This ancient and crumbling castle invokes the troubled maritime and smuggling history of Cornwall. It is said to be built on the site of a Tudor Manor around 1500.
The grounds include a large wooded area with ruins that play host to ghost sightings of sailors and monks.
This is an atmospheric location that spooks even the hard-bitten, worldy-wise Most Haunted crew.
Pengersick has always had a reputation for magic, mystery, sorcery and particularly, ghosts. There are said to be more than twenty separate presences at Pengersick Castle including: a ghostly 14th century monk; a 13 year old girl who danced to her death off the battlements and still tries to swing people around; a four year old boy who tugs at ladies dresses; the re-enactment of a medieval murder; a man seen swaying in the corner of a room; a young lady lying on a bed under spectral covers; a woman seen walking through a wall and pacing the room; a woman stabbed to death in the castle; another woman who was beaten to death in the haunted bedroom; a man stabbed and strangled in 1546 in front of a fireplace; several previous owners; a ghostly cat and dog; John Milliton, a wicked man, claimed to be an alchemist and practice in the black arts, who acts in the castle tower; and there is even believed to be a demon captured in the tower bedroom’s fireplace and more besides
Another legend is that of an evil man who left his wife while fighting in foreign lands. While on his travels he courted another woman who gave him a magic sword. He returned to his castle to have his wife and young child drowned and to marry yet another woman, this one an evil witch. His other son, who survived, years later rescued a drowning sailor who turned out to be his brother left for dead at sea.
Another is that Henry Pengersick was violent man and that back in the 12th Century he killed a monk and wounded a vicar. The present owners believe that if there are ghosts at Pengersick Castle they could be of Henry Pengersick, later known as Henry Le Fort and his wife Engrina.
This tale steeped in local folklore accounts for many of the said hauntings at Pengersick Castle
First broadcast: 27th May 2003
A self confessed super fan of Most Haunted and editor of GhostMag.com. Matt’s passion for ghost hunting began when he moved into a haunted house in his second year of university in Leicester! His favourite location is the Niddry Street Vaults in Edinburgh.