Colchester Castle: The Haunting With No Ghost

Most haunted-places columns open with a figure on the stair. Colchester Castle doesn't give me one, and that, oddly, is what makes it worth a column.

No ghost on the stair — and why I'm not inventing one

The documented history I work from for Colchester Castle records sieges, constables, demolitions and a long spell as a prison. What it does not record is a single named spirit, a single apparition, or a single dated sighting. That is unusual for a building of this age and this much misery, and I'd rather say so plainly than conjure a grey lady out of nothing.

Organised public ghost hunts are held at the venue, run by event companies, and people do come away with stories. Those stories belong to the people who tell them, not to me. What I can tell you is that the fabric of the place supplies more atmosphere than most invented legends manage: a Roman temple demolished to its podium, a French garrison holding out through a three-month siege, and a keep that spent years in use as a gaol. If you want named spectres, browse the rest of our haunted places — this one is a different kind of unsettling.

A Norman keep built on a Roman temple

The castle dates from the second half of the eleventh century and belongs to that first generation of stone keeps thrown up after the Conquest to impress Norman authority on the conquered Anglo-Saxons. Alongside the White Tower in London, it is one of the earliest stone towers in England. The keep is mostly intact and is the largest example of its kind anywhere in Europe — and it is that big for one reason. It was built on the foundations of the Roman Temple of Claudius. The keep measures 152 by 112 feet, one and a half times the ground plan of the White Tower. A large apse projects from the south-east corner, though there is no firm evidence that a chapel like St John's ever stood within it.

Who built it is less settled. A charter of Henry I, dated 1101, granted the town and castle to Eudo Dapifer “as my father had them and my brother and myself”, which points to a royal foundation under William the Conqueror. The late thirteenth-century Colchester Chronicle — a somewhat unreliable witness — credits Eudo himself and gives a start date of 1076.

Then came the real war. In 1214 the hereditary constable, William de Lanvalai, sided with the barons against King John. Magna Carta provided that the castle be returned to him; John soon repudiated the charter, and the First Barons' War began. A French contingent garrisoned the castle for the barons, and the siege ran from January 1216 until March, when John arrived in person. The French garrison of 116 men negotiated safe passage to London, where they were arrested anyway. The castle changed hands again in a truce in 1217 before Henry III recovered it under the Treaty of Lambeth.

By the seventeenth century it had fallen into disrepair. The curtain walls and some of the keep's upper parts were demolished, which is why its original height is still argued over — four storeys, three, or perhaps only ever two. The remains served as a prison, were partially restored as a large garden pavilion, and have housed Colchester Museum since 1860. Colchester Borough Council bought the castle in 1922. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building.

What it's like to visit today

The castle stands in Castle Park, which takes its name from it, at the western end of the old walled town. That siting is unusual: Norman castles were more often built into a town's outer defences, so you get a keep sitting almost on the town centre rather than out on its edge.

Go into Colchester Museum first. It holds an important collection of Roman exhibits, and it is the best possible preparation for understanding what lies beneath your feet — the base of the Temple of Claudius. Outside, the surviving northern rampart, heavily landscaped in the nineteenth century, still marks the line of the bailey defences. Walk it and the plan of the place resolves itself.

If you would rather see the keep after dark, check ahead for ghost hunt dates and book in advance. Wear sensible footwear and a warm layer. This is an eleventh-century stone building and it holds the cold in a way that gets into your shoulders.

Where to stay if you're making a night of it

Everything useful is within about a tenth of a mile, so you can do a late event and walk back.

• The George — a couple of minutes from the park gates.
• Red Lion Hotel — another town-centre option a short walk from the keep.
• St Nicholas Hotel and Greyfriars, both equally close.

If you're coming for an organised night, sort the event first and the room second — the dates are the scarce thing, not the beds.