Hartington Hall

It is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie caught the eye of an attractive maid and he promised to return for her once his attempt as political upheaval had succeeded. However, the Prince was forced to return to Scotland soon after and the maid was forgotten about, eventually dying of a broken heart. It is said that she is seen walking around the building, peering at the sleeping occupants in the room, which is now a youth hostel.

Ali Stangoe emailed me in September 2024 to say that she stopped at the hall in 2003 on a school trip aged about 10; "I believe this happened on the very first night there, but at some point in the middle of the night, I woke up with a start and was about to close my eyes and go back to sleep when I saw a woman standing [and] looking out the window, quite casually. She was not fully transparent, more translucent, with clear whitish outlines of her body, which tracks with other encounters I have had elsewhere. I couldn’t place her in any sort of time period based on what I saw, because I was very scared and this all happened in a matter of seconds!! Nor could I say how old she appeared. But she seemed to be wearing an old nightgown, though it could have been a long dress, and I thought she was maybe wearing glasses. She also seemed to be carrying something, but I really can’t remember what it was anymore. Anyway, I don’t know if I made a noise or something, or possibly it was just coincidence, but she suddenly turned and stared right at me. And she had a stern face, I remember that vividly. It sent chills down me. I thought I was going to die. But bizarrely, just as she seemed to take a step towards me, a much, much fainter shape (it was more transparent, and I don’t have as vivid a picture in my mind of it but I know I felt very strongly that it was a fat man) seemed to float towards her and then through her. And I closed my eyes in a panic and when I opened them, they were gone. I theorised that it was maybe two unrelated hauntings from two different moments in time, as I think the man seemed to be in more old-fashioned dress than the woman. But obviously I can’t be sure of anything ... several of us had corroborating stories, that we had seen glimpses of very similar things."

Update 15/2/22: Marta, a worker at the hall informed me that, "Most of the team is relatively new as well, so we don’t have great knowledge about ghost activity here. We definitely have not received any reports since opening in May last year." I inquired what this encounter was and was told, "I’m afraid I don’t have great knowledge about that as I only started to work here in July last year. I think there was something about little girl appearing in the window. However I’m not sure." I recontacted the Hall two years later to inquire about any recent activity and Marta Horobin, the designate hostel manager replied on 17/1/24; " I work at YHA Hartington Hall for nearly three years now and never had any unexplained experiences, neither heard any feedback from customers about strange things happening. So if we do have ghost or ghosts they must be friendly."

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