Windsor Castle is often called the most haunted of all royal residences, with more than 25 reported ghostly experiences, including sightings of Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII and King George III. Even the late Queen Elizabeth II admitted to experiencing at least one ghostly encounter.
Construction at Windsor Castle began in 1070, and it has been used by almost every monarch since Henry I. The castle's long history has produced countless tales of ghostly encounters, from hobbling ghosts to saluting soldiers and stolen bones.
Other Royal Homes With Ghostly Tales
While Windsor Castle has its share of stories, other royal homes also feature hauntings. Buckingham Palace, Sandringham House, Balmoral Castle and the Tower of London all have their own spooky legends. If these stories are to be believed, King Charles is not the only monarch making regular appearances.
Balmoral Castle and Buckingham Palace
Balmoral Castle, the Royal Family's traditional Scottish summer retreat, is home to a famous ghost story centred on John Brown, a loyal servant and close companion to Queen Victoria. Persistent rumours suggest a secret romance between them. Brown is still said to wander the corridors today, dressed in his Highland kilt.
Buckingham Palace has belonged to the Royal Family since 1703, but some of its resident spectres are far older. On the rear terrace, once the site of an ancient monastery, a chained monk is said to pace the grounds. Another phantom is Major John Gwynne, King Edward VII's private secretary, who reportedly lingers in his former palace quarters, where he took his own life following the scandal of his divorce.
Sandringham House and Kensington Palace
At Sandringham House, servants once refused to enter the ground-floor bedroom where King George VI died in 1952, claiming it was intensely haunted. In 2000, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother, and a lady-in-waiting held a private religious service with a local parson to restore tranquillity to the room. King Charles was also reportedly once spooked by an eerie presence in the library, where books have mysteriously flown off shelves.
Prince Louis's former nursery at Kensington Palace is reportedly haunted by Peter the Wild Boy, a feral, mute youth brought from Hanover in 1726 by King George I. Believed to have suffered from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, Peter lived to age seventy, and his portrait still hangs in the palace today. Kensington Palace holds several other ghost legends: Princess Margaret's staff reported terrifying midnight screams and sightings of a Regency-clad woman in the 1970s, while others recount seeing Queen Caroline, Princess Sophia at her spinning wheel, and King George II mourning fallen Seven Years' War soldiers, crying out, "Why won't they come?"
