Penmon Priory, Anglesey

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Ghostly nun

'Spontaneous Case - Paranormal phenomena that occur in everyday life, unsought and unexpected'.

Is Penmon Priory haunted? 'Joan' a visitor to Anglesey certainly thinks so.

"In 1980 I was with my husband and two boys on holiday on Anglesey. One evening at dusk, we visited Penmon Priory near Beaumaris. We had visited the church, the well and my husband led the way to the old stone priory which was open to visitors.

He suddenly looked at me with a very surprised expression on his face and said "did you see that?" I replied "see what?" he said "that Nun - she bent down, looked at me and walked into the priory".

Puzzled, we walked towards the building and walked in. There are only two rooms, we didn't see her in the first so we walked through to the back room only to find that she had completely vanished!

Later on that evening, we spoke to the keeper about my husband's experience and he asked him to describe her. He described her in detail to which the man replied "Oh I've seen her a few times around here. When I'm walking the dog at night, I sometimes feel someone tapping me on the shoulder when I'm out at night. Often the church bells ring during the night by themselves."

It was at this point that we realised that he had indeed seen a ghost.

When we were driving away from the grounds, the car kept stuttering and stalling until we were out of sight of the priory. The car was brand new and had been running fine up until that point and was fine afterwards.

My husband was never one to invent stories so I believed him straight away. I didn't believe in ghosts back then but I sure do now!"

___

I love these kind of stories, or 'spontaneous cases' as they are called, when people are just going about their daily business without a mere thought of the paranormal and then witness something profound.

It is interesting that the experient actually thought he saw a nun. It appears to be a very fleeting visual description and it did happen over 20 years ago.

Thinking rationally; could he have been mistaken, why did he think she was a nun, there was no mention that they had described a nun to the keeper or that she was wearing a nuns habit or uniform in this narrative.


Maybe another visitor was present around the building. The old stone priory is a small ruin, so it doesn't take you long to get around the rooms, making it round in just a few seconds or so. And a pigeon couldn't be mistaken for a nun, surely? Unless she is really ugly! ;)

Also the light was fading it was dusk so he may have misinterpreted what he saw. But, church bells do not ring by themselves unless someone wanted to have a good ole yank in the middle of the night. The car misfiring may have a more down to earth explanation (dirty petrol).

I have been to Penmon priory, it is a very tranquil and still place, so you may notice if anyone is around quite easily. This reminds me of a time when I was visiting Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, one busy summer afternoon, the paranormal was far from my mind; I had gone into the old mill area, nobody was in there only me, I entered the middle section and I thought I saw a man wearing a leather waist coat, he was bending down doing something on the floor, I only saw him for a split second, it was a cross between seeing something and a hallucination, it was very odd. Maybe my eyes and brain had done the window dressing for that location. Same applies to this story.

On researching the priory further, it is Augustinian and there could well have been Augustinian nuns staying there at some point in history. A believer would say, 'the nun looked at the husband, this could not be a residual type haunting as there was visual interaction'. There could be a logical explanation though of course and there doesn't appear to be any other related incidences at the priory appart from what the keeper had experienced too.

Footnote: Witness testimony

Retelling old experiences can lead to confabulation, the experiencer should immediately record or write down exactly what they saw. Getting a witness soon after their experience is important (paranormal investigators)

Edinburgh Vaults - Cellar, tunnel, cave, underground

I had travelled the best part of 200 miles to visit the vaults, we met up with Mercat Tours, it was a daylight tour, call it what you will. We spent the first quarter of it stood in the wind and the rain, listening to the guide who looked like a headmaster, until he decided to take us down one of the closes for shelter. He spoke about the history of Edinburgh and the shit filled buckets that could be emptied over your head if you didn't make your presence known in the street below.


We proceeded into the vaults. We passed around an old heavy kettle, I'm sure some were enjoying it for the history, but I was miserably bored. I was disappointed at the size of the Blair street vaults too. Frustrated, I held back from the rest of the group and began wandering around on my own with my camera, one or two folks kept looking over their shoulders at me, probably wondering what I was up to. Two cellars away from the rest of the group, I quietly stood right in the far corner in the cobblers room next to a candle on the wall and felt rather naughty in the darkness, like a skiving child, I waited for the cobbler to tap me on the shoulder, but he didn't. 'Was the vaults really haunted?' Not so much as a sniff of boot polish from Mr Boots size 11's only the sound of drips of water coming through the walls.


It was ok I suppose, if you don't mind parting with a few quid for a couple of hours. But, I was desperate to have the place to myself. Hayhoa.


The most shocking thing of all was our exit out of the vaults, to be confronted with ambulances and on-lookers and a very large guy laying on the cold street having what looked like a heart attack and receiving a heart massage from the paramedics, it didn't look good. Poor guy.






Source: Paranormal database


Breathing


Location: Edinburgh - Vaults beneath South Bridge

Type: Haunting Manifestation

Date / Time: April 2000

Further Comments: A number of experiments carried out by Dr Richard Wiseman to investigate the alleged haunted vaults resulted in one participant being reduced to tears after hearing heavy breathing in an empty vault. Another person reported seeing a ghostly figure in an apron walk past.

Bodmin Jail, Cornwall

We decided on a visit to Bodmin county gaol. This cruel looking building must have struck the fear of God into those prisoners who saw it for the very first time. It looked very threatening from the top of the hill on the drive down. As we pulled up into the carpark the heavens opened, I ran for cover only to find myself faced with a trap door and a noose! We bought our tickets at the bar and was handed a governors notice.

Once inside it was colder than it actually was outside, I was physically shaking.

I peered into the small cells and I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to be imprisoned in such a dwelling ‘horrible’. We then walked onto a wing, each tiny cell

housed with mannequins in various poses. One was called ‘Fed by the fairies’ – Anne Jefferies was born in 1826; apparently she attracted a large following in Cornwall. She was suspected of been a changeling (fairy offspring) in solitary confinement and not given any food continued to thrive, she insisted that every night the fairies brought food to her cell.


We then walked down to the naval jail it was a very tall building covered in overgrown shrubbery, but on the way whilst taking photos I looked up and noticed out of the corner of my eye a face in one of the high windows, it was slightly creepy but on closer inspection it was one of the mannequins that had been strategically placed, maybe by accident or by design, but it was quite amusing all the same.


Inside the naval jail looked similar to a modern jail in its design, rows of cells going as far as 4 floors. I bobbed my head in one or two to get a feel of them, I would have loved to have visited at night. No ghosts jumped out at me although it did feel very creepy, even during the daytime.

Thornhill Hall, headless horseman, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Remains of Thornhill Hall

This is local legend, I'm not sure how accurate this story is as it was passed down to me personally by someone who was in the pub at the time when this happened. One night back in the mid 1980's a local man was walking through the Rectory Park and ruined Thornhill Hall near Dewsbury, when he was set upon by a man on a black horse, the rider had no head! He ran like hell and the headless horseman galloped after him and then it just disappeared. The man ran to the nearest public house for safety, still hysterical with fear and fright, babbling uncontrollably, crying in-front of a pub full of people he recounted what he had just seen. Thats as much of the story I know, but it is a very well known account of an alleged haunting manifestation in the area.


History

The former hall is a moated medieval manor house of archaeological importance.


Thornhill was the seat of the Savile family in the 14th - 17th century. The hall was built around 1450 and comprised a stone built manor with moat and gatehouse in its own park, which was redeveloped around 1600. Immediately to the north of the island is the site of a 17th century bowling green while to the west lie three earthwork terraces which are probably the remains of a formal garden of the later hall.


During the Civil War, in August 1648, troops of Lady Anne Savile defended the hall against the Parliamentarians, but were forced to surrender and the hall was accidentally blown up and destroyed.

Today, the site is largely overgrown and the only visible remains are the moat, part of the fireplace and front wall, two damaged statues which may have been on a gatehouse plus loose stones from the former buildings. The remains are grade 2 listed and currently classed as 'at risk' by English Heritage and the site, moat, former bowling green and site of the formal gardens are a scheduled ancient monument.

Eyewitness account

Another local resident who I have met personally, recounted the story of when he allegedly saw Richard Beaumont with his own eyes, sat on a horse, down by Black Dicks temple, he is adamant that what he saw was black dick himself. Now, human memory is totally unreliable, I am not saying he didn't see it or has embellished this story over the years, as it happened a long time ago, but what he said was very convincing. But, the brain has a good ability to fill in the gaps. What he could have seen is just a man on a black horse nothing more nothing less (occam's razor). He is now researching about him and has now become an investigator of the paranormal because of his experience.

Gargoyles - Gog and Magog

WILD YORKSHIRE (LINK)