Castle Rushen guides recount unexplained encounters at Castletown fortress

Staff at Castle Rushen in Castletown have recounted a series of unexplained experiences inside the medieval fortress, according to Manx Radio.

Jill Collings, a visitor experience guide, told the broadcaster she was on her own in Derby House sorting through sheet music when, on two occasions, she heard somebody lower themselves into a seat behind her, letting out a weighty sigh. “It was quite vivid,” she said.

At another point, after noises she could not explain, she left her phone recording in the room that was once the castle’s guard room. When she played the recording back a few days afterwards, she said, a man’s voice could be heard firmly saying “SIT DOWN!”

Ms Collings said a colleague carrying out maintenance in a 17th-century room felt a touch on his leg. When he looked down, she said, he saw a girl in ragged clothes with bright, rosy cheeks. The room has since been called Rosie’s Room.

Visitors have also told staff they have spotted a bearded man dressed in black on the ramparts. Ms Collings suggested he might be the Earl of Derby. A different visitor reportedly saw a woman in a silk gown gazing into the courtyard from above, whom Ms Collings’s account links to Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby.

Manx Radio reported that the castle is 800 years old and was built for a Viking king. It went on to serve as a stronghold during the Civil War and, in the Victorian era, as the island’s prison.

Ms Collings said the atmosphere in the castle was “not a horrible feeling. It’s a very nice feeling.” She added that the spirits did not concern her: “Until one of them speaks to me, I’m not at all worried.”