CARDIFF’S THE MOST HAUNTED PLACE IN WALES

CARDIFF is officially the most haunted place in Wales. According to online database www.paranormaldatabase.com, there have been at least 20 incidents of paranormal activity recorded in and around the Welsh capital over the course of history.

Sightings include a ghoulishly beautiful white woman in Cefn Mably House and even a water monster in the River Taff.

It is the highest number of spooky events occurring in one city throughout the whole of the Wales.

Newport had the next highest with 16, while Monmouth, Conwy and Llangollen make up the top five.

Across all of Wales, 560 paranormal sightings have been recorded, including ghosts, vampires, werewolves and even aliens.

Welsh ghosts also seem to wander elsewhere in the UK. The spirit of Judge Jeffreys, a notorious Welsh judge, has been seen in London.

Known as the Hanging Judge, he took charge of the Bloody Assizes in the 17th century, leading to thousands of those suspected of treason being burned at the stake, hanged or beheaded.

Some of Wales’ most ghoulish sightings include: notorious The Morfa Colliery in Swansea Known as the “pit of ghosts”, strange goings-on have been frequent at the Morfa Colliery.

As if attempting to warn against the incoming disaster that killed 87 in 1890, the days leading up to the event bore witness to screams and cries coming from the mining tunnels, and people reported seeing miners who had previously died in the mines. In the inquest into the disaster, some witnesses reported hearing unearthly voices and smelling roses. Rhondda Street in Swansea In 1965, the police were called to investigate a poltergeist, which reportedly turned furnishings over and drove the Howells family to leave the property.

The mother of the family, Marcia, described the experience on HTV, and said bottles flew through the air along with furniture and the baby’s cot was turned upside down.

When police arrived, they had to break down a bedroom door that was locked from the inside. Mrs Howells said at the time: “It couldn’t be anything human.” Llandough Hospital in Cardiff A nurse said she saw her own dead body lying on a bed – a week later, she died from typhoid fever and her body was placed in that location.

Then in 2002, a pregnant woman awoke in the hospital and found a nurse at the end of her bed.

The nurse told her that everything would be OK and walked out.

The woman then realised the nurse was wearing an old fashioned uniform with a Victorian nursing hat. Cardiff Castle A phantom coach has been spotted as recently as the 1950s travelling along Cowbridge Road East to the castle gates.

Other ghosts reported to haunt the castle include the second Marquess of Bute (who walks through walls), a faceless woman in a long skirt who is known as Sarah, and a threemetre tall giant who strolls around the park. Castle Hotel in Conwy A few days before she was about to die, a chambermaid at this inn requested her body be sent back to Anglesey when she died.

Although the landlord first agreed, he failed to carry out her last wish. Soon after, the building was plagued by her ghost. Eventually, her body was returned to her home, but the chambermaid’s ghost remained.

A creepy phantom cat has also been felt clambering over beds at night and ghostly sighting were last reported in the 1990s. Llys Helig Llys Helig was said to be a mythical palace, which was sunk to punish its evil owner.

The ruins of the walls can sometimes be seen at low tide – although more recently it established that the rocks were a natural formation.

But mermaids have also reportedly been seen in these waters, and one was said to have cursed the town of Conwy after she was washed up on the beach and no-one offered to help her back into the sea. Royal Gwent Hospital Patients and nurses at the hospital have claimed to see a hooded monk prowling the wards. Other reports, possibly of the same figure, say that a day room is home to a ghost which pushes down on people’s chests. Spytty Park in Newport A group of four friends said they saw a trio of nuns drift across the field.

The ghosts moved in a perfectly straight line before making a 90degree turn and vanishing. Caerphilly Mountain In 1909, two men speaking in a strange tongue were seen by a witness on the mountain before they made their escape in an airship.

Though it is thought they were German, no country in the world had an airship capable of making that kind of flight at the time.