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Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Castle occupies a strategic position on the border between England and Wales and was the last to surrender to the Parliamentary forces in 1646. The castle dates from the 11th century but its haunting stems from the days of Henry II when it was in the middle of many border skirmishes. One of the occupants, Marion de la Bruyere, had a lover who sided with the enemies of those in the castle and one night, when the castle's custodian, Joce de Dinan, was absent, she lowered a rope to let him visit her. On this particular evening he did not, as usual, pull the rope up after him but left it hanging, thereby allowing 100 men to climb up, open the gates, and take the castle. When she realised that she had been used and betrayed, she slew her lover with his own sword and then killed herself by jumping from the walls of the Hanging Tower onto the rocks beneath.

Although her ghost was, for many years, said to have been seen below the tower from which she leapt to her death, walking amongst the ruins of the castle now fallen into disuse and disrepair, all that is now heard is the sound of sighing or breathing which seems to come from the tower itself. This could be the breathing of the knight who betrayed Marion, or her own, as she killed him. A local resident has heard the sounds on many occasions and has said that the noises could be those of someone in a deep sleep but that they are so clear and loud that they seem to come from the top of the battlements. On first hearing the sounds, he took his wife to the castle without telling her of them and, on arriving below the tower, she mentioned the strange noise which seemed to come from the castle.

The same man, although hearing the same sounds on many occasions, had never found any rational explanation for them and has discounted the noise of the wind or that of nesting birds. The parish churchyard at Ludlow is also said to be haunted. An elderly and tall woman, wearing a long drab robe, has been seen outside the rectory and strange footsteps have been heard by some people living nearby. The same figure has been seen to walk around the gravestones. Female Ghost | Green Lady | Lauder | Aberdeenshire | Angus | Barcaldine | Barcaldine | Birmingham | Bishop Cameron | Bladnoch | Braemar | Carlow | Doncaster | Dublin | Dumfriesshire | Dundee | Essex | Female Ghost | Ghost | Goatfell mountain | Green Lady | Green Lady | Ireland | Ireland | Ireland | Kent | Leap | Loch Fyne | Nairn | Pontefract castle | River Tyne | Scotland | Scotland | Scotland | Scotland | Southeastern Ireland | Sussex | The female ghost | Witchcraft |