It doesn’t matter whether you visit a castle for its historical significance or its sheer beauty and impressive architecture, Castle have endless stories to tell us as they have stood the test of time. After having been a witness to wars, famines, succession wars, unrequited love sagas, atrocities carried by their terrifying Lords, it’s hardly surprising that each Castle has such a fascinating past. No wonder that a lot of these old magnificent structures hold so many secrets and house varying tales and myths. Among all these stories, castles are most popular for being the haunts for spirits of those who faced a sad demise. Let us look at some of the castles that are popularly believed to be haunted.
# Houska Castle, Czech RepublicBuilt in the 13th century, this impressively built gothic-style Castle is believed to be covering a ‘hole’ that serves as a ‘Gateway to Hell’ by Bohemian ruler Ottokar II of Bohemia. This castle has no fortifications, kitchens, didn’t provide a strategic location for invasions and had no inhabitants. It is believed that the hole is a bottomless pit and opens at hell. So the strong castle was built to protect Earth from the dark creatures that linger beneath the surface. According to a very popular folklore, prisoners at the time were granted a pardon if they consented to be lowered down into the hole to and report what they saw. When the first such prisoner was lowered down, he started screaming in agony and when he was pulled back up, it seemed like he had aged 30 years over a few minutes and under mysterious circumstances, he died within the next 3 days. There’s also the lore of a half sheep-half human creature roaming around the hole that has been doing the rounds. The possibility of this gate opening in hell makes it one of the creepiest castles in the world.
# Dragsholm Castle, Denmark Built in the 13th century, this castle is supposed to be home to not just one, but almost a hundred ghosts. Out of all these supposedly hundred ghosts the most terrifying and popular has been that of The White Lady. According to myths, the daughter of the Lord of the castle was in love with one of the castle labourers. The Lord was disgusted by the possibility of this alliance and gave his daughter several warnings to back off. However, the daughter couldn’t stop loving the man, and the Lord had her thrown into a room of the castle and locked away for good. No one had tried to retrieve her from the room until the twentieth century when during a routine remodelling of the castle, a worker found the skeleton of a small woman who was wearing a white gown. It’s said that the ghost of The White Lady still haunts the castle in search of her lover.
# Warwick Castle, England This castle was prepared from scratch in the 11th century by Warwick the Conqueror to serve as a strategic location for sieges. This castle has been a witness to gore and death due to the innumerable battles fought over the centuries. The spirits of dead soldiers and servers still haunt the castle. Particularly, the Ghost Tower of the castle is the most haunted, as the ghost of Sir Fulk Greville, murdered by his manservant in 1628, apparently materialises out of portrait on cold evenings to take a walk in the corridors. The dungeons have made visitors nauseous and anxious on arrival and are also quite haunted.
# Castle of Bardi (Landi Castle), ItalyBuilt over the Emilia-Romagna Valley in Italy in the 10th Century, the castle gets its name from a dead elephant belonging to Hannibals cavalry whose name was Bardus. The ghosts of the castle have a story similar to that of Romeo and Juliet, only here, the names are supposed to be Moroelle and Soleste. Soleste was the Lord of the castle’s daughter and was in love with the commander of the knights – Moroello. Once, after a battle, Moroello and his army wore the colours of his enemies after defeating them, to show off their victory to the people of his city. Soleste didn’t know of this intention and mistook Moroello and his army as that belonging to the enemies, and falsely concluded that he had been killed after a defeat. Unable to bear the thought of his death, she jumped from the window and lost her life. When Moroello saw her lifeless body, he realised his mistake and took his life in order to join his lover in death. The ghost of Moroello still wanders the castle in search of his love Soleste.
# Edinburgh Castle, ScotlandBeing one of the oldest structures in Scotland it’s hardly surprising to find Edinburgh on a list of haunted structures. This castle has stood through various executions, battles and a brief capture by the British. Notable instances of violence and disappearances include that of Duke Alexander Stewart of Albany who was captured in the castle but escaped by stabbing the guards and then burning their bodies. But what popularly makes this castle haunted is the gruesome story of Lady Janet Douglas of Glamis who was accused of witchcraft. She was burnt at the stake in 1537 as her young son watched, and her restless soul still haunts the castle. There have been numerous hauntings at Edinburgh castle which accounted for one of the biggest paranormal investigations in 2001 when a group of 240 volunteers were asked to spend time in the haunted spaces. 50% of the participants felt an eerie presence and spotted unexplained shadowy figures when they spent time in these haunted spaces.
# Leap Castle, Ireland Built in circa 1250, this was the seat of the widely feared Ely O’Carroll clan in Ireland. This castle has had a horrific history and has witnessed a lot of brutalities and their echoes haunt the castle to this date. The most popular tale is that of ‘The Bloody Chapel’. After the death of the clan’s chieftain Mulrooney O’Carroll in 1532 an embittering succession dispute broke out in which two brothers turned against one another. One day when Thaddeus O’Carroll was presiding over his audience at the chapel, his younger brother Teige O’Carroll stormed into the room and stabbed his older brother. It is said that the ghost of Thaddeus haunts the castle to this day.