Set within a secluded wooded valley near Totnes in Devon, the beautiful ruin of Berry Pomeroy Castle can be found. The site was originally built back in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family, but it was expanded into a much more ambitious and grand residential structure. However, the castle was never truly completed. Whilst the structure has the title of castle it is a far more interesting design, blending the defensive architecture of a castle with early country house design, with its large windows and grand internal spaces; and that unfinished element that still provides atmosphere to this day.

Whilst the architecture of this remarkable site is amazing and without doubt adds to this strange story, it is the presence of the locations two most famous spirits that draw our attention today. One which we are all too familiar with in regards to the lore of the paranormal, but one less familiar and located unusually at the same location as the first. Berry Pomeroy Castle also claims to be the home of a White Lady ghost and a Blue Lady ghost; and even though many locations have claimed to house a White Lady ghost or even a Grey Lady ghost; the inclusion of a Blue Lady ghost advances the concept of the strange a little further than originally thought.

Based on what we know of these two ladies at Berry Pomeroy Castle, they are very different in their behaviours and where they are found. For example; the White Lady is passive often appearing in a way that you would feel that your presence doesn’t matter and could be considered residual in this regard. However, the Blue Lady is said to be more interactive, engaging with visitors to the castle, which is unusual in itself. Equally the White Lady is said to be seen at various points around the entire location, even said to be wandering around the location, perhaps in search of something or simple repeating the steps she once trod. In contrast the Blue Lady appears to be confined to one location, St. Margaret’s Tower. An isolated part of the property that demands a story and with that demand comes the introduction of the Blue Lady. These two ladies are very different, the White Lady never really engaging going about her business unaware of visitors; whilst the Blue Lady seems to be very aware of the visitors and is said to attempt to influence them.

Ghost hunters often define this contrast as residual and intelligent hauntings. What I find fascinating about Berry Pomeroy Castle is that it houses both such hauntings, and each is attributed to a Lady of some kind.

White Lady ghosts are often seen in folklore as being a female apparition dressed in white, unsurprisingly, and they are often linked to tragedy, loss or betrayal and often imprisoned. This type of apparition is not uncommon to the scene of a castle such as Berry Pomeroy. Blue Lady ghosts are slightly different in that they are obviously apparitions scene to have a blue glow about them, often associated with rooms or towers, and interestingly linked to strong emotional reactions according to folklore. They are said to beckon, draw attention or even influence movement in some way. They bring with them feelings of unease, compulsion and heightened emotions of varied kinds.

Oddly when we begin to look into actual witness accounts things get even stranger. Modern accounts seem to identify encounters with a White Lady ghost, but in contrast to our ‘roaming the castle’ understanding these accounts seem to associate the White Lady encounters to more of the dungeon and tower areas, more so than anywhere else. The tower being that of St Margaret’s Tower, associated with our Blue Lady. These testimony’s are vague of course and provide a narrative more than conceptual facts that can be used.

Testimony for our Blue Lady is slightly more compelling oddly. Sir Walter Farquhar claimed to encounter the Blue Lady in the late 18th century whilst visiting the castle. As Farquhar was considered a man of high professional standing and veracity, his account has been seen to hold as one of the earliest accounts of the Blue Lady. At the time this sighting was seen to be an omen of the death, which appeared to come true when the stewards wife is said to have died later that day.

The next account that appears to be found is one from 1994, where a visitor reports seeing a woman in a blue dress on the stairs; with this experience comes feelings of oppression, fear and a sense of being pushed.

The haunting of Berry Pomeroy Castle is certainly an interesting one and certainly a little more rare with its White and Blue Lady ghosts, but these types of hauntings always leave me wondering. The reports of both White and Blue Ladies presents a belief that there may be two apparitions within the walls of this castle, but what if they were one of the same ghost? Whilst there are suggestions to whom these two ghosts may be, there is little supporting evidence to confirm these unconfirmed possibilities. Equally we see that the Blue Lady is confined to one place in the castle, what if that location is reframing our White Lady so she appears to be Blue. Let me explain. In locations such as towers or stairwells, the eye relies on rod cells than cones, which are sensitive to light and don’t process colour too well. The outcome of this is that colours desaturate and often whites can appear grey-blue or bluish. This could also relate to the Purkinje effect (or shift) where the human visual sensitivity to shift more towards the blue end of the colour spectrum as light intensity decreases.

So, effectively our White and Blue Ladies could be one Lady that when seen in different environments presents herself slightly differently. Equally, when experiencing this blue version of the Lady, colour psychology may provide us with the belief that we are experiencing emotions associated with the apparition when in reality the colour itself maybe leading us o believe that negative emotions are being experienced.

This may mean that Berry Pomeroy Castle may only have one Lady apparition roaming within its walls and she may be less interactive than we thought all based on the colours we witness in certain light conditions. The true point here is that no matter how interesting a case may seem, often logical explanations can help to explain elements of the experience. In this case they could completely remove a second apparition we believed to be trapped in a tower, creating another narrative which just wasn’t true. And this is also how ghost stories can so easily evolve over time taking on a new life and before you know it you’re over a hundred years down the line with a whole new story.

Experiences of the paranormal become the ghost stories we are all too familiar with, but they also grow and evolve themselves as living representations of the potential dead so often believed to be seen in those darkened buildings. Understanding what you’re actually investigating when it comes to the paranormal is key to maintaining focus on the facts; after all its a subject which has many rabbit holes you could fall down, some you may never return from, others are short stops that confuse the narrative.

The question remains now, who might the White/Blue Lady apparition actually be at Berry Pomeroy Castle? What do you think let me know in the comments below?