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Encounters Archive:

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2005 Encounters:
The Old Man in Our House - Edmonds, Washington

Grandmother's Angry Goodbye - Woodbury, Minnesota

The Fourth Kitty - Jasper, Tennessee

Dad's Kitten - San Diego, California

The Shadow and the Footsteps - Queens, New York

The Faucet Turned Itself On - West Virginia

The Dark Phantom at Paris Les Halles - Paris, France

The Haunted Family Home - Exeter, United Kingdom

Mysterious Footprints - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Precognitive Dream About my Sister's Passing - Orlando, Florida

Remembering G.G. - Long Beach, California

1700s Ghost Lady - Dublin, Ohio

Dad's Message - El Dorado, Arkansas

The Graveyard Woman - Indianapolis, Indiana

Apparition at Senator Bard's Mansion - Ventura, California Ghost picture

The Vanishing Soldier - Posovina Corridor, Bosnia

Belleview's Haunted Biltmore Hotel - Clearwater, Florida

In Memory of Uncle Fred - Shelby Twp., Michigan

Floating Down the Stairs - Omaha, Nebraska

Our Old-Time Visitor - Savannah, Georgia

The Footsteps and Opaque Mist - Fraser, Michigan

Graveyard Shift at the Water Plant - Dayton, Tennessee

University of West Florida Pirate Apparition - Pensacola, Florida Ghost picture

The White Lady of Easton - Easton, Connecticut Ghost picture

A Spirit Saved My Life - Austin, Texas

My Sign From Dad - Kansas City, Missouri

Gram's Warning - Philidelphia, Pennsylvania

Jordan's Vigilant Watch - Tehachapi, California

A Strange Light in Willer Hall, Quincy University - Quincy, Illinois

Dad's Spirit - Navasota, Texas Ghost picture

The Rotating Bed - Virginia

Poltergeists at the Desert Sands Inn - Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Reclining Ghost - Gresham, Oregon

The Hand Grabbed Me - Salt Lake City, Utah

The Dark Figure - Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

Grandpa's Late-Night Visit - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Second Sight After Surgery - San Diego, California

Mom's Goodbye Kiss - Virginia Ghost picture

Encounters At My Grandparent's House - Lumber City, Georgia

The Spirit Girl Who Lived With Us - Flagler Beach, Florida

My Cousin By the Pool - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

My Doppelganger - Perth, Western Australia

The Orb Brushed Beside Me - Blooming Grove, New York

The Old Beauchamp House - Grove, Oklahoma

Knocks, Shadows, and Apparitions - Alexandria, Minnesota

The Misty Working Girl - Chicopee, Massachusetts

The Shinto God at Tojinbo Cliffs - Tojinbo, Fukui Prefecture, Japan

My Car Crash Premonition Dream - Atlanta, Georgia

The Ghost Who Pinches Toes - Birmingham, England

A Voice In My Ear - Sitka, Alaska

The Entity From My House - Georgia

Talking to Grammy - Evanston, Illinois

The Ghost Followed Me Home - New Orleans, Louisiana and Santa Rosa, California

The Man in the Pool - Marietta, South Carolina

The Girl at the End of My Bed - Louisiana

Fog of Spirits on the Graveyard Shift - Springfield, Pennsylvania

Floyd and the Walking Horse Hotel - Wartrace, Tennessee

Rattling Cabinets From Mom - Pensacola, Florida

The Basement Girl - Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Scarborough Beach Restaurant Apparition - Scarborough Beach, Western Australia

The Ghostly Ballroom - Delevan, Wisconsin

The Haunted Garden - Cornwall, England, UK

Gale Force Phantom Winds - Sussex, England, UK

Tomkins Square Park Apparition - New York, New York

The Girl in the Pilgrim Dress - Griffin, Georgia

A Late-Night Visitor - Loveland, Colorado

The Mohawk's Cry - Altamont, New York

Granny's Passing - Jonesboro, Arkansas

Anna Tried to Show Me - Rochester, New York

The Shadow in the Kitchen - Elgin, Illinois

Bessett House Orbs - Bannack, Montana

My First Haunting - Wareham, Massachusetts

Our Haunted Office - Ocala, Florida

James's Last Call - Austin, Texas

Great Grandmother's Ghost - Mendoza, Argentina

Channel Road Apparition - Sanger, California

Haunted Practice Space - Massillon, Ohio

Strange Sounds in Our House - Portland, Oregon

Paris Theatre Orbs - Paris, France

My "Daughter" Sarah - Somersworth, New Hampshire

My Creepy Apartment - Amherst, Massachusetts

Nan's Ghostly Girl at St. Mary's - Jersey Channel Islands, United Kingdom

Greatmother's Message - Pittsburg, Kansas

Bessett House Orbs - Bannack, Montana

The Disappearing Battery Pack - Honolulu, Hawaii

Paul's Goodbye - UCONN, Storrs, Connecticut

My Haunted Life - Orange County, California

My Ancestors' Spirit at Ruthin Castle - Ruthin, Wales

The Little Red Rocking Chair - Brooklyn, New York

My Uncle's Visits - Wiggins, Colorado

Strange Sounds at The Rock - San Francisco, California

A Visit From Ole Pete - Sharpsburg, Virginia

Shadow Figures - Sykesville, Maryland

Flagler Museum Energy Ribbon - Palm Beach, Florida

Phantom Perfume at the Whaley House - San Diego, California

Floating Red Eyes - Uvalde, Texas

Ivy's Watchful Vigil - Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Mists and Streaks in the Philippines - Cebu, Liloan, Philippines

Six Days of Torment - Old Wethersfield, Connecticut

Scratching Torment - Palm Coast, Florida

Granny's Bouncing Lights - Jemison, Alabama

Visions From Lourdes - Lourdes, France

The Evil Eyes - Northern Ireland

Sleeping by Camp Letterman - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Living With Spirits - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cozy... Haunted, But Cozy - Warrensburg, Missouri

My Grandmother Walked By - Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada

Entities at a Prayer Meeting - Salem, Illinois

The Foreboding House - North Shields, Tyne & Wear, UK

Waverly Hall Cemetery Anomalies - Waverly Hall, Georgia

The Island Ghost That Follows - Wrentham, Massachusetts

The 4:05 AM Banshee - Suffolk, Virginia

My Cousin's Ghost - Bronx, New York

Do Orbs Mean a Haunting? - Newton, Iowa

A Guardian Angel and Haunted Home - Massachusetts

The Spirit of Mrs. Rogers - Wakefield, England

Conjoining Mist Spirits - Chesterland, Ohio

My Family's Clairvoyant Gifts - Region 1, the Philippines

The Queen of Hearts - Irwin, Pennsylvania

"Little Chicken" at Hotel Meade EVP - Bannack, Montana

My Two Haunted Houses - Bridgend, Wales, UK

The House Of Ludington Ghost Video - Escanaba, Michigan

Dad's Ice Cream-Eating Angel - Barboursville, West Virginia

A Phantom Leg Rub - Sheridan, Michigan

The Ghosts of Iversons Pits - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Spirits on the Land - Milton, Florida

The Ghost Who Doesn't Like Men - Neptune City, New Jersey

The Old Aunt's House - Indiana

The Ghost of Opus - Nashua, New Hampshire

Dad's Last Visit - Cliffside Park, New Jersey

The Glowing Window - Glendale, California

Grandmere's Gift - Louisiana

Blizzard's Ghost - Lynn, Massachusetts

Contacting Sam - Stinson Lake, New Hampshire

Grandma's Dusty Sign - Scituate, Massachusetts

The Face on the Floor - Southampton, England

The Ghostly Roommate - Channel Islands, UK

Captain Tony's Saloon's Haunted Bathroom - Key West, Florida

Grandma's Last Call? - Grapevine, Texas

The Front Porch Moaning - Managua, Nicaragua

The Crystal Curse - Chesapeake, Ohio

Bringing Evil Home - Denver, Colorado

Mr. Ruckman's Mansion - Runge, Texas

Brown Robed Figure - Fremont, California

The White lady of Old Burial Point - Salem, Massachusetts



May 23, 2005

My Ancestors' Spirit at Ruthin Castle

Rate this encounter:
Votes:39 Rating: Rating = 5.53 Ratings Breakdown
Stacy Jones, Ruthin Castle, Ruthin, Wales, July 1995, info@ghostvillage.com

One year, while I was working at a travel agency, we sold so many American Airlines tickets, that American gave all the agents in the office a free business class airline ticket to anywhere in the world, and half-off for the person who went with you. So I designed my own tour, and took my mom to Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. I won’t go into the rest of the trip, since this isn’t about that, so we’ll skip up to when we arrived at Ruthin Castle in Wales.

We arrived on a Sunday, and strangely enough, we had the hotel to ourselves. The only other people we saw (other than a few staff members) were in the morning when we went to breakfast. There were two other people eating, and that’s it. Inside, the castle seemed very warm and welcoming. Our room even reminded me of my great-grandmother's room back home. Outside, there was a more sinister feeling. There was dead silence, except for the sounds of peacocks roaming around the castle, which sounded eerie. While we were walking around the grounds, we saw in the distance, a stone circle with some kind of alter in the middle. To get to it we walked through a small forest of trees near the castle. While walking through, I all of a sudden got a very creepy feeling, like someone didn’t want me there, or like hatred, and we both immediately ran from the forest in opposite directions. I didn’t even have time to feel or think anything. My body just all of a sudden sent me running faster than I’ve ever run in my life. Now, I’m not a skittish person. I don’t even get scared in haunted houses at Halloween, and even if someone comes up and scares me or something, I may jump, because I’m shocked at first, but I don’t just run for it. Usually I realize what it is, and have time to think “OK, I’m not really in danger.” But this was just different (for lack of a better word).

Two or three years after the trip, my mom's aunt had done a booklet for everyone in the family of our family history or ancestry. It went all the way back to the year 1000, which was very exciting. Come to find out, our ancestors had burned down and taken over Ruthin at some point. Could it have been a ghost of one of the people who were killed at that time? Do they somehow know that I am related? That’s the best explanation for me.

For as long as I can remember, I have been extremely fascinated by the renaissance or medieval times. I went to my first renaissance fair at about 11 years old and loved it. I feel very close to that time period, almost like I belong more in that time than I do in this one. Could your blood carry memories or some sort of gene (for lack of a better word) that makes you have a certain amount of some nationalities rather than others? For instance: If your mother is Welsh and French, and your father is Welsh and Irish, then you get more Welsh and less Irish and French, so you feel closer to the Welsh heritage, than the others. And like genes do with traits and habits that are inherited from parents, do those nationalities or your blood carry certain traits or feelings even? Or is it memories of some kind carried in your blood of past times or lives? Many people at the fairs I go to feel close to that time period, and certain nationalities. Other people I’ve met love war reenactments, or the 50’s or 20’s stuff, etc. So why do we feel closer to some than others? How else do I explain the fact that as soon as I stepped in Wales, I felt like I was just coming home from a long trip? Like that’s where I really belonged? That’s not just an interest in something. It’s more of an inside or instinctive feeling. And I’m also Irish, so why didn’t I feel that way in Ireland? These are questions I ask myself all the time. 

Here is an excerpt from a book called History of the Gwydir Family and Memoirs by, Sir John Wynn, on pages 26-27. The excerpt is about the forest near Ruthin. It reminded me of the experience I had. As a note: Sir John Wynn (the author), John ap Maredudd, and his son Morus (in the excerpt) are my ancestors:

“John ap Maredudd had 5 sons: Morus, Gruffudd, Robert, Owain, and Ieuan. Robert, in his fathers’ time, was slain without issue near Ruthin. The Thelwalls of Ruthin, being ancient gentlemen of that country, who came into that country with the Lord Grey, to whom King Edward the first bestowed the country of Dyffryn Clwyd, being at contention with a sect or kindred of that country called the family of Gruffudd Goch. These, being more in number than the Thelwalls, drove the Thelwalls to take the castle of Ruthin for their defense where they besieged them until the siege was raised by John ap Maredudd’s sons and kindred to whom the Thelwalls sent for aid. In that exploit, Robert, the son of John ap Maredudd, was slain with an arrow in a wood within view of the castle of Ruthin called Coed Marchan, in revenge whereof many of the other side were slain both at that time and after.”

Now that I know so much more about my ancestors, and where they lived, I hope to go back to Wales and stay in some of the houses and castles that my ancestors lived in. Who knows what other things I may experience!




2014 Haunted New England Wall Calendar by Jeff Belanger photography by Frank Grace
Check out the 2014 Haunted New England wall calendar by Jeff Belanger and photography by Frank Grace!


Paranormal Conferences and Lectures
Don't miss the following events and lectures:

Jeff Belanger and “The Bridgewater Triangle” at Dedham Community Theatre - April 6, 2014 9:00PM

The Spirits of the Mark Twain House - Hartford, Connecticut - April 12, 2014

Paracon Australia - East Maitland, New South Wales, Australia - May 10-12, 2014