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The Haunting of The Blue Lady at Verdala Palace

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The mysterious legend about the Blue Lady in Verdala Palace on Malta is shrouded in questions as she is supposedly haunting the beautiful castle. What happened to her and Who is she? Will she ever find peace?

On the height of the Buskett Gardens lies The Verdala Palace. Set in the heart of the idyllic gardens and surrounding forests it gives some breathtaking views of the island. Today it is used as a summer residence for the president of Malta and is an enormous building sitting alone at the hill.

The Verdala Palace is closed off to public except on the annual Moon Ball held every August. And perhaps, sometimes, a woman wearing her blue dress dances among the guests, not being able to escape the palace, even in her death.

The History of Malta and the Verdala Palace

For a time Malta was ruled by a religious order. The Order of Saint John, was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order and the ones that built the Verdala Palace in the 1500s as a hunting lodge. And the island of Malta was ruled by the Order of Saint John as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1530 to 1798 when the legend is said to have taken place. 

The Verdala Palace: Majestic as it stands from it was built by the Grandmaster Verdalle in 1586, it is now used as a summer residence for the president of Malta. Local legend has it that the Verdala Palace is supposedly haunted by The Blue Lady, a tragic story about a woman who was imprisoned in one of the towers.//Photo: ERWEH

The order thought self that they turned, “merely a rock of soft sandstone” into a flourishing island with mighty defenses and a capital city among the great powers of Europe during the 268 years they ruled the island.

The native felt otherwise though, as the Knights were French and excluded the native islanders from important positions. They were especially loathed for the way they took advantage of the native women. Perhaps The Blue Lady is an echo of these women?

The Blue Lady in Verdala Palace

The order was ruled by a so called Grand Master. And the last Grand Master of Malta was Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc. He had a niece according to legend who is said to be The Blue Lady in the Verdala Palace. But as the legend goes, even though the order were eventually expelled by the French from the Island, she remains there as a ghost, haunting the palace she ended up trapped inside of.

The Blue Lady: The Verdala Palace is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a lady wearing a blue dress.

Walking the halls of the Renaissance palace under the intricate frescoes in the ceiling, the bold architecture, grand staircases and passing under the high, arched ceilings, The Blue Lady is unable to find any rest in her castle prison.

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories set in haunted palaces, mansions and castles from all over the world.

The Blue Lady, sometimes referred to as Is-sinjura tal-Verdala, was supposed to marry a man she didn’t love according to legend often told about her. Who this man was varies, but it is often thought he was one of the knights.

She had no say in that matter and was forced to it but kept trying to refuse the man she would be forced to spend the rest of her life with. The man grew angry and impatient at her refusals and imprisoned her in her room in the palace to teach her a lesson and keep her in her place.

Imprisoned and forced to compliance, she had no way of getting out. Unless… the only way she saw an escape was through the windows. The palace was many floors high and it was dangerous, some might even say impossible to escape this way. She slipped and fell to her death.

In some version she just gave up completely and threw herself out from the window to take her own life instead of marrying a man she didn’t love. Today we will never know.

After her tragic death she returned as a ghost. The Blue Lady has been spotted inside of Verdala Palace, walking the halls in her blue dress. The very same dress she wore when she died.

Interested in more stories about ghosts that were trapped in a castle? Read the story about The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

Sightings of the Ghost at the Verdala Palace

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulomb/6955536113/in/photostream/
The Moon Ball: Sightings of the Blue Lady in the Verdala Palace is often during the August Moon Ball held in the palace. //Photo: Pablo Torres Flickr.

So why is she haunting the place she felt so trapped in? Many of these so called ghost ladies often found in old castles and mansions is haunting the place because of the tragic way they died. They are perhaps bitter about how it ended, but harmless according to most ghost stories about those ladies in white, grey and black from Europe.

So exactly why she is haunting the place is harder to pinpoint, however, we do have many written accounts of her haunting dating over a century back in time.

One of the written accounts of seeing The Blue Lady is from a Howard Jones in 1917. At this time, Jones worked as a staff member of Admiral Sir Arthur Gough-Calthorpe. He once visited the Verdala Palace and came back with a ghost story. I

n the diary, penned by a Capt. Robert Ingham, the aide-de-camp of the Gouverneur of Malta, he relayed Jones story of him seeing the Lady in Blue at Verdala Palace.

One time, Jones went to the Verdala Palace for a weekend in July, 1917. There, he was given a small room with a window overlooking the ditch. On the second floor there is something that are known as “Blue Lady’s Quarters”.

Today these quarters are almost empty and uninhabited and houses little to no guests. The walls are painted in dark wedgewood blue.

According to the diary, The Blue Lady appeared there before him as a ghost. When Jones was doing his tie in the mirror, a lady dressed in blue walked up behind him, but when he turned around there was no one there.

The Lost Name of the Lady in Blue

Even though the story has persisted for a very long time, little is known about the name of the Lady in Blue in Verdala Palace, even though she is a descendant of a noble family. But she has been embraced by the Malta as part of the history and even the official presidential website mentions her, writing: “This is only a legend, however many people do confirm that she does indeed appear in the palace wearing a blue dress.”

A possible link could be one of the de Rohan Polduc members seemingly being linked as siblings to Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, which The Blue Lady is supposedly a niece of. They are:

  • Jean-Baptiste de Rohan-Polduc (1724-1782))
  • Marie Pélagie de Rohan-Polduc (1724-1753), married (1737) François de Groesquer, Count of Groesquer
  • Jean Léonard de Rohan-Polduc (?-1748)

Another version (a very dramatic one) of the legend behind the The Blue Lady in the Verdala Palace is:

Cecile, a niece of Grand Master de Rohan, who had eloped with a commoner and found herself in her uncle’s care. It is said that after the Grand Master’s death during the French occupation of Malta, her fiancé was tortured in order to make him divulge the whereabouts of a supposed treasure hoard at Verdala Castle. Cecile took hold of the sword belonging to a French soldier, killed her fiancé to end his misery, and then jumped to her death from a castle window.

azure.com.mt

Whoever The Blue Lady is, at the annual Ball at Verdala Palace in August, when the gates to the palace opens, when it is once filled with people, with life, the guests still, again and again, insist on seeing The Lady in Blue dancing in the halls in her blue dress.

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Sources: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/The-Blue-lady.654131
https://maltaprivateguide.com/verdala-palace/
https://president.gov.mt/the-palace-verdala/
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49535

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Loftus Hall – Ireland’s most haunted

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Loftus Hall is said to be one of Ireland’s most haunted mansions. It is thought that the place is haunted by one of the daughters that had an encounter with the devil himself in disguise and never recovered from the shock after she found out the truth.

A magnificent and stately manor to look at is Loftus Hall, one of Ireland’s finer ones of the Hook peninsula of County Wexford. This area is a famous site in Irish history, known as the place “where Ireland was lost and won”. The coastline offers a beach a day for a fortnight and is one of the special attractions of this area. Pretty fishing villages and bird watching on the mudflats of Bannow Estuary.

Read More: Have a look at all of our ghost stories from Ireland.

A little aside from the shore, from the village and from people, a Hall stands. Weathered, sure, but still in all its glory a moldy, ancient place inhabits. It stands alone in the austere and rather bleak landscape. But a dark legends hangs over the old house, and it has done so, for quite some time. Rumors about the devil that roams the ground as well as the ghost of a woman haunting the place.

A Windy Place: The Loftus Hall has been withstanding the test of times, even in a weathered place like it was built on the coast of Ireland.

The Loftus Hall was built in the 1350’s, also known for being the time of the Black Death Plague, taking the lives of so many in Ireland. It was built by the Redmond family to replace their castle. Back then it was known as Redmond Hall.

The Loftus Hall has always attracted the eyes of the darker and more sinister stories, especially since the legends started to cross the sea that lies so dark and rough just ahead. It even featured as the plays were they shot the horror movie, The Lodgers.

Read the movie review:

The Lodgers

The Lodgers from 2017 is an Irish Gothic horror film by David Turpin and Brian O’Malley. It stars Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner and Eugene Simon. If you like eerily dark and hauntingly beautiful movies like The Others or newer one like Crimson Peak, The Lodgers will be an obvious next escape to a haunted house…

The Legend Behind Loftus Hall

In the mid 1700s, Charles Tottenham became Lord of the manor by marrying Anne Loftus. They had six children, one of their daughters, was also called Anne and this is her story. About her and the devil himself that knocked on her door and entered her heart.

Inside Loftus Hall: The movie, The Lodgers is worth watching just to catch glimpse of the interior of the Loftus Hall inside the three-storey, 22-bedroom Palladian mansion.

According to the legend, on a dark and stormy night, a mysterious stranger came to the house on horseback. He went straight to the hall, asking for shelter, claiming that his ship ran ashore in the rough sea. The Tottenham family, who lived there at the time, invited the strange in.

The young daughter, Lady Anne Tottenham met this stranger, and instantly took a liking to him. And he to her. And soon they became very close. In some accounts, they even became lovers.

Whatever they were he stayed for a while and no one really noticed anything strange about the stranger before one fateful evening.

On one particular evening, she played cards with the mysterious visitor in one of the rooms of Loftus Hall. In the game, each player received 3 cards apart from Anne who was only dealt 2 by the mystery man. A butler serving the Tottenham family at the table was just about to question the man when Anne bent down to pick another card from the floor which she must have been dropped.

She bent over to pick them up and that is when she saw it under the table. The man had no feet of that of a man. They were cloven hooves, like a beast and she understood he had to be Beelzebub, the devil himself.

Read more: Check out more ghost stories were the devil himself made an appearance like The Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens New Jersey or Baron Falkenberg that were Cursed to Sail the Sea for 600 Years.

Anne screamed at the sight of the man she thought she knew. As soon as the man noticed Anne’s look on her face, he knew that he’s been found out and disappeared from the mansion in most extra way possible by shooting himself through the roof of the halls, in a ball of flames.

The Ghost Haunting Loftus Hall

Anne herself never recovered after this traumatic incident and went into some sort of shock people say that she never got out of.

Haunting the Manor: It is said that Anne is still haunting the place.//Source: Loftus Hall Facebook

Some say her family was so ashamed of her and her unladylike behaviour that they locked her away in her favorite room, called the tapestry room. She didn’t want anything to eat or drink after the shock, only staring out her window, across the sea to where Dunmore east is today.

What she was thinking about differs from who you ask. Some say that she was waiting for her mysterious stranger to return, even though she knew who he was. Others say she locked herself in the room, wanting to feel safe from the devil who had invaded her safe space, her home and her heart unknowingly.

Read More: Check out more mansions and castles believed to be haunted from all over the world.

No matter what the reason was and what happened that night at Loftus Hall we will probably never know for sure. What we do know is that Anne died in the very room in 1775. She died sitting and when she died, they could not straighten her body out, and she had to be buried in the same sitting position she died in.

After her death many talked about the place becoming haunted. Some claims she stills walks the corridors in her ghostly form, still in shock after her encounter with the devil, unable to move on, or perhaps even scared for where she would end up.

The Paranormal Reports

Now, that is one hell of a story. And a pretty crazy one at that. But the reports of strange encounters and supposed evidence of the paranormal still keeps coming, even after all this time.

Loftus Hall was after the devil incident the owners of the manor had an exorcism by Father Thomas Broaders whose powers is said to have worked and the evil that lingered went away. Father Broarders went on to become Parish Priest of the parishes of the Hook and Ramsgrange for almost 50 years.

Even the original building was almost leveled to the ground, and the manor we see today is the one they rebuilt in 1865 to 1875 were it went through extensive renovations.

But even though it is said that the exorcism worked, reports about strange paranormal activity has been reported a lot. And a lot more since it was opened to the public in 2012. And this is why some say that Loftus Hall is Ireland’s most haunted place in Ireland.

There are stuff though, that are without a question just very creepy. Like when during a renovation of the house years later in recent times, the skeleton of an infant was discovered in the walls. What the story behind this could be, only the dead knows.

One of the supposed evidence of paranormal happenings in the manor comes from a nice summer of 2014, when Thomas Beavis made a trip to the scenic place to do some sightseeing. When he looked through his pictures from his holiday after he came home he was shocked.

Picture of a ghost: This is the viral photo of the alleged ghost a visitor took when visiting Loftus Hall in 2014. What do we think? Could it be the ghost of Anne who has been rumoured to haunt the place ever since her death?

In the background there is a ghostly outline, most likely of a young girl or woman, looking out the windows of the hall. Could it just be a reflection of the tourist walking outside? Or could it be something more eerie. Could it be Anne who is said to haunt Loftus Hall?

Throughout the years, the hall has been a lot. A castle, a convent, a school and under attack from foreign invaders. Today it remains as a tourist attraction. A dark one at that, embracing its history and people travelling from all over the world to take part in paranormal investigations following Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin and Nick Groff. But know, in the summer of 2020, the Hall will once again close its doors for visitors. And the answers we seek will maybe never be answered.

As of 2023, Loftus Hall is still closed down and not open to the public as it is renovated.

The Haunted House filmed: A Youtube snippet about the house and the hauntings that is rumored to be going on inside of the Loftus Hall.

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Sources:

  1. https://www.irishpost.com/news/netflix-horror-film-the-lodgers-159185
  2. https://www.loftushall.ie/about/
  3. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/haunted-loftus-hall-to-be-laid-to-rest-gdtkv05mh
  4. https://allthatsinteresting.com/loftus-hall
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The Evil Bishop Against the Maiden in Love – The Ghost of Haapsalu Castle

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There is a ghost story that a Lady in White is haunting Haapsalu Castle in Estonia. According to the legend, she was walled up alive inside of the walls when the Bishop discovered her true identity. Her crime? She fell in love.

The ghost of the Lady in White is a wide spread thing in Europe. Every country and even region have their own local version on it. Many are haunting the old castles, cathedrals and mansions scattered across the universe. Some are haunting the waterfalls, some haunts whole families. Estonia is no exception and according to legend, their White Lady is found in Haapsalu Castle.

Sitting in the midst at the cusp of the eastern Europe Baltic heritage as well as so far north, the culture of Estonia is somewhat of a mix of the two. Many consider themselves more Nordic than Baltic, being so influenced by both Sweden and Finland, they have a rich and varied lore still alive and well today.

The Haunted Haapsalu Castle

On the western shore, the sleepy seaside town of Haapsalu is best known for its warm seawater, curative mud and peaceful atmosphere facing the Vaiinameri Sea. Salt mud spas frequented by the Russian Romanov family still operate. Everything is made for a relaxing weekend and a nice holiday for sunny days. Just don’t go to the Haapsalu Castle, it’s haunted.

Read More: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Castles around the world

In the 13th century in the coastal city of Haapsalu, a castle and a cathedral was built from 1279 and it’s the only one of its kind preserved today. It was also known as Haapsalu piiskopilinnus, or more simply Bishop’s Castle. It was to be the new seat of the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, were God’s law was the lands law. So it was a sort of royal as well as godly position, and the design of the castle was as well.

The Haapsalu Castle by night: The castle in Haapsalu is said to be haunted by a lady in white that still lingers long after her death. She is perhaps the most well known ghost in Estonia. Here is a picture from Haapsalu Castle in the dark, or, at least what is left, is still there. Photo:Sergei Gussev/

It was not a particular popular way of ruling as the last seat they had ruled from in Perona, where the Lithuanians burned his home down to the ground. Although he needed the place quick as his previous residence had been burned down, the whole castle took around 300 years to complete with the attached cathedral and monastery to it.

The position of Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek changed hands all up to the 1500s, and in 1279, the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek was Hermann of Buxhoeveden. It was also then he founded the castle and probably the bishop who is talked about in the legend of the Lady in White in Haapsalu Castle.

The life there, especially in the episcopal castle, was a strict one. Every canon working and living there in the monasteries were meant to live a chaste and virtuous life according to the monastery rules.

Read Also: Check out our ghost stories from all of the churches and monasteries from around the world.

Meeting women in the Haapsalu Castle was therefore strictly forbidden and punishable by death. The castle forbade all access for women and the monks rarely ventured outside to test their vows. But all of these rules is useless, love will always find a way.

The Maiden and the Canon in Love

The Forbidden Love inside of the Castle Walls: One of the monks was on a walk outside of the castle walls when he fell in love with a woman he brought back to the castle with him.

As legend of the White Lady Haapsalu Castle tells, one of the canon working there fell in love with a girl when he was outside of the castle walls. When it was clear they had to be together no matter what, he brought her with him to the Haapsalu Castle.

As there was a strict no women allowed policy, they had to disguise her so that no one would now her true identity. She went undercover and was working as a choirboy for a while to be able to meet and have a relationship with him.

They were then able to meet and talk and be in each others lives as long as they were able to pass her off as a boy to the rest of the men living there. They had no other choice if they wanted to be together. He had taken a vow to god that couldn’t be broken, and she had no way of following him with being herself.

Read Also: Check out more ghost stories about love that goes wrong with The Lady Nak of Phra Khanong — Thailand’s Famous Ghost Mae Nak, The Hauntings of the Chute de la Dame Blanche or Botan Dōrō – Tales of the Peony Lantern.

Their little scheme worked for a while. That is, until the bishop came back to the castle and their whole world came crashing down.

The bishop had been away for some time while this was going on and when he returned, a young choirboy caught his eye. Something was off, and even though they had been able to fool the rest he caught on to the deceit.

Perhaps he wasn’t the only one who knew, but everyone else had left them in peace as long as it was discreet. These details we’ll never know for sure. The bishop however couldn’t be fooled and he ordered an investigation, finding out the singer’s gender and found her to be a woman.

Starving to Death inside of Haapsalu Castle Walls

Sightings of the White Lady: The ghost of the Lady in White in Haapsalu Castle has been spotted in the chapel for a long time. Photo: Sander Säde

When the girl was found out, the bishop summoned his council to decide on their punishment. The boy was sentenced to prison were he was going to starve to death. But the girl got the worst end of the deal according to some.

She was to be put immured inside of the walls of Haapsalu Castle. The chapel was under construction at the time and they made a space where they could wall her up. They gave her a single piece of bread and mug of water before they closed up the wall with her inside and left her to die.

Read Also: This was a crime that happened from time to time. To hear more ghost stories about women being buried alive inside the walls, have a look at The Finnish Maiden of Olavinlinna Castle or Dracula and Ghost Nuns in Whitby Abbey

For several days her cries for help, her banging on the walls rung throughout the castle. No one came to her aid and everyone just passed the wall in silence, ignoring the screams that grew fainter and fainter.

Who know what she must have been thinking. She probably didn’t know she would die the way that she had been living since she arrived at Haapsalu castle, hidden inside of the castle walls.

Eventually, she died. But her soul, according to legend, remained and came back as a ghost.

Haunting the Chapel During Full Moon

Now the White Lady can move through the walls. In Haapsalu Castle there was built a chapel still standing today, and this girl is always seen at the inner wall of it, or standing by the Baptistery window around the place she is said to have been walled up.

Read Also: Check out the ghost story of the old Japanese practice of walling people up inside of walls of buildings in O-shizu, Hitobashira — The Human Sacrifice of Maruoka Castle

Whether some have actually done some digging and looked if there actually is a walled up skeleton inside of the chapel wall, is unknown.

The sightseeing of this Lady in White are always around full moons, particularly in August, when it is said is when the Bishop returned to Haapsalu Castle and she was walled up inside of the walls. Why full moon? Did it all happen during a full moon? Perhaps because of the legends that strange things happen during full moons? Or perhaps it was the imagination of the writer Carl Russwurn who popularized the legend, or perhaps even made it up?

Full Moon Haunting: It is said that the ghost of the Lady in White comes out and shows herself during the hot August full moons. Photo by Ben Mack on Pexels.com

The Lady in White is not said to do anything in particular other than to mourn her lost love and life that were taken from her because of the verdic of one man.

Coincidentally, the sightings of her in Haapsalu Castle happens during full moon in the hot August nights. This sightings is also said to happen when a music festival is held in her honor, called: The White Lady Days.

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The Malcanis Guarding the Fortress

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In Akershus Fortress in Oslo, Norway, there are rumours about something strange haunting the former castle. There is a legend of a ghost of a dog haunting the place, called the Malcanis, or Evil Dog as it means.

In medieval times it was a king’s castle were Akershus fortress in Oslo is today, looking out over the fjords. Under the building of the castle the workers bricked in a living dog. It was a relative normal custom in those days. According to them, they meant that it would bring good luck. Coincidentally, the custom was also meant to warn about accidents.

But when the castle was done around 1299 the “Malacanis” as they called it, “the evil dog” haunts the place, and seemed to be something else than an omen.

Read also: There are many ghost stories about dogs and cats haunting places. Check out The Story that Inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Poltergeist of Greyfriars Kirkyard and The Black Cat of War.

The Dark Hallway

Among its first victims that would feel the wrath of the Malcanis was the commander at the fortress at the time. Around the year 1550 the hallway were the dog was bricked in collapsed.

Unrest crept into the guards at the fortress. “What about the Malcanis? It was right there the collapse happened”, they whispered among themselves when they were standing guard. Everyone knew about the legend about the poor dog that had been bricked up. And reports about people spotting the ghost there was plenty of.

The Ghost Under Jomrutårnet: The ghost of the Malcanis is said to be put to rest in the walls around the Virgin tower when it was bricked up there for good luck. Allegedly a tower difficult to penetrate and many thought it was because of the ghost dog.

A sound was heard in the hallway under the fortress and everyone feared that the castle was under attack. No one was brave enough to investigate the cause of the ruckus. Not even if the intruders was Swedish forces. The Malcanis put fear in the soldiers.

Read Also: This is not the only ghost thought to haunt Akershus Fortress. There is also rumours about the ghost of a former maid that are still lingering inside. Check out The Mantelgeist of the Fortress for the full ghost story.

In the end, commander Peder Hanssøn Litle walked down Mørkegangen (The dark hallway) himself, as the rest of the guards refused because of fear from the ghost dog. With a single torch he closed in on the fallen stones and started investigating the dark hallway and tried to get a sense of what had happened.

From the shadows he saw a dog, red-glowing eyes appeared with fangs and a chain around its neck. He got into a bloody fight with the ghost dog, that didn’t disappeared until Peder threw a torch right at it and it retreated back into the darkness. The commander came crawling out on all four, more dead than alive, stuttering only one word: The Malcanis!

The Bad Omen

The hero commander survived – but around a month later he died after being thrown off the horse. Unrelated perhaps, but rumours about his death started to circulate among the guards. Others that have seen the Malcanisen in the eyes suffered a similar fate, according to legends. Could it be that it was because of this the commander died? And if so, was seeing the dog then the warning or the curse?

Read Also: Check out all of the ghost stories from Norway

It was also spotted a ghost hound in 1550, then called Malcanisten in the same hallway under the Virgin Tower that was built at that time. After a soldier was killed by a horse in 1567 it is said it was observed several times under the same tower, and those who observe it, won’t live the year.

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Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

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One of the more well known ghost stories in Japan is of the poor servant Okiku in the ghost story Banchō Sarayashiki has become the very image of a Japanese ghost story. The girl that died in the well and comes back, forever counting the plates of her master, hoping that one time, she won’t be missing any.

Okiku Well: by Katsushika Hokusai, most known for making the The Great Wave off Kanagawa, painting. From the one hundred ghost tales series. depicting the Banchō Sarayashiki

The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.

Banchō Sarayashiki is a tale of dying unjustly and the haunting of righting a wrong. The story always revolves around Okiku, a servant, who was killed by her master. Not to be confused with Okiku, the haunted doll which is equally terrifying, but a different tale altogether.

It has had many adaptations and different variations of the legends exists. Here in this article, we are trying to focus mostly on the folktale the stage plays and books are based on.

This old Japanese ghost stories called Kaidan (怪談,) meaning “strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition” and “talk” or “recited narrative“. In its broadest sense, kaidan refers to any ghost story or horror story, but it has an old-fashioned ring to it that carries the connotation of Edo period Japanese folktales.

The type of storytelling was especially popular in the Edo period with parlor games like Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai that focused in telling ghost stories.

Read Also: This game and many more in Games to play in the dark

The Banchō Sarayashiki tale is one of Japan’s three most famous ghost stories, known as Nihon san dai kaidan. The other two being:

Japan’s Three Biggest Ghost Stories:

Botan Dōrō – Tales of the Peony Lantern

The Botan Dōrō or Tales of the Peony Lantern is a ghost story told since the Ming dynasty in China to today. Most popular through the Kaidan theater plays, it is now one of Japan’s most well known ghost stories.

Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

The tale of Banchō Sarayashiki (番町皿屋敷, The Dish Mansion at Banchō) is a well known Japanese ghost story (kaidan). It was popularized in the kabuki theater tradition, and lives on in popular culture and folklore alike.

Okiku and the Nine Plates

So what happened to the poor Okiku in the story of Banchō Sarayashiki that was so tragic and terrifying that it is still talked about today?

Banchō Sarayashiki: The print depicts the ghost of Okiku appearing by the well in which her master, Aoyama Tessan, murdered her.
From the Thirty-six Ghosts series by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1890.

There once was a servant Okiku working for a samurai named Aoyama Tessan in his mansion in Japan. Okiku was a beautiful girl and Aoyama, her master fell in love in her, and told her he wanted to marry her. However she did not feel the same and had to refuse his advances again and again. Her master started to grow tired and angry at her refusals. To make her follow his will he made a plan to trick her.

The family had at that time, ten precious Delft plates, a type of glazed porcelain. Very valuable and pretty. Losing one of them would be a crime punished by death. As a servant, Okiku was in charge of taking care of these plates and she knew very well the consequences if she messed up.

The master of the house knew this as well and used this and he tricked her, thinking she had lost one of them by hiding it.

Okiku counted, and recounted the nine plates, over and over again. But it was never enough. She could’t find the tenth plate and she went to her master, pleading for forgiveness. He said he would overlook the mistake she thought she had done, if she only became his lover. But to his surprise she refused, again. And Aoyama couldn’t take no for an answer.

Enraged, he threw her down a well were she died. In some version, she threw herself down the well to escape the torment from her master. In either cases, she died in that well. Perhaps quickly, hitting the stone walls, perhaps slowly, drowning in the dark water.

It is said she became an onryō, a vengeful spirit, back for revenge of those who wronged her. The ghost of Okiku tormented her murderer, every night, rising from the well and coming up to the mansion again, making him go insane in the end. Okiku was still counting the nine plates, one by one. Only reaching nine everytime, then making a terrible shriek when she again missed the tenth plate.

Read Also: The Ghosts of Japan

According to legends, an onryō is very difficult to get rid of. In this case, no one built a shrine in her honor to appease the spirit, however, some say that a Buddhist monk or a neighbor appeased the ghost by shouting ten to her, making her believe all of the plates were finally there, but then again— Some says she still haunts the castle she used to work in, unable to ever move on.

Read more about the Onryō

Onryō — the Vengeful Japanese Spirit

In many cultures, ghosts are put in different categories. Such is the case with Onryō (怨霊 onryō,) It basically means “vengeful spirit” or “wrathful spirit” in Japanese and is a mythological spirit of vengeance from Japanese folklore. They also have ghosts, called yurei, but these differ in the will of the ghost. As opposed to…

Banchō Sarayashiki Stage Play Adaptation

In some versions of the tale it is the mistress of the manor that breaks one of the dishes making Okiku commits suicide because of the mistress torment because she is jealous of Okiku. Similar to the other versions, Okiku is heard counting the nine plates, but in this version it is the mistress who goes insane and dies.

The Banchō Sarayashiki story was first seen as a bunraku, a type of puppet show, way back in 1741, based on the legend of the Manor of the Dishes and the poor servant. It was then turned into a kabuki play. But perhaps the most popular adaption of the legend is a play written in 1916 by Okamoto Kido, a modern version were the horror elements of the tale was turned into a psychological drama between the two characters.

Read More: All our ghost stories from Japan

Today the most famous adaption of this legend though is The Ring franchise with the vengeful spirit Sadako climbing out from the well to haunt the living and get her revenge.

The Okiku Insect Haunting the Wells in Japan

The haunting of Okiku’s ghost told in the Banchō Sarayashiki story, have been widely reported on for centuries, so exactly when it started to circulate as a ghost story before getting on the stage is unclear. Today the image of the young girl haunting and ascending from a well is such an iconic image.

Haunting the Wells: Illustration of the “Okiku insect” from Ehon Hyaku Monogatari.

But her haunting the wells in Japan was a well known motief long before the rise of J-Horror, and much of it was actually because of actual events in the 1700s.

A thing about these types of vengeful spirits like the onryō in Asia is their supposed forces to affect more than the ones who hurt them.

Vengeful ghosts often got blamed when there were peculiar natural disasters, accidents or even illnesses that could be linked to the ghost stories in some way. This was the case with the haunting of Okiku in the Banchō Sarayashiki.

All back in 1795 the old wells in Japan got a larvae infestation that were blamed on the ghost of Okiku. It was later known as the “Okiku insect” (お菊虫, okiku mushi).

This larva that was actually a type of butterfly larva called Chinese Windmill, covered with thin threads making it look as though it had been bound, was widely believed to be a reincarnation of Okiku when it covered the old wells and became a part of the legend of the Banchō Sarayashiki.

People in Japan that had heard and believed in the ghost story thought for a long time that the infestation was a reincarnation of Okiku and the cause of the infestation.

Haunting The Himeji Castle

Most of the legends claim that the hauntings of the Banchō Sarayashiki legend are in Edo (Tokyo). But there is a claim that the location of where it happened, is at the beautiful Himeji Castle, one of the biggest sightseeing places in Japan. It is claimed as the location in the Banchō Sarayashiki retelling in Ningyo Joruri’s version of the play. According to the legends, she is not th only ghost that are supposed to haunt the place.

The location: One of the stage adaption places the legend of Banchō Sarayashiki is at the wonderful Himeji Castle and the well on the castle ground known as Okiku Well attracts tourists as well as the beautiful white castle and cherry blossoms does. Photo by Nien Tran Dinh on Pexels.com

One the spots to see at Himeji Castle is the Okiku-Ido, or the Okiku Well were her ghost still lingers. There is also a well in the garden of the Canadian embassy in Tokyo, supposedly built on land bought from the Aoyama family, that claims this is the well she died in. In both versions though, the story is the same:

At night, Okiku comes out from the well to count the nine plates. One plate, two plate …’ ‘Nine plate, … one is missing …’ she goes. According to the some variations to the ghost story, you will die if you stay to the end with her reaching the tenth plate. If you manage to flee before her reaching the seventh, you may live, although you may lose your mind.

Read More: The story of Okiku and more in: The Ghosts Of the Haunted Himeji Castle In Japan

What is even more creepy is that this exact well fount at Himeji Castle to this day has bars all over it as some type of security measurement. Keeping the tourist out. Or.. perhaps keeping something in?

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References:

Ghost Story of Okiku – artelino

https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/culture/Sarayashiki%20(The%20Haunted%20Plate%20House).html

Bancho Sarayashiki: Okiku And The Nine Plates (Ep. 25)

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Onryō — the Vengeful Japanese Spirit

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From a classical folklore motif to the black haired lady dressed in white in Kabuki Theatre and Japanese horror movies, this ghost called Onryō is still haunting Japan. Clad in her distinct white kimono and long black hair, she will stop at nothing to get her revenge.

In many cultures, ghosts are put in different categories such as the case with Onryō (怨霊), basically means “vengeful spirit” or “wrathful spirit” in Japanese. It is a mythological spirit of vengeance from Japanese folklore. The Onryō is a type of yūrei, meaning ghosts. But these are ghosts with a purpose and as opposed to the yūrei, these ghosts doesn’t just get over their revenge thoughts.

Read More: The Ghosts of Japan

Even though the modern world reject things like ghosts i most cases, Japanese reverence for onryō spirits endures, notably illustrated by the case of Taira no Masakado’s head mound, Masakado-zuka. Even though urban redevelopment projects relocated it several times, each move resulted in accidents and a construction worker’s death. The mound, situated amidst Tokyo’s skyscrapers, remains intact while surrounding buildings have undergone frequent reconstruction. It continues to be meticulously maintained in respect for onryō spirits.

Let us have a closer look to the famous ghost that has a long and varied history from being the main antagonist in movies to women with a tragic fate.

The Origins Of The Onryō

The origins of the Onryō is a bit unclear but can be traced back in written records since the 7th or 8th century in Japan in the late Yamato period when Buddhism were introduced to Japan and the vengeful spirit of an Onryō reminds quite a bit about the hungry ghosts from Buddhism or Preta as it was known as in Sanskrit.

The Ghost: The Onryō has long roots in Japanese ghost mythology. // Photo: Sawaki Suushi (佐脇嵩之,)

The vengeful spirit manifests when someone is either killed or driven to their death. The person died so filled of rage over the ones that either killed or betrayed them in some way, they will stop at nothing to avenge themselves.

Read also: More ghost stories from Japan

Mostly, the spirit never starts out as evil, and wasn’t an evil person when alive. But the circumstances around their life and particularly around their death made them bit by bit as time went on and anger built up. This type of vengeful spirit are sometimes created from the basis of love, but the jealousy perverted the love so much, it turned to hatred. In both cases, their soul are unable to pass on to be reborn and lingers in the realm of between the living and dead.

In traditional beliefs and literature in Japan and similar spirits across Asia, they causes harm to the living, killing its enemies or in some cases, been blamed for causing natural disaster to get revenge. It feels it was wronged in life and now they have a change to correct that in their afterlife.

Usually it was a victim when alive, but in death, it doesn’t discriminate passing judgment to others, making them their victims.

It is said that the Onryō don’t know how to differentiate between the guilty and the innocent victims, making them dangerous for the living. They also have a tendency to make their victims suffer for as long as possible before murdering them as the torture itself seems to be the goal.

The Female Onryō and the Male Goryō

The term Onryō is almost exclusively a title that refers to a female ghost today although some of the first example of this type of vengeful spirits were male. There are also cases of the male Onryō told today, but they mainly focus on the topic of restoring their honor after death than the revenge the female spirit often are after.

The term Onryō overlaps somewhat with Goryō (御霊), another type of yūrei, except that goryō is not necessarily a wrathful spirit and is often an upper-class nobleman. The Kanji 御 (go) actually means honorable while 霊 (ryō) means some sort of soul or spirit.

In broad strokes we can generalize the female spirit is an Onryō in most ghost stories and literature, and is after revenge because of a betrayal, while the male spirit, the Goryō, is after revenge because of his honor and he wants to restore it.

Similar Spirits Around the World

As mentioned, the Onryō is similar to many vengeful spirits, especially from Buddhism, but this type of ghost is filtered through Japan’s indigenous nature religion, Shinto. It is not only in Asia we can find ghost stories about a woman dressed in white that comes back after death to haunt the place she died or the people that wronged her.

This type of vengeful ghost is also similar to the Poltergeist in the English and Germanic language that are highly dangerous and can cause physical harm to the living people according to some ghost stories. It is also somewhat similar to the Lady in White we can hear stories from all across Europe and also South America (See La Llorona).

In Asia as a whole the vengeful spirit like the Japanese Onryō is found in many lores, both Chinese, Korean and Thai for example. Most notably perhaps is the Asian Hungry Ghost particular from Chinese folklore and the Korean Virgin Ghost that over the years seems to be merging more and more towards the Onryō.

Read more about vengeful ghosts in Asia:

Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

After the Chinese nobleman Tu Po was betrayed by his own king and fellow nobles, he became a vengeful ghost, or Hungry Ghost as it is known as in Buddhism. Even in his afterlife he sought revenge on those who betrayed him and fought to restore his honor.

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The Korean Virgin Ghost

The Korean virgin ghost may be based on the ideals that all a woman needs is a husband, but the anger of these spirits tells of a woman with another purpose. And that is mostly vengeance. 

Keep reading

Hungry Ghosts Causing Disasters

The Onryō is not only dangerous to individuals, but are also believed to be capable of causing extreme havoc. Many plagues, earthquakes, famins, fires, storms and the likes have been connected to the vengeful ghosts. This type of revenge with natural forces are called tatari (祟り) Something that we see in the story of Nagaya’s curse.

The Well of Okiku: Did an Onryō put a curse on the wells? Here an illustration from the play Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku

Nagaya was a prince that died wrongfully. A ghost most called a Goryō, because of his stature and gender. He died in 729, and is one of the earliest records of this type of vengeful spirit.

This was also the earliest case were a cult was formed to show respect and reverence to the dead and to help appease the vengeful spirits. And also, perhaps a bit out of fear that they would feel the wrath of the vengeful spirit. There are several instances were cults for the Onryō were made.

This is not to be confused with the ghosts that comes after a big natural disaster though, as with the case of the Ghosts of the Tsunami for instance, where the ghosts are mostly just trying to get home.

You also have the case of Okiku that died in the well on the property and was said to haunt it and her vengeful spirit was the cause of some natural disasters that affected the wells.

The haunting of Okiku’s ghost told in the Banchō Sarayashiki story, have been widely reported on for centuries. All back in 1795 the old wells in Japan got a larvae infestation that were blamed on the ghost of Okiku.

The larvae infestation on the wells was later known as the “Okiku insect” (お菊虫, okiku mushi). They long thought that the infestation was a reincarnation of Okiku and the cause of the infestation. It is not uncommon that disasters and accidents were the works of vengeful ghosts throughout Asia.

The Kabuki Onryō from the Japanese Theatre

Many of the Japanese ghost stories are built upon the legend of the onryō. From the early ghost stories to pop culture movies and books. What most people today think of when thinking of the Onryō is the scorned woman, much like the Lady in White type of ghost in western lore. This is very prominent in the Myth of Oiwa, who was left by her husband or in the case with Banchō Sarayashiki — the Ghost of Okiku who were wronged by her master she was working for.

Today, the image of the onryō is a quite specific one, clad in all white with loose black hair. This image came with the rise of the dance theater Kabuki in the Edo period in the 1600s, and a specific costume was developed for the onryō to make it recognizable on the stage. Before this time, the ghosts had no particular look. After however, it is a well known sight:

  • A white burial kimono known as shiroshōzoku (白装束),
  • Long, loose and messy hair.
  • Powdered white face with dark eyes
The Onryō look: The Kabuki theatre formed the visual we know today with the long black hair and the long white dress. Here from the movie The Ring that shows the iconic Onryō Sadako from The Ring (リング) (1998), that reinvented the vengeful ghost on TV for the modern audience.

The Modern J-Horror Onryō

Today the Onryō is mostly known from the modern Japanese horror films as a next step from the Kabuki theatre from the edo period. Perhaps in today’s society the Onryō is mostly known for its appearance in Japanese horror films and books that built upon the lore that was already there.

Most known is the Onryō spirit of Sadako and Kayako from the Ring and The Grudge franchises. So populare are they in fact that they even have their Hollywood remakes from the source material. This goes to show that the story of the scorned woman dressed in white works globally.

And although based on centuries old legends, the fear of this special vengeful spirit still goes on. And with the visuals from the Kabuki make-up department, they also incorporated the specific jarring movement of the crawling out from the TV and twisting inside the cracks of a house.

Ringu Japanese Horror Movie: One of the more famous Onryō today is found in iconic horror movies like in Ringu from 1998.

How To Exorcise an Onryō

So how do you get rid of an Onryō when one is created according to traditional belief? After all, not all ghost stories can end with the ghost just lingering in the living world forever.

Many theories about how you get rid of a vengeful ghost exists. Since it is such a prominent figure in the Shinto religion, the native spiritual religion of Japan, much of the rituals comes from there. Unlike Buddhism’s thoughts that deceased will be reincarnated within 49 days, the Japanese mix of both Buddhism and Shinto, is slightly different. Often certain measures is needed to get rid of an Onryō.

Can you get rid of an Onryō: According to legend it is very difficult to appease the vengeful spirit and most ghost stories need some religious intervention to get rid of the spirit. //Source: Anela/flickr

They are said to be very hard to get rid of though. While most yūrei only haunt a person or place until they are exorcised or placated, an Onryō’s grudge-curse continues to infect a location long after the ghost itself is gone. So can one ever get rid of them according to folklore?

Mostly though the trick is just about to find a way to please the spirit. Such was the case with Sugawara no Michizane. He was a vengeful spirit that didn’t leave the capital alone before they built a shrine in his honor. But like the case with Okiku, most measurements are taken to just get out of the Onryōs way alive rather than get rid of the ghost for good.

The Vengeful Spirit of the Onryō

The Onryō continues to haunt Japan’s folklore, literature, and pop culture, captivating audiences with its vengeful spirit and chilling presence. From its mysterious origins in ancient Japanese records to its portrayal in Kabuki theater and modern J-horror films, the Onryō has become an iconic figure in the realm of ghosts.

Although categorized as a specific type of yūrei, the Onryō stands out due to its relentless pursuit of revenge. Born from a tragic fate and consumed by rage, these spirits stop at nothing to avenge themselves against those who wronged them in life. Their vengeful nature transcends boundaries, making them dangerous to both the guilty and the innocent.

The Onryō’s legacy continues to fascinate and frighten, serving as a reminder of the power and intensity of human emotions and the lingering impact they can have beyond the grave. As long as there are tales to be told and fear to be felt, the Onryō will forever haunt the imagination of those who dare to delve into the realm of the vengeful spirits.

So, tread carefully in the darkness, for you never know when the vengeful spirit of the Onryō might appear, driven by an insatiable thirst for revenge that transcends time and space.

Articles on Moon Mausoleum about the Onryō and some similar ghosts:

The Haunting in Pasir Ris Park

On the foundation of old land with a lot of history, a new park was built called Pasir Ris Park. But the legends surrounding the mangrove forest followed into the modern day busy Singapore. 

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The Ghosts of Japan

In Japan, the ghosts are called Yūrei (幽霊). The word means faint or dim and soul or spirit. And as well as language and cultures divides different types of ghost in different categories, so does the Japanese. Here are some of the ghosts of Japan.

Keep reading

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References:

www.yokai.com/onryou/

Onryō | Yokai Wiki | Fandom

Onryō – Japanese Ghost of Vengeance

Japan’s Onryō Spirits Inhabit a Purgatory of Revenge and Cosmic Rage

Onryo (Revengeful Ghost)

Iwasaka, Michiko and Toelken, Barre. Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experiences in Japanese Death Legends, Utah State University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-87421-179-4

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is probably one of the most iconic ghost pictures out there. But what is the story behind it? And who is that ghostly figure?

Is it real? Was it just a double exposure? The picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall has been viral since 1936. A photographer that year took the infamous picture, forever putting it in the mystery box for people to wonder about ever since.

It was just another day in the upper class England, with their old and haunted mansions and stories. Up in Norfolk lays the old Raynham Hall, that were about to become one of the most famous hauntings in Great Britain.

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall: This is the picture taken in the staircase that is now perhaps one of the most famous ghost photos.

Captain Hubert C. Provand, was a working in London as an photographer for the Country Life magazine. On September 19th, 1936, he and his assistant, Indre Shira were taking photographs of the Raynham Hall for an article.

Inside the 300 year old mansion, they were setting up the cameras to take another of the old Hall’s main staircase. Suddenly, Shira saw a ” vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman” The figure was “moving down the stairs towards them.” Shira directed Provand to take the cap of the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to take the picture.

After the negative was developed for the article, they saw more clear what they had gotten on camera that day. And the famous legendary photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was born. And after the photo, so was the legend.

Read More: This is not the only ghost picture that caused a stir: The Haunting in Pasir Ris Park 

Who was the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

So who was this lady? According to legend, the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is the lost ghost of Dorothy Walpole. She was born in 1686 and according to gossip, the prettiest sister of Robert Walpole, seen as the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Walpole was neighbour with Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townsend in Norfolk. And it just so happened that his sister Dorothy married Townshend in 1713. Although they were good neighbours, and even brother-in-laws, there was bad blood between the men. Especially in politics and when Walpole built his own mansion, Houghton Hall. Did this affect poor Dorothy at all?

What we know is that it wasn’t a particularly happy marriage. Dorothy was Charles second wife. He looked upon the Hall as his pride, as a Lord Hervey said: “Lord Townshend looked upon his own seat at Raynham as the metropolis of Norfolk, and considered every stone that augmented the splendor of Houghton, as a diminution of the grandeur of Raynham.”

Lady Dorothy Walpole: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is believed to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole who died in 1726.

Charles was also well known for his violent temper. Dorothy Walpole was rumored to have been a mistress of a Lord Wharton, a well known womanizer, and that no woman could be twenty four hours under his roof and walk out with her reputation intact.

When Charles discovered his wife and her affair with Lord Wharton, the story says he punished her by locking her in her rooms in the family, Raynham Hall. To make matters worse, there are still rumours that she was in fact entrapped by the Countess of Warton, inviting Dorothy to stay a few days, knowing full well, her husband wouldn’t let her walk out with her reputation intact.

Read More: This is not the only ghost story involving a husband imprisoning his wife in her own home: The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

After this, Dorothy Walpole remained at Raynham Hall until her death in 1726. She died of smallpox. But did she really leave the Halls? Is she still roaming the place, still locked up, still trying to get out and are forever trapped as The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall?

Sightings of the Brown Lady at Raynham Hall

Raynham Hall was thought to have been haunted long before the picture was taken. People that stayed in the mansion, experienced visitation and paranormal activity that most believed to be the ghost of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.

1835

Whatever the truth is, the legend was there to stay. And the first recorded sighting of the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was in 1835. One Christmas the new Lord Charles Townshend invited some guest to the Hall for celebrations. Among the guest were Colonel Loftus and another guest named Hawkins. One night night as they approached their bedrooms, they saw the Brown Lady, noticing the dated and brown dress she wore.

The following night, Loftus claimed he saw The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall again. he said he was drawn to the spectre’s empty eye-sockets, dark in the glowing face, the once so pretty Dorothy Walpole. After Loftus reported what he saw it ended with some of the staff permanently left Raynham Hall. It was all recorded by another guest, Lucia C. Stone.

Read More: Ghost Stories of Christmas Hauntings

1863

Just a year after, the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was seen again. This time it was Captain Frederick Marryat, a friend of Charles Dickens. He originally wanted to prove a theory of his that the hauntings was caused by local smugglers. According to him, the smugglers spread the story to keep people away from the area. That night hi requested that he spent the night in the haunted room at Raynham Hall.

Marryat’s daughter, Florence wrote about her father’s experience in 1891:

…he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet), knocked at his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” he said, laughing. When the inspection of the gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would accompany my father back again, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” they repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in company.

The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished, but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp coming towards them from the other end. “One of the ladies going to visit the nurseries,” whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned houses. My father, as I have said, was in shirt and trousers only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped within one of the outer doors (his friends following his example), in order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by.

I have heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer, through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognised the figure as the facsimile of the portrait of “The Brown Lady”. He had his finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure instantly disappeared – the figure at which for several minutes three men had been looking together – and the bullet passed through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor, and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted again to interfere with “The Brown Lady of Raynham”.

1926

When the son of Lady Townshend and his friend saw the ghost next, they knew who The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was. They saw her on the staircase, and identified the ghost with the portrait, hanging on the wall in the haunted room. Of course, the portrait of Lady Dorothy Walpole.

Raynham Hall: The haunted hall is a country house in Norfolk and was for 400 years the seat of the Townshend family. The hall is reported to be haunted, providing the scene for possibly the most famous ghost photo of all time, The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall descending the staircase.//Source: Wikimedia

What is the truth?

After Provand and Shira took the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, they published their experience in Country life magazine, December 26th, 1936. They were published again in Life magazine on January 4th, 1937. So all in all, they did profit on this. But could it be that they just took a picture?

After the picture was taken, a paranormal investigator, Harry Price interviewed both Provand and Shira. He said: “I will say at once I was impressed. I was told a perfectly simple story: Mr. Indre Shira saw the apparition descending the stairs at the precise moment when Captain Provand’s head was under the black cloth. A shout – and the cap was off and the flashbulb fired, with the results which we now see. I could not shake their story, and I had no right to disbelieve them. Only collusion between the two men would account for the ghost if it is a fake. The negative is entirely innocent of any faking.”

But there have been numerous attempts of debunking the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and its status of “proof”. Some claim Shira faked the image by putting grease or something in the lense in shape of a lady, maybe moved down the stairs himself during an exposure? Or maybe it is as simple as an accidental double exposure or light somehow got in the camera. Some even claim that the figure looks eerily like the Virgin Mary statue, and that the image is of her in the staircase, the statue that is, not the Virgin Mary.

Among the examiners trying to debunk the validity of the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is Joe Nickell’s detailed writings that the photograph is nothing more than double exposure. And the magician John Booth wrote that the photograph could be easily made. Booth had the magician Ron Wilson cover himself in a bed sheet and walk down the staircase at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. It apparently turned out very similar to the photograph.

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