Nottingham Castle

The ghost of Queen Isabel in a light silken nightdress has been seen in the grounds here, "gibbering in terror" and calling out the name of Mortimer, her lover. This dates back to 1327 when Isabel, aided by her lover Roger Mortimer, had her husband Edward II killed; they called for Edward's son to be installed as the monarch. Isabel and Mortimer wanted power for themselves and three years later Edward III elected to do something as his original proponents had proved to be corrupt. On the night a Grand Council was to be held at the castle, Edward had Mortimer arrested, whereupon Isabel went running off to escape, and was eventually exiled to a convent where she talked non-stop of the terrible events. Mortimer was eventually hanged; his spectre is said to haunt a tunnel that he hid in that led to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub below the castle and footsteps have been heard here too. Another set of phantoms that can be heard crying for mercy are the 28 Welsh boys who were executed one by one by being hanged from the ramparts during a revolution.

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