

Other prisoners were infected with deadly diseases like anthrax, cholera and the Bubonic plague.  The Japanese were very creative, it’s not like all of these folks were just injected, some of the subjects were staked to the ground and covered with plague infested fleas or contained in small cells to be bitten by infected lab rats.   These evil bastards would wait until the disease took effect on the subject, and once their health began to deteriorate, the fiendish doctors would perform vivisections on the unsedated victims.  That means that they would cut them open in order to examine the effects of the diseases on the subjects vital organs, all without any form of sedation.

And then there was the frostbite unit, also part of the complex.  Prisoners would be staked to the ground during the coldest part of winter.  They’d remain there until nearly frozen solid, when their limbs could be broken from their body they were taken to the frostbite unit in order for the doctors to experiment and better understand the effects of frostbite in hopes of finding better forms of treatment.

Then there was a pressure chamber, yeah it’s probably exactly what you’re thinking.  Victims would be crammed into these chambers and the gauges were cranked up, all just to find out how long the human body could maintain under immense pressure.  The experiments usually ended once the victims eyeballs popped out.

Oh and then there’s the courtyard, sounds all peaceful and serene right?! Not so much ya’ll.  So out in the courtyard, prisoners would be staked to the ground within close proximity to experimental explosives.  After the bombs were detonated the subjects remains would be examined in order to discover the effects of the blast.  Really! my thoughts, it blew the poor bastards up! how much experimenting did that take and I’m pretty certain that my conclusion, though unscientific, is 100% correct, right!?

I even ran across some experiments that put me in the mind of Madame Laulaurie.  Quite often, limbs would be cut from unsedated subjects then reattached to other places on their body.  Sometimes these twisted doctors would cut the subjects open and rearrange their internal organs just to study the effects.  Gangrene was prompted by the doctors as well, in order to closer examine it’s effects on the human body.

Other subjects fell victim to their share of other sordid tortures, some were starved to death, burned to death, injected with animal blood or sea water to study the effects.  Some were burned to death or buried alive and some were spun to death on massive centrifuges.  All of this in the name of science in order to better establish what is known today as germ warfare.

So now that we all know more about the gruesome activities that took place at unit 731, is it any wonder that this joint is as haunted as hell!?  I should say not!  The investigators that have been, and are still on site today report that their electrical equipment doesn’t work at all there, any and all research done onsite has to be completed during the day because at night, the lights that are being used are drained by the presence of the spirits that haunt the grounds.  There are of course strange noises, sorrowful cries and the screams of those that died such gruesome deaths.

Live tours are ongoing as well as paranormal investigations.  Crews are finding it very difficult to investigate the site as their electrical equipment fails quickly upon arrival.  Tour guides will only lead groups through certain areas of the site as some areas are far too active to bring civilians.  One of those areas is the frost bite ward.  Guides state that they frequently see the misty forms of victims moving through the halls, there is the sound of heavy breathing and faces that materialize in reflective surfaces.  There are the sounds of trembling voices that beg for mercy as well as the presence of angry entities that want to exact their revenge.  Can’t say as that I blame them either!  I can’t imagine one happy memory that would tie these spirits to this place.  There have literally got to be tens of thousands of pissed off ghosts on these grounds!

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Publisher page to purchase The Adrian Trilogy as a 3-Volume Set or separately, “To Be His Soulmate,” “Adrian’s Fury,” and “Adrian’s Legacy.”

My website to purchase: “Short and Gory” and “Wicked Truth.”

DonnaInk Publications Publisher’s Author Lyn Gibson Fan Page

Haunted History – The Charleville Castle

Alright, Let’s get into some creepy ghost legends, more specifically the ghosts that are known to haunt Irelands’ Charleville Castle.

We talk about Castles and their ghostly residents a lot, but most of these structures are really really old.  This one, the Charleville Castle, is nowhere near the age of most haunted castles, yet that hasn’t seemed to stop the ghosts from homesteading!  Construction began in 1798 on the site that was once known to host rituals of an ancient druid cult.  By 1812 the castle was completed and would be home to first Earl of Charleville, Charles William Bury and his family.

One of the first tragic events to mar the castle’s history was the untimely death of a young girl named Harriet.  Harriet was the 8 year old daughter of the third Earl of Charleville.  After having been sent upstairs to clean up after dinner one night, Harriet decided to slide down the banister of the massive stair case to rejoin her parents on the bottom level of the castle.  Somewhere about midway down, she lost her grip and fell to the stone floor below, she died almost immediately from the impact.

Harriett is seen most frequently of all of the Castle’s ghosts.  She’s heard laughing and singing sometimes, and sometimes, she’s heard screaming as she relives that fatal fall to her death.  Harriet is described as a fair young lass wearing a blue and white dress with matching ribbons tied in her curly flowing locks.  She’s seen mostly around the stairs but also in her room that is on the top level of the castle.  She’s not always alone though, she’s spotted often with a young male playmate that no one knows who he could have been or where he could have come from.

There’s an interesting story concerning Harriet and her playmate.  In 1971 the castle was purchased by Bridgette Vance who had full intentions on restoring the structure to it’s original glory.  One afternoon Bridget’s 5 year old son went missing.  She and all of the workers immediately dropped what they were doing and began scouring the structure in search of the boy.  There was a lot of restoration work going on at the time, and a lot of ways a small child could hurt himself or worse.  So everyone is in a panic trying to find this kid and then all of the sudden, he pops up on the landing at the bottom of the stairs.

The boy was happy to report that he had made friends with a little girl and a little boy; it had been them that helped him down the stairs just before he was discovered on the landing.  This was only one of the first encounters had by the Vance family.  There was a visit by Bridget’s mother who had been eager to spend the night in the tower bedroom.

Well she did, but she didn’t get much sleep.  How could she when she wakes up in the middle of some ancient druid ritual!  Yep, she wakes up to a room full of men, most of them appeared to be monks wearing robes with hoods.  They had surrounded her bed by forming a circle around her and were performing some “type of blessing ritual” so she claimed.  Yeah, I’d be a little freaked out if I woke up in a room full of robed and hooded men too, I gotta tell ya!  Your Vampire Mama would have gone a little psycho.  Hell!  I may have even scared the ghosts, if it had been me!

Anyway, those are just a couple of occurrences reported by the Vance family members.  Trust me, there are tons of documented occurrences ranging from disembodied footsteps and voices, to chiming clocks, where there are none, and moving furniture.  It seems that nearly every room within the castle has a ghost or ghosts of it’s very own.

Downstairs, just feet from where Harriet fell to her death, is the library.  Legend has it that the Bury’s, who first built the castle, were involved with the Freemasons and this was supposedly the place where they held their odd rituals.  During this time, women weren’t allowed in this room, and today, the ghosts still have issues when a woman is present.  Many females that have taken part in the castle tour have complained about having strange experiences in this room.  Things like being pushed by unseen hands or their hair being pulled or heavy footsteps following behind them until they exit.

Another haunted hot spot here is in the ballroom.  Nearly every paranormal investigation in this room has resulted in photographs of unexplained lights that bounce across the bare ceiling as well as misty shapes that glide across the floor as if dancing to some eternal yet unheard orchestra.

 

And then there is the bottom level of the castle, which is highly avoided by many, why? Because that’s where the dungeon is! and in the dungeon there is a fearsome and sadistic entity, that does not care for your company, at all!  The first room encountered upon entering the lower level is known as the “Waste not want not” room.  Legend has it that the first Earl was a practitioner of satanism and within this tiny chamber, some wicked shit was supposed to have gone down.  Tour guides say that the second you descend, your senses are racked with terror.  Torture and death can literally be felt in the air.

Within the dungeon itself, many of the original torture devices can still be found.  But the creepiest feature over all, is the altar.  This Gothic structure is decorated with stone goblets and skulls.  It was once said to have been hidden behind a concrete wall that was removed during earlier renovations.  No doubt this stone structure was used within some un-Godly rituals, and perhaps it is what holds the attention of the terrifying and sadistic entity that dwells there in the dungeon.

There is another well known legend on the grounds of Charleville, this is the tale of the King Oak, a massive tree that is connected to the Bury family.  The tree has always warned members of the family when death would come to visit.  Every time this mammoth oak dropped a branch, a member of the Bury family would die shortly thereafter.  In 1963 the entire tree was struck by a massive bolt of lightening,  the tree managed to survive the blow however, Colonel Charles Howard Bury suddenly and unexplainably died immediately thereafter.  He was the last member of the Bury family that owned the castle.

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Publisher page to purchase The Adrian Trilogy as a 3-Volume Set or separately, “To Be His Soulmate,” “Adrian’s Fury,” and “Adrian’s Legacy.”

My website to purchase: “Short and Gory” and “Wicked Truth.”

DonnaInk Publications Publisher’s Author Lyn Gibson Fan Page

Haunted History – The Anderson Hotel

    Alright so how about a haunted story from Kentucky?!  Yep, they have ghosts in Kentucky too, who would have thought!  So this is the story of the Anderson Hotel in Lawrenceburg Kentucky.  The Anderson has been closed down for decades; no room for the living there, cause the locals say that it’s packed full of ghosts.  Well, it’s not just the locals, apparently there’s a bunch of professional paranormal researchers that will tell you the same thing.  In fact, there is so much paranormal activity going on in this old hotel that not even the investigators are allowed back inside.

During a Season One filming of “Paranormal Lock Down” several of the film crew were attacked by, well, something.  On site, the team was able to photographically document bite and scratch marks on the torso’s of camera men and investigators alike.

So where did these malevolent spirits come from?  Well, apparently the Anderson wasn’t anything like the Hilton.  There is a dark and sordid history of drugs, prostitution, murder and at least 3 suicides, attached the the Anderson.  Imagine the fantastic vibes in this joint Ya’ll, it ain’t no Disneyland in this sucker!

Investigators have found and documented many areas in the Anderson that emit crazy high readings,  In this one room there is a mattress crammed in the corner, it’s stained with this dark rusty looking stuff, I would say likely blood right!  This room is believed to be one of the suicide sites.  The investigators that were last present in this room described some terribly disturbing events.  They claimed to have seem these horrific looking creatures in the room, they drug themselves across the floor.

In checking out the results of the investigation performed by “Week in Weird” I found more creepy details about the blood stained mattress.  These guys think that this is the same mattress where a young girl died after slitting her wrists open. They actually sprayed the mattress down with Luminol.  Guess what Ya’ll, that nasty looking stain, it was blood! Then these crazy bastards do something insane!  They pull the mattress back to the room where police reports said the body was found, and all Hell broke loose!  Members of the team were being slapped and bitten.  Others were having their hair pulled or being shoved by unseen hands.  Black shadowy creatures began drifting down the hallways, darting in and out of long since vacated rooms.

In another location, investigators from “Week in Weird” discovered a floor board with writing etched into it.  This board appears to be several decades old, the lettering that is etched into it does not seem to associate with any known alphabet.  Also inscribed in the board are ominous images of snake like creatures and the board appears to be spattered in blood.  These investigators are convinced that this board was used to open a porthole and allowed something dreadfully evil inside the Anderson.

When the doors were closed, in fact right after this investigation when the summoning board was found, the owner of the hotel brought the board to the investigators, with it came aggressive attacks.  Those that were near to the board were touched by freezing cold phantom hands, bitten and slapped.  Equipment wouldn’t work while in close proximity to the board,  Things would be thrown or moved across the room.  Eventually the board was housed with The traveling museum of paranormal and occult for safe keeping.

Though most of the spirits seemed to have latched hold of this place in the 1980’s, they definitely weren’t the first ghosts to homestead here.  Back in the late 1850’s a young couple lived here.  There had been a horrible steamboat accident and young Sarah was convinced that her husband had been killed.  Out of grief and despair she committed suicide, he husband hadn’t been involved in the crash and came home just a day or so afterward to find Sarah’s lifeless body.  Sarah is one of the more friendly ghosts, She’s seen often in old fashioned clothes and is known to leave dimes at the front counter, intended as a gratuity to management for running the establishment so well.

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Publisher page to purchase The Adrian Trilogy as a 3-Volume Set or separately, “To Be His Soulmate,” “Adrian’s Fury,” and “Adrian’s Legacy.”

My website to purchase: “Short and Gory” and “Wicked Truth.”

DonnaInk Publications Publisher’s Author Lyn Gibson Fan Page

Haunted History – The Yorkshire Poltergeist

Ok So let’s talk about 30 East Drive in Yorkshire, the tale that inspired the movie “When the lights went out.”  So from the outside, the house that sits on this lot looks pretty average.  Though the story I’m about to tell you happened in the 1970’s, this family’s problem was there long before that.  On the ground, where this house now sits, once stood a monastery from 1090 to 1539.  And just beyond the hill from where the home is now, once stood the town gallows where a monk was hanged for raping and murdering a young girl.

Ok, so I told you that, to tell you this!  Trouble began almost immediately after the Pritchart’s moved into the house.  Shortly after settling in Mr. and Mrs. Pritchard leave on vacation with their 12 year old daughter leaving their 15 year old son at home with Grandma.  Now, Grandma was the first to notice something wasn’t right with this house.  It’s the middle of summer and she keeps feeling chilly gusts of wind, and can’t figure out where they’re coming from.  The teenage boy starts noticing a white powdery substance in the air, don’t get excited folks, it wasn’t that kind of white powdery dust!  The next day, puddles of water start popping up all through the house, so they call a plumber.  The plumber, of course, can’t find any reason for the water to be puddling, there were no pipes or drains anywhere around the affected areas.

A while later, Grandma is summoned to the kitchen by the boy.  He’s standing in the doorway shouting, “It’s happening again!”  She runs to see the kitchen and sees that it’s in shambles, sugar and tea leaves everywhere and the teapot is jumping around on the stove slinging boiling water everywhere.  Grandma is pissed now, she looks at the mess and out of fear and frustration she screams “Stop it now!”  So at that very moment the tea pot settles down on the stove and the room calms, suddenly there’s a loud crash that sounded like it came from the hallway.  So they run to the hallway to see what had happened, when they arrive, nothing appeared to be out of place.  As they breathed a sigh of relief, the hall light suddenly turned on by itself.   Grandma and the boy inch forward and when they turned the corner, they found what the crash was from.  There had been been a potted plant on the first step of the stairs, the plant was halfway up the stairs and it’s pot was on the landing above.

But the excitement wasn’t over.  Just as they found the plant and pot another loud noise came from the kitchen, so they run back in there and this time they see the crockery cupboard was shaking as if someone was inside trying to get out.  So the boy man’s up, walks over to the cupboard and snatches the door open, the shaking stopped immediately and of course, there was no one inside.  But then, there was another loud crashing sound somewhere else in the house.   So the kid and the old lady are starting to freak the hell out right!  Grandma and the boy go across the street where her other daughter lives, they talk her into coming over to help figure out what’s going on.  When they all return, they find the cupboard jumping around like crazy again but soon it stopped just as abruptly as it had started.

So the three of them sit around the kitchen table and talk about what had happened.  Around 9:30 the other daughter goes back home, Grandma and the boy go upstairs to go to bed.  Everything is cool until grandma stops by the boys room to say goodnight.  The second she crosses the threshold a heavy chest of drawers starts jumping around, then slides across the floor toward the boy.  So Grandma and the kid pack up and they go spend the night at the other daughters house, across the street.

So the next day, the parents and the sister get home and nothing is out of the ordinary, in fact nothing crazy happened again for almost 2 years, but when it came back, it came back with a vengeance.  Often times when guests were over, the entity liked to show off by making loud crashing noises all through the house.  Typical events in the home were along the lines of objects being thrown around or de-materializing only to show up somewhere else.  But most of all, “it” seemed to focus it’s attention on the daughter.

The first of the attacks came when she was violently thrown from her bed while sleeping one night.  Then other attacks came in the form of her being pushed or her hair pulled.  But the attacks were growing more frequent and more aggressive each time.  On one occurrence the entity managed to wrap the electrical cord of her bedside lamp around her neck while she slept, she awoke while she was being strangled.  And then there was another time when the girl was dragged up the stairs by her throat by an unseen figure that left bruises in the shape of hand prints on her neck.

At this point there were 2 exorcisms attempted, neither worked and the entity only became more aggressive.  When holy water was splashed throughout the house the “It” retaliated by painting upside down crosses on the living room walls and door and destroying all of the holy relics that the Prichard’s had placed around the house.

There was not one moments peace in this house. There was constant knocking and bumping around, and things falling to the floor.  The family members weren’t the only ones that witnessed these events either, family and friends had been present to witness, and document, plenty of these bizarre events.

Then something really strange happened, the entity manifest himself to the husband and wife when they were laying in bed one night.  It was hovering over their bed staring down at them, after a few moments it dissipated into thin air.  They both described it as a dark hooded and robed figure with no face.  Then everyone in the house began to see it, even a few of the kid’s friends.  And then all of the sudden, everything stopped, again.

So now since the movies release in 2012, the vacant, and chained, house has been visited frequently by ghost enthusiasts and thrill seekers.    Neighbors have begun reporting activity and swear that the black monk is stirring again.  The neighbor adjacent to the house saw the boy, now grown, outside cleaning the front yard.  She went over to ask if he had sold the house to one of his nephews because she knew that they were deaf;  she had been woken frequently by the television blaring at all hours.  The boy turned to her paled, and said “There’s no tv in there, the house is empty”  “Oh my god, it’s happening again!”

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Publisher page to purchase The Adrian Trilogy as a 3-Volume Set or separately, “To Be His Soulmate,” “Adrian’s Fury,” and “Adrian’s Legacy.”

My website to purchase: “Short and Gory” and “Wicked Truth.”

DonnaInk Publications Publisher’s Author Lyn Gibson Fan Page

Haunted History – Chillingham Castle

   This castle has been around since 1298 when it was a monastery.  In 1344 it became a fortified castle. That’s 719 years,   so you just know there’s some madness going on in there right!?  The castle was intended as the first line of defense, in keeping the Scots from invading England.  This was back in the day of William Wallace when the castle was ruled over by King Edward the 1st, so that should tell you right there that it has one hell of a horrifying history!

I’m gonna tell you all about it!  Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up, shall we!  As with most ancient castles, there is a dungeon!  The Chillingham dungeon is a very small room carved from the stone base.  Today, you can still see etchings in the walls where prisoners kept count of the days they had remaining, before they would be put to death.  Most of them in the earlier years of the castle, fully expected to have both arms and legs cut off or at the least broken, then be thrown down a 20 foot hole where they would starve or bleed to death; if they didn’t die from their injuries.  Those that survived the fall, were said to sometimes eat dead flesh from other bodies at the bottom of the pit.  Some would even eat chunks of their own flesh in a desperate attempt to prolong their miserable lives.  Today a steel grate covers the opening of the hole, it’s said that if you look down into the darkness that the face of a young woman will appear to you.  She was the last person killed here, but I can’t find any explanation as to who she was, or why she was punished.  All I found was that she lived for 3 days after before succumbing to her injuries.

So next up is the torture chamber!  There are some sick and deranged pieces of equipment in this room, still in working condition today!  This sucker was built with pain and torment in mind.  The floor is hewn from the stone and has a slight slope so that the blood would drain away to one side.  There’s a huge boiling pot, implements for gouging out someones eyeballs, and there are these barrels.  They’re lined with metal spikes on the inside.  They’d stuff a prisoner inside the barrel and roll them around until their flesh was ripped from their bodies.  Then they’d leave them locked inside the barrel to die in agony from their wounds.  There are also these freaky looking little cages, guess what these twisted bastards would use them for?!  This is crazy!  They would attach the cages to a prisoner’s body and put a starving rat inside.  The only way for the rat to escape was to eat through the prisoner.  That is some deranged shit right there!

What kind of twisted half breed could even think of this kind of madness!  I’ll tell you!  His name was John Sage.  Sage was one of the King’s most brutal warriors in the battlefield but one day his leg was injured in battle badly enough to end his days of fighting the King’s wars.  Sage begged the King to keep him on in some position.  The King, familiar with his vicious skills and his hatred toward the Scots, decided to name him Castle torturer.  Sage loved his new position, so much in fact that he even began creating torture devises.

Sage tortured fifty or more prisoners per week, each victim fell subject to him testing and improving his latest means of torture.  Sage thoroughly lavished in his torturing but as all good things do, it came to an end.  The war with the Scots would soon be over and his supply of prisoners would dwindle.  Furious with the threat of peace, Sage went into some of the surrounding towns and began murdering anyone he suspected to have been of Scottish descent.  When he returned to the castle, there was talk of freeing the prisoners.

Yeah, well he wasn’t up for that.  Sage rounded up all of the men, women and older children from his hordes of prisoners and leads them to the courtyard where there’s a huge bon fire burning.  They weren’t fixing to make S’mores, I’ll tell you that right now!  Sage has all of them tied up and thrown into the fire.  Hundreds of prisoners were burned to death and guess what was just within eyesight of the massive fire?  A window, in fact it was the window to the Edward room where all of the prisoner’s younger children were being held.   No doubt the ones tall enough to see out of it were watching on as their parents died agonizing deaths.  Those that couldn’t see out, surely heard their screams and smelled their burning flesh.
Sage, a battle hardened soldier, knew that if he released the children they would grow up and one day come to seek their revenge, he’d be an old man by then.  So, this evil bastard takes a small axe to the Edward room and begins hacking the kids to pieces.  These kids ranged from maybe 8 years old all the way down to infants.  His horrific act rendered the Edward room into one of the most active rooms in the entire castle.  The chandelier is said to swing  randomly, the room has a foul smell and or course a very strange atmosphere.  Glowing orbs and the faces of terrified children are often caught on film.  Their tormented screams are frequently heard and recorded by those that visit the room.

Back to Sage.  In the torture chamber there is a torture rack, on the torture rack is Sage’s girlfriend and they’re having sex.   Well he starts cranking the gears on the rack and accidentally kills the girlfriend.  Hope it was good, cause that was the last he got!  See, his girlfriends Father just happened to be a member of Border Reivers.  They were a bad ass gang of broken men and outlaws.  Needless to say Dad wanted Sage dead right then and there.

The Border Reivers were a very powerful organization that had a vast and very skilled fighting force.  Legend has it that there was a meeting between King Edward and the leaders of the gang.  The King was to have Sage killed immediately else the Reivers would join up with the Scots and launch a full scale attack on the castle.  So King Edward has Sage hanged in front of an enormous crowd.  Sage was so hated and feared that people in the crowd wanted souvenirs.  They began cutting chunks of flesh from his body, while he was still alive.  It is unknown how long Sage hanged while be mutilated before he finally died.  Fitting I would say.  So, Sage, of course is seen all over the castle and grounds and of course in his beloved torture chamber.  As we know, ghosts tend to return to the places that they loved most!

     Next up is the Great Hall that leads to the Chapel and the Minstrels gallery.  Let me clarify here, the Minstrels gallery was not a room full of PMSing women, this is where the musicians performed.  Ok back to The Great Hall.  It’s a long room with a lot of artifacts on the walls.  The most notable are a tapestry which cold spots are frequently associated with and a skull that sits on the table in front of the tapestry.  The skull is known to move all around the Great Hall on it’s own, but never leaves the room.  There are windows that line the wall that look out into the courtyard.  Ghostly children are often seen staring in through the windows.  On one investigation a small boy ghost was photographed in a chair sitting to the left of the skull.

The Minstrels gallery is a balcony that overlooks the tea room.  People have been pushed down the stairs here. Other folks have been overcome by violent waves or nausea or stabbing pains in their head while in the gallery. Huh, kind of like PMS right?!  Anyway, There is a legend that says when the tea room was being excavated, a massive toad like creature broke through the wall, took human form then disappeared.  The legends says that it is this creature that haunts the area.

Then there’s the Chapel, where walls are covered with weapons of war and flags that the King’s men would carry into battle.  The Chapel was also recently excavated and beneath the floorboards, relics and human bones were found.  Maybe that would have something to do with the fact that cameras and recorders will not work here.  Most of the time, batteries are drained completely before there is a chance to use the equipment, some of the time the equipment just will not work at all.

Next up is the Edward room, or more affectionately known as the killing room.  Among the decor is a suit of armor bearing a two handed sword.  The walls are covered with other varying types of war weapons, cow horns and flags.  The most notable relic hanging on display in the Edward room are the documents that were found with the Blue Boy when he was discovered inside the wall.

The Blue is one of the more famous of ghosts here at the castle.  Legend states that the Boy was found in possession of some documents that were given to him by the aristocrat that owned Chillingham Castle.  The documents were to be given to the Spanish Armada in order to help them defeat the English.  The documents never made it out of the castle, they were walled up in a passage way, along wit the boy they had been given to.

     While having renovations and repairs made in 1920, his bones were discovered and with them were the documents along with shards of blue fabric from his clothes.  The tips of all of his finger bones were missing. The kid tried desperately to claw himself free of his grave.

It has been reported for centuries that at the stroke of midnight the harrowing cries of the Blue boy can be heard echoing from the stone passageway adjacent to the castles “pink room”   When the last of his cries fade away, it is said that a bright halo of light appears near the four poster bed.  If you’re lucky enough to be the one sleeping in the bed, you will see the ghost of a small boy dressed in blue, illuminated by a bright halo of light.  Blue Boy is said to approach the bed and stare at those laying in it, but only for a moment, he then walks away and disappears into the very wall he was discovered buried behind.

  Another well known ghost is that of Lady Mary Berkeley.  She wanders the corridors searching for her wayward husband, Lord Grey, who actually ran off with her sister.  Dirty Bastard! Lady Berkeley doesn’t have much to say, but when she is near she definitely sends a cold chill up your spine.  That’s her in the photo on the left.

Another lady ghost is an ancestor of the Grey Family.  She has been seen stepping from out of her own paintings and following folks around the castle.  There are documents of her having done so since the Tankerville’s inhabited the castle.   Sometimes this unnamed lady is seen walking around on the grounds and throughout the castle and is often mistaken for a tour guide in period clothing.

In the library, beneath the upper chamber, the voices of two men can be heard talking.  If someone is reading or writing in the library, the ghostly conversation continues.  But if that person stops reading or writing to listen in, the voices go hush.

And then there is the white pantry ghost.  So back in the day, there was what was known as an inner pantry.  This is where the silver was stored, and a guard was assigned the task of sleeping in the pantry to protect it.  One night the sleeping guard was awoken by a pale woman wearing white, she was begging him for water.  Thinking that the woman was a lost guest, he stands up to go get her some water.  He then suddenly is reminded that he was locked in the inner pantry, there was no way out and certainly no way anyone could have gotten in.  He turns to confront the woman and guess what, you got it, she’s gone!  The same pale figure can be seen in the pantry today, still begging for that water.  Footnote here, it is thought that the insistent yearning for water is a sign of having been poisoned.

Also on the castle grounds is a picturesque and seemingly peaceful lake, yeah, not so much!  Beneath the pristine surface of the water lies the remains of thousands of Scots killed during the war with the English.  Their corpses would be piled high onto wooden carts that would be emptied into the lake.  Legend has it that the water is cursed and if you put your hand in it, the spirits of those that rest there will pull you in with them.  Impromptu Pool Party right!

The castle is presently being renovated by it’s new owner, a tremendous undertaking to say the least.  But one never knows what will be discovered while excavations and repairs are ongoing.  In earlier attempts to restore the castle, workmen discovered two skeletons, the bones of a man and child.  They were found close to a trap door near the stone arches of the underground vaults.  No one knows for certain who they were or why they were there.  Some speculate that they had been hiding during a Border Reivers attack and may have wound up trapped in their hiding place.

Workmen also discovered a small chamber in the lower dungeons.  When they opened the wall they found the perfectly preserved body of a man just sitting in a chair.  Unfortunately once the cavity filled with fresh air, the body crumbled away like ashes.

The Castle has so many ghosts that there is actually an onsite paranormal investigation staff!  It’s no wonder, the castle has been around for so very long.  There were good times and of course bad, some really bad, right!  With a record 18 knights there were bound to be problems, egos you know!  There were 8 executions within the family itself.  These were brutal events.  Some were hanged,  then, drawn and quartered.   While they were still alive, they were cut down from the gallows to have their entrails removed and as if that wasn’t enough, before their heart beat for a last time, their bodies would be cut into quarters.  Their heads were then hung on the city gates to serve as warning to others.  The luckiest of those to have been executed within the family simply had their heads cut off.  They got off easy right!?

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Publisher page to purchase The Adrian Trilogy as a 3-Volume Set or separately, “To Be His Soulmate,” “Adrian’s Fury,” and “Adrian’s Legacy.”

My website to purchase: “Short and Gory” and “Wicked Truth.”

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