Spooky stories for Hallowe'en in Llandovery, Llandeilo and Brynaman

It is also a time when many people become curious about any spooky goings on in their area, whether it is suspected hauntings, UFO sightings or anything that could send a shiver down your spine.

Here we take a look at some of the spookiest stories to come out of Carmarthenshire and the Swansea Valley over the centuries, including ghostly apparitions, poltergeists, ghostly pre-warnings of death and much more.

White lady and spectral appearances

A white lady is a common description for many reported ghost sightings and a number have taken place across Carmarthenshire. As well as white ladies, the spectral beings have also been able to be described by people who saw them and can be children or adults.

One such sighting was in Dinefwr Castle’s Newtown House. The spirit is said to be seen gliding throughout the manor and is believed to be the ghost of Lady Elinor Cavendish.

She was said to have been forced into a marriage and made an escape from it but her suitor caught up to her at the property and strangled her in the 18th century.

A number of figures were seen walking up and down the stairs at Trecynllatch Farm in Garnant in the 2000s, as well as hearing children laughing and people talking but there was nobody else around.

Another manifestation that is said to have appeared is a woman with auburn hair at the King’s Head Hotel in Llandeilo. This happened during the 1980s and at times, she could be seen frequenting the bar and also often seen in the form of a yellow patch of mist. It was believed that she was staying at the hotel during the 1830s but fell to her death from a window.

The spirit of a woman appeared to a man in Ystradgynlais asking him to carry out a task. The woman had killed herself in 1769 and wanted the man to throw a sum of money she had left in the wall of her home into a river.

Sometimes, the apparitions can take on the form of objects, including planes. There have been a number of reports of a phantom Wellington Bomber in the skies between Llandovery and Llandeilo. The area was used as a training zone during the Second World War and six Canadians were killed in 1944 near Llandeilo when their bomber crashed into Garreg Goch. It is believed the apparition is either one of the planes that didn’t make the cut from training or could be the crashed bomber.

Ghostly warnings for deaths

Over the years, a number of eerie apparitions have been reported across the county which are said to have foretold death.

One of these is called corpse candles, where apparitions of candles appear near a room or person that is soon to experience death. These candles have been reported a number of times over the last few hundred years at Aberglasney Gardens. The most notable appearance of the corpse candles was shortly before five maids were killed by suffocation in the mansion’s Blue Room after a stove was left on to help the drying of plaster. During the mansion’s history, a number of deaths took place and before each, the candles were said to have appeared.

Another instance of corpse candles is in Golden Grove, Llandeilo. It was said in the 19th century that three spectral lights were seen hovering over part of the river one night. The following day, three men drowned in the exact spot in the river.

Alongside corpse candles, something called ‘funeral lights’ is also an omen to death, but very few people were apparently able to witness these phenomena. A Brynaman man called Dafydd Williams was someone who saw these phenomena. A story written by Enoch Rees said: “He had seen countless corpse candles, and apparitions, and spirits, and he was familiar with the fairies, and the bendith y mamau (blessing of the mothers), and he was able to create images of these strange things with such conviction, that he made us ‘fear and tremble’ when we listened to him, and his imagery was so vivid that we saw the candles, and we heard the cyhirathod when going home from Cwmgarw, and we would keep a look out over our shoulder lest the spirits took us to the places we heard so excellently about.”

A ‘funeral procession’ was also witnessed by William Miles of Caer-Bryn, Llandybie, who recalled being ‘pressed tightly to the edge of the bank by the force of the invisible crowd.’

Weird feelings

Many ghost reports are not of actual physical beings that they are able to witness, but usually of strange feelings, whether it is the sudden drop in temperature or feeling uneasy or even feeling someone touch them that is not there. A number of Carmarthenshire reports have included these.

One of the reports comes from the aforementioned Blue Room in Aberglasney. A number of visitors over the years have said they were touched by invisible hands in the room, with a workman carrying out work near the windows to the room saying he even saw the faces of the women who died there looking back at him.

People who visited the Pigeon House Wood at the rear of the gardens reported a sudden feeling of fear and an eerie coldness which a medium in 1999 said was the ghost of a fugitive who was murdered at the spot.

Poltergeists

Poltergeist activity can come in many forms and one was reported at Llanarthney’s Emlyn Arms pub around 1910. It spent a number of days throwing hot stones around and would also create disembodied footsteps in empty rooms. When a police officer attended, he narrowly missed being hit by a polished rock that was on the mantelpiece but appeared to launch itself off and towards the officer. He also had objects such as bottles, glasses and a saucepan thrown at him whilst he was looking around the house for what he suspected was a burglar. The landlord of the pub John Meredith lived there with his wife and a servant girl. A newspaper report stated: “On Wednesday night Mrs Meredith and the girl were alone 7in the house, the husband having gone to visit his relative at his native place of Machynlleth.

“During the evening Mrs Meredith went out to fetch the cows, and when she was crossing the yard stones were thrown at her. She did not take much notice but when she was returning to the house the key of the cellar door was hurled towards her from the passage.

“A little later the servant informed Mrs Meredith that someone was knocking at the door outside, whereupon the old lady told her not to open it, as it was after ‘stop-tap’ and a policeman might come. The knocking, however, continued, and Mrs Meredith ultimately opened the door when she was startled to see no one there, but a candlestick flew past her, having been thrown from outside.”

Lady of the Lake

We can’t do a spooky series of stories without mentioning one of Carmarthenshire’s most famous legends.

In the 13th century, a fairy – who became known as Lady of the Lake – was living in Llyn y Fan Fach lake on the Black Mountain in Myddfai. A local man walked past the lake on a daily basis and one day, she emerged from the lake to speak to him.

She told him that if he married her, he would become rich and respected. However, this came with three conditions – he was not to hit her three times and was not to speak of her origins nor the supernatural success of their relationship.

He agreed to the conditions and his father gave her a dowry of some of the county’s best sheep, goats, horses and cattle.

It is said that the Lady of the Lake lived happily with her new husband for a number of years and they went on to have three children. However, it didn’t last as he hit her on three occasions. The first time was when she was reluctant to attend a baptism, the second for crying at a wedding and the third for laughing at a funeral.

After the third hit, she stood up, looked him in the eye and told him they were through before walking away. She is said to have called for her cattle to follow her and she crossed the land and descended back to the lake with each animal following her underwater.

Her husband became lost in self-reproach and disbelief after he returned to work but was unable to work the land.

The Lady of the Lake would later return to teach their three sons medical skills, with the children remaining with their father. It is said that the sons are the original physicians of Myddfai.

Happy Hallowe’en.