Crammed into the traditional towers and darkish nook of St Donat’s Citadel within the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, the ghosts lingering inside these partitions are previous and protracted.
On the cliffs overlooking the stressed waters of the Bristol Channel, St Donat’s Citadel within the Vale of Glamorgan has stood for almost a thousand years 25 km west of Cardiff. Some declare that for the longest time, ghosts have been roaming the realm.
Constructed within the twelfth century and as soon as the proud seat of the highly effective Stradling household, its towers and battlements have seen struggle, wealth, and whispered tragedy. Since 1962, it has housed a global secondary college known as Atlantic Faculty.
The St. Donat’s Citadel Historical past
Vintage ceilings, fireplaces, a moat, battlements, dungeons – in brief, over 800 years of historical past, which additionally included Celtic kings defying the Romans, the Norman invasion of Wales and centuries of slowly decaying neglect.
The oldest elements of St Donat’s citadel have been constructed within the twelfth century by the De Hawey household, although the one surviving elements left are the preserve and what’s now the inside curtain wall.
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The citadel was handed into the possession of the Stradling household in 1298 with the wedding of Sir Peter Stradling to Joan de Hawey. The brand new house owners spent a fortune increasing the citadel and added many options together with the outer gatehouse and curtain wall in 1300, in addition to making the preserve bigger, with the inside court docket being constructed some 200 years later.
The Ghost of Woman Stradling
Probably the most fearsome spirit mentioned to hang-out St Donat’s is Woman Stradling, a stressed ghost whose sorrow has by no means discovered peace. It is usually one of many ghost tales advised the longest, and there are written sources about her haunting to not less than the pre-Eighties.
There are tales about seeing a Woman in White drifting via the corridors, bearing a way and ambiance of intense melancholy. It’s mentioned that her husband died in one of many many crusades Europeans took in medieval instances. Her title or who her husband supposedly was has been up for hypothesis.
There are a lot of variations to her story although. Some variations inform of betrayal and homicide inside her circle of relatives. Some say her haunting is due to her mourning as her husband fell in battle, some she was slain by a jealous husband, others {that a} violent relative ended her life in a match of rage.
Regardless of the reality, her spirit lingers, sure to the citadel that witnessed her finish. She has mostly been reported within the Lengthy Gallery space. Across the Woman Anne Tower, an apparition of a girl wearing Medieval clothes, believed to be Woman Stradling has been noticed. It is usually mentioned that screams and moans are coming from the haunted tower.
The Hag of the Mist
Witnesses who declare to have seen Woman Stradling describe her in lots of unsettling types. Some say she seems as an previous, haggard lady with eyes hollowed by centuries of grief, her lengthy fingers scratching on the home windows as she cries into the storm. Others communicate of a determine of a sublime girl clad in a robe of effective silk, her footsteps mild and rhythmic, the mushy click on of excessive heels echoing via the corridors lengthy after midnight.
Just like the banshee of Irish lore, her wailing is claimed to herald demise throughout the household. In Wales, this type of a ghost is named The Gwrach y Rhibyn, or the Hag of the Mist. When her voice is heard piercing the night time air, the Stradlings or these linked to their legacy know that loss is quickly to comply with.
Ghost of Pirates and Phantom Pipers
In 1449, Henry Stradling, alongside along with his spouse and youngster “whereas crusing from his home in Somersetshire to his home in Wales” have been captured by the infamous Breton pirate, Colyn Dolphin, who plundered the Welsh coast from Lundy Island. The pirate demanded a big ransom which was met by the Stradlings after they offered off two of their manors (Tregwilym in Wales and one in Oxfordshire) and a big amount of wool.
After the tales unfold and have been exaggerated by poems, songs and legends, and ghost tales of pirates haunting the realm across the citadel began.
Many guests have recounted listening to the distant sound of bagpipes echoing via the citadel, regardless of there being no seen supply for the music. Native legend suggests this phenomenon is the work of a Scottish piper who met his demise at St. Donat’s Citadel.
The Headless Horseman
Tales of a headless horseman driving via the citadel grounds have endured over time. Whereas uncommon, those that declare to have seen him describe a spectral determine mounted on a ghostly horse, illuminated by an eerie glow. Though not a really descriptive haunting, a quite common one across the British Isles.
Some guests have reported listening to the plaintive cries of a kid reverberating via the citadel, significantly through the night time. The origin of those sorrowful wails stays a thriller, although native tales speculate they could belong to a baby who met a tragic finish throughout the citadel’s partitions.
There was even a witch known as Mally-y-Nos. a perplexing girl named Mallt-y-Nos (Matilda of the Night time), mentioned to hang-out the realm across the citadel.
The Ghost of Thomas Stradling
The Stradling’s managed to carry onto the citadel till the demise of Sir Thomas Stradling in 1738, when possession handed to Sir John Tyrwhitt, his buddy.
Sir Thomas Stradling was single and in his twenties when he deliberate to go on the Grand Tour along with his shut buddy from college, Sir John Tyrwhitt, the fifth baronet of Stainfield. Earlier than the 2 younger gents set out on this nice journey, they made a pact with one another. If both was to die whereas on this tour, then the opposite would inherit the property of the deceased. Or so it was claimed.
Whereas travelling Sir Thomas Stradling was killed in a duel on the twenty seventh of September, 1738 in Montpellier in France. In response to folklore, Sir Thomas Stradling’s nurse, who had raised him since he was a child, wished to pay her respects and invited to see his physique.
She was satisfied that the person within the coffin was not Sir Thomas, however an imposter. She knew that, as a small boy, Sir Thomas had misplaced a finger on his left hand as it had been bitten off by a donkey, not less than that’s what the story mentioned.. However the man contained in the coffin had all his fingers intact. However the place then was Sir Thomas?
Gossip was rife on the topic, and for years afterwards, locals visiting St Donat’s Church would level at Sir Thomas’ tomb and declare: “That’s the place the imposter lies”.
Sir Thomas had left no inheritor, however made a verbal settlement with Sir John Tyrwhitt in addition to a written will. In it, he had left the citadel and his complete property to his cousin, Bussey Mansel, the 4th baron of Margam. However when Bussey had visited St Donat’s Citadel after his demise, he had been confronted by the ghost of one of many Stradling ancestors. The ghost had declared that it might by no means give the citadel to a Mansel. Terrified, he turned his horse and fled as quick as it might carry him, by no means once more to return to the citadel.
The reply to who truly owned the citadel remained in litigation for over 60 years. In the end, St Donat’s Citadel did go to the Tyrwhitts, a lot to the dismay of the individuals of St Donat’s. In reality, it’s claimed that the vicar of St Donat’s Church was so incensed that ‘in his fury’ he destroyed a windmill and two watermills. It was regardless of all the work, by no means used as a primal residence, and it began to fall into disrepair.
Hollywood Connections
American millionaire William Randolph Hearst who purchased the citadel after seeing pictures of the citadel in Nation Life journal. Hearst, who on the time was having an affair with the actress Marion Davies, spent a fortune renovating the citadel, bringing electrical energy not solely to his residence but in addition to the encircling space. The locals loved having Hearst in residence on the citadel as he paid his staff very effectively, and his arrivals at all times created a giant stir in a group not used to American excesses.
Hearst spent a lot of his time entertaining influential individuals at his estates and holding lavish events at St Donat’s with friends like Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and a younger John F. Kennedy. Upon visiting St Donat’s, George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying: “That is what God would have constructed if he had had the cash.”
He spent an enormous amount of cash turning the citadel again into its former self however because of financial causes put the citadel up on the market once more within the late 1930’s.
Godfrey Williams and the Exorcism
An exorcism was reportedly carried out within the early twentieth century, which was claimed to have succeeded in ridding the citadel of a number of apparitions, together with a hag and a mysterious disembodied eye in a number of visitor rooms. The proprietor on the time, Godfrey Williams, disliked the citadel and should have been answerable for the unfold of those tales.
The citadel was purchased by Morgan Stuart Williams in 1901 and after his demise in 1909 it went to his son Godfrey. However Godfrey was so “disturbed” by the citadel hauntings that he put the place up on the market. Godfrey had seen a ghostly panther prowling the citadel corridors at night time and reported seeing a single large glowing eye showing nightly in one of many bedrooms.
It’s mentioned that Godfrey introduced an exorcist to the citadel and after the same old rituals a fantastic gust of wind swept down the staircase and out went the panther and the obvious eye.
After being utilized by British and American troops through the struggle it was lastly purchased once more in 1962 by Monsieur Antonin Besse II, and given to the Governing Physique of Atlantic Faculty. As we speak it nonetheless capabilities as a global school however can be open to the general public for basic viewing.
The Feline Haunting within the 90s
There are additionally tales of a phantom cat, a big, semi-transparent black creature that prowls the corridors and stairways. This was mentioned to have been reported on within the 90s when the citadel was used as a boarding college for the richer children all over the world. Was it the black panther coming again? Or just the tales of it? Those that have seen it declare it brings with it a sense of dread so heavy that the air appears to thicken round it.
After which there’s the piano that’s mentioned to be one of many extra haunting objects within the citadel in fashionable instances. In one of many nice halls of St Donat’s, a piano stands close to the window that overlooks the ocean. It’s mentioned that when the citadel lies quiet, its notes start to play by themselves. The melody is rarely the identical twice, as if the unseen participant improvises a music of sorrow for every soul the citadel has claimed. Workers, guests, and even college students from Atlantic Faculty, which now occupies the citadel, have all spoken of listening to the music late at night time when no residing hand might presumably contact the keys.
The Haunting supposedly bought so unhealthy that they’d an exorcism performed to cope with it. Once more.
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References:
Exploring St. Donat’s Citadel: Wales’ Haunted Previous | Mary Ann Ballot
Haunted Castles Wales Sorted by Identify
British goblins : Welsh folk-lore, fairy mythology, legends and traditions
The imposter of St Donat’s Citadel | Glamorgan Star Newspaper
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/information/medieval-welsh-castle-princes-princess-26682356
