2 Just one ghost is sufficient for the runner-up spot. That's because this ghost is easily the most mysterious, the most ghastly to look upon and the most aggressive on record. One night in the Gloddaeth Woods, near Llandudno, a poacher climbed a tree overlooking a foxes' den. As he sat patiently waiting to bag the foxes, he heard an eerie moaning noise coming towards him through the woods. Then 'a horrible sight was presented to the frightened man's view': "There he saw before him, a nude being with eyes burning like fire, and these glittering balls were directed towards him. The awful being was only a dozen or so yards off. "And now it crouched, and now it stood erect, but never for a single instant withdrew its terrible eyes from the miserable man in the tree, who would have fallen to the ground were it not for the protecting boughs." The horrible thing kept the poor man in this state of dread all night. At last, the sun rose and the apparition vanished. Whatever it was no one knows, but it could be haunting that woodland still. 1 Far and away the most badly haunted place in North Wales - if we count numbers of ghosts and their ability to scare - is, or rather was, the valley of the Vyrnwy at Llanwddyn in Powys. In the 1870s the local vicar made a list of all the ghosts which haunted the valley. He counted an unlucky 13 of them! One appeared as "a large bull", another as a pack of hounds and another as "sheets of light". One had the habit of "pelting passers-by with mud and dirt". Another was capable of killing sheep and yet another had the habit of forcing night-bound travellers to hand over their money (although the latter sounds like a fake ghost of the Scooby Doo variety to me). The most worrying thing is that some years after the vicar compiled his list, this horribly haunted valley was flooded to create the Vyrnwy Reservoir - immersing all those spooks within its waters. Now that water is piped to thousands of homes, and is being drunk every day in countless cups of tea. Personally, I think I'll stick to the Evian!
Richard Holland is the author of Supernatural Clwyd; the Folk Tales of North-East Wales and Haunted Wales. In preparation is Haunted Wales, the Authoritative Guide to Welsh Ghostlore, to be published early next year. If you have had any spooky experiences yourself, Richard would be delighted to hear about them. Please contact him care of featureswales@dailypost.co.uk
Hello - is there anybody there?
| 
