Barmouth Poltergeist

The following account of a poltergeist in Barmouth appeared in an edition of Folk-lore (June 1892) and was also reproduced in Richard Holland’s ‘Haunted Wales: A Guide to Welsh Ghostlore’

‘About 1842, the house of a relation of mine at Barmouth was haunted by noises,as if all the crockery in the cupboards and on the shelves were breaking,and other noises in different places which could not be accounted for. This went on for many weeks. A well- known conjurer and exorcist was sent for,but he failed to put a stop to the disturbance, which got so bad at last that all the family -parents,children and maids -left the house one night for refuge at the house of a relation who lived nearby. But as soon as they arrived there similar noises commenced in the corner cupboard of that house.’

‘Then,from mere bravado, the children said they would make as much noise as the spirit, so they got sticks and hammered the floors and doors and tables and tin kettles etc until the spirit- noise in the corner cupboard ceased,and for some time after. I was often told by them they made a regular bedlam,merely from bravado, to drown the noises of the spirit. The spirit,or whatever it was,never disturbed them after that night; they returned to their own house next morning,and never heard a repetition of the noises.’