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2. Paranormal News | News submitted by: MIB
AS Halloween approaches, author Richard Holland looks at some of the best locations for finding ghosts in North Wales
Daily Post
WALES is the spookiest country in the world. That's the conclusion I've come to after years of research into ghosts.
I am convinced Wales has more haunted places per square mile than anywhere else. And its ghosts are among the scariest on record!
So, when I was asked by the Daily Post to compile the Top Ten spookiest places in North Wales, I found it no easy task. It was no help that Welsh ghosts like to roam abroad - they are not all tied to traditional haunted houses - and even celebrated beauty spots can be terrifying places after dark.
Here then, is my attempt at a Spooky Top Ten. It is based on quantities of ghosts in one place, and on the quality of the ghosts, that is to say how creepy or grotesque they are. You may know of spookier places - if so, I would be delighted to hear about them!
10
At number 10 in our countdown of Spooky Places is the village of Marford in Wrexham. Marford was once so badly haunted that the houses, and even the pub, had crucifixes put on them to scare off the ghost!
Lady Margaret Blackbourne is the phantom concerned; she was cruelly murdered by her husband in the 18th century and her unhappy spirit took to wandering through the village, terrifying the inhabitants. The crucifixes are still there, some in the form of cross-shaped windows, but they may not be wholly successful - some say Lady Margaret's ghost is still sometimes seen.
9
The countdown continues with the well-known Faenol estate near Bangor, in Gwynedd (above). The thousands who flock to the music festival here each year have so far escaped the attentions of the weird bird-like phantom which has been known to perch in a tree making more noise even than Bryn Terfel.
The ghost is said to shriek at passers-by:
"Woe! woe's me that I ever put
"A handle to my axe
"To fell the trees of Faenol!'
Tradition has it that this is the spirit of a man who was executed for unlawfully cutting down trees on the estate.
8
Almost as weird, but thankfully silent, is the apparition which creeps among the trees at the Old Warren, a lonely, wood-bound road which leads from Broughton, in Flintshire, to ... absolutely nowhere. The road is now a dead end (in more ways than one) and the lack of traffic and shady nooks has long made it a popular place for courting couples.
Hopes of enjoying a canoodle undisturbed, however, may be dashed by the spectre of a tall, black-clad clergyman, who swoops down disapprovingly on any young lovers he finds. No one knows the identity of this phantom prude, but his alarming behaviour had startled many a young couple mid-snog.
7
We go indoors now, to the venerable mansion of Berain at Llannefydd in Denbighshire. This old house was once the home of Catrin Tudur, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I. According to legend, she had seven husbands - and murdered all of them for their money. She did this in a particularly bizarre and horrid way; she would wait until they were asleep and then pour molten lead into their ears! Catrin now haunts the house, and unfortunately for her, so do the angry spirits of her seven husbands.
6
Arguably the most famous haunted house in North Wales is Plas Teg, just off the dual carriageway between Mold and Wrexham. The 17th century manor house is haunted by a young girl who drowned in a well, but the road which runs past it is even more haunted.
Many startled drivers have had to slam on the brakes outside Plas Teg, convinced that they have run someone over. But no body or injured person has ever been found, even though on at least one occasion the police helicopter and sniffer dogs were employed to find the victim!
5
Our next location is just inside Wales, on the border of Powys with Shropshire. High on a craggy limestone hill above the village of Llanymynech there is an ancient disused mine working, called the Ogof (Welsh for cave).
For years the Ogof had a sinister reputation. It was said that if you stepped within five paces of it, the cave mouth would drag you inside and you would be lost forever! A musician named Ned Pugh once entered the Ogof armed only with his fiddle and some candles, convinced that he could walk the length of the cavern and emerge from another cave near Llanymynech.
He was never seen alive again.
His corpse, however, was seen one night, hovering in the entrance to the cave, its arms fiddling some crazy, devilish tune.
4
Glyn Diffwys is a deep, steep-sided chasm near Llangwm, in Conwy. From ancient times this valley has formed part of an important route through North Wales.
Its gloom and seclusion made it an ideal place for bandits to waylay and murder solitary travellers.
In time, it was said that at night the gorge became crowded with the spirits of the robbers' victims, all vainly waiting for the day when their bodies might receive a Christian burial.
3
Almost as many ghosts haunt the parish of Beddgelert in Gwynedd - and they are even more frightening. The famous beauty spot of the Aberglaslyn Pass takes on another character at night. It is haunted by a phantom horseman, "a figure of fire'", and a huge, black dog.
Near the village a short stretch of the River Colwyn was haunted by the echoing screams of an unfortunate maiden drowned there by her faithless lover centuries before. The old manor house of Plas Gwynant was haunted by a noisy, violent poltergeist.
One night, the young woman who lived there looked out of her back door and saw something so horrible that she died of fright!
2
Just one ghost is sufficient for the runner-up spot. That's because this ghost is easily the most mysterious, the most ghastly to look upon and the most aggressive on record.
One night in the Gloddaeth Woods, near Llandudno, a poacher climbed a tree overlooking a foxes' den. As he sat patiently waiting to bag the foxes, he heard an eerie moaning noise coming towards him through the woods.
Then 'a horrible sight was presented to the frightened man's view':
"There he saw before him, a nude being with eyes burning like fire, and these glittering balls were directed towards him. The awful being was only a dozen or so yards off.
"And now it crouched, and now it stood erect, but never for a single instant withdrew its terrible eyes from the miserable man in the tree, who would have fallen to the ground were it not for the protecting boughs."
The horrible thing kept the poor man in this state of dread all night. At last, the sun rose and the apparition vanished.
Whatever it was no one knows, but it could be haunting that woodland still.
1
Far and away the most badly haunted place in North Wales - if we count numbers of ghosts and their ability to scare - is, or rather was, the valley of the Vyrnwy at Llanwddyn in Powys.
In the 1870s the local vicar made a list of all the ghosts which haunted the valley. He counted an unlucky 13 of them!
One appeared as "a large bull", another as a pack of hounds and another as "sheets of light". One had the habit of "pelting passers-by with mud and dirt".
Another was capable of killing sheep and yet another had the habit of forcing night-bound travellers to hand over their money (although the latter sounds like a fake ghost of the Scooby Doo variety to me).
The most worrying thing is that some years after the vicar compiled his list, this horribly haunted valley was flooded to create the Vyrnwy Reservoir - immersing all those spooks within its waters. Now that water is piped to thousands of homes, and is being drunk every day in countless cups of tea.
Personally, I think I'll stick to the Evian!
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/content_objectid=13569034_method=full_siteid=50142_headline=-Top-ten-places-to-spot-a-ghost-name_page.html
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