Our Unusual Encounters at Berry Pomeroy Castle

Berry Pomeroy Castle has seemed to have lost its edge since the place was heavily renovated and worked on to strengthen it. Originally you could walk in and instantly feel a sense of foreboding and opression, and once inside the sound of the birds in the trees stopped creating an eerie silence. Today though the castle has a much more friendly atmosphere to it.

But that doesn't mean that unusual things don't still happen there. During our countless visits to the place we've experienced, and in some cases photographed, some unusual things. Below is what we've encountered...

During a visit in 2007 we were in the old kitchen area just opposite St. Margaret's Tower. Whilst he was walking through this area Mike suddenly felt his neck becoming constricted and he started coughing like he was being choked with a pressure in the middle of his windpipe. After about 20 seconds the sensation wore off. He was later told that other people in the past have experienced this same sensation in the same area of the castle that he did. It's an interesting experience, especially because of the story of when the incestuous baby was strangled in the castle.

Two times now Mike has 'felt' a figure in the Gatehouse, more specifially where the wallpainting is. The first time he sensed this figure it was stood there, head bowed down and armed clasped together. He was just standing there in a long, rough-material, light-brown robe with the hood up and over his head. About half a year later whilst on another visit Mike sensed this same figure, but now he was crouched on the floor with his hands up protectively over his head. He was telling us to leave or else 'they' would get us too. The de Pomeroy's were Catholic and where this figure was stood / crouched was where they originally had the Altar so that private mass could be said by the family, but whether or not the location was ever attacked during the Protestant reign of Queen 'Bloody' Mary is unknown.

During a group visit we walked into the East Range from the kitchen and went to the fireplace against that wall. He told us to smell it because it was like there had just been a recent fire burning there. All agreed that there was a very sooty, burnt smell as if there had just been a fire there. There has never been a repeat of this during subsequant visits to the castle; and we check every time.

When Mike and Chris were visiting the castle, they were standing in the East Range when something caught Mike's attention. Out of the corner of his eye through the doorway into the Parlour he saw this pink, hazy shape - about the height of a person - walk past from left to right towards the edge.

During a visit to the castle in 2007 Kim and Mike were in the café having a drink when they glanced up to the facing window of St. Margaret's Tower, and through the window they could both see this white shape move from one side of the window to the other. After their drink they went to that area to see if it could have been a visitor walking back and forth, but when they got there they saw that the window in question was on the upper area where there no floor. This meant that if it was a person causing this they would have had to have been 11ft in height at least.

At what is presumed to be Pomeroy's Leap Chris and Kim, before they were awae of such a story, were stood there admiring the view when they both heard the sound of hootbeats as if there were a couple of horses running.

On a 2007 visit Kim was walking along the ramparts when she sensed soldiers along the ramparts and arrows and spears flying through the air. She sensed some soldiers laying dead over the ramparts. She said that they were wearing these tabard / tunic type clothes with silvery-coloured top and were blue with yellow / gold on them.

In March 2008 Kim and Mike were sat in St. Margaret's Tower and Mike was trying some EVP work. He was asking to whoever may be there to identify their name, how they died, when they died etc. During this Kim suddenly sensed the answers to the questions as a man outside the ramparts and dressed in brown. He had died of an arrow-wound to the chest in the 14th century.

In March, 2008 Mike and Kim were in the gatekeep and Kim said that she could hear a humming or chant when we were the only people visiting the castle at the time. Mike did initially hear it, but the sound stopped as soon as he turned on his recorder.

Back in 2006 during a visit to the castle, Mike ran off a series of photographs using a 35mm disposable camera. Some interesting things appeared in the photos he took.

This photo was taken down in St. Margaret's Tower looking up the stairs. On the left there is a very prominent, pink haze. Now, we know that this does look so much like a finger being caught up in front of the lens, but whenever Mike takes a photo he always does it with all fingers holding the camera by the edges and around the sides. Nothing wanders into shot.

This photo was also taken in St. Margaret's Tower on the same visit. This small, white shape at the bottom of the image is totally unexplanable.

This photo was taken looking into the middle area of St. Margaret's Tower. Since this was taken using a 35mm disposable camera no orb should have appeared (due to them being a digital camera fault) but this one appeared, bang smack in the middle of the shot. Since it only ever appeared in the one photo it couldn't have been a raindrop or anything on the lens, and it's so clear and crisp - totally unlike the blurry orbs you capture on a digital camera. The other thing that's very interesting is the white lin running on the right side of the orb - it really does give the anomaly a 3D sense and makes it look cylindrical rather than just a flat circle. The way it's so centered in the photo almost looks like the anomaly is posing for the camera! I must point out that this photo was taken when there was a lot of moisture in the air (it had just been raining heavily), but again 35mm film cameras rarely pick up orb anomailies, and if it was moisture then why is it only this photo where something appeared, not in any of the others?

On the same day, this photo was taken looking down the Great Hall towards the kitchens. If you look on the left it looks like there are a pair of eyes staring back, 90 degrees anti-clockwise. On the left is a flipped close-up of this to show the eyes easier. A comparison photo taken recently on a digital camera shows no such face in the brickwork. There is a high possibility that this is a trick of the eyes, where a watermark pattern on the stone caused by the rain looks like a pair of eyes and the bridge of a nose. The squareness of the facial image and how mis-placed it looks are intrieguing however and is definitely very interesting either way.