This poorly maintained double chimney home is located on the northwest corner of 5th and North Missouri in Roswell, New Mexico. The home appears to be occupied as evidenced by the dim light issuing from the lower story window. I don’t know if I would have the nerve to spend the night in this gloomy, derelict structure. No doubt its walls conceal many dark secrets. Locals do not even allow their children to trick or treat here.

This home is thought by many to be inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or knew something about the property. An article, written many years ago, in the local newspaper claims a murder, an accidental death, and a suicide  occurred within the walls of this haunted house.

For those of you who believe that ghosts, spectres, and haunted houses are the stuff of horror movies or caused by carbon monoxide induced deliriums, I invite you to spend one night in this home!

Death comes to us all. It is, has been said, the great leveller, so we all, in our own way seek direct knowledge and understanding of the afterlife. Some of us choose to do this through the conduit of religion and the intermediary of the priest, others through direct intervention, many deny the possibility of an afterlife. But then it is much easier to believe in a God than it is for a sentient being to comprehend non-existence.

How often in our lives have we had experiences that defy logical explanation. That feeling of deja vu, the fear that is realised, the dream that comes true, hearing our name whispered on the wind. When science has no answers and the religious texts are found wanting.

Is there another way. Are we unknowingly in frequent contact with the dead. Do we live multiple lives in parallel universes. Is our existence the only one, or are we part of a cycle of eternal being.

The history of spiritualism is a fraught one. It has had many prominent supporters, people of intellect and education, but it has also been open to fraud and the home of charlatans and swindlers. Yet, does the fact that so many mediums have been proven to be fraudulent in turn mean that spirits do not exist? Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes who was a fully qualified doctor and had studied forensic science, was a firm believer. Though he often cast a critical eye upon its upon its more tawdry goings-on. Rudyard Kipling turned to spiritualism to discover the fate of his son who had disappeared on the Western Front during World War One. Other prominent Victorians such as the poet Robert Browning and George Eliot, both of whom were regular attendants at seances, were more openly dismissive. 

Spiritualism reached its apex during the Victorian period. This was also the time when the greatest number of frauds were uncovered. The most famous medium of her age was Helena Petrovna “Madame” Blavatsky. A Russian emigre who spent time in Egypt and Ceylon before finally settling in Rochester, New York, where she made her name as a medium famed for her telepathy, clairvoyance, and ability to levitate. In September,1875, she founded the Theosophical Society, which had at its heart a philosophy that believed it had a mystical insight into the nature of God and the soul of man. It taught that all religions have truth in their inner-teachings but are corrupted by their external manifestations. 

After her many wanderings, Madame Blavatsky settled in London where her fame grew ever greater. Though, she was to cease taking seances and concentrate on her writing. She died at her St John’s Wood home on 8 May, 1891. Her last words were reported to be, ” don’t let them break the link.” 

The most famous medium working in England at the time was the Scot’s born David Dunglas Home. Like Blavatsky before him he had found fame in America before returning to England. He was fond of exposing those mediums he believed were frauds who always carried their seances out in virtual darkness, revealing the tricks they used to the world. As a result he always insisted that his seances be conducted in the brightest light. He was most famous for being able to levitate himself out of one window only to return through the open window of an adjacent room. Those who witnessed it swore they saw no props. However, neither with Home or Blavatsky is there a great deal of evidence that they successfully communicated with the dead. Indeed, one regular visitor to their seances described them as little more than a series of foot tappings, creaking of doors, and knocking of tables. 

Likewise, the many reported sightings of ghosts and unknown phenomenon have been widely disparaged. The many photographs taken have largely been shown to be fakes. Indeed, technology now is so advanced that the most elaborate hoaxes can be perpetrated on an unsuspecting, if these days, more sceptical public. In Victorian times such attempts at manipulation were crude in the extreme.

Ghosts, Spirits and Angels – are they a fact, a desire, or merely wish-fulfillment. I know what I believe, and I really do believe it. Do you believe? Or do you think it is so much eyewash. What makes you think you know. Can everything in your life be so easily explained? Here are some photos.

The Brown Lady of Raynham

This photograph was taken by a Captain Provland in, 1936. It has never been proved to be a fake. The apparition in question is believed to be that of Lady Dorothy Townsend, the wife of Sir Charles Townsend 2nd Viscount Raynham. She is believed to have died in 1726, but the rumour has always persisted that her funeral had been faked and that she had in fact been kept in incarceration by her husband for her well-known infidelities until her death much later. In 1837, Captain Francis Marryat had seen her and in his panic had fired his pistol. He later said that the bullet went right through her. She was described as having skin that glowed with a pale luminescence but that her eyes appeared to have been gouged out. 

This photograph was taken in 1919, and is of a Royal Flying Corps squadron that had previously fought in World War One. The character who appears behind the man in the photo inset, is Freddy Jackson, who had died three days prior to the photo being taken in a tragic accident. 

Lord Combermere’s Ghost

Lord Combermere had been a distinguished military officer who was struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage in great old age in 1891. This photograph was taken in the library of Combermere Hall by Sybell Corbett just as Lord Combermere was being buried 4 miles away.

A Ghost on Packhorse Bridge near Wrexham

Chirch Castle, Wales

An Angel in the sky 

York is a city in the north of England, it is a place I have visited many times, it is a town I love to visit, as it is steeped in history, and culture, and ghostly goings on. York is an ancient city, which dates back to the Roman conquest, and it is reputedly the most haunted city in the world, with around 500 separate haunting or haunted sites. The treasurers house in York was built upon the site of an ancient Roman road, and this is where our first haunting takes place. While working as an apprentice plumber in the basements of the treasurers house, young Harry Martindale, heard the sounds of a horn in the distance, the sound got closer and louder then after a short while a large horse appeared to come through the wall, and it was ridden by a Roman soldier, the soldier was followed by a number of foot soldiers, all dressed in green tunics,and complete with plumed helmets, the soldiers appeared to be marching on their knees until they came to a part of the cellars that had been excavated, then they appeared as though they were walking on the old Roman road.

Moving on a few hundred years, we come to the sixteenth century, and the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st, the queen being a protestant had a great deal of opposition from the catholics of the time, some even plotted to over throw her, one such man was Thomas Percy The Earl of Northumberland, Percy was captured, tried and then beheaded in the city of York, to deter other potential usurpers, his head was set upon a pole at a place known as Micklegate, the head was left there to rot, and the body was buried separately in the grounds of The Holy Trinity Church, and even today his headless body can be seen staggering among the tombstones, presumably looking for his long lost head.

Staying with the Tudors, Cathrine Howard the 4th wife of Henry the 8th stayed at the old Kings Manor shortly before her execution in 1541, she can be seen from time to time walking through what used to be the old gardens, she is usually seen carrying roses.

Does the spirit of Alice Smith haunt Lunds Court (formerly Mad Alice Lane) Alice was hanged in 1825 at York Castle for the heinous crime of being insane.

Late in the 12th century there was a lot of anti Semitic feeling in the kingdom the feeling spread to York, and in 1190 it erupted in violence, and many Jews were killed, about 150 sought sanctuary in Clifford’s Tower in York Castle, the castle was surrounded by the mob, and the Rabbi suggested to his followers that they commit suicide rather than face the mob outside, some took their own lives, but others did not, those who didn’t commit suicide were promised safety by the mob if they came out, they came out but were then massacred just the same. It is said in folklore that on the anniversary of the slaughter the castle grounds are stained red, and the Walls weep blood.

Is it the drink? There are many haunted pubs in York and many apparitions have been seen in them, there has even been a nursery rhyme written about one of them a certain George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, the Duke lived during the reign of Charles the second, and he is said to haunt The Cock and Bottle which is on the site of the Dukes old home, the nursery rhyme is Georgie Porgiie.

In the cellars of The Old Star Inn screams can be heard as these basements were used as a hospital  during the English civil war, it is thought that the screams are from soldiers who were having limbs amputated.

The Punchbowl in days gone by was an establishment where ladies of negotiable virtue plied their trade, one of the ladies was strangled by a would be client, when she spurned his advances, and she is said to haunt  the pub. Are these stories true? Or are they spirits from the spirits.

The area of Bedern is an old part of York and by the mid 19th century it had declined into a slum, it was in this area that a man called George Pimm opened an orphanage which was funded by the church, George was paid handsomely for taking in the waifs and strays off the city streets, he was paid so much per child per week, to feed clothe and educate the children, but George was a greedy man and he started hiring the children out as cheap labour. In Pimm’s care the children were malnourished and poorly clothed, and consequently many of them died of hunger, disease, and the cold, at first he reported the deaths, and the children were given a Christian burial, but once they were dead George no longer got paid for them, so being the greedy man that he was instead of notifying the church of the deaths he just hid the corpses, and left them to rot, so that he could carry on claiming the allowance for them. However after several months Pimm started hearing voices and screams coming from the tormented souls of the dead children. There is now the possibility of two endings to this tale, there may be more but I have only heard two, firstly when George started hearing the screams, and the voices, he took to drink for solace, but the voices and screams still came, and when he started telling others about his experiences he was locked in the local asylum, and four months later he hung himself, in a suicide note he blamed the voices and screams of the dead children. In the second version George allegedly went mad, and took a large knife and massacred the remaining children, he was found the next morning gibbering amongst the corpses of the dead, he was then taken to the lunatic asylum where he spent the rest of his days. Whichever outcome you decide is true (if either) the ghosts of the dead children can still be heard in the area, and visitors have reported a chill in the air, and a feeling that something is tugging at their clothing, one visitor even said she had the sensation of a child like hand holding hers.

These are just a few of the many ghost stories being told and re-told in and around the ancient city of York, sweet dreams to all, and don’t forget to look under the bed before you get in it.

Image by The Library of Virginia via Flickr

The Ghostly Cavalry

Together with a Corporal Barr he went picking up post and rations. They started back to the camp at about three-thirty. It was far from dark. On his right, Wentworth Day saw a fantastic wood of larch and birch, with thin trees, torn and twisted into grotesque shapes by shell blast: “It was a Hans Andersen wood of Arthur Rackham trees through whose sun-reddened trunks we could see cloud-masses lit with a Cuyp-like glow.”

Suddenly, as they splashed through the sunset pools of that deserted road, German cavalry swept out of that “spectral wood”. A dozen or more German Uhlans “in those queer high-topped hats which they had worn in the dead days of 1914″ charged and up the slope to meet them, Wentworth Day saw some French dragoons in their brass cuirasses, sabres upswung, plumes dancing from their helmets. They also charged to meet the Germans with their slender lances… but then the vision passed and there was no clash of mounted men, only the empty land and a thin wood of silver in the setting sun.

“Did you see anything?” Wentworth Day glanced at Corporal Barr, who looked white and uneasy.

“Aye… something mighty queer,” the Corporal said.

They reached camp, oddly shy of talking too much. The next day, at Neuve Eglise, “that skeleton of a village on the spine of the Ravelsberg”, Wentworth Day asked a peasant about the wood.

“Ah! M’sieu, that wood is a very sad wood, you know! It is on the frontier… a wood of dead men! In the wars of Napoleon, in the war of 1870, in this Great War… the cavalry of France and Germany have always met each other by that wood…”

And the man showed Wentworth Day the graves of the cavalry of all these wars in the tiny churchyard…

Image via Wikipedia

The Spectres of Crécy

A Colonel Shepheard, who was a staff colonel during the First World War, told Wentworth Day another strange story. 

He was travelling in a car from Hazebrouck to Wimereux, together with a French captain as interpreter and aide. They dined and slept at Wimereux and the colonel dreamed he was riding the same road again, in the same car and trough the same villages. But this time, the car slowed down and stopped in one of these villages. And there, out of the earth on each side of the road, rose up the hooded, cloaked figures of silent men, thousands of them, and every man was staring fixedly at him – sadly, pitifully, endlessly… Their cloaks were grey, almost luminous, with a fine, silvery bloom on them like moths’ wings. When he touched one, it came off on his fingers in a soft dust…

Slowly, they all sank back into the ground… The next morning at breakfast, Colonel Shepheard told his French aide of his dream. The officer listened to him without saying a word.

“You know the name of that village near where your car stopped?” the French officer asked him when he finished his story. 

Colonel Shepheard described him the village he had seen twice: once in reality, once in his dream. And the French officer nodded: “Sure… It was Crécy indeed!… You have seen in your dream the archers who died on Crécy field in 1346, sir!”

Image via Wikipedia

Back to Report

Wentworth Day also related the true story Major S.E.G. Ponder told him, the Oriental traveller and novelist. Ponder served in World War One as a Regular gunner in a Heavy Battery of the Royal Artillery under a Major Apultree.

On a night in autumn 1916, a Captain “A” and a Lieutenant “B” were ordered to go up the German trenches, so Captain A could show Lieutenant B the field of fire. The parapet and the parados were built mainly of the bodies of dead Germans. For some reason they dead didn’t to decompose there, on the Somme. It had something to do with the soil. They simply looked like alabaster.

The Boches put down a heavy barrage that night and neither A nor B showed up. Ponder wasn’t particularly worried about them as there were several deep dug-outs they could get into.

Next morning, about six – he was having a mug of tea in the mess – Apultree appeared in the door. He was dead white and shaking like a leaf. “I’ve seen B,” he muttered. “But he’s dead!…”

And then, Apultree told Ponder how B had suddenly appeared in the door of his dug-out. “Ah! You’re back to report?” Apultree asked.

“Yes, sir! But only to tell you I was killed last night, sir!”

And indeed, there was a shell splinter at the back of his ear and right trough his head. Apultree saw it clearly, no doubt about that… before B disappeared forever.

Image via Wikipedia

More Great War Stories:

The Angels of Mons

In Flanders’ Fields

A Poet of the Great War: Wilfred Owen

We sigh out of relief, and are glad to be safe at home. But there are places where the dead walk, where the cursed vent their rage still. There are castles where terrible events have shattered the walls between this world and the next. In such locations the dead are restless and troubled; thus they remain trapped in purgatory. This is a brief look at three such locations in the rain swept land of Scotland, but bear in mind that there are thousands of castles, all of them with their own dark stories.

Edinburgh Castle

The most famous and most touristic of the Scottish castles has more than its fair share of ghosts. The castle sits atop a basalt plug left by a dying volcano. Millenia ago during the last ice age this rock resisted the advance of great glaciers, which crashed into it and were forced around it carving out the valleys on either side of castle rock. This affords Edinburgh castle the perfect defensive position, and it has been used for this purpose since ancient times. Beneath the castle itself lies an interconnected web work of countless tunnels and passages. Many are known and many more kept secret. It is rumored that all of Edinburgh is accessible through this most secret network.

A century ago, when the passages were first stumbled upon, a piper was lowered down into the tunnels and sent to explore them. With the simple instruction to keep playing his bag pipes so those above could chart his progress, the brave piper descended into the depths. For a while the haunting music of the pipes drifted up to those at the entrance. Suddenly the music stopped and a lonely silence descended upon the corridors.

Search parties were swiftly organized and sent down into the tunnels, but the lonely piper was never seen nor heard of since. Often, his drifting music can be heard in the castle as the lonely piper walks for ever more, trapped in the ancient catacombs beneath Edinburgh.

To travel further back into the ages past, we find another occupant who has haunted this castle since the 17th century. The headless ghost of a young boy hammering on his drums was spotted before Oliver Cromwell’s attack on September 3rd 1650. The headless boy has been seen since, always before an attack of some sort upon the capital.

Aside from the aforementioned notables, countless other ghosts haunt the castle (even ghosts of dogs). Having had such well used dungeons, where thousands lost their lives, has made Edinburgh castle one of the most unpleasant places for the living to stay. The feeling of great distress seeps out of the walls and into the souls of those who stay there. No doubt those who faded away in the dank dungeon have marked the place, their horror and despair carved in the rocks and bricks, drifting like a chill wind in the corridors. Think of these poor souls who now wander the darkness forever, trapped in the eternal nightmare caused by their violent deaths, and by the trauma of their captivity. Even those who have no knowledge of Edinburgh Castle’s grim past, soon flee in terror if left alone during the night, such is the feeling of despair that hangs saturated in the air beneath the castle.

Dunnottar Castle

With the infamous reputation as being the most haunted castle in all of Scotland, Dunnottar Castle naturally has a long and bloody history. The site was in use before even history began and has survived despite being sieged countless times and often destroyed only to be rebuilt later. Dark shadows walk the crumbling parapets, while the air takes on an icy edge. Those brave enough to enter the castle at night will hear the cries of the tormented souls drift in from the direction of the cliffs, or feel the shudder run up their spine as ghostly whispers slice at the silence. Perhaps it is no surprise that the historian Beattie of Caledonia, wrote about the place;
“To him who is familiar with history, Dunnottar speaks with an audible voice. Every cave has a record, every turret has a tongue…”

Its patchwork history began when St. Ninian built a church within the castle grounds. Come the year 681 the castle was besieged. Two centuries later in 900 the castle fell to the Vikings. In 934, the King Aethelstan of Wessex rampaged through Scotland. Thoughout the site’s stormy history of this period, various churches were thrown up to be just as quickly destroyed. Still the death toll rose.

By the end of the 13th century, the castle had grown into a small village; with a chapel, barracks, stables, and a graveyard. Barely three years before the turn of the century, in 1297, William Wallace sacked the castle and slaughtered its occupants – burning them alive in the church. The castle changed hands frequently as prior owners were driven off or slaughtered. An example of a typical episode occurred in 1685 when anti-Royalist Covenanters were imprisoned along with their families in the black depths. 160 people, women and children included, were tortured and subjected to slow agonizing deaths from malnourishment and brutality. That cliff of sorrows gained its specters when a few of these poor families attempted to escape down it. Dunnottar, even in this modern and enlightened age of ours, is still a terrifying place best visited during the day lest the specters of the night claim yet more victims.

Glamis Castle

One of the most stunningly beautiful castles to ever have been built in Scotland, Glamis Castle rises up like a Walt Disney fairytale castle, with its myriad of turrets rising up and piercing the sky. Since the 14th century its occupants have been extending it, so that it is a number of structures layered around each other, no doubt concealing a myriad of hidden spaces. The last such modification turned it into a grand baronial mansion.

It is the family home of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne and was the childhood home of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mum). Due to its royal history it is featured on the back of the Royal Bank of Scotland £10 note.

The castle is located near Angus, and its estate covers 14,000 acres (21.8m2) of the valley of Strathmore. The castle’s history is steeped in myth and legend, and it has a grim past as if to make up for its beauty. It has monsters, and demons, vampires, and the Devil himself who turned up to play cards with the unfortunate Earl Beardie. As if it didn’t have enough going for it, the castle is also believed by many to be the setting of Shakespeare’s cursed play; Macbeth.

A Grey Lady, haunts the family chapel, and it is suspected that she is the spirit of Lady Janet Douglas, who walks the corridors for all eternity, unable to find peace after her horrific death in 1537. She was burned at the stake as a witch on Castle Hill in Edinburgh having been charged of a plot kill the King (with poison). She has been spotted on a number of occasions, and may have been the inspiration behind J.K. Rowling’s Grey Lady in the Harry Potter series.

Another lady haunts the castle, and her ghost has been seen looking out of a barred window into the grounds and running about in the park, making sure that terrified witnesses get a good look at her mutilated face before disappearing off into the castle. She has no tongue, a clue to the horrors she suffered in her life, but history tells us nothing of who she was nor why she haunts the castle.

Last but not least is the infamous Earl Beardie, also known in his day as Alexander, Earl Crawford. It is said that he was staying in the castle one night as a guest, when in a drunken state he demanded a game of cards with his hosts, who flatly refused. Earl Beardie flew into an inconsolable rage, and declared that he would even play cards with the Devil himself to satisfy his thirst for the game. This had no sooner been uttered from his lips when a stranger hammered at the door, and inquired after Lord Beardie, asking if he fancied a game of cards. They holed themselves in one of the rooms, and began to play cards. No one knows how that game finished for screams and curses and yelling and cries of anguish issued forth, interspersed with the sound of rattling dice, and then silence as the stranger and the Earl disappeared. They say it was the Devil himself, and he took the Earl’s soul with him. Others say you can hear them playing still, in a secret room through which no door can reach.

Those who are not familiar with Scotland might be surprised by the sheer number of castles, but there are thousands of them, some crumbling ruins, some converted into flats and mansions, hotels and golf clubs. All have their own history, their own stories, none of them have escaped unscathed or unbloodied. All have had blood spilled in their halls, all have ghosts, all have hidden secrets. Remember and visit some of them next time you find yourself in bonny Scotland.