Scarborough

ROBIN HOOD’S GRAVE– UNIQUE HISTORIC SITES AT KIRKLEES STILL HIDDEN FROM PUBLIC BY NEW MANAGERS

PART ONE.

DEEP in the heart of an ancient woodland in West Yorkshire,hidden beneath a formidable barrier of fierce thorns and dense undergrowth, there is a hidden grave. Here rest the mortal remains of Robin Hood, the Prince of Robbers, England’s outlaw hero,bloodily slain by the Prioress of Kirklees Nunnery six hundred years ago and cast into an unhallowed grave. Today Robin lies forgotten and unmourned in his lonely and desolate sepulchre, for few people know of the grave’s existence or its whereabouts. Why is this so ? Should not such a monument be an international place of pilgrimage and Yorkshire, not Nottingham, be the centre of the famous folk hero’s legend ? A mystery indeed which this short article attempts to unravel a little.

With the death of Lady Armytage last year there were hopes that more interest from Calderdale Council and long overdue improved public access would be forthcoming , but such is sadly not to be as it appears that some kind of posthumous guardianship in the form of a Trust has been set up involving the people who live in the luxury flats at Kirklees Hall . Lady Armytage , who inherited the hall, and has one daughter and a step -son from Sir John’s first marriage, sold it after Sir John’s death in 1983, but as Robin’s grave and the medieval priory gatehouse where he died was outside the hall’s boundaries, remaining on Lady Armytage’s side of the estate , it seems odd that the flat owners are now involved in the administration of the sites.

So, what are we to make of all this? Is it simply the whims and fancies of the aristocracy who wish to continue their privileged feudal existence of blood sports and house parties undisturbed by the common hoards or is it something more sinister, involving the occult and certain people seeking to control the network of ley lines around Robin Hood’s Grave, for their own nefarious purposes. There have been many reports of " strange goings on " at the gravesite and even the reputed sighting of a vampire! Perhaps, also, the funny handshake brigade may be lurking in the sidelines , determined to keep this magical place to themselves.

The story of Robin Hood is well known but that of his death and the site where it took place, and of the evil prioress, her lover and the naughty nuns of Kirklees, less so. Yet this bloody saga still has a strange echo with the mysterious goings on today. The final extinction of the Armytage dynasty may have finally come to pass, yet the centuries old secret of Robin Hood’s Grave remains jealously guarded by its newly-fledged keepers who continue to strictly maintain their late mistress’s orders. While the evil influence of the prioress still casts her dark shadow over this mysterious and haunted spot.

Parts 2,3 & 4 available on request