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The Lakes boasts the fourth
most haunted country pub in Britain
according to BBC Countryfile Magazine and hallucinations or not, there¹s
a
lot going on at the Kirkstone Pass Inn.
This old coaching inn can
also boast being the third highest public house in
England, situated on the A592 between Windermere and Ullswater, at the
summit of the Kirkstone Pass, about which poet, William Wordsworth, penned a
verse. It is thought to have once been a retreat for monks and later a stop
off for traders carrying wool and slate between North Wales and Scotland and
for coach travellers seeking a refuge from miscreants.
Many customers and guests
have witnessed what is said to be the ghost of
Ruth Ray, who died in a blizzard on the fells, the spirit of a seventeenth
century boy killed by a passing coach and that of a woman who murdered her
child.
An image of a seventeenth
century coachman was captured on film in 1993 and
visions of coaches pulled by a team of horses have also been described. Add
to this the sound of horses clip clopping past in the night and it all adds
up to some serious phenomena!
Things are also a might
strange in nearby Windermere where the chilling call
of the Crier of Claife has been heard long since it was the custom to call
for a rowing boat when transport was required across the lake.
The origin of this ghostly
tale lies in the events of one particular stormy
Cumbrian night, when a call for a boat from Ferry Nab in Bowness was
answered by a dedicated ferryman. He rowed across the lake, only to return
in a state of extreme shock. The following day, he developed a rapid fever
and died.
Since that day, no other
boat owner would respond when they heard strange
calls for a boat from what came to be called the Crier of Claife.
Eventually, a priest exorcised the Crier of Claife to a quarry on Claife
Heights, but occasionally the ghostly calls for a boat can still be heard.
Windermere also has its
own early-warning system whenever misfortune is
about to strike the area. According to local residents down through the
years, a ghostly white horse walks on the lake from shore to shore, as a
signal something bad will occur.
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