Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire has topped the list of English Heritage’s ten spookiest sites, as voted for by members of staff across the charity’s 400 plus castles and abbeys, historic houses and palaces.
From opening up these sites in the early, sometimes eerie hours of the morning to closing them in the dead of night, English Heritage site staff are uniquely attuned to the sometimes strange and spooky atmosphere of their properties, from creaking doors to unexplained noises to even finding objects inexplicably moved. Immersed too in the history of their sites, the team is keenly aware of both the legends of ghosts and stories of hauntings associated with certain properties.
Ahead of Halloween and its program of After Dark events, English Heritage asked its 1,800 staff to rate their individual sites on a special spooky scale. Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire - built on an ancient burial ground and overlooking a town once described as "the Satanic capital of Britain" - topped the poll. The extraordinary 17th-century aristocratic retreat has long had a haunting reputation for the unexplained. Staff reported mysterious footsteps and muffled voices, slamming doors, cold sensations, and even being pushed. Night security guards have been alarmed by unexplained lights while a little boy has been seen holding the hands of visitors as they walk about the site, his living companions unaware that he is at their side. When locking up late one night, one member of staff heard a scream which got louder and louder as she walked away from the castle, only for her to rush back and find no one there.
Lucy Hutchings, Regional Director at English Heritage, said: "Our sites are soaked in history and from bloody battles to dark deeds, not all of their stories are sweetness and light. Our castles and palaces, especially on these Halloween nights, can be eerie places and some of our team have seen and heard things they can't easily explain. With Halloween fast approaching, who better then to decide which site is the spookiest of them all than those people who are there from dawn to dusk, who know the sites' history and its ghostly legends inside out?
"Bolsover Castle, the magnificent former home of William Cavendish, definitely has a dark side. Over the years staff have reported time and again unexplained occurrences of objects moving, orbs of light, pinches and some have been told by visitors that they have seen William himself, wandering the lonely corridors. It's no wonder that it has been voted English Heritage's spookiest site."
To truly understand a building’s provenance, you need to acquaint yourself with its owner. In Bolsover’s case, the main man was William Cavendish – a playboy cavalier, who inherited the Derbyshire castle from his father in 1617 and set about turning it into the ultimate pleasure palace.
The Mar-a-Lago of its day, it wasn’t even Cavendish’s main residence – which was the nearby Welbeck Abbey – but was instead designed as a retreat for entertaining and dazzling its owner’s powerful guests including, in 1634, Charles I himself.
The fun Cavendish intended for his visitors has extended through the years and there’s much at this picturesque palace to entertain modern guests too, from the exquisite interiors of the castle to stunning equestrian performances and the immaculate Fountain Garden.
Located to the east of Chesterfield close to the M1, high above the beautiful Vale of Scarsdale, Bolsover’s current buildings were begun in the early 1600s on the ruins of a Norman castle and manor house.
The main residence, known as the Little Castle and designed to evoke a Norman keep, was commissioned by Charles Cavendish, but it was showy William who added its panache after his father’s death in April 1617. He employed architect John Smythson to lavish the castle with murals, panels and exquisite fireplaces, details visitors can enjoy today.
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