Category Archives: article

Ukategorisert

Val Sinestra Hotel and the Ghost of Hermann Haunting the Lower Engadine

Leave a comment
Advertisements

In an old sanatorium in Switzerland the ghost of Hermann is said to have been haunting the Val Sinestra Hotel for ages. But who was he when he was alive, and what was his true name before he died in the remote fortress up in the mountains? And is he still haunting the old halls where he never made his recovery?

Tucked away in the silent snowscape of Switzerland’s remote Lower Engadine Valley lies Val Sinestra, a former 1912 spa-hotel, or a Kurhaus, once famed for its healing mineral springs in the Grisons region of Switzerland. The Kurhaus ‘Val Sinestra’ grew into a real sensation, the foreign newspapers and magazines were full of it and the high society came there to take the cure. Some say that that some of the patients never left.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Although once a stately institution, In 1914, this glorious period came to an end as the First World War broke out and the Belle Epoque was over for good. The therapy activities of Val Sinestra Hotel closed in 1972, but beneath its former Belle Époque elegance, it harbors a secret far colder in the form of a ghost named “Hermann” who has been haunting its corridors for nearly a century. 

The Haunted Hotel: Hotel Val Sinestra in Graubünden is said to be haunted by a former patient, now known as Hermann. // Source: Agnes Monkelbaan/Wiki

From Spa to Specter: The Legend of Hermann

Originally built to treat tuberculosis patients, Val Sinestra drew visitors seeking cures and rest 1500 metres above the sea levels in the remote parts of Switzerland. The Hotel Val Sinestra stands like a fortress on the rock, eleven stories high with a pointed tower, looming above the valley overlooking La Brancla river. The rust-red, arsenic-laden water from the Ulrich spring was said to cure syphilis, people with consumption and anemic patients.

One of the more talked about ghosts has been one named Herman. Hotel owner Adrienne Kruit has claimed strange things have happened since 1978 when her husband bought the building. He passed away in 2018, and most of the ghost stories told from the hotel, comes from their time running the place. It is said that he was greeted at the door by a spirit screaming at him, scaring him so badly he drove all night to the North Sea. 

“There were loud noises, keys were swinging on their hooks, and the windows were suddenly open!” she said about her experiences since taking over the Val Sinestra Hotel. “Once, a wall clock fell to the floor right next to me. But the hook was stuck in the wall.”

But who was the famed ghost? There have been a lot of theories, but most of them claim was a Belgian patient, who reportedly stayed so long and grew so attached to the Val Sinestra Hotel and its staff  that he refused to leave. He was for a long time known as Hermann.  

Read More: Check out all haunted hotels

In 2010 there were also two mediums ordered to check out the haunting of the Val Sinestra Hotel, and said it was a tuberculosis patient called Gilbert, Guillon or Guillaume, perhaps a Belgium soldier from World War I who stayed there in the 1920s haunting the hotel. 

It is said that he fell in love with Maria, an employee. After his death in the late 1920s, sightings began: a tall, pale figure wandering the old bathhouse halls at night, sometimes glimpsed in the lobby or elevator area. It is said he mostly haunts the lower floors where the patients used to stay. 

Staff and guests describe Hermann as mischievously protective of the Val Sinestra Hotel. Windows will open on their own, the lift runs unoccupied, and he’s even moved objects. 

Haunted Floors & Hotel Whispers

There is little evidence to the story of the poor patient at Val Sinestra Hotel today, especially since the guestbook from this time was stolen at some point. 

The old bathhouse floor—a place of healing in life—has become the epicenter of paranormal activity. Lights flicker, faucets run without explanation, windows open suddenly, wine glasses begin to ring, balls of light emerge at night and cold drafts pierce the temperature of the rooms. Visitors report waking to the hiss of steam and feeling a distant presence when alone..

The Old Sanatorium: Val Sinestra Hotel. // Source: Agnes Monkelbaan/Wiki

Visiting the Phantom’s Realm at Val Sinestra Hotel

Val Sinestra remains an operational hotel, its ghostly inhabitant part of its allure. Guests hoping to connect with Hermann are advised to stay near the old bathhouse, wander empty corridors at dusk, and be open to subtle signs: a misplaced key, sudden draft, or perhaps a feeling of presence. As one medium noted, Hermann doesn’t mean harm—he’s just a restless guardian who cares deeply… and quietly.

According to Thomas Frei and other ghost hunters who have investigated the hotel for years, there are other ghosts said to haunt it as well. A man, a woman and a little girl is also said to be lingering inside of the halls. 

Val Sinestra Hotel stands as a beautifully preserved relic of early 20th-century health resorts—but it is Hermann’s spectral shadow that lingers darkest. And in the silent snowfall of Lower Engadine, the gentle hum of unseen footsteps may well be the echo of a man who never truly left.

Newest Posts

References:

TVI Traveler – Hotel Val Sinestra

Geisterjäger sicher: Im Hotel Val Sinestra spukt es wirklich – 20 Minuten

Schweizer Ghosthunter kommen im Val Sinestra mehreren Geistern auf die Spur

Val Sinestra (2019) CH

historie — Hotel Val Sinestra

A letto con gli spiriti nella Val Sinestra – Ticinonline

Ukategorisert

Glasnevin Cemetery and the Faithful Ghost Dog still Waiting for his Master

Leave a comment
Advertisements

After his master died at sea, the faithful dog was by his master’s grave, day in and day out. After dying of hunger and grief it is said that the Newfoundland dog is still seen, slipping between the graves at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. 

It is hardly surprising that Ireland’s largest burial ground should be haunted. Glasnevin Cemetery, sprawling over 124 acres and holding more than 1.5 million burials, is a city of the dead that overshadows the living Dublin beyond its gates. Founded in 1832 by Daniel O’Connell, it was intended as a place where Catholics could finally bury their dead with dignity. Over the years it has grown into the final resting place of rebels, revolutionaries, poets, politicians, and ordinary citizens whose lives were cut short by famine, war, or disease. A place of history, yes, but also a place where the past refuses to stay buried.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

By day, Glasnevin Cemetery, or Reilig Ghlas Naíon as it is in Irish, feels like an open-air museum of Irish identity. Visitors trace the names of towering figures such as Michael Collins, Éamon de Valera, and Constance Markievicz carved into stone. The O’Connell Tower rises high above the graves, an imposing monument to “The Liberator” himself. But when the sun sets, the solemn dignity of the cemetery changes. The shadows deepen. The endless rows of crosses and crypts begin to look like silent witnesses, and the air grows heavy with the weight of countless unquiet souls.

Glasnevin Cemetery: Originally a monastery established by Saint Mobhi in the sixth century. A settlement grew around the monastery but would see tumultuous times during the Viking Age when Vikings regularly raided the coasts of Ireland. Record shows the settlement was destroyed by Vikings but would later come to be rebuilt and absorbed as part of Dublin city.

The Haunted Glasnevin Cemetery

Among the many legends tied to the cemetery, the most famous is not of a statesman or a rebel, but of a loyal Newfoundland dog. His master, Captain John McNeill Boyd, perished during a daring sea rescue in 1861 at Dun Laoghaire when the ship, The Neptun smashed into the east pier, trying to dock in the storm.

His body was retrieved from the sea many days later, and according to the story, even then, the dog was onboard and refused to leave his master’s side. Boyd was buried at Glasnevin, and the dog lay faithfully beside his grave, refusing to leave until starvation claimed him. Even death did not end his vigil. Witnesses still report seeing the spectral hound pacing near Boyd’s headstone, or padding silently near his statue in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They say on misty nights you can hear his paws on the gravel and catch the faint glimmer of eyes watching from between the stones.

Read More: Check out more stories of Haunted Cemeteries

The dog is not the only lingering presence. Staff and visitors alike have spoken of unexplained footsteps echoing along the pathways when no one is there. Voices whisper in the stillness, names spoken in the dark. Some claim to see fleeting figures dressed in Victorian mourning clothes vanish behind mausoleums. Others describe the heavy sensation of being watched as if the dead resent the intrusion of the living into their eternal city.

The Resurrectionists of Glasnevin Cemetery

As if ghosts were not enough, Glasnevin has its darker, flesh-and-bone history to contend with. In the 19th century, body-snatching was a thriving trade in Dublin. Known as “resurrectionists,” these grave robbers would dig up freshly buried corpses under cover of night and sell them to medical schools desperate for cadavers to dissect. Glasnevin, vast and new, became a prime hunting ground. Families, terrified that their loved ones might be stolen and sold like contraband, hired guards to keep watch over graves.

Lived Once, Buried Twice: Margorie McCall, who was buried in 1705 in Glasnevin Cemetery. Hours after her funeral, grave robbers exhumed her body and tried to cut off her finger to steal one of her rings. Margorie woke up from the coma-like state and the terrified body snatchers ran off. She was dug up and her husband opened the door he fainted. Margorie lived in Lurgan for years after this. When she finally died, she was once again interred in Shankhill graveyard in Belfast, where to this day her gravestone bears the inscription: “Margorie McCall, Lived Once, Buried Twice.”

So many feared the resurrectionists that Glasnevin Cemetery built high watchtowers and employed night patrols with muskets and dogs. Relatives sometimes slept on top of graves for weeks to protect the bodies until they decayed beyond value to the anatomists. It was a time when the living still fought to keep the dead at rest, but the desecration left a mark. Some whisper that the restless spirits of those disturbed from their graves are still wandering the grounds, denied the peace they were promised.

A Cemetery That Never Sleeps

Glasnevin also bears witness to Ireland’s most tragic chapters. The Great Famine filled mass graves here with thousands, their names lost to history. Cholera victims were buried under hurried earth, and soldiers from wars far beyond Ireland’s shores returned only to find their rest here. Perhaps it is this sheer density of sorrow that gives the place its atmosphere. Some say the ground is too saturated with grief to ever be quiet.

Today, Glasnevin is open to those who dare walk its avenues. You may wander alone among the towering Celtic crosses and ornate angels, or you may join one of the Irish History Tours, where guides speak not only of patriots and poets but of the strange, unsettling stories passed down through generations. They will tell you that the past is not gone in Glasnevin. It lingers, waiting for those who listen closely.

If you find yourself in Dublin, step beyond the gates of Glasnevin Cemetery. But tread carefully. For in this vast necropolis, the boundary between the living and the dead is fragile. And not all the souls here rest quietly.

Newest Posts

References:

Glasnevin Cemetery – Wikipedia

Glasnevin Cemetery | Explore Haunted Ireland

https://www.shamrockgift.com/blog/folklore-friday-glasnevin-cemetery/?srsltid=AfmBOoqcll6cO-yqCN6Xwuj_F0sqxlqmgwP1wbpz1tRBzro6WNmXY9sY

Ukategorisert

The Ghosts of the Sinful Nuns Haunting Bern

4 Comments
Advertisements

Once, the city of Bern was filled with nuns working and living inside of the city walls. According to ghost stories though, some of them remained, even after the Reformation that closed their convents down. And those stories tell about them being guilty of terrible things with terrible ends. 

In the winding alleys and cloistered ruins of Bern, ghosts drift beneath the vaulted ceilings of forgotten convents. Long before the Protestant Reformation swept through Bern in the early 16th century, the city throbbed with the sacred heartbeat of Catholic ritual. Monasteries, nunneries, and chapels dotted the cityscape, and pious women in black habits tended to the sick, the poor, and the orphaned. Some were devout and willing. Others were not.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

By November 1523, the tides had turned. Under pressure from reformist leaders, the Bernese city council ordered that the words of the Bible be preached directly—without the filter of Rome. Within months, the convents were abandoned. The once-sacred cloisters stood silent. But silence is not absence. And in Bern, some souls remained behind… trapped.

The Walled-Up Nun

One of the ghost stories that were told about the Bernese nuns was one left behind, still inside of her old convent walls, and it is said that even in death, her face cries out.

It was an ordinary day when a man, strolling past a decaying monastery wall near the heart of Bern, caught sight of something horrifying. The story doesn’t really specify which building this happened in. It is also a story that is said to have happened before 1919, as it was printed in a collection of ghost stories that year. 

Behind a narrow, crumbling window he claimed to have seen a face. Pale, pleading, trapped. He rushed into the building, but the room was empty. The very spot where she had stared down was bare stone and shadow. No sound. No warmth. No sign of life.

Haunted by the vision, he returned the next night. That’s when he heard it. A cacophony from beyond the walls: roars, thuds, the pounding of fists or perhaps hooves. Amidst the fury, a woman’s voice wept and moaned, begging for deliverance. He screamed for help. Together with another man, he began tapping along the walls until one section gave a hollow response. Stone by stone, they tore it open.

And there she was.

A skeleton, upright, impossibly intact, as though caught in her final scream. Her black robes hung in rags from brittle bones. A rosary was knotted in her clenched, skeletal hands. Her skull tilted ever so slightly toward the light, toward freedom that was denied.

She had been walled up alive. Whether for punishment, penance, or cruelty, no one knows. But her agony never left the stone.

The Dancing Beguines Around Christmas

On quiet, moonlit nights near the Nydeggbrücke, those with the rare gift of second sight may glimpse something truly otherworldly. Seven small lights rise from the river’s dark waters and begin to swirl and twirl, chasing one another in joyful abandon above the gentle current. This is from the collected ghost stories by Hedwig Correvon.

Beguines: Although they are called Beguines, were they really this? The Beguines were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take formal religious vows. Although they promised not to marry “as long as they lived as Beguines”, to quote an early Rule of Life, they were free to leave at any time. Beguines were part of a larger spiritual revival movement of the 13th century that stressed imitation of Jesus’ life through voluntary poverty, care of the poor and sick, and religious devotion.

These are no ordinary flames; they are the spirits of the Beguines, young women once cloistered in the monastery at Klösterlistutz against their will. According to legend, their restless souls are granted a fleeting moment of freedom each Christmas to dance above the river they were once forbidden to cross. As the clock at Nydegg Church strikes midnight, their ghostly game ends in a soft sigh and as they vanish, they are leaving only ripples on the water and a chill in the air.

The Sinful Nuns of the Old City Hall

There are also those claiming that a group of nuns have been haunting the area around the old cityhall at Rathaus for ages. Towards Schipfe, there is an iron door to the town halls, said to be so rusty that no one can open it. This is at least how it was described in 1919 in a collection of ghost stories from Bern. 

At night, it opened however and a group of nuns dressed in all black comes out, walking to the fountain. It is said that without saying anything they start to throw the small and dead bodies of children they have drowned in the well.

The Faithless Nun and Her Black Cat

Just beyond the medieval city’s old west gate lies Bubenbergraine, possibly an old name and most likely referring to the area now known as Bubenbergplatz in Bern. The Bubenbergplatz is a plaza in the Old City of Bern, the medieval city center. It is part of the area outside the third city walls. This is where the Holy Spirit Convent once stood, a place of quiet devotion, cloistered halls, and whispered transgressions. Though the convent was dissolved in the Reformation, not all its residents departed.

For over a century, a sleek, spectral black cat has haunted a house built on those same grounds. By day it hides in old cupboards or among the pergolas that once shielded nuns from worldly eyes. But at night, it stalks doorways and dreams.

One man, returning late, found the feline watching him. When he tried to shoo it, the cat’s eyes flashed like twin embers. Its body swelled to monstrous proportions. The man fell on the spot, unconscious. He died days later in inexplicable agony.

“The faithless nun beat him,” the old Bernese muttered. She had betrayed her vows in life—perhaps with men, perhaps with ambition. Whatever her sins, her punishment is eternal. She walks now in feline guise, dooming any who mock her presence.

She is not the only one.

The Poisoner of Bubenbergrain

Not all ghosts haunting the area called Bubenbergrain in the collection of ghost stories from Bern from 1919 were nuns though. Some spirits haunt out of guilt. Others out of pleasure.

On quiet, silver-drenched nights in Bubenbergrain, a woman appears on the terrace of her former home. Her face is still beautiful, adorned with the yellow Schwefelhütchen cap once worn by Bernese noblewomen. Moonlight glints on the gold chains of her ancient costume.

She stands at the very spot where she once mixed the poison meant for her husband and son, both of whom had discovered her betrayal when she had an affair. Both of whom now lie in Bernese soil. Though the years have passed, her spirit lingers. Those who have seen her say she never moves, never speaks, only watches.

Sacred Walls, Damned Souls

These are not sweet legends to comfort children. They are warning signs carved into Bern’s foundation. Once, these streets rang with the chants of nuns, the bells of convent towers, the echo of whispered prayers. But beneath those hymns lay darker stories of forced vows, secret lovers, silent punishments. And when the Reformation scattered the living, the dead stayed behind.

Ghostly cats now wander where piety once walked. Eyes shine from beneath doorsteps. Shadows rustle across crumbling convent walls. Some say they hear weeping at night from the stones of the Heiliggeistkirche, once the chapel of the Holy Spirit Convent. Others avoid Bubenbergraine entirely after sundown.

If you walk Bern’s Old Town, take heed. What looks like a cat may not be. What seems like a whisper may be a cry. And what appears to be a ruin may, in truth, still house the cloistered sins of centuries.

Newest Posts

References:

Märchenstiftung – Die eingemauerte Nonne (The Walled-Up Nun)

Märchenstiftung – Die treulose Nonne (The Faithless Nun)

Märchenstiftung – Die Giftmischerin (The Poisoner)

Wikipedia – Heiliggeistkirche (Bern)

P. Keckeis & M. Waibel, Legends of Switzerland, Bern, Zurich, 1986.

Ukategorisert

A Vampire in Ohio: The Strange and Grim Superstition of the Salladay Family

Leave a comment
Advertisements

Seeking new land and a new life, the Salladay family went to Ohio, but brought a silent killer with them: Consumption. Falling into odd superstitions, they believed the only way to stop the disease was to stop the undead from rising from their graves. 

America’s early history is peppered with strange, somber superstitions—rituals born of fear, desperation, and a primal struggle against diseases no one understood. Among these unsettling tales is one from Scioto County, Ohio, in the dead of winter, 1816–17: the tragic and bizarre case of the Salladay family, whose hereditary affliction with tuberculosis led to a desperate, grisly ritual in the hopes of stopping death in its tracks.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

It may not have earned the infamy of New England’s vampire panics, but this haunting episode stands as a potent reminder that superstition knew no borders in early America.

The Vampire Grave in Ohio: The Salladay Cemetery in Scioto County, Ohio, where Samuel Salladay rests alongside his relatives. Source

A Family Cursed by Consumption

The Salladays were Swiss immigrants, part of the wave of European settlers moving westward after the opening of the French Grant, a parcel of land along the Ohio River. It was granted by Congress in March, 1795, to a number of French families who lost their lands at Gallipolis by invalid titles. The river bottoms are well adapted to corn, and on a great part of the hill land small grain and grass could be produced and tempted settlers inland. The name Sallaway is an americanized version of the Swiss German Salathe

Not long after settling in Scioto County, the family fell prey to the disease that had terrified communities for centuries: tuberculosis, then called consumption. It was a cruel, wasting illness, slowly claiming victims with bouts of coughing, fever, and a wasting pallor that convinced many it was the work of a malevolent force rather than mere contagion.

Consumption: Before it had a scientific explanation, TB was a horrifying, slow-moving plague. It wasted the body. Victims grew pale and thin, their cheeks sunken, eyes glassy. They coughed blood. They wheezed and gasped and sometimes appeared to grow stronger just before they died, as if something unnatural were prolonging their suffering. In this time and place, a superstition that it was the work of a vampire sprung out.

After the head of the family and the eldest son succumbed, and others began showing signs of sickness, panic overtook reason.

A Desperate and Macabre Cure

In the depths of the winter of 1816–1817, the Salladay family, surrounded by fearful neighbors, turned to a folk remedy that would be familiar to followers of New England’s vampire lore: the belief that a dead family member might be preying on the living from the grave.

The “cure” was grim. They resolved to exhume one of the deceased, burn certain organs in a ceremonial fire, and do so before the eyes of the surviving family members — an attempt to sever the sinister connection between corpse and kin.

The victim of this desperate rite was Samuel Salladay (1789-1815), one of the earlier victims of consumption who had died during the fall of 1815. His body was disinterred by Major Amos Wheeler of Wheelersburg, an official of standing in the community, lending the macabre event a disturbing legitimacy. A large crowd from the surrounding countryside gathered to witness the ritual, drawn by a mixture of morbid curiosity and communal dread.

Samuel’s entrails were removed and burned upon a fire specially prepared for the rite. The hope was that the ritual would end the spread of disease within the family and grant a reprieve to those still living.

The Folly of Superstition

Unsurprisingly, this desperate act proved futile. Consumption was a highly contagious disease, passed through airborne bacteria, not through supernatural means or malevolent corpses. Despite the burning of Samuel’s remains, the remaining Salladays continued to fall ill, one by one.

In the end, only George Salladay survived the affliction, while the rest of the family perished — victims of both disease and superstition.

Today, no marker or monument commemorates the Salladay ritual, and their story survives largely through scattered historical accounts. Perhaps this was the only vampiric exhumation that happened in Ohio. Although not strictly a New England place, Ohio carried a lot of the earlier settlers by the way people moved west from the east shore, and some of the state used to be a part of Connecticut. 

Samuel Salladay still rests in the Salladay Cemetery in Sand Hill in Scioto County, together with all of his relatives who were never cured from their life-draining disease. 

Newest Posts

References:

New England vampire panic – Wikipedia

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197357043/samuel-salladay

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/43291/memorial-search?cemeteryName=Salladay+Cemetery&page=1#sr-30710534

Scioto County, Ohio 

Ukategorisert

Cell Number 11: Whispers in the Attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim

Leave a comment
Advertisements

Is Cell Number 11 in the former prison for the criminally insane haunted? The attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim, Norway has had many who come out, claiming so. 

High above Erling Skakkes gate in Trondheim in Norway, beneath the slanted roof of an old and imposing building, lies a place many claim they will never forget. The former criminal asylum, now known as the Norwegian Justice Museum, is steeped in legal history, human suffering, and quiet despair. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Among its many rooms, one small space has earned a reputation that continues to unsettle visitors long after they leave. This is Cell Number 11.

The Haunted House: Almshouse (“Det nye fattghuset”, built 1843, in front, to the right) and Norwegian National Museum of Justice (Norwegian: Justismuseet, built as prison in 1833) in Erling Skakkes gate Street in Trondheim, Norway exhibiting artifacts from the country’s penal justice and law enforcement history. The building was built as a prison in 1833. // Image Source

A Building That Never Truly Fell Silent

The structure once served as a criminal asylum, housing inmates deemed unfit for ordinary prisons. Over time, the building became associated with isolation, punishment, and psychological torment. Today, the halls are clean and curated, filled with exhibits and glass cases. Yet those who work there speak of another side, one that emerges after hours.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted prisons

Footsteps have been heard echoing from the attic cell wing when no one is present. Low voices have been reported, murmuring just beyond the edge of hearing. The sounds are not constant, but when they come, they seem deliberate, as if someone is pacing the narrow corridors with purpose.

The Haunted Prison Cells: The Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim, formerly a criminal asylum, is known for its eerie stories and haunted reputation. Especially inside of Cell Number 11, there have been rumors of ghosts haunting it still. // Source

Among other things, a young journalist claimed to have heard footsteps coming towards him when he was voluntarily locked inside the museum.

Nearly every story leads back to the same place.

The Legend of Cell Number 11

Cell Number 11 is small, windowless, and oppressive. It is barely large enough to stand upright in comfort. Over the years, it has become the center of Trondheim’s most enduring ghost stories.

According to accounts once published in local newspapers, a clairvoyant woman claimed the cell is haunted by the spirit of a judge. This judge, she said, had wrongfully sentenced a young man to a long period of confinement in that very cell. The prisoner eventually took his own life there, driven to despair by isolation and injustice.

After the judge’s death, the spirit is said to have returned to the cell, bound to the place where his decision had destroyed another life. Whether out of guilt or obsession, the apparition is believed to linger, trapped in the space where tragedy unfolded.

Nights Spent in the Cell

In later years, a number of visitors chose to spend the night inside Cell Number 11. Some entered confidently, treating the experience as a test of nerves. Many emerged changed.

Several reported hearing footsteps moving just outside the cell door, slow and deliberate. Others described the sensation of not being alone, of sharing the darkness with an unseen presence. A few spoke of whispers, too indistinct to understand but close enough to feel intimate and threatening.

According to museum director Johan S. Helberg, not everyone who entered the cell left with their bravado intact. Fear has a way of settling in when the door closes and the light disappears.

A Museum That Welcomes Its Ghosts

The museum has a separate room dedicated to World War II. Kunt Sivertsen describes himself as a retired police officer and is currently an advisor at the museum. He was responsible for putting together this exhibition in the 1990s. According to him, there was stuff happening in this room as well that they didn’t have any explanation for:

– On several occasions, it has happened that you suddenly smell the scent of Brut aftershave in the middle of the room.

No official claim has ever been made that the museum is haunted. Still, the staff have never attempted to banish whatever may dwell within its walls. When a priest once offered to cleanse the building, the offer was politely declined.

The reasoning was simple. If spirits exist there, they are part of the building’s story.

Newest Posts

References:

Skremt fra vettet på celle nummer 11 – Trondheim

Spøkelsesjegere til seks steder – NRK Trøndelag – Lokale nyheter, TV og radio

Spøker det på Justismuseet i Trondheim? – nearadio.no

Ukategorisert

The Haunted Legends of Carl Beck House in Ontario, Canada

Leave a comment
Advertisements

Now a place you can rent and stay at, the Beck House in Canada is said to be one of the more haunted places. Those who have stayed the night come back with stories of strange encounters, believed to be the ghost of the Beck family members. 

Carl Beck House is an eerie but beautifully stately mansion located in Penetanguishene in Ontario, Canada. As the best Victorian mansions are, it is said to be haunted. For a long time, it was a private family home, but now you can also check in and stay the night to see for yourself as an AirBNB. This historic building has a dark past, with rumors of ghosts and hauntings that have persisted for decades. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Canada

But who is still lingering in the house? Some say that the spirits of former residents still roam the halls, while others claim to have seen mysterious apparitions in the windows at night. Some even say there are as many as twenty different spirits trapped within the walls. But what is the truth behind these haunted legends? 

The History of Carl Beck House

Carl Beck House was built in 1866 by a wealthy businessman named Karl Maxillian (Charles) Beck (1838-1915). A German immigrant, he became the wealthiest of the local lumber magnates and made a lasting name for himself. He was also mayor of the town from 1892 to 1895 and owned the first car in the area.

The mansion was designed in the Italianate style and was the largest residence in the area at the time. Beck lived in the mansion with his wife Emelia and nine children until his death. 

The Haunted Legends of Carl Beck House

Despite its grandeur, Carl Beck House has long been associated with ghostly tales and hauntings. There are many theories about why Carl Beck House is haunted. Some believe that the mansion is simply a victim of the many tragedies and deaths that occurred within its walls over the years. Others believe that the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of former residents who are unable to move on from their earthly lives.

Visitors to the mansion have reported hearing unexplained noises, such as footsteps and whispers, and feeling a sense of being watched. There have been multiple reports of objects moving on their own and lights turn on and off for apparently no reason.

In the guestbook in the house for people to write down their experiences, there are entrances detailing how blankets moved by themselves when they were sleeping. Some have even claimed to have seen the apparitions of former residents, dressed in Victorian-era clothing, wandering through the halls. They are also warning about the doll in the green dress in the house.

The Spurned Daughter Back to Haunt her Childhood Home

According to local legend, the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of former residents, including Carl Beck himself, Emilia, Mary and her two younger sisters who passed away in the house very young on 2 Jun 1893 (aged 42–43).

One of the most famous ghost stories associated with Carl Beck House is the tale of the “Lady in White.” According to legend, a young woman named Mary lived in the mansion in the late 1800s. She was Carl’s eldest daughter, and was expected to take responsibility for caring for her siblings after her mother died young. 

However, after some time, Mary saw another life for herself when she became acquainted with a man and decided to marry him. Her father strongly opposed their union, believing that Mary deserved a better spouse and didn’t want her to leave the house, even though she had taken care of her sibling for 10 years already. 

Still, she followed her heart and left with her chosen one called George Robinson. This disagreement was so intense that it caused Carl to remove Mary from his will. According to other sources, Mary received only $1 after her father passed away in an accident in 1915, although he left assets totaling $10 million. He drowned while his horse was getting a drink, the buggy flipped. 

This is put up as a reason for her coming back to haunt her childhood home after she died in 1954 (aged 84–85). Although not much is known about her life after she left the Beck House, it looks like she stayed in Penetanguishene. Although there isn’t much mentioned of this dispute outside of retellings of the haunted rumours from the house, it remains the most well known cause for ghost lingering. 

A Night at the Haunted Beck House

Carl Beck House has long been shrouded in mystery and legend, with tales of ghostly activity and hauntings that have persisted for decades. Who are the one still lingering and haunting for their guests. Not only is the inside of the house said to be haunted, but there are also the ones claiming the ghosts also leaves it. They are said to appear on the adjacent Church Street where they claim to see apparitions of Victorian women strolling along the street, naturally connecting them to the Beck House. 

Newest Posts

References:

Ontario Heritage Trust | C. Beck Manufacturing Company

Charles Maximilian Beck (1838-1915) – Find a Grave Memorial

Mary Ethel Beck Robinson (1869-1954) – Find a Grave Memorial

Ukategorisert

The Burgträppe-Balzli Haunting: The Ghost of Nydegg Castle

Leave a comment
Advertisements

Where the Nydegg Church is today, there once used to be a castle. Tales about ghosts lingering around the old Nydegg Castle and the stairs leading up to it still roams. And one of the more infamous and feared ghosts of Bern is the Burgträppe-Balzli.

High above the bend of the Aare River in Bern, where ancient cobbled alleys twist through the heart of the Old City, lies the Nydegg, an old district with centuries-old bones and whispers of things best left in the past. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Though today the area bustles with the charm of a medieval town center, one shadow remains darker than the rest: that of Burgträppe-Balzli, the ghostly scourge said to haunt the ruined stairway of the once-mighty Nydeggburg Castle.

Burgtreppe in Bern: Castle stairs from Mattenenge to Nydegghöfli. // Source

A Castle Lost, but Not Forgotten

Nydegg Castle stood at the eastern tip of Bern’s Zähringerstadt, the city’s oldest neighborhood, founded in 1191. Built as a stronghold to watch over the Aare River and secure Bern’s eastern flank.

Nydegg Castle: Built by Berchtold IV of Zähringen (second half of the 12th century). The extent of the town founded by Berchtold V is also disputed: either the first castle reached as far as Kreuzgasse in 1191 and was extended at the beginning of the 13th century by a second castle roughly where the choir of Nydegg Church is today. After the destruction of Nydegg Castle (1268?), the (Nydegg) Stalden was created.

By 1268, the Nydeggburg Castle had met a mysterious and decisive end, destroyed with little fanfare or record. The Bernese demolished the castle to make room for the Nydegg Quarter and to prevent any claims by other noble families after the Zähringen family was conquered. In a charter dated January 16, 1274, King Rudolf I of Habsburg forgave the city of Bern for the destruction of the castle. 

Read more: Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen Haunting the Old Town in Bern

In its place rose homes, workshops, and busy water-powered mills that soon filled the air with the grinding and creaking of early industry. Also the Nydegg Church was built on the site. 

The Gruesome Ghost of the Burgträppe

Locals call him Burgträppe-Balzli, and his tale has been whispered down generations and is perhaps one of the more well known ghosts from Bern. He is no ordinary phantom and is said to be strange, bitter, and even violent, Balzli seems to choose his victims carefully. According to legend, he doesn’t go after the women at all, but men walking up and down the stairs claim to have been beaten by some unseen force. 

Burgtreppe: Castle stairs at Nydegg Church // Source

But who is this ghost said to still linger in the stairs? Did he have connections to the castle that once stood there? Did something terrible happen on the stairs that he is now trying to get back at? 

Whatever the truth, his rage is eternal. On cold winter nights, passersby near the stairway report hearing echoing thumps like fists pounding stone and the sudden appearance of bruises on the bodies of those who dared tread too close.

Ghostly Builders in the Night

Balzli is not alone in his haunting the area around Nydegg and where the castle once was. Witnesses have reported hearing ghostly craftsmen from older times. They are heard hammering, dragging stone, and dismantling invisible walls. These apparitions appear on bitter winter nights, just when the fog off the Aare is thick.

Ruins of a Castle: Not much remains from the old castle. Landing gate of Nydegg Castle in Bern, around 1300. // Source.

According to legend, these ghosts are the restless spirits of the workers who tore down the castle in 1268, cursed to repeat their demolition for eternity. 

So, if you find yourself wandering the Nydegg at night, mind the stairway. Avoid the shadows clinging to the stones. And if you hear footsteps behind you on the stairs, don’t stop and don’t turn around.

Just keep walking

Newest Posts

References:

Burgenwelt – Nydegg – Schweiz

Burg Nydegg – Wikipedia 

Die Burg des Stadtgründers – Historisches Bern 

Geisterstadt Bern – SWI swissinfo.ch 

Diese Geister spuken durch die Gassen und Häuser der Stadt

Ukategorisert

The Wailing Spirit of Old Beaupre Castle

Leave a comment
Advertisements

The Haunted Ruins of Beaupre Castle in Wales is one of the places in Wales said to have been haunted by the wailing spirit and deadly omen of the The Gwrach y Rhibyn, also known as the Hag of Mist. 

Hidden among quiet fields outside Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, the ruined walls of Old Beaupre Castle rise in broken silence. Known in Welsh as Hen Gastell y Bewpyr, this medieval fortified manor has carried many names through the centuries, from Beawpire to Y Bewpur, but its reputation has remained unchanged. 

Long after its halls fell into decay, something else is said to have remained behind in Llanfair. Since Victorian times, Beaupre has been whispered about as a place where the past refuses to lie still.

Old Beaupre Castle: The haunting ruins of Old Beaupre Castle in Wales, shrouded in mist and mystery of the The Gwrach y Rhibyn. // Source

A Castle Steeped in Shadow

Old Beaupre Castle dates back to the medieval period, once serving as a fortified manor for powerful families who controlled the surrounding lands. The structure was never a grand military stronghold, but it was a place of authority and domestic life, standing close to a river that winds quietly through the landscape. From it was built in the 1300s until the 18th century, it was owned by the Basset family.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted castles

Over time, the manor fell into ruin, its stones reclaimed by ivy and weather, until only fragments of walls and arches were left to mark its presence.

Yet even as the castle faded from practical use, reports of strange happenings persisted. Victorian era accounts describe unease among those who lived or worked nearby. Owners of the land spoke openly of a phantom tied to the ruins, a presence that made itself known at dusk and lingered long after night had fallen.

Courtyard: View through the arches of Old Beaupre Castle, showcasing its medieval architecture and tranquil courtyard. // Source: Beaupre Castle Courtyard by Guy Butler-Madden

The Gwrach y Rhibyn of Beaupre

According to folklore recorded by Alvin Nicholas of Supernatural Wales, Old Beaupre Castle was once believed to be haunted by a fearsome spirit known as the Gwrach y Rhibyn. This entity, often described as a Welsh counterpart to the banshee, is a harbinger of death whose appearance signals tragedy to come. At Beaupre, the Gwrach y Rhibyn was said to rise from the river beside the castle as twilight settled over the ruins.

Witnesses described a horrifying figure emerging from the mist. She wrung her hands in anguish, her arms ending in leathery, bat-like wings that flapped weakly as she moved. Her cries echoed through the broken stone, a sound of grief so raw that local workers reportedly froze in place when they heard it. Some claimed to see her wandering among the ruins, wailing and sobbing as if mourning something long lost.

Kissing-gate on the footpath to Beaupre Castle: An entrance gate leading to the serene landscape near Old Beaupre Castle, a site steeped in Welsh folklore and haunted legends. // Source: Image by John Lord

Her appearance was never seen as harmless. Like the banshee, her presence was believed to foretell death or disaster for those connected to the land.

The Witch in the Courtyard

When the solicitor bought the estate, he became interested in the story of the Gwrach y Rhibyn. A year or two before the owner’s death, an old man in the Vale of Glamorgan shared the following tale: Above the castle entrance, a panel shows the Bassett arms and motto, ‘Gwell angau na chwilydd’ (‘Rather death than shame’). The old man was working near this door at twilight when he heard a soft, sad wailing sound in the courtyard. He noticed a shadowy figure in the grand porch, wringing its hands and appearing distressed. As he approached, the figure vanished.

Curiosity led him deeper inside, where a voice whispered, ‘Lost! lost! lost!’ He looked around but saw no one. Quietly, he returned to the porch, where the wailing began again. The figure with waving hands reappeared, and he heard a sweet yet sad voice crying, ‘Restore! restore! restore!’ The next day, he shared his experience with the solicitor who owned the castle. ‘I know all about it,’ the kind gentleman from Glamorgan said. ‘Strange voices often remind us of the past and guide us for the future.’ The old man realized the owner had also encountered the Gwrach y rhibyn wandering and wailing around the beautiful old Beaupré.

What binds the Gwrach y Rhibyn to Beaupre Castle remains unclear. Some believe she is the restless spirit of a woman who died tragically near the river, bound to the place by grief. Others argue she is something older, a manifestation of ancient Welsh folklore drawn to sites of power and loss. The river, the ruins and the long abandonment of the manor may have created the perfect conditions for such a spirit to linger.

Old Beaupre Castle: The haunting ruins of Old Beaupre Castle, steeped in history and folklore, stand in the Vale of Glamorgan. // Source: Wikimedia/by John Lord

Echoes Among the Ruins

Today, Old Beaupre Castle stands open to visitors and the elements. By day it appears peaceful, almost forgotten by the rest of the world as a place thought to have some of the Magna Carta written here. But as evening falls and the light fades, the ruins take on a different character. The river nearby reflects the darkening sky, and the wind slips through the broken arches with a mournful sound.

Newest Posts

References:

Old Beaupre Castle – Wikipedia

The allegedly haunted Old Beaupre Castle and Farmhouse goes for sale | The Vintage News

Historic Old Beaupre Castle goes on sale for £950k | Daily Mail Online

folklore and folk stories of wales ───────────────────── marie trevelyan

Ukategorisert

Iveagh House: The Dying Servant and the Cross in the Window

1 Comment
Advertisements

It is said a cross shows up in the window of the Iveagh House in Dublin, the former home of the powerful Guinness family. Legend has it’s a haunting that happened after a maid was denied her last rites in the house. 

Along St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, a garden square and public park in the city, Iveagh House at 80-81 in that bustling street, is a gleaming Georgian mansion that holds centuries of secrets behind its refined white façade. There is also a ghostly mystery said to occur there, seen through the windows every Holy Thursday. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland

Built in 1736, it was once two separate houses before Benjamin Guinness, grandson of the famed Arthur Guinness, merged them into one grand residence in 1862. Today, the stately home serves as the headquarters of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.

Iveagh House: Image/Jnestorius

The Legend of the Dying Catholic Maid

The legend tells of a young servant girl who once worked for the Guinness family. When illness struck her, she lay dying in her room upstairs, pleading for a priest to administer her last rites as she was a devout catholic. 

The household, devout Protestants themselves, refused her this last request. Desperate and feverish, the girl clung to her rosary beads, but the story says they were torn from her hands and thrown from the window into the garden below. Her cries faded, and by morning she was gone.

The Cross on Holy Thursday

Not long after her death, the house began to draw attention from the city. On every Holy Thursday from then, a faint yet unmistakable cross appeared on one of the panes of glass in the girl’s room. Crowds were said to have gathered in the street below to witness it, murmuring prayers and tracing the sign with trembling fingers. No matter how many times the window was cleaned or replaced, the cross was said to reappear, glowing faintly against the light.

There are also those claiming it is the spirit of Dermot O’Hurley, the Archbishop of Cashel, who was hanged nearby on the 20th of June, 1584.

To this day, staff working late in Iveagh House sometimes speak of a quiet unease that settles in the upper rooms, as though someone still lingers there in restless faith. The cross may have faded into legend, but the sorrow of the servant girl seems etched into the air of the old Guinness mansion.

Newest Posts

References:

Iveagh House – Wikipedia

Ukategorisert

The Haunted Legends of Pennard Castle

Leave a comment
Advertisements

Said to have been conjured up by a sorcerer or even the fairy folk themselves, Pennard Castles history is both mysterious and haunted by the sound of the howling witch left in the sandy ruins of the abandoned castle in Wales.

Rising above the windswept coastline of the Gower Peninsula, the crumbling remains of Pennard Castle sit watchfully on their cliff, surrounded by shifting sands and centuries of uncanny legends where only ghosts remain. 

What stands today is little more than weathered stone and silent arches, yet the castle has inspired some of the most unsettling stories in Welsh folklore. Its desolation is not simply the work of time. Locals whisper that Pennard’s downfall began with curses, fairy vengeance, and the dark attentions of a supernatural hag.

Source

A Castle Built in a Night

There is little recorded about the castle and throughout centuries more myths and legends than facts have etched themselves into the mind of the locals. 

Folklore claims Pennard Castle was slowly built with mortar and sweat like its neighbors. Instead, it appeared in a single moonlit night. The fair folk, who were said to haunt the nearby woods and hollows, are sometimes credited with its construction. Sometimes it is said it was a sorcerer who conjured the castle one night to save himself from death by the Normans.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted castles around the world

The ruins of Pennard Castle overlay an earlier Norman earth timber ringwork fortification. The cliffs on the north and west side offered strategic defences, and a stone castle was built in the 1300s. The castle changed hands from the Broase clan to the Mowbray, Despenser, and Beauchamp families.

Exceptionally stormy weather in the 13th and 14th centuries blew large amounts of sand into and around it. The sandy storms damaged the castle structure so much the ones living in it abandoned it. By the 1650s, the historical records talk about the desolate ruins of the castle buried in sand. 

The Curse of the Fair Folk over Pennard Castle

So who were these fair folk said to be the ones building the castle? Along the Parkmill route in the area, you will also find an abundance of Buckthorn, the favourite of the Welsh Faeries, or Lunantisidhe from Irish folklore. Some also say this is a sign of the Welsh version of them and their presence around the castle. 

One of Pennard’s most enduring legends tells of a wedding feast held by the lord of the castle. As he and his guests celebrated, music drifted into the hall from the courtyard. There, the fair folk, or Verry folk, “verry-folks”, the fairies of Gower, were dancing beneath the moon. 

The Verry-Folks: The Gower Peninsula is a region rich in folklore and a particular one because of the present population being by ancestry of English and Flemish as well as Cornish and Welsh. One of its more endearing legends is that of the Gower Verry Volk – fairy folk. Local mythology describes these little people as capricious, lively, and fond of music, dancing and general merriment. // Source

Instead of welcoming them or offering hospitality, the lord reacted with anger and drove them out. Insulted and furious, the fairies cursed the fortress and its master. That same night, winds howled across the coast and a tide of sand rose like a living force. By dawn, the castle was half buried. Within a few short years, so much sand had piled against the walls that Pennard became uninhabitable. Some tales claim that while Pennard was choked by sand, the beaches of Ireland were stripped bare, the grains carried across the sea as part of the curse.

The Hag of Pennard Castle

The legends of Pennard do not end with the fair folk. The castle is also tied to a terrifying spirit known as a Gwrach y Rhibyn, a witch or hag of death whose screeches and cries echo across the cliffs. Like the banshee of Irish folklore, she appears before a death in certain old families, often in the form of a crow-like creature hunched in the shadows. 

Some say that it was the sorcerer who conjured up the castle who invoked her to protect him from the Normans and that she would not let any mortal spend the night in the castle. 

If that were not frightening enough, she is said to physically attack anyone foolish enough to sleep among the ruins. Some versions of the tale say she leaps upon any living soul who beds down inside the castle walls. Others claim she only assaults those from the ancient local lineages she has shadowed for generations. The outcome is seldom good. Those who dared to sleep in Pennard Castle were said to awaken mad, die before morning, or in stranger cases rise as poets, cursed with visions they could never fully express.

Source

Legend has it that one Carmarthen man, daring to spend the night in the ruined castle, was attacked by the Gwrach. The ghostly figure swooped down upon him, leaving him bruised and bloodied. Though he survived, he was cursed to live the rest of his life as a madman.

The Weeping Woman in the Ruins

Visitors sometimes report the sound of a woman crying among the broken walls when the wind dies and the dunes lie still. Some believe she is a tragic bride, forever mourning a lost love. A maiden reputedly threw herself off nearby Penrice Hill after avenging the death of her lover.

Others insist the weeping maiden is none other than the gwrach herself, changing form as suits her purpose. Whether a spirit of sorrow or a harbinger of death, her presence lingers in the night air, carried over the sands like a lament for the castle and the lives it claimed.

A Place Where Time Does Not Rest

Pennard Castle has long since fallen to ruin, its halls open to the sky and its gates claimed by sand. the rare county flower of Glamorgan extensively on the castle site.

Source

Yet the stories remain. The curses of the fair folk, the deathly hag, the unseen bride, and the chilling fate of those who sleep within its walls all cling to the site as stubbornly as the dunes that smothered it.

Newest Posts

References:

Myths of Pennard Castle, Gower – History Points

Pennard Castle

Pennard Castle | Visitor Information