Somerset is a county in South West England, home to the Isle of Avalon and Glastonbury Abbey, and closely tied to England's Civil War history. It has one of the more extensively documented regional collections of ghost stories in England.
Sedgemoor Battlefield
The site of the 1685 Battle of Sedgemoor, the last pitched battle fought on English soil, is associated with reports of galloping phantom horsemen and disembodied voices urging onlookers to cross the River Cary. A further local legend tells of a young woman who drowned herself in the river after her lover, promised his life if he could outrun the pursuing horses, was executed despite succeeding — her ghost, "the Lady in White," is said to still walk the battlefield searching for him.
The George and Pilgrims Hotel, Glastonbury
Reputedly Somerset's oldest pub, dating to the 1400s, the George and Pilgrims is associated with a cloaked monk seen by landlords and locals, blamed for slamming doors, switching lights and devices, and moving small objects, alongside reports of paralysing forces, ghostly harp music, and quarrelling voices from unoccupied rooms.
Dunster Castle
This Anglo-Saxon era fortification, held by the Luttrell family before passing to the National Trust, is associated with several reported figures, including a grey lady linked to the Luttrell family, a Civil War soldier, an elderly man seated in the butler's chair, and reports of an oppressive atmosphere strong enough that some dogs refuse to enter certain rooms.
Wookey Hole
A network of limestone caves in the Mendip Hills, in use by humans for an estimated 45,000 years, and home to the legend of the Witch of Wookey Hole — a human-shaped stalagmite said to be a witch turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury, whose spirit is said to still haunt the caves.
Bath
Bath's Theatre Royal is regularly cited as Somerset's most haunted single location, home to "the Grey Lady," a former actress reportedly still seen in the grey feathers she wore in her final role, alongside a white lady believed to date from Elizabethan times and the spectre of the notorious Judge Jeffreys, associated with hauntings across numerous sites between Wales and Somerset.
Notable people
Parapsychologist Ciarán O'Keeffe spent part of his childhood in Somerset.
External links
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