Castle Bolton

21st July 2007

Northern Ghost Investigations and me were given the opportunity to investigate Castle Bolton in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. This is one of the best preserved castles that remain in private ownership today.

The castle was built for Richard le Scrope, Lord Chancellor of England to Richard II between 1379 and 1399 at a cost of £12000. Sadly, the castle is only around three-quarters complete externally - and internally only a third remains habitable but it is still in use today by its present occupiers.

Originally, the castle consisted of four towers, all around five stories high though only one remains functional and this tower forms the link between the west and south ranges. Two of the towers have fallen into ruin, while in 1761 the northeast tower collapsed during a great storm as it had been weakened a century earlier by artillery fire.

The castle was very sophisticated for its time. It had private apartments, en-suite guardrooms and a plumbing system that was still in use during the Victorian times.

Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here for six months in 1568. Her imprisonment also included 51 servants to attend to her needs so her time here wasn't too uncomfortable. Her ghost is said to occasionally roam the courtyard.

The Investigation

We arrived around 18.30 on 21st July 2007. As we drove up to the building I was struck by the castle's size and imposing stature on the landscape. The cosy kitchen and granary, complete with log fire would be our base. We sat around a large wooden table and discussed our plans.

As we had plenty of time before nightfall we decided to explore this vast place and make ourselves familiar with the layout of the castle and find potential locations for experiments.

I started in the southwest tower, on the first floor where the tearoom and shop is located. From here I went up to the second floor and out onto the south range where I found myself in a roofless chapel that gave me an excellent view of the ruined towers and courtyard. The dark clouds threatened to rain but for the moment, they held onto their drops. After a few minutes and a dozen photographs later, I went back inside the southwest tower and up to the second floor to have a look at the Solar, Great Chamber and Nursery that are sparsely furnished with period pieces to reflect its history. After I satisfied myself with this area, I headed down the spiral staircase to the ground floor where the working quarters are located.

On my left was the Threshing Room and Armoury that I would visit later. On my right was the long, dark corridor of the south range, which contained the Brew House and Bake House. It was still light enough to see the layout of the room, complete with barrels and stone ovens. This lead through to the Meal House and finally into the Guard Room. This large room is situated in the base of the southeast tower. The heavy stonewalls rose up high above me as I stood in the centre of the room. I looked up at the sky; there was no roof to shelter me from the light drizzle that had begun to fall. For centuries these walls have had no protection from the elements and so had become painted green and black with moss and lichen. The glassless windows poured light into the darkened structure to reveal doors and fire places suspended at inaccessible levels. The floor had become water logged mud and made it all the more precarious to reach the other side of the large room. At one time, this would have been a well-used and lively area of the castle where the garrison would eat, drink and entertain themselves all along this section. It was sad to see it reduced to such a poor condition.

I left the ruin of the southeast tower and headed back to the southwest tower. This is the only remaining habitable tower. In the base of this tower are the Threshing Floor, Horse Mill and Armoury Workshop. I had hoped by now to sense an atmosphere or feeling but so far only my imagination had fuelled my curiosity. But this would all change later.

My first shock of the evening was when I walked into the stable and saw a medium sized horse staring back at me. I quickly realised that it was a fibreglass horse, but it was something I didn't expect to see! The stable is situated under the Great Chamber, north of the southwest tower. Something stirred in my mind but quickly left before I could give it my full attention.

Next was the State Chamber in the base of the derelict northwest tower. This was very similar to the southwest tower, complete with suspended fireplaces, inaccessible doors and absent floors. The now familiar green and black coating seemed to have penetrated almost everywhere in the derelict areas.

Storerooms, a wine cellar, and the well chamber dominate the North Range's ground floor to the right of the southwest tower. In the supporting central buttress tower is an underground dungeon where the remains of a human arm was found chained to the wall. I expected to sense something here more than anywhere else, but there was nothing - just a mannequin looking sorry for itself under the metal grid trap door in the cold stone floor!

Finally, I walked across the courtyard and up a flight of stone steps into the East Curtain. The East Curtain had fallen victim to the majority of the destruction. The missing northeast tower has left a huge footprint, riddled with foundation walls that only served to tease my imagination with what this castle could have looked like had it not been attacked all those centuries ago. The Great Kitchen that fed the North Range would have been somewhere in there.

The southeast tower on my right, where I had just been a few minutes before, was now more accessible. I stood in the room above the gatehouse; there were more fireplaces that were now home to birds and their nests. This room lead to a stair-less shaft in the corner of the southeast tower. In the stairwell was a window that looked down into the Guard Room. I looked up the shaft to see many doorways lead off to non-existent levels and rooms. Although I was alone, I felt quite at ease. I asked for confirmation that spirits were here with me, but all I got was a cool breeze through the missing windows and the chirp of bird song. Had there been some reply or reaction to my question I'd have no witness to verify it, but still, I was prepared for anything! Later, when something did occur, I had my witness. As daylight gradually faded and the shadows deepened it was time to return to base.

The castle was vast so it was decided to work in groups of two and three in order to cover as much ground as possible. I worked with fellow sceptic, Andrea. We both really wanted to experience some genuine paranormal activity and so were prepared to try any experiments and communication methods to achieve a result.

Andrea and myself carried out initial baseline checks at 20.30. We started in the kitchen and granary before proceeding to other areas in the castle. We visited all internal and external locations and found that temperatures ranged from 18.1c to 20.8c. Humidity levels also changed little from 47% to 52%. It was a warm evening and there was damp in the air from occasional rain and drizzle. EMF readings were negligible.

My second visit to the stable was at 21.10. I walked to the back of the stable, behind the horse that originally give me a shock, and stood quietly. Andrea stood nearby. For some reason I felt drawn to the doorway we'd just entered. So I looked at the doorway but saw nothing. I looked away to take in the room and distract myself from this feeling but again, as if something was trying to turn my head, I had to look at the doorway. I said to Andrea that I needed to go over there. I walked over to the door and as I got there the feeling left.

Next to the stable there is another room called the provender house. I walked to the back of this room where there is a narrow window high up on the wall. As I approached the window I suddenly had the feeling of my head being crushed, almost as if a hard helmet was being forced onto my head. Andrea took a temperature reading and found it had suddenly dropped to 17c - one degree. The feeling evaporated and when we checked the thermometer again, it had returned to 18.1 degrees! I asked Andrea to stand where I had stood but she did not feel or sense anything. There was something about this area that interested me, a feeling, an atmosphere that nowhere else in the castle had. I would return later.

We met Dell, Cath and Carol in the state chamber in the northwest tower at 22.30. They seemed to have had some success with pendulum divination. They'd apparently made contact with a young girl. We all stood in the gloom of nightfall. Drips tapped arrhythmically on the soft mud of the floor that squelched under every step. A quiet trickle of water was the only sound as it drained slowly and deeper into the ground. The pendulum moved in response to the questions. The group had determined that she was happy for them to be here but wasn't ready to show herself. A request for another physical response like a sound, touch one of the team etc remained unanswered.

I took some photos of the group performing the divination and although nothing striking was caught on camera, the pendulum did appear to move in response.

Andrea joined Dell and Carol in the lower dungeon while I went to investigate another location with Jay. Andrea later told me that Dell and his team had some very good results earlier on in the lower Dungeon with pendulum divination. The group believed that they had communicated with a man called Charles. Apparently Charles said that he didn't like women very much, but had not given a reason. Andrea offered the possibility to Dell that Charles could have been gay, which in those days could carry a penalty of prison or even death.

Dell then tried the pendulum. At first it went very slowly then suddenly swung to and fro very fast. Andrea watched Dells hand closely. It appeared to be still. Andrea then checked for draughts but there didn't seem to be any strong enough to move the pendulum to that pace. Later, Dell told the group that it felt as though the pendulum had been tugged. As this was the first time Dell had tried this method of communication, Dell claimed to be very impressed by the results.

Andrea asked if she could raise 'the question' as to whether Charles was gay. Dell asked the question and apparently Charles replied that he wasn't and added that he wanted the group to leave the dungeon. After a few minutes the team left the dungeon and regrouped at the base.

My fascination with this historical monument grew with every section I visited. If this building gave off any kind of atmosphere, it wasn't anything that I could (as yet) consider paranormal. If anything, it played with your imagination. But this would change later when I returned to the stable.

It was in the brewery that I tried the Ouija board for the first time at 23.08. Although it was without success, Andrea and I still hoped for a result. We returned to this location at 01.35 and tried the Ouija board again. But sadly nothing occurred. As we chatted about where to try next I stood still and looked at the wall that lead up to the entrance. A pale light from the courtyard gently lit the wall before it was enveloped by darkness further down the passage. As I stared at this pale light, I could see shadows flit back and forth, materialise and fade. I watched transfixed. Was I seeing something real? When I asked Andrea if she could confirm what I saw, she said she couldn't. Part of me wondered if these momentary shadows were ghosts of years gone by, about their business in their own time, oblivious to my presence. Another part of me felt it might be just tiredness playing tricks. But this was not the last time I'd see dark shapes tonight.

We returned to the stable at 01.50. I stood at the back where I'd sensed the feeling I had earlier. Andrea remained at the entrance about 12 feet in front of me. It was very dark and I could just make out the vague details of the stable from the small amount of light that managed to finds its way in through the two very narrow windows. We called out in hope to get a response by way of taps, thrown objects or something visual. We heard what sounded like a small pebble skit across the cobbled floor.

I stared through the darkness at the wall in front of me and behind Andrea. Just below the window I thought I could see what I can only describe as a black, shapeless mass, about 4 feet in diameter, roughly 5 feet off the floor. I looked away to focus my eyes on something else. When I looked back it was still there but had moved to the right. I didn't say anything to Andrea as it was now directly behind her. It continued to move in a crawl like fashion, clockwise, across the wall. If I was number 12 on a clock face and Andrea at number 6, the black mass was now at number 7, 8, then slowly crawled to number 9. Number 10 was the corner directly to my right. I sensed that the temperature had suddenly dropped and a feeling of hostility encroached on my space. The blackness seemed to stop at 11. I couldn't make out the corner of the room anymore and it felt as though the blackness was heavy and dense. The hairs on my neck stood on end. I just wished I'd brought the thermometer to check if the temperature change was psychological or real. It was at this point I said to Andrea that I felt ill at ease and that something dark was with me. I was surprised to hear Andrea confirm the same sensation and that she too felt uncomfortable with the atmosphere that permeated the room.

I stared into the darkness and said aloud, "We've come to talk to any spirits in this castle. We mean no harm and we are here only to learn about you and why you're here." It was at this point the atmosphere appeared to tentatively lighten. It was Andrea who spoke first and confirmed what I had sensed. A few moments later and we both felt completely fine. To my right the darkness had returned to its original transparent form and not the solid, cold blackness just moments before.

Although Andrea and I had no success with the Ouija board and calling for spirit interaction, I felt the shared experience in the stable was perhaps the most interesting of the night.

At around 3am we returned to the stable with Jay to explain the experience we'd had. My judgement was called into question for as I stared at the fibreglass horse that I could just pick out in the gloom, not only did its mouth appear to open but it also licked its nose! No, I definitely must be seeing things now. However, Jay did admit that something didn't feel right in the stable.

As daylight filtered in and the night sky faded away, the full splendour of the castle was back on display. The investigation was over.

Was Castle Bolton haunted? That's hard to say. You'd expect a building with such a long history of extreme emotions from pure happiness to pure misery and suffering to contain some of that emotion. I can't rule out that psychological factors may have played a part in my experience, but they felt very real at the time. I really wanted to witness and experience something. Did my imagination create these experiences to satisfy my wish or was it real?

So I remain a sceptic as I leave Castle Bolton, but I'm open to the 'possibility' that something paranormal may have occurred, especially in the stable. Maybe in the future a reinvestigation will answer my questions.

If you'd like to see more photos of this fantastic place, then please visit my website's gallery - www.hauntedland.co.uk/gallery_bolton.php

Castle Bolton also has an interesting website with a more detailed history and visitor information, see: www.boltoncastle.co.uk

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