Muncaster Castle is reputed to be one of the most haunted castles in England. Tom Skelton was a jester in the 1500's and was a force to be reckoned with in life and now, it seems, in death. The legend is that when travelers would stop at the castle and ask for directions to London - if Tom didn't like them, he would send them in the direction of nearby quicksand and marshes - to their death. He also chopped the head of off the local carpenter because Sir Ferdinand Pennington asked him too as the carpenter was in love with Sir Pennington's daughter. I've attached a portrait of Tom that still hangs in the castle.

The most haunted room is the The Tapestry Room. Many people complain of strange footsteps, a child is often heard crying and a lady singing. People often feel cold in this room and have the sensation that they are being watched. There is also a ghost of the Muncaster Boggle or White Lady who haunts the gardens and local roads, she is supposed to be the ghost of Mary Bragg who was murdered in the early 1800's.

The other night I watched a programme on National Geographic channel called Hauntings, and Muncaster Castle was featured. There has been a parapsychologist investigating the castle for 6 months. He said that the bed in the Tapestry Room is unusually made of something like iron coils I think they were, it was like a springy chainmail. He said the magnetic field around the bed was bizarre and showed how oddly a compass reacted to the bed. His theory was that some sensitive people might feel odd sensations around the bed and this could be why they feel the room is haunted. Interesting stuff.

Here's a link to the webcam in the Tapestry Room. http://www.muncaster.co.uk/web2006/webcams/webcams.html

Cool! Sounds like a very nice place!

I've heard he was a very bad person indeed, killing lovers and hacking of their heads then dragging the bodies down stairs etc...!

Creepy...

but this one still doesn't beat glamis castle

I drove past this site in March while on holiday to the Lake District and didn't have chance to go and explore.

Would be a great place to do a ghost hunt. Any other info on the place?

Hey, i live very near muncaster castle and am a regular visitor there, i have many tales about the place and have even stayed in the tapestry room over night for a ghost vigil.

hey again, forgot to say that there will be a ghost vigil taking place on april 28th

I've got an old VHS tape about this. Very interesting story. This guy was one demented dude.

I was watching a program about some people staying the night here or just exploring the castle (Some form of documentary anyway) and it was giving a brief History on him. I don't think they got much Paranormal results but that's just once. It could be haunted, I don't know, haven't been there (Or anywhere outside Ireland ).
Just out of interest, a phrase I've been hearing lately was to stop that "Tom Foolery". Seeing the program last night made me think was since this man was a jester (And his name was Tom), did that phrase come from him?

April? You do know its May right? Do you mean May 28th?

I thought the same as you, but I've checked it out on Wikepedia and apparently it's not this Tom but Tom Lehrer - look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Foolery

Hey All, Just checked out the site. Very interesting. I was checking out the cam in the Tapestry room, that supposedly has the most activity.
Now is it just me, or does the bed look abit..................funky???



Click to view attachment

Oh lovely.

Interesting story.

Thanks Regency for posting this! I'd never heard of this Tom or of this place. It sounds like a really interesting story.

I don't understand what funky means I don't suppose you're saying you like the duvet cover?

Can anyone explain to e why a strange magnetic field would make someone feel odd sensations?

Didn't know it was meant as a music revue. Guess I know now, thanks for the link.
This story interested me because a castle a few miles away from me has also got a portrait of someone that their ghost is believed to suddenly appear out of. Malahide Castle. Well I'm pretty sure that occurs in Muncaster Castle because I was watching a program about it too and reading your opening post more carefully, it could have been on the same program and time etc. (Now I want to investigate Malahide Castle too) But I doubt I'll ever go to Muncaster Castle.
(Even when I am actually old enough to leave Ireland myself I'll still probably not go to England but I'm tempted even just to explore haunted locations because England has it's "fair share".

I didn't know either, until you prompted me to check it out

I've never been to Muncaster either, but I would like to go. Ireland has some lovely locations, I posted in the Art forum about Simon Marsden who photographs haunted/haunting, gothic type locations - and he does a lot of work in Ireland. There was a programme on him on Discovery Civilisation called the Twilight Hour it was ghost stories set in Ireland, it sounds like it would have been right up your street. Check him out http://www.simonmarsden.co.uk/

By the way, completely off topic, but I'm visiting Dublin in July - not ghost hunting I'm afraid, but to see REM - never been before and I can't wait.

Michael Persinger, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada... has demonstrated that a sensitive temporal lobe--the area that is responsible for regulation of emotions and motivated behaviors--together with naturally occurring magnetic fields, can trigger a ghostly encounter. .

"Individuals prone to paranormal experiences are sensitive to weak electromagnetic fields and to man-made electrical fields, which are becoming more prominent in the communication age," explains Persinger, who has studied the link between magnetic fields and paranormal experience for 15 years.
Initial experiments exposed the right hemisphere of subjects' brains to magnetic fields, prompting subjects to posit a presence interacting with their thoughts and moving in space as they focused on it. So paranormal experiences during or just following stimulation of the right hemisphere may be no more than the right half of the brain becoming aware of the left.

Persinger could evoke the presence in many individuals, but it was most common in subjects with temporal-lobe sensitivity. "People with sensitive lobes have experiences resembling those of epileptics," says Persinger. "Also, they're creative and sensitive to the electromagnetic environment."

The most recent case studies were published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry. In our increasingly electronically charged world, it would seem that midnight apparitions are really just clock radios rather than ghosts.

Source

Thanks for the link Coldethyl!
Very interesting!
I don't think it explains away all paranormal experiences, but it is certainly a good argument for that "someone is watching me" sensation.

By Funky, i mean.....THE BLOODY BEDS ON FIRE

Here you go Reg,
I never knew it could mean terrified! I guess you learn something new everyday. I always thought it meant weird.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/funky

Yes, that's it the parapsychologist mentioned epilepsy. This is his theory too, it may account for strange sensations like being watched, but I doubt it would make you see physical things like aparitions and door handles moving - or even hearing singing.

Thanks for this Coldethyl.

I had no idea - cheers for the link cyge. Embarrassingly, the dictionary didn't have my own idea of what funky meant

You're welcome, I was just answering the question of how it could effect people, I never claimed it could make people see door handles moving or hear singing. ?

No you didn't say that at all, I did - sorry, I was pondering out loud, gotta stop doing that

Oh, no that's okay, I was just confused. I re-read the article wondering if it said that! LOL

No worries.