Muncaster Castle, Cumbria

Eight of the most haunted castles in the UK

Summer is a thing of the past, the nights have drawn in, fog and mists swirl about – in places it’s all getting pretty spooky. And with Halloween approaching, what better time to face your nervousness head-on by visiting one or two of the country’s most haunted castles? Here’s our pick of the top eight creepiest castles in the UK …

1. Chillingham Castle, Northumberland

It gives you the chills just to say the name – and Chillingham Castle in Northumberland is said to be the most haunted castle in England. Within ‘The Inner Pantry’, you might be unlucky enough to encounter a frail figure dressed in white. The Chillingham Castle website explains that silver was stored in the pantry and a footman employed to sleep there and guard it. One night, when the footman had turned in to sleep, he was accosted by a lady in white. Very pale, she begged him for water. Thinking it was one of the castle guests, he turned to obey. Suddenly he remembered he was locked in and no visitor could have possibly entered! This same pale figure is seen today, and it is thought the longing for water suggests poisoning.

2. Carlisle Castle, Cumbria

Still in the North of England, but over in the Northwest, you’ll find Carlisle Castle. If you are brave enough to venture down into the dank darkness of its dungeon, you can discover the famed “licking stones” – reputed to have been worn smooth by the thousands of tongues of prisoners so dying of thirst that they licked the moisture off the walls just to stay alive. As you emerge from the darkness, look up to the Captain’s Tower, where in 1819 numerous skeletons were discovered to have been walled up in the masonry.

3. Muncaster Castle, Cumbria

Just a little further south, on the very western edge of the Lake District, near Ravenglass, sits Muncaster Castle. Ghost-sightings aplenty have been reported at Muncaster: a woman singing and a child crying in the haunted Tapestry Room; Thomas (Tom Fool) Skelton, who plays tricks on staff and visitors alike; and the Muncaster Boggle or White Lady, who is said to be the ghost of young Mary Bragg who was killed in the 1800s near the castle’s main gate.

4. Glamis Castle, Scotland

Our culture is well steeped in the stories of ghosts, so, one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Macbeth, is set at Glamis Castle, where Macbeth himself first appears as the Thane of Glamis. The Grey Lady, a woman with no tongue and awful injuries – and said to be Lady Glamis, who was burned at the stake in 1537 – can be spotted staring from the same barred window year in and year out. The ghost of Earl Beardie still haunts one of the castle’s secret rooms, where he has been holed up gambling with the devil until the end of time. Haunted it may be, but Glamis Castle is also one of the UK’s most beautiful castles and home to the young Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the ancestral seat to the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne since 1372.