Muncaster has more than its fair share of ghosts. The shade of one of the
previous owners, Sir William Pennington, stalks the halls, while Mary Bragg's
spirit wanders the grounds.
Mary Bragg
Mary's story begins, or shall we say, ends, on a dark night at the parson's
house. Mary was the housekeeper for the pastor, but on this night, he was away.
Late in the evening, two men from the castle came to tell her that her lover, the
footman, was dangerously ill. They wanted her to come right away, but Mary told
them she wanted to wait until the morning. The men told Mary if she waited until
morning, her lover would be dead. That persuaded her to go with them and they
set off towards the castle.
Mary began to get suspicious when she realized the horses' hooves were
covered to silence the sound. Before she could call for help, the coach stopped
on a lonely stretch of moonlit road. The two men flanked the coach on both
sides, grabbed her, and dragged her into the woods.
Mary Bragg's body was found the next day by a local farm boy. The
murderers had thrown it into a patch of undergrowth, hoping the predators would
get to it before someone discovered it. The boy reported it to the gamekeeper,
who had it taken up to one of the outbuildings. The people at the castle wanted
to keep the body under wraps, but the news eventually leaked out to the police.
The next day a coroner was called.
By then the body had vanished. It turned up several weeks later in the
river. After being badly mangled by the eels, the coroner couldn't say what had
killed Mary. Soon after the investigation was closed (no one was prosecuted),
everyone involved with the murder, including the gamekeeper and coroner, died
mysteriously.
After her death in 1805, the specter of Mary Bragg began haunting the
grounds. Many of today's motorists have noticed a worried-looking woman
beside the road, staring off into the trees. A few others have even hit someone;
however, when they step out of their car to check on the person, they find that no
one is there.
The tree near where Mary Bragg was killed is also supposed to be cursed.
In fact, when it began to creep over the road and become dangerous to motorists,
no one could be found to cut it down.
The castle owners finally had to hire an out-of-town contractor to block off
the road and fell the tree. Everything seemed to go fine at first, but as the
contractor went to chainsaw off a branch near the top, warm blood spurted all
over him. It may have been a hibernating bat or maybe even a publicity stunt, but
the locals' fears were confirmed. In the end, no one would buy the wood, and it
had to be shipped out of the county.
Tom Fool
Another shade that haunts Muncaster is the ghost of Tom Fool. He was
Muncaster's court jester and he died around 1600. He was a thoroughly evil
fellow.
Legend has it that he murdered a local carpenter under the orders of Sir
Ferdinand Pennington, the owner of the castle at that time. Apparently, the
carpenter had fallen in love with Sir Ferdinand's daughter, Helwise. To prevent
such an unsuitable marriage, Sir Ferdinand paid Tom to kill him. Tom murdered
the poor fellow by chopping off his head, and he gleefully brought it back as
proof to his master that he'd done the deed.
The Tapestry Room
The Tapestry Room is one of the most haunted rooms in Muncaster
Castle. The staff have often watched tourists walk in the door, only to back out.
They don't know why they don't want to go in, but the foreboding atmosphere can
be overwhelming. The room often feels cold and the rustling of old fashioned
skirts are heard on many occasions. Also, guests who have slept in that room have
often had unpleasant experiences.
When the late Lord Carlisle spent the night in the Tapestry Room, he was
rudely awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a baby crying very
close to him. However, there was no human baby in the castle that night. Others
have reported similar incidents, and a few have heard a woman trying to soothe the
baby. One person said the sound of a disembodied voice singing lullabies was
even worse than the crying.
A young woman who stayed in the castle, alone, also had a frightening
experience in the Tapestry Room. That night, after she had settled in, she heard
strange footsteps outside her door and it slowly creaked open. She quickly sat up and switched on the light, but no one was there. The next night she was terrified to hear the footsteps again. This time, the sound of children singing accompanied it.
In the 1980's, a man called James Cartland stayed a night in the Tapestry
Room. He was in bed for a short time before something mysterious began to
happen. A muffled muttering filled the room and a child began to weep from a
dark corner of the room. As if that wasn't enough, later, another ghostly person
entered the room and a woman's voice began to try to calm the child.
Prompted by these incidents, Mr. Cartland began to search through the
castle's blueprints. He found an old plan that showed the Tapestry Room had
been used as a nursery during the mid 1800's.
After the numerous reports of hauntings, the Association for the Scientific
Study of Anomalous Phenomena sent a team to spend a night in the most
haunted rooms of Muncaster.
One of the team members, Malanie Warren, was coming from the King's
Room when she saw a shadow going into the Tapestry Room. She thought it
was another investigator going to check out some unusual activity in Ian
Topham's assigned room. Malanie followed it, but when she got to the Tapestry Room, she only found a very white-faced Ian.
The shadow hadn't been another investigator. Ian said the figure had
walked through the open wooden door and paused. When it started walking
towards him, he knew it wasn't human. It was three-dimensional and very dark,
but Ian couldn't make out any features. When it got within a few feet of him, it
simply vanished.
After that, the Tapestry Room became quite well-known and several groups
requested to stay the night in there. Many of them got more excitement than they
bargained for.
In the summer of 1998, a group of students requested to spend the night in
the Tapestry Room. Most of them slept on the floor, but one lucky girl got to
sleep in the antique bed. It turned out she wasn't so lucky. In the middle of the
night, she was awakened by a heavy weight dropping onto her. Terrified, she
woke up the others, but no one would confess to pulling a prank on her.
Previously, another group of students slept there, but this time a young
man slept in the four poster bed. He was just about to drift off to sleep when he
felt a prescence. Opening his eyes, he saw a hooded figure leaning over the bed. Thinking it was his friend playing a joke, he looked to his left. His friend was sound asleep on the floor, and when he got the courage to look back to where the hooded
figure was, no one was there.
You may be able to negotiate to stay in the Tapestry Room; however, they charge a
small fee for an overnight stay. Be warned, though! Because of the castle's
alarm system, once you're in, you can't get out until morning.