Visited 6 August 2005

After our investigation at Egglestone Abbey, our night in haunted Durham continues when we head to Bowes Castle, a site which has been occupied since the 1st century and has suffered a horrific history. The castle is said to be haunted by Roman soldiers, and if you are 'lucky' enough to see one of these spirits then it's said you will die shortly afterwards. So are we risking our lives by visiting Bowes Castle?

Bowes Castle stands on the original site of Lavatrae, a fort built by the Romans to protect the road across the Pennine Mountains. The fort was built in the 1st century and was occupied until the 4th century. Bowes Castle was built in 1136 by Alan the Red, Count of Brittany, who also owned Richmond Castle which isn’t too far away. Bowes Castle has been involved in considerable conflict over the centuries with reports of it having been besieged as early as 1173 by King William of Scotland. It was apparently so badly damaged as to have required rebuilding in 1187. Between 1314 and 1322, Northern England was devastated by the Scots. Bowes Castle was reported to be in ruins by 1325. The present ruins of the castle are over fifty feet in height, the remains being of the keep, surrounded on two sides by the remains of an original inner moat. There are few remains of the original bailey wall but it is possible to climb up part of the inside of the keep itself.

During the end of the Roman occupation in England, the Roman garrison stationed at Lavatrae raided the local villages and stole all their gold and other valuables. The angry locals banned together and launched an attack on the fort, after putting up a brave fight the garrison was defeated and they were all slaughtered. however, the Romans had already buried the treasure and with the Romans dead, it couldn’t be found. The gold has never been recovered.

On the anniversary of the massacre, the ghosts of the murdered garrison are said to appear at Bowes Castle to ritually bury their stolen gold and treasure.

There are regular sightings of large, dark shadows moving around the castle, with so much bloodshed and loss of life at this place over the last 2,000 years, is it any surprise that this place is haunted?

After leaving Egglestone Abbey, we made the short four mile journey to Bowes Castle. Just before we reached our destination we passed the Ancient Unicorn Inn, well known for being haunted. We would have stopped off for a quick pint but it was too late, maybe next time. We parked up outside St Giles Church and walked down a dark alleyway to where the castle stands. To be honest if any of the locals saw us we probably looked like burglars, wandering around in the middle the night with torches. It was very dark now, everything just appearing different shades of black, but even in the darkness we could make out the large, intimidating sight of Bowes Castle that stood before us.

We climbed over the stile into the field where the ruined castle keep stands, then stopped to read the English Heritage information board and map of the castle.

Dan led the way as we made our way towards the keep entrance, the step into the keep is very uneven so a lot of care has to be taken, especially at night. As soon as we stepped foot through the door it felt the total opposite of our previous location. There was an oppressive feel and it seemed to be even darker inside even though there is no roof on the ruined building.

This is all pretty familiar to the usual members of the team, but this was Dan’s first experience in a genuinely frightening environment. If he was scared he wasn’t letting it show as he led us up the spiral staircase in the corner of the keep. Ryan was behind me as we made our way up but even still I still had this feeling that something or someone was behind him following us. We stood at the top of the staircase, silent, hoping that something would happen – nothing.

After ten minutes or so we went back down the stairs. I still felt something was at the bottom of the staircase so I borrowed Tom’s camera and took a photo of the area. There is a strange streak of light and an ‘orb’. Not sure what this could be to be honest if it isn’t something paranormal.

I felt something watching me in this area as I took this photo and caught these two anomalies

We spent a good thirty more minutes or so sitting silently in the keep waiting for something to happen. I occasionally had a feeling of being watched but we never heard or saw anything during this time. I asked out for a sign if anyone was with us – Nothing still. We waited a little while longer but it was late and we had a long drive home ahead of us and we were all pretty tired. Ryan confirmed this when he decided to lie down on the wet ground inside the castle and try to go to sleep!

After getting back in the car we headed home. We decided to make a quick stop off at Barnard Castle. We agreed to have a wander around the outside of the large defensive castle, build by Bernard de Balliol in 1125, which overlooks the town of the same name. Well Tom, Dan and I did, Ryan was asleep in the back of the car. The castle is said to be haunted by Lady Ann Day who was killed at the castle then her body thrown in the Tees, her body has never been found.

After our brief stop we were back in the car heading home after two disappointing locations.

I had high hopes for Bowes Castle, I’ve researched the location in great detail and I thought we had a good chance of experiencing some phenomena. Apart from my feeling of being watched, which I don’t think anyone else experienced. I took a photo into the area I felt someone was standing and the resulting photo is rather unusual.

We had a good evening in Durham, we visited a few very interesting places, which unfortunately didn’t live up to their reputation