11 June 2010
Make of it what you want; I have no interest in trying to convince you I photographed a ghost, ghosts don’t even exist. However what exactly did happen on that fateful Lincolnshire night? Comments welcome…
Aunty Jilly had been wanting to do this guided ghost walk of Lincoln city, my visit made for a good reason to get around to it; so Jilly, Howy, Ella and I drove into the city of Lincoln and found the group of ghost watchers just after the tour had started.
Our charismatic caped host was both knowledgeable on Lincoln’s history and could tell a good yarn; he started off outside Lincoln castle with stories of the ghostly rider seen to pass through the closed gate between three and five in the morning.
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This rider had been seen multiple times, all in the dark between three and five; the more detailed accounts spoke of the rider stopping before passing through the gate and speaking “Open now in the name of the King”. I liked how our guide made the tales interesting, yet managed to appear unbiased by retelling other people’s sightings and providing further research that he [The tour company] had done into the sightings. In the case of the ghostly rider they had tracked it back to a real person and likely situation. The rider’s friend was awaiting execution after being found guilty of some crime, however the rider had evidence showing him to be innocent. He was however narrowly too slow in bringing the evidence to the castle after making a mammoth trip by horse to and from the sitting of the King’s council in London where he was granted a pardon for his friend. His friend was executed early in the morning and the ghostly rider later committed suicide; the likely reason behind his ghostly walk between three and five in the morning is his attempt to do in the afterlife what he never managed to do while living.
So where did my personal ghost experience occur? Our tour guide described the area as the most haunted in all of Lincoln, medieval steps fell steeply down the hill from where we stood and through an arch in the medieval wall that use to surround the city. Looking back up the hill is the gothic rear section of Lincoln’s spectacular Cathedral, just before is the raised graveyard under which lies the ye-old burial pit for the Black Death victims during the time of the Great Plague.
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Why is this area considered so haunted? Numerous ghost sightings and experiences have occurred here including a plague victim procession into the cathedral, a head rolling down the hill and the common sighting of a lady walking across the path and disappearing into a wall, behind which they have discovered another old burial ground. Even if you don’t actually see a ghost, experiences vary from tripping on things (that rolling head?) to cameras not working or providing unexplained images. Our guide had photos with him that had been taken right where we were standing, I put them down to bad development.
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My camera turned on fine and I took a couple photos of the arch before Howy and Ella stood infront for their photo. My first photo was as expected, but my second merely a second later showed a blurred orb above Ella’s head. Whether it was just a result of some weird flash reflection or a dust particle I don’t know, but it was a bizarre coincidence to happen then and there so it was with a puzzled expression on my face that I called Howy over to have a look at my screen.
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I was the only person in our tour group to capture such a photo and everyone enjoyed looking at my camera and sharing the bizarre ghost experience; who really thought our group would be lucky enough to photograph a ghost, even in the most haunted part of Lincoln!
