The Castle Keep

Visited 21st February 2003 

The Evening of the 21st February 2003, the night I had been waiting for finally arrived, the chance to stay in the Castle Keep of the Castle Garth at night. The oldest building in Newcastle and said to be haunted by many ghosts. Check out the Castle Keep page from my previous visits for more about the history of the castle. I met up with Andy and John, my companions for the evening at about 8pm and we went to get some food and a drink to prepare us for what lay in store later that evening. When 9:45pm came we headed for the castle, which has to be said, looks even more imposing at night. At 10pm we entered the Castle Keep, one of the most haunted buildings in Newcastle.

Upon entering the castle we were greeted by our host for the evening, Paul McDonald. We were offered hot drinks and asked what our plans for our time in the castle were. We asked Paul if we could wander the castle with the lights on for the first hour, explore the rooms normally closed to the public and take some photos. Paul went one step better than this and gave us a guided tour of the castle. Starting at the bottom of the castle we were shown the Garrison room and the small connecting room, normally closed to the public, a prison with an Ice Chamber below it. This was where a poppy girl, said to haunt the castle, lost her life. She was imprisoned here with over 20 male prisoners, the men then raped her to death, even having sex with her body once she had died.

We next visited the Chapel next and then worked our way up the castle, stopping at every room while our extremely knowledgeable guide told us about the history of the place. Notable rooms were the vault, normally closed to the public, the mezzanine prison just off the great hall with it’s strange blood like stains on the wall, the unfinished staircase where a lot of unusual things have happened and the gallery. We finally reached the battlements - the rooftop, and the view was breathtaking, Newcastle on a cold February evening certainly is a sight to behold.

The thing to remember when in a castle is to try to remember what happened here, how many people lost their lives right where you are standing. The horrible and horrific way people were tortured and finally their release from the suffering - death. 

11pm came and it was time for the lights to go out, our torches to come on and time for us to head into the darkness of the Castle Keep. We decided to follow the same route as our previous, well lit, tour of the castle and headed down to the Garrison Room, at the very bottom of the Castle. We stood silently, turned our torches off and waited, nothing happened so we headed into the prison, and Andy volunteered to climb down into the Ice Chamber. Above the Ice Chamber, John and I stood and scanned the room. It’s a small room with a wooden floor and a scary looking dummy of an old woman in the corner. When Andy came back up, we headed to the Chapel, in the Chapel are two tombstones which I spent a little while watching, hoping something, anything, would happen. Next was the Great Hall, John and I sat on a wooden bench, while Andy, feeling brave, went off to explore alone. John and I turned off our torches and looked around, watching the doorways of the many rooms just off the great hall and also looking up towards the Gallery, which Andy was now wandering alone. 

John and I waited for Andy to come back down to see if he had any success in the Gallery. However he hadn’t. It was now 11:50pm and there was a massive drop in temperature in the Great Hall, not just a degree or two, but a noticeable change. We decided to go back to the Prison just off the Garrison Room for midnight and we could head back here later to continue heading up through the Castle. We decided to get out John’s dictaphone and be very quiet and see if we could capture anything on tape. While recording we heard nothing at all, silence. We headed back to the Great Hall, sat down and listened to the tape, we had caught on tape a female screaming! Could it have been someone outside? Surely we’d have heard it while recording? Next we went off separately to explore. I went into the Mezzanine Prison, John wandered the Great Hall, and Andy headed back up to the Gallery, this time without the aid of his torch. We spent a while on our own then Andy and I met John back in the Great Hall. It was then we heard a bang come from the Well Room, Andy suggested it was something outside, was it? The walls are very thick so who knows? 

We headed up to the Gallery next and wandered the dark corridors for a while, keeping very quiet and alert at all times. Then down to the Interpretation Room, next to the main entrance where Paul was in a small office while we roamed the Castle. We sat in the Interpretation Room and planned our next course of action. We decided to head to the Unfinished Staircase where a lot of the paranormal activity has happened, the Twilight Worlds Paranormal Society have filmed orbs here amongst other things, and they were to be coming here again the Friday after our visit. Andy and I headed for the unfinished staircase while John waited in the Great Hall. At the Unfinished Staircase we stood and scanned the area for a while and when Andy was talking to John over the balcony looking into the Great Hall, I saw something I wasn’t expecting, an orb, a white light floating in the area about 5 metres in front of me, at the unfinished staircase. I watched dumbstruck for a few seconds as it headed around the corner into the area where the staircase mysteriously ends. It left a white trail behind it. I came to and shouted at Andy to look, he instantly spun around and shone his torch on the area and whatever it was had gone. I was feeling scared but extremely excited at the same time, I told John to come up but his batteries in his torch had ran out and the staircase can be dangerous in the dark so I told Andy to go and get him and leave me alone. Andy went to the Great Hall to get John while I waited, watching hopeful that whatever I had saw would return. It didn’t, so when John and Andy arrived moments later I walked up to the staircase and looked around the corner, crouching down and taking photos into the darkness. 

By now doubt had crept into my mind, I was the only person to see the orb so did I imagine it? Maybe I did, although deep down I feel confident that I did see an orb.

By now it was 1am so we headed back to the office near the main entrance where Paul was waiting, we thanked him and he told us a story. Back in the days when the castle was used for it’s original purpose, defence. Some prisoners were on hunger strike. The Virgin Mary appeared to them and said “Why are you imprisoned here, go free” and their chains turned to dust. The prisoners made their escape and the guard who was to look after them was punished as no one believed the story and assumed he’d freed them.

The Castle at night is very unnerving, if you’re at all interested in the paranormal and live close enough, take a trip to the Castle and see if you are lucky enough to experience anything in the oldest building in Newcastle.

Conclusion

I am fairly confident that the orb I saw was real. It can’t have been a trick of the light as all the lights were off and our torches were also off. I may have imagined it, but I suppose I’ll never know for sure. The scream on the tape was very strange; it may have been something, maybe nothing, we will never know. My search for the truth continues.

Many thanks to the Society of Antiquaries for allowing us a free run of the castle at night.