The Castle Hotel, Conwy

The Castle Hotel on High Street is an old coaching inn that was originally made up of two hostelries, the King’s Head and The Castle, which was the larger of the two. They were combined to create The Castle Hotel in the 1880’s. The site on which this coaching inn was built was part of an old Cistercian Abbey which had existed before the coming of the English King Edward I (Born 17 June 1239 – Died 7 July 1307), who forced the relocation the monks to Maenan Abbey so that he could start work on building the fortified town of Conwy and the construction of Conwy Castle between 1283 and 1289.

Many famous guests have passed through the doors of the Castle Hotel including the poet William Wordsworth (Born 7 April 1770 – Died 23 April 1850) and the civil engineers Thomas Telford (1757–1834) and George Stephenson (Born 9 June 1781 – Died 12 August 1848). Carmen Sylva, Queen Elisabeth of Romania (Born 29 December 1843 – Died 1916) has even had lunch here in 1890, but it is perhaps the otherworldly guests that we are most interested in, for The Castle Hotel has a reputation for being haunted.

There is a story concerning a ghost that is attached to The Castle Hotel and a young housemaid from Anglesey who died whilst working there. She had insisted that should she die in Conwy her body be returned home to Anglesey for burial, however, following her unexpected death, the request was not heeded and she was buried in the local graveyard. Following her funeral strange incidents were apparently reported in the hotel including waiters being tripped and water jugs shattering. Eventually the girl’s body was exhumed and returned home to Anglesey for reburial.

In his ‘Haunted Pub Guide’, Guy Lyon Playfair describes continued reported experiences (dating from around 1985), which was long after the girl was said to have been returned to Anglesey. These experiences include ‘Bedroom Invaders, usually in the form of cat-like weights on the foot of the bed. Pools of water have been found on the floor with no identifiable cause, and whistling noises have been heard in the air. At least one employee has had a recent sighting of an apparition.. It was not of the former housemaid, however, but unmistakably that of a man.’