Welcome to Weird Wiltshire
Weird Wiltshire is a county steeped in ancient history. Tales of legends, ghosts and folklore abound this area in the South West of England. Ancient monuments, ruinous castles, stately homes and humble cottages fill the beautiful rolling downlands.
In my quest to find strange and unusual tales, I explore stories of ghosts and the paranormal, folklore, history and anything weird, found in Wiltshire and beyond. I’ll be sharing spooky tales from around the world too!
Mixing first-hand accounts from those willing to share their stories and exploring yarns and mysteries from past times, I bring together a collection of stories and true tales for you to explore.
You can follow me on Twitter or contact me here. It would be good to hear from you!
I’m also on Mastodon now. Follow me here.
Latest blog posts
Paralab – Psychic experiments in Wiltshire
We never really know what is happening behind closed doors, do we? And hidden away, on farmland in southern Wiltshire, a rural farmhouse became the home of Oxford-educated physicist and psychical researcher Benson Herbert in 1966, as a base for his unusual and interesting experiments into physical phenomena and the paranormal. This might include telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, ’direct voice’ phenomena, and psychotronics. Benson Herbert...
Haunted Hands of Hanging Sword Alley
By Peter Lewis Did you treat yourself to a copy of Haunted Magazine for Christmas? Perhaps not, but I don’t want you to miss out completely on my stories of haunted hands (you can still buy yourself a copy here by the way). Whilst I was doing my research I came across a story written by a journalist. It was too long to recount the story of Hanging Sword Alley for the magazine article but it did send a chill up my spine when I read it, so I...
A Ghost in the Cottage
One of my favourite things about writing for Weird Wiltshire are the ghost stories I uncover by accident or that come about from a random conversation. It’s when I met up with my friends Emma and Lawrence at Avebury this year, Emma revealed she had lived in a haunted cottage! And she promised to tell me the tale. Lawrence has featured on here before when he recounted the tale of a ghost and the haunted pub (The Golden Standard) he was once the...
The Warminster Thing – An Eyewitness Account
Last week, we talked about crop circles, so this week it’s UFOs before we head back to go some ghostly tales for Christmas. Back in the summer, I shared with you many stories about Cley Hill. This hill, near to the market town of Warminster, really does have it all; UFOs, the Devil, elementals, ghosts and history. If you missed it or would like a recap, you can find it here:...
Wiltshire Crop Circle Round Up 2023
Yes folks, this week we’re going to have a chat about the most contentious of subjects; crop circles, in this Wiltshire Crop Circle Round Up 2023! And yes, I know most of them are down to mischievous groups of ‘circle makers’ but bear with me here, there’s a little more to it than elaborate hoaxes. The whole crop circle thing started with some blokes who, having had a couple of pints at the pub, had a notion to head out into nature and create...
Chatting Chattergeists
I do love ghosts, folklore and history, as you probably have already twigged when you landed on this blog. But I am more of a lover of the old stories, happiest when I fall down the rabbit hole of research, finding out all I can about a ghostly tale, digging into the history and stories that surround it. I am not a ghost hunter, I don't like the cold and I am actually very scared of seeing a ghost. I like my bed far too much to stay up all...
My Paranormal Encounter By T. Lynn Shapiro
Once in a while, someone will get in contact with me with a personal story they are willing to share. These don't always come from Wiltshire either, as with this one. I am very grateful to Toni who has trusted me with a paranormal story she has found incredibly difficult to share. It affected her tremendously and as you will see, it must have been very terrifying. Written in her own words, here is Toni's paranormal story. Toni's Story 'There...
The Headless Ghost of the Duke of Buckingham
The Wars of the Roses happened at the end of the medieval period, and it was time of treachery and betrayal, murder and terrible violence, great battles and political turmoil. One of the biggest traitors played his final hand of cards within this period and it was to be his downfall. This was the dastardly Duke of Buckingham and he really upset King Richard III. As far as turbulent periods in the history of Britain go there aren’t many more...
It’s always a bit weird in the borderlands…
It’s not often I research a small town and find there are very few ghost stories associated with the place. Hay on Wye, pretty much on the border of England and Wales, does seem to be a pretty spook-free zone though. It’s unusual! There are a couple of weird tales, which are kind of lacking in substance, which we’ll come to later, nonetheless. While Hay lacks supernatural stories, I did find the place does still have a rather strange...
Hidden Wiltshire’s Top Ten Secret Spots
This week’s blog is not focused on ghosts, although it's about Wiltshire so there is of course some spookiness, and all the locations hold great mystery and history. It is more about the beauty of Wiltshire, this most wonderful county some of us are lucky enough to call home. Still largely rural, Wiltshire is an ancient and magical place. While nowhere in England can now be classed as truly remote, due to the amount of us living here, there are...