It’s a cold Northumberland evening and the stone walls of Chillingham Castle seem to be holding their breath. Vistors have reported feeling an unseen hand on their arm, their camera seemingly unable to take a picture of the orbs and lighting they were seeing with their very own eyes, seeing a pale child wandering the halls, and hearing distinct whispering. But long before it became famous for it’s ghost stories, Chillingham was infact a fortress that was built solely for survival on one of the most dangerous borders in medieval Britain.
The question is… is Chillingham Castly truly haunted, or are it’s ghost stories simply echoes of a grim and violent past?
Photo Credit: Chillingham Castle (Public Domain)
A Fortress on the Border
Chillingham Castle, located just 20 minutes from the coast, is a 13th century fortress that has been home to the Grey family and all their descendants since 1246. It was however initially built in the 12th century as a monastery. 1344 is when it became the fully fortified Chillingham Castle we know of today.
Chillingham served as a critical English stronghold during the Anglo-Scottish border wars; it acted as a crucial staging post for English royal armies and a strong base for the Marcher Lords. This unfortunately though made it a frequent target for Scottish sieges and raids. Chillingham was often under attack and had it’s fair share of Royal visitors such as King Henry III, King Edward I, and James I. Charles I infact stayed there only three nights before he was imprisoned for refusing to compromise his power.
When Sir Thomas de Heaton gained a licence to add battlements, Chillingham was completed with dungeons, torture chambers, and adopted a quadrangular design with four large towers in each corner. During the Pilgrimage of Grace, Chillingham was damaged and some of the towers needed to be re-built. This was completed in the Tudor & Stuart times.
In the Middle Ages, Northumberland was the most dangerous county in England due the fact that the border with Scotland only ran a few miles North. The land belonged to no one and everyone so armies marched through regularly and raids occurred nightly – living here only filled you with a sense of unease.
The Castle’s Dark Reputation
Many modern tours highlight a torture chamber beneath the castle. While the fortress undoubtedly witnessed violence during centries of border wars, historians debate how much of it’s grim reputation is based on documented evidence and how much has grown through later storytelling.
John Sage: Real or Not?
One of the most common legends told about Chillingham Castle is the one regarding a torturer named John Sage. The legend tells stories of 7,500 dead, courtyard burnings, children being axed in the King Edward Room, and how Sage met his own gruesome end. The one main thing to know though… there is no record of John Sage actually ever existing!
John Sage, an injured lieutnant turned torturer, appeared in no historical documents whatsoever and the numbers attached to him portray a death toll larger than most border town populations. The legend of Sage does initiate a discussion surrounding Chillingham’s solidly documented history and if he is just a ‘character’. Some even say that the real torture chamber cannot even be seen by visitors, but instead lies under the tea room. What do you think?
Dark History
During the Second World War, an excavation was conducted in the castle grounds by a German POW and several flint & antler arrowheads and axes were found dating all the way back to the Bronze Age. These tools may actually be evidence of a prehistoric hunting camp or potentially even war!
The First Scottish War of Independence started in 1297, and in that exact year William Wallace’s forces raided and burned local women and children alive in a church. In 1298, it is documented in Edward I’s “The Hammer of the Scots” that he made Chillingham his base and his dungeons were filled with ‘enemy prisoners’ – Scottish women, children, soldiers, and spies. The legend of John Sage is also linked to this as he is said to have been personally appointed by King Edward I himself.
During the nineteenth century, renovators began working on Chillingham and there were some grim findings. The skeletons of a man and child hidden nearby a trap door leading to the underground vaults and the skeleton of a young child bricked up inside a wall are just a couple of discoveries.
The Famous Ghosts of Chillingham
Chillingham Castle has a very interesting history, however, it is more known for being Britain’s most haunted castle and allegedly has some of the highest levels of paranormal activity ever seen in the country! Richard Craig, Chillingham’s very own ghost hunter, has reported thast there are 50 ghosts on the premises.
Chillingham’s haunted reputation is notably more recognised now due to it’s current owners, but there is evidence that historically there have been other ghostly experiences. The American heiress Leonora Van Marter, who actually lived in Chillingham at one point, wrote in a pamphlet published in 1925 about her experiences with the spirits there. Leonora’s first experience in fact came to her in a dream where her deceased brother-in-law greeted her at the gates of her home-to-be.
The Blue Boy
The most notorious Chillingham ghost story is that of the ‘Blue Boy’ or the ‘Radiant Boy’ who haunts the ‘Pink Room’.
Stories say that the Pink Room was occupied by a spirit known as the Blue or Radiant Boy who would manifest itself with fearful or painful cries and then glow radiantly upon the stroke of midnight. These cries would always apparently come from a spot near a passage that is cut through the 10-foot-thick wall. As mentioned previously, the skeleton of a young child was discovered in one of the walls of the Pink Room. This boy supposedly discovered the documents in the castle relating to the Spanish Invasion of 1588 and to silence him he was bricked up within the wall…alive. The body discovered was, according to general belief, wrapped in scraps of blue cloth and very sadly showed evidence of having tried to scratch his way out.
Stories also said that as the cries faded away, a bright light would appear, and the apparation of the young boy would slowly approach those sleeping in the room. Interestingly, when the Pink Room was restored, guests kept reporting that there was an ‘electrical fault’ due to the fact that a blue flash kept appearing around the edge of the door. The creepy thing is though, there was no electricity in that room at all!
Lady Mary Berkeley
Lady Mary Berkeley was the wife of Lord Grey of Wark and in 1682 he ran away with her younger sister, Henrietta, after having an affair with her. He never returned and Lady Mary remained alone at Chillingham with her baby daughter until her passing in 1710. Her ghost is reported to remain there in the ‘Great Hall’ and is mainly associated with the smell of roses and a spine-tingling chill.
Stories say that the sound of Lady Mary’s dress can be heard rustling along the passage and is accompanied by a cool breeze. Could this be Lady Mary wandering the halls looking for her husband?
The White Pantry Ghost
‘The Inner Pantry’ was where the castle’s silver was stored and it was a footman’s duty to sleep here and guard it. This footman is said to have one night, woken up to a pale woman in white asking him for a drink of water. He turned to get this for her, assusming she was a guest of the castle, but when he turned back around she had disappeared. Creepily the door was still locked as it originally was – so how did the woman get in and out? Experiences are still reported to this day, and the theory is that the woman’s longing for water is associated with poisoning.
The Ghost in the Chamber
Some ghost stories are simply just ‘feelings’ – a sense that something is there but you cannot see it. This is exactly what is reported in the torture chamber.
Voices in the Chapel
Other experiences of audible hauntings are reported inside the Chapel which is located next to the ‘Great Hall’ where Lady Mark Berkeley is said to roam. There are reports of two men having an unintelligible conversation in here and if visitors try really hard to locate where the voices are coming from they just simply stop.
Whether it’s ghosts are real, imaginary, or somewhere in-between, Chillingham Castle remains one of Britain’s most fascinating and popular historic sites. It’s crumbling walls have witnessed war, fear, loyalty, betrayal, and centuries of storytelling. Perhaps that is why the castle continues to captivate visitor’s today – not simply because of the ghosts people claim to see, but because the past still feels startingly close within it’s ancient halls.
Have you ever visited Chillingham Castle? What was it like? Have you had a ghostly experience? I would love to know!
Stay curious,
The Curious Chlo x
Sources & Further Reading
- [Chillingham Castle] – https://chillingham-castle.com/
- [The Dark Atlas: Chillingham Castle: The Most haunted Fortress on England’s Bloodiest Border] – https://thedarkatlas.com/posts/chillingham-castle-northumberland
- [Living North: Enter the Ghostly World of Chillingham Castle] – https://www.livingnorth.com/article/enter-ghostly-world-chillingham-castle
- [History Collection: The Chilling History of Chillingham Castle] – https://historycollection.com/the-chilling-history-of-chillingham-castle/
- [Chillingham Castle] – https://hauntedhotels.uk/hotel/chillingham-castle
- [The day a Country Life photographer captured an image of a ghost, a picture that’s become one of the most famous ‘spirit photography’ images of all time] – https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/the-day-a-country-life-photographer-captured-an-image-of-a-ghost-234642
Leave a Reply