The tale of the Bruce Castle haunting

Do you believe in ghosts?

There are some who do not believe in ghosts, and some who do. Other than dressing up in a white sheet with two holes at Halloween, ghosts come in many forms. They are invisible, they are visions of the dead, they can even possess living beings.

If you were to take a midnight stroll through Highgate cemetery, you may be able to count yourself as one of the few people who claim to have seen a spirit. Such stories include one young mother who recalls seeing a ghost riding a bike on an incline through the place frightening her almost to death.

Bruce Castle is a 16th century manor house that has gone through many transitional periods.

The castle was owned by Sir Robert the Bruce, an outlawed Scottish king. In the 13th century the Bruce family owned a third of the Tottenham estate and, though Robert was forced to relinquish his English holdings when he became King of Scotland, the name stayed, hence Bruce castle.

Bruce Castle was also a progressive boarding school back in the 19th century; and is now a museum. Most famous of all it was home to a Lord and Lady who cemented themselves in a ghostly history.

The story

After the Bruce family left the castle, it was taken over by Lord Coleraine and Lady Constantia Lucy. They had a son named Hugh although the marriage was completely loveless.

Lord Coleraine had fallen in love with another woman and decided he had enough of Lady Constantia so he locked her in the tower room on the third floor of the building. The floor is restricted to this very day. Nothing and no-one is allowed in that room except her rocking chair which overlooks the castle.

The Lady of the manor was locked directly under the large clocktower. Every hour the pounding of the clock’s chimes and the constant ticking of the hands would torment her mind and eventually, Lady Constantia was drawn to insanity.

On November, 3, 1680 the castle was about to gain its piece of haunting history.

With no view to an escape, the Lady made the dreaded steps towards the large glass window and jumped to her demise.

The staff of the house were woken to the sound of a horrific scream and rushed out to find her dead corpse lying on the ground. The clock chimed. Lady Constantia was no more.

From that moment, every year on that dreadful night, the Lady Constantia leaves her room in search of revenge, in search of a way out, in search of someone who would free her spirit from the devastation she had suffered.

What Bruce castle looks like today. Image: Melina Zachariou

The watch tower which sits on the grounds of Bruce Castle. Image: Melina Zachariou

A twist in the tale

Not everyone says the good Lady jumped alone. Some say she grabbed Hugh and they both fell together.

There are many who believed it was Lord Coleraine himself who killed her.

The Lord went up to the third floor of his manor and opened the only door which held the prisoner.

Ashamed of her and wishing to himself free himself from her clutches, he walked eerily towards his wife, pushed the woman out of the window and watched her as she fell, screaming and terrified, to the ground.

Suicide or murder – you decide.

The British public believe that... Infographic created with Canva by Melina Zachariou

Max's story

The story of the Bruce Castle haunting is not the only old building said to have held the powers of possession through ghosts and spirits. Max, a first-hand witness, recalled the night he thought he had let out a spirit from an abandoned hotel into his house.

Max describes his experience as hearing and feeling the earthquake of a haunting. Although he didn’t see anything, what happened that night was enough to leave him completely shaken.

“I do believe in ghosts. We went to an abandoned hotel which, at the time, didn’t realise was haunted and was there because we were bored and the hotel was a good place to explore. It didn't have a name as it was so old and we didn’t make much of it. That night, I was home alone and funny stuff started happening. I could hear things getting moved inside the house even though nobody was living with me at the time.”

Max was in his bedroom when he heard a glass smash in the kitchen downstairs so he left his room to check out what was happening.

“I went into the kitchen, looked everywhere, but nothing had been touched so I assumed it may have come from outside. Whilst I was in the kitchen, I heard another noise from behind me but again, nothing was there so I went back to my bedroom and closed the door. As soon as the door closed, I literally heard and felt footsteps running towards my bedroom from the kitchen. The noise stopped exactly outside the door. At this point, I called my friend because I didn’t know what else to do.”

He opened the door, cleared the kitchen and all the other rooms in the house but nothing was to be found. Being a Christian, Max believes what he felt was something between a ghost and a demon. He thinks the house was jinxed because he went to the hotel.

“I ruled out every logical possibility and there was definitely something dodgy happening as all the noises were inside the house. After we went to the hotel, my friend who was with me also experienced something suspicious. Nothing weird had ever happened in the house before and nothing has happened since."

In conclusion

Whether you believe or not, the idea that there may be something uncontrollable out there is enough to raise the hairs on anyone's arms. The tale is so scary, not even the staff are willing to talk about it.

Ghost sightings can be an exciting yet terrifying experience and the story of Bruce Castle will stay with anyone who hears it. For the residents of North London, it is a piece of history every one of them enjoys recalling.

If you find yourself outside Bruce Castle Museum, you'll be able to explore everywhere except the third floor. Just make sure you don't pay the castle a visit on November 3. She waits there upon the clocks chimes, for someone, anyone, to hear her cries...