Spooky Sunday

Finally got round to visiting Gwydir Castle, near Llanrwst today, albeit in pouring rain. I'm particularly pleased with the interior shots here, partly because they were taken on a quarter-of-a-second exposure (without flash of course) and I think they've come out surprisingly well. But also because it turns out photography (even without flash) was supposedly forbidden inside the house, despite the lack of signs stating this and the failure of the guy who sold us the tickets mentioning it. Neverthless, they're certainly not shy about telling off their paying visitors if, like me, you are heinous enough to do so in blissful ignorance. Pity, because up until that point it was a very enjoyable, atmospheric visit, depsite the rain. Being talked down to by a posh twat does spoil the mood somewhat.

Anyway, on to the ghosts. Gwydir is the ancestral home of the important North Wales family the Wynnes and has a long-established haunted room. The apparition of a young woman has been seen in and around the 'Ghost Room' and she is linked to a horrible, unearthly smell of decay which has also sometimes been detected. Legend has it the ghost is of a servant seduced by one of the past Wynnes who was murdered by him and her body secreted in a chimney breast backing on to the room. A sizeable cavity has been found in this chimney and is now labelled a 'priest hole'.

According to the house's website, www.gwydircastle.co.uk, other ghosts have been reported here, including that of the first Sir John Wynne (said to be so wicked that his spirit is trapped at the bottom of the Swallow Falls in Betws until it is washed and purified), a 'procession' on the Great Terrace and the apparition of a dog, possibly the one whose skeleton was found some years ago in the cellar. The eerie sound of children crying has been heard, too.

Another story regarding Gwydir Castle is eluding me: something about some history project by schoolchildren leading to a strange 'coincidence' but I am unable to find a reference to it. Perhaps it was something I was simply told many years ago back in the days when I'd stopped writing about ghosts and folklore. Perhaps I simply forgot to take a note of it. Bother. If I find a reference or remember it, I'll let you know.

When I asked Janet Bord to compile her top ten favourite haunted houses (that are open to the public) for an article for Paranormal Magazine last year, she voted Gwydir number one, for its atmosphere. When me, James and Rosie first arrived and were alone in the the house - pre-telling off - we could certainly understand why.

Spooky Sunday

Here's a sneak peak of an article that will be going in issue 50 of Paranormal magazine. Richard Freeman, of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, is interested in ghosts as well as strange creatures and has written a piece on bizarre ghosts he's come across through reading up on the subject. I'm goint to get a couple of other writers to do the same because it's a fun idea. I've also asked Jonathan Edwards to illustrate them, because I knew he'd come up with some stylish, fun imagery. This is his illustration for the following brief story from Richard's article:

"During a poltergeist outbreak in Kilakee, Ireland, in the 1960s, furniture exploded, pools of glue manifested themselves and the house in question was invaded by a swarm of phantom hats. The hats seemed to come from all ages and styles, including Victorian top hats and bonnets as well as modern hats. The swarm of hats vanished as quickly as it had come and no explanation for them was ever found."

Spooky Sunday

I picked this book up for a few quid on a second-hand book stall last weekend. I've got a fair view of the Hitchcock-edited horror paperbacks but have never seen this large format hardback aimed at younger readers before. It's a 1962 first edition published by Random House (and therefore a US print - perhaps it was only published in the States). The illustrations are the real treat, especially those on the covers and endpapers. I love the Hitch-cum-Nosferatu shadow.

Spooky Sunday x 2

Two full-page illustrations for Conan Doyle's The Land of Mist. In the top picture, a man sees the spirit of his mother at a seance; below it the psychic investigators encounter a 'dark soul' in a haunted house, a malevolent shadow that swoops down on them from the upper storey. They are from the September and October 1925 editions of The Strand respectively.