"There's some kind of presence here": Castle Rushen staff speak of ghostly experiences

Jill Collings, a Visitor Experience Guide at Castle Rushen, says she and her colleagues have had multiple paranormal experiences.

One day, while sorting through sheet music alone in Derby House, Jill twice heard someone sit back into a chair behind her with a heavy sigh.

"It was quite vivid", she said, pointing to the area where the ghostly presence had spooked her.

Another time, after hearing noises she couldn't explain, Jill set out to record evidence that she wasn't alone: "In Derby House there's what was called the guard room back in the day, hundreds of years ago.

"Just for a bit of fun I left my phone on record in there. 

"A few days later I listened through what I'd recorded and I heard a man's voice, very firmly, saying "SIT DOWN!".

Jill is by no means alone in her experiences. 

One colleague, she says, was carrying out maintenance in one of the 17th century rooms when he felt somebody touch his leg.

"As he looked down there was a girl dressed in tatty clothes and she had bright rosy cheeks, so that room's now known as Rosie's Room".

Tourists too have reported spying a bearded man dressed in black up in the ramparts. Could he be the Earl of Derby? Jill asks.

Another visitor is said to have seen a lady in a silk dress looking down into the courtyard, thought to be Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby.

Despite these haunting experiences, Jill says she and her colleagues are not afraid of the spirits roaming the grounds.

"There's a definite feeling here, but it's not a horrible feeling. It's a very nice feeling. 

"If the castle walls could talk, what stories they could tell. And when you think about the 800 years and the various things that have gone on, it's just so full of life that there must be life still here."