Where Does Haunted Westmorland Really Begin?

Introduction

Here, “Westmorland” means the historic county, not simply the modern Westmorland and Furness council area. The historic county includes Appleby-in-Westmorland, Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale, Windermere, parts of Ullswater and the Westmorland Dales; it was formed from the baronies of Kendal and Westmorland in 1226/7, and is shown as a distinct historic county on the Wikimedia Commons/Wikishire county map.[Gazetteer]gazetteer.org.ukGazetteer Westmorland, historiccounty | Gazetteer of British Place NamesGazetteer Westmorland, historiccounty | Gazetteer of British Place Names

Overview image for Where Does Haunted Westmorland Really Begin?

Where haunted Westmorland begins and ends

Westmorland is now often folded into the broader tourism language of “Cumbria” or “the Lake District”, which can blur the old county lines. For a county-level haunted-history page, that matters. Muncaster Castle, Carlisle and many coastal ghost stories may be Cumbrian in a modern sense, but they belong historically to Cumberland, not Westmorland. Westmorland’s own centre of gravity lies around the Vale of Eden, the Westmorland Dales, Kendal, Windermere and the southern fells.

The county’s geography helps explain the character of its supernatural stories. Westmorland has lonely uplands, enclosed valleys, old monastic sites, corpse routes, ferry crossings and difficult roads over the fells. The Gazetteer of British Place Names describes the north-east as dominated by the River Eden and Mallerstang, with Pendragon Castle standing above a bend in the river, while the south is shaped by the Kent and Lune valleys, Windermere and the low country towards Morecambe Bay.[Gazetteer]gazetteer.org.ukGazetteer Westmorland, historiccounty | Gazetteer of British Place NamesGazetteer Westmorland, historiccounty | Gazetteer of British Place Names In folklore terms, that gives Westmorland two strong haunted landscapes: the watery, wooded, tourist-facing Lake District edge, and the older border country of castles, raids and hill farms.

The Crier of Claife: Windermere’s best-known spectral voice

The Crier of Claife is one of Westmorland’s strongest ghost traditions because it combines a precise location, a memorable sound and a practical fear. The story belongs to Claife Heights on the western side of Windermere, where a ghostly cry is said to call across the lake. In the National Trust’s version, the Crier is reputed to be the spirit of a monk who fell in love, was rejected, went mad and died; the spirit was eventually exorcised and banished to a small quarry.[National Trust]nationaltrust.org.ukNational Trust Ash Landing and Claife Heights walk | National TrustNational Trust Ash Landing and Claife Heights walk | National Trust

The setting matters as much as the figure. Windermere’s ferry routes, wooded western shore and sudden changes of weather make the tale feel rooted in real movement across water. A cry heard across a lake at night could be a person in danger, a trick of wind, an echo, an animal call or a story reshaped in the telling. That uncertainty is exactly why the legend survived: it turns the ordinary risk of answering a call in bad weather into a moral and supernatural test.

The Crier also shows how Victorian and later Lake District tourism shaped ghost lore. Claife was not only a remote haunted wood; it was part of a scenic landscape being packaged for walkers, guidebooks and visitors. The story’s credibility is therefore mixed. It is locally famous and tied to a real place, but the surviving forms are folkloric, literary and touristic rather than a chain of verifiable witness reports. Its value is less as evidence of a haunting than as a compact expression of Windermere’s older fears: storm, water, isolation and the danger of crossing from the safe shore into darkness.

Where Does Haunted Westmorland Really Begin? illustration 1

Kirkstone Pass Inn and the ghosts of dangerous travel

Kirkstone Pass gives Westmorland one of its most atmospheric roadside haunting traditions. The pass carries the A592 between Ambleside and Patterdale and reaches about 1,489 feet, making it the Lake District’s highest road pass; the inn near the summit has long been associated with travellers, weather and exposure.[Wikipedia]WikipediaKirkstone PassKirkstone Pass Haunted accounts focus on the idea that some spirits are not malevolent, but trapped in the memory of a dangerous journey.

The best-known story is Ruth Ray. In popular retellings, Ruth was travelling from Patterdale with her child when snow came down and she lost her way. Her husband later found her frozen body, while the heavily wrapped baby survived. The ghost is said to haunt the Kirkstone Pass Inn as a warning presence, cautioning walkers and travellers about the weather and the pass.[Haunted Rooms®]hauntedrooms.co.ukHaunted Rooms®The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside | Haunted Rooms®Haunted Rooms®The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside | Haunted Rooms®

Other reported figures at the inn include a boy said to have been killed by a coach, a grey lady, a hiker linked with poltergeist-like activity, and a woman said to have been hanged nearby.[Haunted Rooms®]hauntedrooms.co.ukHaunted Rooms®The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside | Haunted Rooms®Haunted Rooms®The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside | Haunted Rooms® These are not equally strong traditions: they sit in the modern haunted-inn genre, where old buildings often accumulate several spirits over time. Ruth Ray is the most coherent because she fits the landscape so well. The ghost story works as folk safety advice: the fells are beautiful, but weather can turn them lethal.

Orton Dobbie: Westmorland’s poltergeist-like farmhouse mystery

The Orton Dobbie is one of the most interesting Westmorland cases because it resembles a nineteenth-century poltergeist flap rather than a romantic castle apparition. In local accounts, a “dobbie” is a mischievous spirit. Visit Eden summarises the Orton story as a nineteenth-century disturbance in which a child’s cradle was overturned and furniture reportedly moved around the floor; the spirit was sometimes said to be the ghost of a man murdered on his way home from Kendal, though some suspected a local maid had invented or staged the events.[Visiteden]visiteden.co.ukVisiteden Myths and Legends of EdenVisiteden Myths and Legends of Eden

Folklore scholarship treats the Orton Dobbie as part of the wider northern family of boggarts, bogles and household spirits. A modern study of boggart traditions notes that the Orton case first appeared in 1849 as the “Orton Ghost”, and that “dobbie” was probably the local word attached to it from early on.[dokumen.pub]dokumen.pubthe boggart folklore history and dialect studies 1905816901 9781905816903the boggart folklore history and dialect studies 1905816901 9781905816903 This makes the case unusually useful: it is not just a vague “haunted house” claim, but a named episode in the social life of a village.

The likely explanations range from deliberate trickery to rumour, misread domestic disturbance, social tension, or a genuinely unexplained sequence of events later shaped by folklore. The important point is that Westmorland people had a vocabulary for this kind of haunting. A “dobbie” was not necessarily a solemn ghost in white; it could be noisy, disruptive, teasing and domestic. That gives Westmorland’s supernatural tradition a different texture from the grander castle ghosts.

Shap Abbey, white monks and monastic memory

Shap Abbey’s ghostly associations grow out of its monastic history. The abbey was founded in the late twelfth century by Premonstratensian canons, known locally as “White Monks” because of their clothing, and it stood beside the River Lowther. Visit Eden presents the White Monks of Shap as one of the area’s myths and legends, linking the ruin to stories of religious power, excommunication and the afterlife.[Visiteden]visiteden.co.ukVisiteden Myths and Legends of EdenVisiteden Myths and Legends of Eden

As with many ruined abbeys, the haunting is partly architectural. A remote medieval ruin invites stories of chanting, white figures and monks who have not quite left. The Dissolution of the Monasteries also gives the site a powerful historical break: a religious community is removed, buildings fall into ruin, and later generations imagine the old occupants as lingering presences.

The evidence is folkloric rather than investigative. There is no strong public record of a single famous apparition at Shap equivalent to the Crier of Claife. Instead, Shap belongs to a broader English pattern in which abbey ruins become places of spectral repetition: robes, footsteps, chants and a sense that the old religious life is still being faintly replayed.

Pendragon Castle: Arthurian legend rather than ordinary haunting

Pendragon Castle, in Mallerstang near Kirkby Stephen, is one of Westmorland’s richest legendary ruins. Historically, the castle is medieval, but its name and folklore attach it to Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur. Local tradition says Uther tried to divert the River Eden to form a moat, remembered in the couplet, “Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, Eden will run where Eden ran.” Visit Upper Eden also records the story that Uther and his men were killed when Saxons poisoned the well, and adds the wonderfully odd motif of treasure guarded by a black chicken ghost.[Visit Upper Eden]visituppereden.org.ukOpen source on visituppereden.org.uk.

Other retellings add ghostly ladies in white and a silent horseman approaching the ruins at night.[Great Castles]great-castles.comOpen source on great-castles.com. These apparitions feel less like documented witness traditions and more like the natural afterlife of an Arthurian ruin. Once a place is linked to Uther, poisoned wells, lost treasure and a failed attempt to master the Eden, ghosts almost follow as part of the imaginative furniture.

Pendragon is therefore best treated as legendary haunted history rather than a strong modern haunting case. Its importance lies in how Westmorland absorbed national Arthurian material into a local landscape. The story makes the Eden valley feel ancient, contested and mythic, even though the historical castle belongs to the medieval world of barons, raids and later Clifford restoration.

Where Does Haunted Westmorland Really Begin? illustration 2

Appleby, Brough and the castle memory of border country

Appleby Castle and Brough Castle anchor Westmorland’s haunted imagination in border history. Appleby Castle stands in the historic county town, with a medieval core and strong associations with the Clifford family and Lady Anne Clifford. Historic England records that the main building includes thirteenth-century fabric, a 1454 eastern part, damage in 1648, and restoration by Lady Anne Clifford in 1651–53.[Historic England]historicengland.org.uklist entrylist entry

Appleby’s ghost traditions are comparatively diffuse. Modern haunted-place listings sometimes identify Lady Anne Clifford herself as an apparition at the castle, but the stronger, sourceable story is historical rather than spectral: a powerful woman recovering and restoring a damaged ancestral seat. The ghostly appeal comes from that continuity — the sense of a castle still dominated by the personality of a former owner whose life was unusually well documented and locally resonant.

Brough Castle offers a harsher version of the same border memory. English Heritage describes it as standing on a ridge above the Stainmore Pass, on the site of a Roman fort; it was frequently targeted by Scots raids, had a keep dating from about 1200, was later developed by the Clifford family, and was accidentally burnt after a Christmas party in 1521.[English Heritage]english-heritage.org.ukEnglish Heritage Brough Castle | English HeritageEnglish Heritage Brough Castle | English Heritage Even without a famous named ghost, Brough belongs naturally in Westmorland’s haunted landscape. It is a ruin shaped by invasion, fire, rebuilding and abandonment — the ingredients from which ghost stories are often made.

Levens Hall and Sizergh: genteel houses with lingering figures

Westmorland’s manor-house hauntings are gentler than its road and ruin stories. Levens Hall, near Kendal, is associated with a Grey Lady, a Pink Lady and a friendly little black dog. History Today notes the black dog tradition, describing a small dog that runs up the staircase with visitors, only for no trace to be found when they reach the bedrooms.[History Today]historytoday.comHistory Today On Home Ground: Levens Hall, Cumbria | History TodayHistory Today On Home Ground: Levens Hall, Cumbria | History Today Lancashire County Council’s Red Rose Collections similarly records reports of a Grey Lady, a black dog on the stairs and a lady in pink.[Red Rose Collections]redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.ukRed Rose Collections Levens Bridge and Levens Hall seen from across the RiverRed Rose Collections Levens Bridge and Levens Hall seen from across the River

Levens is also famous for its topiary garden, founded in 1694 when Colonel James Grahme commissioned Guillaume Beaumont, who had worked for King James II.[levenshall.co.uk]levenshall.co.ukthe topiary garden at levens hallthe topiary garden at levens hall That setting changes the tone of the haunting. This is not a bleak ruin or dangerous pass, but a preserved house and garden where ghosts become part of the atmosphere of continuity, inheritance and domestic memory.

Sizergh, south of Kendal, has a similar country-house quality. The National Trust says Sizergh has been home to the Strickland family for 800 years and contains rare Elizabethan artistry and a large historic collection.[National Trust]nationaltrust.org.ukOpen source on nationaltrust.org.uk. Its reported hauntings include sobbing or screaming female figures in the tower in popular retellings, often linked to border raids or family tragedy. The sourcing is thinner than for Levens, and the details vary, so Sizergh should be presented as a reputedly haunted house rather than a well-evidenced case. Its real power lies in the combination of medieval tower, long family occupation and the claustrophobic fear of being shut away during violence.

Fairy Steps, corpse roads and the supernatural landscape

Not every eerie Westmorland tradition is a ghost story in the narrow sense. The Fairy Steps near Beetham are a limestone cleft on an old corpse route, where coffins from remote communities were carried towards burial. Visit Cumbria identifies the steps as lying on one of Lakeland’s corpse trails, while walking and folklore sources preserve the tradition that anyone who passes through the narrow steps without touching the sides may have a wish granted by the fairies.[Visit Cumbria]visitcumbria.comOpen source on visitcumbria.com.

The Fairy Steps show how Westmorland’s supernatural map includes older categories than “haunted building”. Corpse roads were practical routes, but they also gathered beliefs about the dead, thresholds, crossings and safe passage. Fairies, dobbies, bogles, white monks and black dogs all belong to this older imaginative world, where the uncanny is not confined to a single apparition but spread across paths, stones, stairs and boundaries.

This matters for readers because it prevents a too-modern view of haunting. Westmorland folklore is not simply a list of places where people claim to have seen ghosts. It is a landscape of risky movement: over passes, across water, along coffin tracks, through narrow stone gaps, and between old religious or family territories.

How credible are Westmorland’s hauntings?

The strongest Westmorland ghost traditions are strong as folklore, not as proof. The Crier of Claife is well located and preserved by a major heritage body, but its versions are clearly legendary. Ruth Ray at Kirkstone Pass has emotional force and landscape logic, but the inn’s wider ghost list shows the layering typical of commercial haunted-location storytelling. The Orton Dobbie is especially interesting because it has a nineteenth-century newspaper and folklore footprint, yet even local summaries preserve sceptical explanations such as possible invention by a maid.[nationaltrust.org.uk]nationaltrust.org.ukNational Trust Ash Landing and Claife Heights walk | National TrustNational Trust Ash Landing and Claife Heights walk | National Trust

A fair reading separates three kinds of evidence:

Place-based folklore: Claife, Pendragon, Fairy Steps and Shap Abbey are best understood as legends attached to memorable landscapes.

Reported domestic or visitor experiences: Levens Hall, Sizergh and Kirkstone Pass Inn preserve claims of apparitions, sounds or strange encounters, but the accounts are usually secondary and retold.

Historically anchored memory: Appleby, Brough, Shap and Pendragon are powerful because the real histories — border raids, monastic dissolution, family conflict, dangerous travel and ruin — give later ghost stories something to cling to.

Sceptical explanations do not make the stories worthless. Wind, echo, darkness, social rumour, tourism, family storytelling and the suggestive power of old buildings are all part of how hauntings form. In Westmorland, the most persuasive reading is that ghost stories preserve emotional truths about place: fear of weather, fear of isolation, grief at religious loss, anxiety over inheritance, and the long memory of a border landscape.

Where Does Haunted Westmorland Really Begin? illustration 3

Why Westmorland’s ghost stories still matter

Westmorland’s haunted places are not famous because they produce neat evidence. They matter because they make the old county legible after dark. The Crier turns Windermere from a scenic lake into a dangerous crossing. Ruth Ray turns Kirkstone Pass into a warning about weather. The Orton Dobbie reveals how a village interpreted domestic disorder. Shap’s white monks keep monastic memory alive. Pendragon makes the Eden valley feel older than written history. Levens and Sizergh show how long-inhabited houses gather stories as naturally as portraits, staircases and locked rooms.

For visitors, the best haunted Westmorland route would not chase jump scares. It would follow the county’s real geography: Appleby and Brough for border castles, Mallerstang for Pendragon, Shap for abbey and fellside lore, Orton for the Dobbie tradition, Kirkstone for dangerous-road haunting, Windermere and Claife for the spectral voice across water, and the Kendal area for Levens, Sizergh and the quieter ghosts of old houses.

Westmorland’s ghosts are most convincing when treated as stories with roots: not confirmed spirits, but enduring local ways of remembering danger, loss and mystery in one of England’s most atmospheric historic counties.

Amazon book picks

Marketplace Samples

Live-tested eBay searches with available results related to this page.

Example eBay listing

Schloß Vogelöd (The Haunted Castle) - 1921 German Silent Horror 50" x 35"

SearcheBay.co.uk: haunted castle poster

Browse similar oneBay.co.uk

Example eBay listing

Haunted Castle Framed Wall Art Poster Canvas Print Picture

SearcheBay.co.uk: haunted castle poster

Browse similar oneBay.co.uk

Example eBay listing

The Haunted Palace 1963 Vincent Price Film - Restored 27.2" x 41" US One Sheet

SearcheBay.co.uk: haunted castle poster

Browse similar oneBay.co.uk

Example eBay listing

Haunted Gothic Castle Framed Wall Art Poster Canvas Print Picture

SearcheBay.co.uk: haunted castle poster

Browse similar oneBay.co.uk

Browse more oneBay.co.uk

Example items shown for inspiration; availability and pricing can change. Branchoria may earn a commission if you purchase through outbound eBay links.

Endnotes

1. Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Title: Commons File:England Historic Counties Westmorland map.svg
Link:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEngland_Historic_Counties_Westmorland_map.svg

2. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Kirkstone Pass
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstone_Pass

3. Source: dokumen.pub
Title: the boggart folklore history and dialect studies 1905816901 9781905816903
Link:https://dokumen.pub/the-boggart-folklore-history-and-dialect-studies-1905816901-9781905816903.html

4. Source: great-castles.com
Link:https://great-castles.com/pendragonghost.html

5. Source: levenshall.co.uk
Title: the topiary garden at levens hall
Link:https://www.levenshall.co.uk/DB/latest-news/the-topiary-garden-at-levens-hall

6. Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmorland

7. Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand%3ABritish_Isles_map_showing_UK%2C_Republic_of_Ireland%2C_and_historic_counties.svg

8. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Appleby Castle
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleby_Castle

9. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Brough Castle
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brough_Castle

10. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Pendragon Castle
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendragon_Castle

11. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Levens Hall
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levens_Hall

12. Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizergh

13. Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Title: Category:Old county maps of Westmorland
Link:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category%3AOld_county_maps_of_Westmorland

14. Source: upload.wikimedia.org
Link:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/The_vale_of_Lyvennet%2C_its_picturesque_peeps_and_legendary_lore_%28IA_valeoflyvennetit00blaniala%29.pdf

15. Source: great-castles.com
Link:https://great-castles.com/muncasterghost.html

16. Source: great-castles.com
Link:https://great-castles.com/brough.html

17. Source: dokumen.pub
Title: oxford english dictionary 13 2nbsped
Link:https://dokumen.pub/oxford-english-dictionary-13-2nbsped.html

18. Source: youtube.com
Title: Sizergh Castle History & Tour
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33dTKFZ1aSs

Source snippet

Pendragon Castle | 900 YEARS of ACTION in 5 minutes...

19. Source: youtube.com
Title: Pendragon Castle | 900 YEARS of ACTION in 5 minutes
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh4N543D2mI

Source snippet

Ghost Hunt 1 - Kirkstone Abyss...

20. Source: gazetteer.org.uk
Title: Gazetteer Westmorland, historiccounty | Gazetteer of British Place Names
Link:https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/Westmorland

21. Source: nationaltrust.org.uk
Title: National Trust Ash Landing and Claife Heights walk | National Trust
Link:https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/lake-district/claife-viewing-station-and-windermere-west-shore/ash-landing-and-claife-heights-windermere-walk

22. Source: hauntedrooms.co.uk
Title: Haunted Rooms®The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside | Haunted Rooms®
Link:https://www.hauntedrooms.co.uk/product/kirkstone-pass-inn-ambleside-cumbria

23. Source: visiteden.co.uk
Title: Visiteden Myths and Legends of Eden
Link:https://www.visiteden.co.uk/explore-eden/myths-and-legends-of-eden/

24. Source: visituppereden.org.uk
Link:https://visituppereden.org.uk/pendragon-castle-mallerstang/

25. Source: historicengland.org.uk
Title: list entry
Link:https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1137815

26. Source: english-heritage.org.uk
Title: English Heritage Brough Castle | English Heritage
Link:https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/brough-castle/

27. Source: historytoday.com
Title: History Today On Home Ground: Levens Hall, Cumbria | History Today
Link:https://www.historytoday.com/archive/home-ground-levens-hall-cumbria

28. Source: redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk
Title: Red Rose Collections Levens Bridge and Levens Hall seen from across the River
Link:https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/view-item?i=241549

29. Source: nationaltrust.org.uk
Link:https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/lake-district/sizergh/visiting-the-house-at-sizergh

30. Source: visitcumbria.com
Link:https://www.visitcumbria.com/sl/beetham-fairy-steps/

31. Source: wikishire.co.uk
Link:https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Westmorland

32. Source: tripadvisor.com
Title: Fairy Steps
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g499526-d3935613-Reviews-Fairy_Steps-Beetham_Cumbria_England.html

33. Source: historicengland.org.uk
Title: Appleby Castle, Appleby-in-Westmorland
Link:https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000659

34. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/birkbecksofwestm00birk/birkbecksofwestm00birk_djvu.txt

35. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/download/cumberlandwestmo01scot/cumberlandwestmo01scot.pdf

36. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/westmorlandchur00bellgoog/westmorlandchur00bellgoog_djvu.txt

37. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/transactionsofcu82cumb/transactionsofcu82cumb_djvu.txt

38. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/cornellword00corn/cornellword00corn_djvu.txt

39. Source: archive.org
Link:https://www.archive.org/stream/historytrad00nichiala/historytrad00nichiala_djvu.txt

40. Source: archive.org
Link:https://archive.org/stream/transactionsofcu10cumb/transactionsofcu10cumb_djvu.txt