St. Briavels Castle - March 2006

This was an event organised by Chris Roamer as a Ghostly Stay UK Event. Because the notification of the event was late in appearing only Alison and myself were able to attend.

When we arrived it became clear that the only attendees were ourselves and members or associates of Parasoc; this was disappointing as CJ had decided to run it as a fund-raising event for the hostel. After arriving at 8pm we had an evening meal and met other members of Parasoc, and Becky who we remembered from Derby Gaol. We then started our tour of the building with the two YHA wardens who run the place. St. Briavels Castle was built in the 13^th Century and retains many features from its early history. King John used it as a hunting lodge when he visited the Forest of Dean, and for much of its early life it was used for gathering munitions. Many of the features from its early days are still well preserved, including the magnificent gatehouse, which dates from only slightly later. But some, such as the castle keep and the old Verderers’ Hall, have disappeared. Yet it is still a magnificent building, and is now owned by English Heritage, who loan it to the YHA.

On our initial walkround we visited all the main areas including the solar, chapel, prison and room over the oubliette and after a bit of talking by CJ we split into groups to carry out vigils in various parts of the castle. Alison, myself, ‘Beast Rabban’ and one of the wardens went into one of the dorms given the title of the ‘Great Hall’. It was part of the Great Hall at one time and still had an original window frame with what was suggested to be a stone seat in the window. It was very quiet in there and we spent a lot of the time discussing things before all the groups regrouped in the dining area.

After some more talking from CJ we split up again and this time Alison and myself went off and explored the prison dormitory room and other rooms in the south tower of the castle. The prison has numerous inscriptions on the walls, carved by noblemen who were probably held there while ransoms for their release were paid. Illustrations of windmills on the walls has led to suggestions that Dutchmen may have been held there. All the rooms seemed quite pleasant to be in and we finished by spending some time in the ‘kitchen’ area.’

On returning to the dining area we found that the team exploring the oubliette room had observed very large temperature fluctuations coming from the entrance to the oubliette.

We carried out some further vigils in other parts of the building including a vigil with some of the others in the ‘solar’ - a room with windows on three sides to get the best warming from the sun. Attempts were made to record EVPs in both the chapel and the room over the oubliette, with nothing being spotted. Alison and I also carried out a vigil in the room over the oubliette – definitely an atmospheric room – a place we would be sleeping in later!

It was while we were in the room above the oubliette that CJ, whilst he was talking, believed he saw a black dog walk across the corridor next to the dining area. At first he believed this was a real dog but when he mentioned it the wardens said that they didn’t have a dog or cat. Immediately the rest of them spread out to investigate the areas where an animal could have got too without finding anything. CJ states that he is not prone to seeing things, however a possibility could be that he was tired and he caught a glimpse of the adjacent bin with a black bag. A black dog is alleged to haunt part of the castle – but this is said to occur on the floor above between the chapel and the Great Hall. After a while Alison and I retired to the room over the oubliette. This was a roundish room with a trap-door revealing the large round oubliette below. This had a grille over it but was illuminated by a light so we left the trap-door open with its light on and switched off the light in the room itself. There were three of us in the room, Alison, myself and a member of Parasoc who had retired earlier – the other two were in bottom bunks and I chose the single bed by a window; it is alleged that various phenomena such as the covers being thrown off this bed happen sometimes so I set up a camera to film it in case this happened and settled down for a few hours sleep. Sadly nothing exceptional happened during the night and we awoke at 8am and joined some of the others, who had slept in another room, for breakfast. After this we had a bit more of a wander round outside. During this it was clear just how close the castle was to the George Inn, and the wardens believed that the idea of a passage between the two (as we may have seen on our visit to the George Inn) was quite plausible. Overall, although the incident of CJ seeing a Black Dog was interesting, nothing that should be ascribed to the paranormal occurred. However St. Briavels Castle is a fascinating building with several ghost stories associated with it (many of which I have not mentioned here) and I would highly recommend staying overnight at the castle, and experiencing what is a fine historic building.

Since writing this I have been made aware that another member of the group also saw a black dog outside the kitchen area earlier in the evening.