Watch: A terrifying ghostly encounter at Cardiff Castle

Emily Price

With Halloween upon us, now is the perfect time to take another look at some terrifying footage shot at Cardiff Castle of an eerie white figure that stares down a dark corridor then disappears into thin air.

When I first posted the footage of this encounter back in March, there was a lot of speculation as to whether the video had been edited or tampered with in anyway.

It wasn’t. Let me explain exactly what happened the day when I saw a spectre with my own eyes in the dark tunnels of an ancient castle.

It was the first time I’d ever visited the site and it was a birthday treat for me to do what I love doing most – soaking up Welsh history. I wasn’t there on any sort of paranormal type investigation – I wouldn’t even say I’m a believer in all that.

But during that visit, something happened in the dark depths of the dusty old war time tunnels that will probably stay with me forever.

My husband and I arrived just as the castle was opening and the only other visitors were a group being led by a guide and a woman wandering around with an excitable toddler.

Inside the grounds it was quiet – although the sounds of city hustle and bustle could just about be heard from over the castle walls as a reminder that modern Wales had surrounded a structure dating back to the 11th century.

We took our time exploring the grand house and marvelled at the huge trebuchet, then made our way to the war tunnels.

These chilling corridors were once used as air raid shelters during the Second World War when the people of Cardiff rushed inside for cover in fear of falling bombs.

For authentic ambience, the tunnels have low lighting and benches line the walls whilst the sound of Vera Lynn’s war time classic ‘We’ll Meet Again’ plays through speakers mounted on the walls.

As I began the long walk down the first corridor, Neville Chamberlain’s famous radio announcement confirming Britain was at war with Germany began to play.

I pulled my phone from my pocket to capture the speech which seemed all the more haunting in the quiet of the old stone castle walls.

As I pointed my phone down the empty corridor, I wasn’t looking at my phone screen but was looking with my own eyes at the darkness ahead when something came into view.

It looked like a woman, with no face.

Featureless

‘She’ seemed to be wearing a grey and white dress and was in my line of sight for just a few seconds, looking towards me briefly, then turning her featureless gaze away before completely disappearing.

After cutting the recording, my husband and I immediately made our way in the direction we saw the shape to see if there was anyone down there – but the end of the corridor was empty.

When we emerged from the tunnels, the grounds were still fairly quiet with only a few visitors exploring the grassy entrance and a couple of staff members wearing their trademark Cardiff Castle fleeces.

Confusion

My rational mind said it was a trick of the light or a visitor treading ever so quietly on the stone floor. We left the castle for a spot go lunch and as we waited for our food to arrive, I began trawling through all the images and videos I had taken.

As I watched the footage taken in the war tunnels back, I realised I had captured the horrifying moment the faceless white spectre had turned and looked at me.

I shared the footage of my encounter to social media and a guide who used to steward the ghost tours at Cardiff Castle got in touch to tell me that what I had captured “goes along with all the stories we used to tell”.

I’m sure plenty of people who watch the video will want to debunk it – someone on X even suggested I had dressed up some of my “mates” in order to fake the footage.

Whether it was a shadow or a trick of the light, I’ll never know.

But whatever it was I saw inside Cardiff Castle’s dark tunnels, I saw with my own eyes and it will stay with me forever.