Peak Experience

 

Picture of Peveril Knight]  Picture of White Lady of Peveril Castle  Picture of haunted Castle Hotel

 

Atmospheric Peveril Castle has its fair share of ghosts.  Sometimes voices of the dead can be heard from around the tower keep.  One is that of a long-dead knight and another is the song of a medieval lady.  A more grisly tale is of an unlucky prisoner who was starved for six days, then his hand was cut off in 1403.  The vicar of Hope led the large gang which kidnapped him!

In the highly haunted Castle Hotel, you’re sure to meet a ghost!  There’s a jilted bride in room 4; a nurse and legless soldier in the cellar; a small elderly woman in grey; middle-aged man in a pinstriped suit in rooms 7 and 10; and a legless woman travelling corridors waist deep in the floorboards.

 

A hysterical maid once saw the jilted bride in the corridor to the dining room, now room 4.  Her wedding breakfast was prepared here long ago, but no guest ever attended the cancelled reception.  She died of a broken heart.

One evening Councillor T.J.J. Weaving saw a small elderly woman with grey hair, wearing a grey dress, standing at the glass-panelled door of the main bar.  When he moved to open the door for her, she completely disappeared.

On Halloween night, 1960, the new licensee Philip Williams, his wife and staff were tidying up when Mrs Williams saw someone walk past the frosted glass window of the taproom.  The doors were all locked.  Mr Williams investigated and saw a middle-aged stranger standing with his back to the fire.  He had greying hair, and wore a blue pinstriped suit.  He vanished when Mr Williams spoke to him.

 

Another former landlady once met the suited ghost on the stairs.  Stepping aside to let him pass, she was amazed when the man vanished in front of her eyes.

 

This ghost is now seen in bedrooms 7 and 10.

The misty figure of a woman proceeding along a corridor waist-deep in the floorboards appeared to a new landlord in 1962.  It emerged that the floor of the corridor had been raised during repairs, suggesting that the ghost had been walking on the original floor level.

 

The ghosts of a nurse and a legless soldier have been seen in the cellar.  It used to be the mortuary and had a tunnel connecting it to the church.

Visit the cave where a goose was once found with its feathers burnt off – as if it had been to hell.  Here the King of the Beggars fed the Devil a cannibal feast.

Picture of Winnats Pass  Picture of Clara's saddle  Picture of Goosehill Hall

At Winnats Pass you may meet the ghosts of Allan and Clara, a young Scottish couple murdered on their way to be married.  In 1758 they rode to Peak Forest to be married at the ‘runaway church’ but never made it.  They had stopped at a local inn, and some miners spotted their wealth.  The couple were robbed and murdered.  Their horses were found on the fourth day, and 10 years later their bodies were found in a mineshaft.  You can still see Clara’s saddle.

Nobody was ever charged for the murder, but the murderers did suffer in life.  James Ashton bought a few horses with his share of the money.  They soon died and Ashton was so troubled that he confessed on his deathbed.  Nicholas Cook was walking near the crime site when he fell and died instantly.  Thomas Hall hung himself. John Bradshaw walked up the pass one day, and a stone hit him on the head and killed him near the scene of the crime.  Finally, Francis Butler’s memories of the murder drove him mad and he often tried to commit suicide, until he died naturally but miserable.

 

As you go towards Winnats Pass, you pass the driveway of Goosehill Hall.  Hall residents have occasionally seen a ghostly medieval tournament.  Apparently a great contest was once held in the shadow of Peveril Castle.  Knights came from all over to compete for the hand of a nobleman’s daughter.  Many men lost their lives, but brave Guarine do Metz won the lady.

 

The hall is also said to be haunted by a little lady dressed in grey who was seen in a certain bedrooms during the 1930s.

The hills around Castleton are full of disused mines, which were mined for hundreds of years.  Miners developed many customs, including taking a child down the mine for good luck.  The child was taken down with a candle strapped to its forehead to ensure that the miner’s future excavations would be successful.

In Castleton and other areas of the Peak, for centuries miners believed that if they saw a ball of flame – ‘the Firey Drake’ – then lead ore would be found in the direction it pointed to.  It is noted in many old mining manuals.

 

The churchwardens of St Edmund’s church, Cross Street, had an unusual job in the 1600s and 1700s. As ‘sluggard wakers’, their job was to keep drowsy members of the congregation awake by tapping them on the head with a long wand. In 1772, 10 shillings was paid to the sluggard waker.

 

The wands varied.  Some were just straight pieces of wood, others had an adjustable forked end to fit the culprit’s neck and shake them.  Another had a fox tail at one end and solid knob of wood at the other.  The tail was used on lady sleepers, and the knob end on male offenders.

 

Peveril Castle stands on a hill right above the village centre, access by a steep walk.  Peak Cavern, The Devil’s Arse, is accessed from the centre of the village and well signed.  Winnats Pass is a dramatic ravine which lies to the west of Castleton towards the B6061.  Clara’s saddle is in the shop beside Speedwell Cavern at the entrance to the pass.  Castleton visitor centre has a museum, plenty of information, a small shop and can help with accommodation enquiries.

 

 

Castleton is well served by buses, with direct services from Sheffield and Bakewell amongst others. Visit Traveline or call Traveline on 0871 200 2233, to plan your journey.