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- Chillingham Castle,
is this the most haunted castle in
Britain? Is this Britain's
most haunted castle? From the moment
you take a step through its
enormous wooden portals, Chillingham Castle
chills you to the
bones.
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- Cyril Robson, who is the long-serving guide to the fortress
near Alnwick, Northumberland, says in the 11 years he has spent showing
visitors around the fortress, near Alnwick, he has gone from being
open-minded
on the subject of ghosts to being convinced there is
another dimension
to the place.
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- "I have no doubt there is
something - a presence
- there. Working here you become very aware of
it.
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- "The strongest feeling you tend to get is that somebody
is
standing behind you, or has just walked right past, and that is especially
strong in the Great Hall."
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- But it isn't always just about an odd feeling, he
adds.
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- "You often hear noises," says Cyril. "Two
are
heard the most - the first is the sound of a woman's footsteps, very
soft and dull, thought to be the wife of Lord Grey, who died in 1702. The
swish of her taffeta dress has also been heard.
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- "The other is from a
secret meeting held in the
chapel during the reign of Henry VIII, which
was disguised as a library
because Chillingham was a Catholic house.
Four or five voices can be heard,
but no words are discernable, and
they get louder as if the conversation
is becoming heated. Then it
fades away."
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- Other legends are well-documented. Chillingham is one
of the
few places which can boast of not having just one ghost appear at
a
time, but a whole procession, as was witnessed by one startled house
guest as it silently filed through the castle's Italian Garden.
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- Hunting horns have
also sometimes been heard, while tales
also speak of a "black
beast", a presence of pure darkness which
roars on moonless nights
from atop the courtyard balcony.
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- But perhaps the most famous
ghost story, concerns the
so-called "Radiant Boy" and dates
back centuries.
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- It was last noted in 1919 when a brilliant apparition
of a
glowing child was seen to silently emerge from a wall and drift across
the corridor.
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- Witnesses say his clothes were like those seen in paintings
dating from the Restoration period of the 1660s, when Charles II was on
the throne.
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- But it was in 1923, when workmen opened up the very same
wall
while installing new water pipes, that the skeleton of an 11-year-old
boy was uncovered . . . dating back to the 1660s.
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- After the exhumation he was
given a proper burial - and
was never seen again.
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- But the 14th century
North-umbrian fortress will be closed
on Halloween tomorrow. . . not
because it's too scary for the public, but
because it is the home to
art expert Sir Humphry Wakefield and only open
during the
summer.
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- Chills at Chillingham
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- What should have been a
four-day stay at Chillingham
Castle for a group of seasoned ghost
hunters back in 1996, turned into
the kind of experience they had only
previously read about and seen in
the movies.
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- The six-strong team of the
Ghost Research Foundation,
from Lancashire, experienced a variety of
ghostly goings-on and left after
just two nights.
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- Three reported being left cold
with fear by an "aura"
at the main gate, while another felt
an ominous weight on his shoulders.
Another was convinced she had been
grabbed by unseen hands and shaken awake.
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