Wardour Castle is one of my favourite local spots where I walk my dogs in the surrounding woodlands. Although it is an English Heritage site, it is generally pretty quiet and off-the-beaten-track. A chance sighting of one of the ghosts of Wardour Castle also adds to the temptation of a visit there.

Next to the castle is a beautiful lily pond and there is nowhere more peaceful to sit, on a warm Summer evening. But Wardour Castle is quite a different place to visit in late Autumn or Winter when the gates are locked. Mists hang over the surrounding pine forest and the gloaming threatens to take away the last of the daylight. The atmosphere certainly shifts.

A Brief History of Wardour Castle

Tucked away, on the boundaries of Tisbury in South West Wiltshire lay the atmospheric ruins of Wardour Castle. Built in the 14th Century, it was originally a lightly fortified luxury residence owned by the Lovell family. After falling on hard times, the castle passed through several owners before being purchased initially in 1544 by Sir Thomas Arundell of Lanherne. A staunch Roman Catholic, Sir Thomas was actually executed for treason and the castle confiscated. But in 1570 it was bought back by his son, Sir Matthew Arunell.

The most blood-thirsty event in its history happened during the English Civil War. As Catholic landowners, the Arundell family were naturally Royalists. On 2nd May 1643, Sir Edward Hungerford and his 1300 troops lay siege to Wardour Castle after they were refused entry to search for Royalists. Lady Blanche Arundell was there alone with her children, servants and twenty-five trained fighters. Her husband Thomas Arundell had been called away on the King’s business at the time. Despite her heroic efforts to hold out, after five days of troops bombarding the castle walls with gunfire and mining, Lady Arundell was forced to surrender and abandon her beloved home. The Parliamentarians took control and garrisoned the castle.

In November of the same year, Lady Arundell’s son Henry returned to Wardour Castle with Royalist forces, looking to reclaim the ancestral home. After a four-month siege and further barraging, the castle was virtually destroyed. Eventually, it was surrendered by the Parliamentarians who had been occupying it.

Severely damaged, it was never repaired but kept as an ornamental ruin by the Arundell family. They went on to build New Wardour Castle in 1769, half a mile from the original.

These days it is an English Heritage site is and is open to the public. A most recent claim to fame is that it was used as the film set for Locksley Castle, in the classic 1990s Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Who doesn’t love a bit of Robin Hood eh?!

The Ghostly Inhabitants of Wardour Castle

In times gone by, white owls are said to have been seen flying around the castle, warning of imminent death in the Arundell family. Since the family have now died out I would imagine this is not likely to be seen again.

The woods that surround Wardour are particularly spooky. Heading up a track into the woods you come across a short tunnel that crosses the path. The paranormal group, Twilight Shadows, twice investigated this tunnel and reported they experienced a lot of audible phenomena. You can read their report here.

The Grey Lady of Wardour Castle

It is said, as twilight approaches, you may catch sight of the vaporous looking Lady Arundell standing on the virtually ruined walls of the castle looking out, deep in thought. She has also been spotted walking the grounds within the castle or down towards the pond. A sudden chill in the air can precede her appearance.

Author Kathleen Wiltshire collected many stories about folklore and sightings of ghosts, back in the 1970’s. Her three books are filled with stories passed on from times when the county was incredibly rural and far more mysterious than it is today. Many of the accounts in her books date back to the 19th Century. Here’s one account Kathleen collected off a figure at Wardour.

Some years ago the Headmistress of the school in the village of Swallowcliffe told of her experiences at Wardour. This lady was psychic. She had seen the glost of the lady by Wardour Castle Lake and also what she described as ‘Choirboys’ walking up the paths and passing by a window of a farm in the district. The head gamekeeper’s wife, who lived in the lodge at the entrance to the old castle, and not fifty feet from the lake’s edge, also had seen the lady’s shade there.’

Many visitors over the years have reported witnessing a ghostly figure walking down to the lake. This beautiful, romantic setting of Wardour Castle has such a history. It is inevitable, I guess, that some of its past visitors and residents may still be hanging about.

The Tisbury Henge and the grotto

It’s nearly two years since I wrote this original blog and, as if often the case, new stories or additions come to light further down the line.

Today I visited Wardour Castle again and instead of just walking the dogs in the woods I decided to make use of my new English Heritage membership and head into the castle grounds. It was at this point I got talking to two of the employees up there. I’m a chatty sort and don’t mind asking for weird stories. They didn’t have any ghost stories for me but this was rather interesting.

Apparently there was once a Tisbury Henge. No one is really sure where it was but the manager of Wardour Castle has taken on the task of finding out! He said stones from the henge (and these are the same blue stones used at Stonehenge itself) were taken away and used to build the grotto. Now, it wasn’t the manager himself I spoke to today so I am not quite sure when this happened. But, here’s the grizzly bit. There is a bit of confusion about the ‘skeleton’ associated with the grotto.

The first account I heard mentioned one of the stones being ‘opened up’ and there they found a skeleton. But you can’t ‘open up’ big old sarsens like this. Maybe the skeleton was hidden in part of the grotto? I was then told this unnamed soul was then buried somewhere around the castle grounds. Apparently there are plenty more stories to be told about this beautiful and magnificent place.

The other skeleton story relates to the Tisbury stone circle and I found it in a very old book. When they lifted the middle stone from the circle (it was 12 feet high and 4 feet wide) under the orders of Lord Arundell, 18 inches below the surface was buried a skeleton. This stone is presumably now one of the grotto stones. I feel like I need to know more so I intend to head up there on another day and catch hold of the manager. I wonder if we

June 2024 Update

As is the way with this blog, and happily so, I do get sent new stories every once in a while. This one, emailed to me by a lady called Wendy, was sent to me after her very recent visit. She had a strange experience and on arriving back home she did some research on ghostly activity at the castle and came across Weird Wiltshire. Here is what Wendy told me:

When visiting Wardour, I myself had something happen I just cannot explain.  My husband and daughter had begun walking into the grotto I leant forwards to take a photo into one of the crevices only to be grabbed on the left cheek of my backside by a hand! I presumed this was my daughter as a joke but she was very much standing to my right and would have never had time to move so quickly to my reaction! I didn’t feel un-nerved at all; actually myself and my family laughed about it and it’s now become a story from my holiday to tell family and friends!

Wendy Loader

Whatever happened to Wendy, I couldn’t say! Maybe the grotto once had a hermit living inside and maybe, just maybe, he is still around and he took a fancy to Wendy’s bottom. Hehe!

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Have you ever been to Wardour Castle and seen the grey lady? Or do you have an interesting ghost story you would be willing to share?