Goings On

Gibraltar's often bloody early history appears to have ensured thatthe Rock's ether is populated by a remarkable array of ghosts — from the betrayed serving wench whose sepulchre figure is seen intermittently in various rooms and corridors of the Convent to that of the early 17th century guardsman who died on the flogging rack and returns to haunt the Landport tunnel on the anniversary of his lethal punishment.

And, though no-one has alleg edly seen it for more than a century, according to an Andalusian legend — fostered by the descendants of the 4,000 Spaniards who quit the Rock for San Roque soon after the British occupation three centuries ago — the headless spectre of the Duke of Medina haunts the comer of Casemates. There his severed head was hung in a basket by his Moorish executioners following his capture during a failed Spanish at tempt to invade the Rock... hence Casemates' original name La barcina (the basket).

Appropriately,the headless duke is said to haunt the square on Walpurgis Eve (30th April) — the night when all serious ghosts are said to be at their most active — but on the two occasions 1 have lurked in the square's night time shadows since first hearing the ghostly yam from an elderly San Roquan neither Medina's head nor torso has meta morphosed...

But modem Gibraltar also has its share of ghosts. Lorna Swift, the ever-helpful custodian of the Gar rison Library tells me that soon af ter her appointment she was warned that Sikorski's ghost had been known to prowl among the li brary's bookshelves.Butthe downto-earth Loma has never seen the spectre... and doesn't believe in ghosts.

"Though he visited the Rock, he didn't die in Gibraltar... and ghosts are supposed to haunt the places where they died,"she dismisses the tale firmly. "If anyone claims to have seen a ghost wandering around late at night it wasprobably me,"she adds with a characteristic laugh. "Though there is a greyhaired old gentleman who'haunts' the steps to the library late in the evenings — usually swigging from a bottle. But he is very real... just a lonely old chap with nowhere wel coming to go..."

Nevertheless,tales ofspectral ap paritions in the vicinity of the li brary gardens and in homes on the nearby Library Ramp remain and Joyce Medlin^on a partner in the silk-screen printers with premises in Garrison House — only a few steps away from Lorna Swift's bookshelves! — has vivid recoUec-

The headless duke is said to haunt the square on Walpurgis Eve — the night when all seri ous ghosts are said to be at their most active tions of her encounter with one of them. If fact the ghost's warmth and friendliness partly persuaded Ms Medlington to quit her home in the UK to settle permanently in Gi braltar earlier this year.

"I was in Gibraltar on holiday earlier in the year and was sitting on a bench in the gardens feeling very low and depressed because I didn't want to go back to the UK," she says."I was sitting on a bench facing Library Ramp when it started to rain... which made me feel worse.

"Then a voice asked 'Why are you so down?' I heard it quite clearly and it went on'Can 1 help?' 'Yes, you can help me carry my shopping up the ramp,'I answered making a joke of it. Then 1 looked up and sitting there was an elderly man—everso friendly with lovely sparkling eyes — who was wear ing ajacket and trousers that didn't match. But, though by then it was raining quite heavily, he was bone

dry."

Ms Medlington, who has had a string ofsupernatural encountersin various parts of the world,"began to shake when I realised that this was a being from beyond the grave."

"He told me.'Don't worry eve rything will be all right' and then just vanished.One moment he was sitting there and the next he was gone."

When she mentioned the weird encounter to friends with whom she was staying,they told her they had also met the friendly ghost. It would have been a "Mr Carter" who once lived in a flat on Library Ramp they told her... though noone seems to know who Mr Carter is or was! And she links her en counter with the rainproof spectral figure to a string of supernatural events which followed her return to Britain.

"Night after night ghostly figures travelling very quickly and some times accompanied by amorphous glowing orbs would rush by me. And then,on June 1 — after we had decided to settle in Gibraltar — an orange orb swept past but it was travelling more slowly," she says.

A medium whom she consulted aboutthe orbs and apparitions told Ms Medlington that she was on "some sort of supernatural mis sion" and that this would unfold after she settled in Gibraltar. Though she still doesn't know what the mission is and has had no more supernatural visitations since arriv ing on the Rock Joyce is"convinced that it will come about..."

The spirits mighteven expect her to reunite the head and torso of the hapless Duke of Medina... Who knows? Stranger things have hap pened in the world of ghosts and poltergeists...

Or so they say.

MAGAZINE EXPLORES MARITIME HERITAGE Thefourth issue of Gibraltar Her

itage is now available. Published by the Government of Gibraltar's Her itage and Planning Division,the maga zine aims to heighten awareness of Gi braltar's Heritage and heritage issues.

The magazine's contents are themed to one particular subject and in thisedi tion,Gibraltar Heritage takes a closelook at Gibraltar's Maritime history and heritage.

Gibraltar Heritage is a free magazine and is available from the Gibraltar Mu seum, the John Mackintosh Hall and points throughout Gibraltar.

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