Summer’s here, which means wedding season is too. And with that comes bachelor and bachelorette parties –or stag and hen parties as they’re called in the U.K.
The latter have really grown in popularity in the last decade or so. Destination bachelorette/hen parties are especially all the rage.
But how popular is it to have one in a haunted place? Not sure. But a press release on PRWeb announcing that Most Haunted Craig-Y-Nos Castle in Wales is now offering them caught my eye. Here’s the details…
Calling All Hens
Brave Hens are now being invited to stay the night at Most Haunted Craig y Nos Castle to take the two hour ghost tour with ghostly guide Steve.
Hens & Brides-to-be are promised an experience to be remembered. The Hen Party at Craig y Nos Castle is an opportunity for brides and their fellow Hens to discover things about each other they never knew. All will be revealed in ghostly revelations disclosed in a special seance – information that only the Spirits could possibly know.
The Bride-to-be and her fellow hens will embark on a light-hearted fun filled ‘fright night’ ghost tour. But what the guests will not know is that the organizer will have arranged for a few very special tricks and treats –in addition to anything the resident ghosts may decide to put on for the Party.
The Castle Guides & Ghost Stories
The Castle’s guides for the night will be Steve and his ghost hunting team. They may appear as helpful guides, or dress up as walking corpses.
The tour takes place in the derelict upper levels of a remote Castle in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The Hen Party will be led from room to room.
In each room, true ghost stories –all real experiences from previous happenings on professional investigations in this most haunted castle– will be revealed in the very rooms and spaces where they occurred.
Descending the main staircase on the derelict first floor, Hens will hear how Jack the psychic dog sensed the Spirit on the Haunted Staircase.
Sitting around the fire in the main bar, the wind howling eerily through the castle’s towers and turrets, the Hen Party will learn how a former owner, Adelina Patti, died following a fall down these very stairs. Her Spirit reportedly remains. A ‘lady in black’ has also sometimes been seen (or imagined) roaming the castle’s rooms.
The former owner of the castle was in fact a world famous opera singer in the late 19th century. She was the highest paid opera star of her day. She built her own private opera house at the Castle. Some guests claim to have heard her singing to them.
The Hen Party will visit the Opera House and may feel her presence there. It is believed Patti has even engaged some guests in conversation. There’s a story of a drummer in a band who met a ‘Lady in Black’ by the fireside in the main bar.
Expect the Unexpected
The castle’s spirit guides –maybe of this world, maybe of the next– will be cunningly concealed as ghosts in cupboards, in coffins and under beds in our haunted rooms, poised to make a heart stopping appearance among the hens when least expected.
Curtains will twitch, objects may move, boards will creak, doors open and close…all with no explanation or warning.
However this IS a Fright Night, so there may be a little prior planning to all the mysterious goings-on. This is all arranged in advance between the Organiser of the Hen Party and the Ghost tour guides.
The Hen Party tour is held by candlelight, in dark and spooky rooms that have long lain derelict. Everyone will huddle together for warmth and reassurance, their faces eerily lit by the low glow of a single flickering candle. Listening out for footsteps, hearing all the creaks and sounds of an old building, maybe brushed by the fluttering wings of the occasional bat. The ladies attending this Hen Party will wonder, “How truly alone are we?”
Psychic Sensations & Seances
The Hen Party may even feel a genuine psychic connection, a heightening of their sixth sense that may require the imbibing of more spirits to calm frayed nerves.
One of the key elements is the pre-arranged Seance. The tour guide will seek and be given, as if by Spirit, pertinent information about members of the party only they know.
How we do the seance and what we reveal depends on the organizer – the bride or a friend arranging the evening on their behalf. There is always careful preparation before the event. Organisers might choose to give us a little inside information or leave the guide to check with the Spirit World….
Fright Night Hen Party Schedule
The Fright Night Hen Party tour lasts about 2 hours and is light-hearted. After the tour, the group will retire to the Haunted Bar for warming spirits to cast away the chills of the spooky haunted levels above.
By the glow of a wood burning stove and fortified by a late bar, the Hen Party will be entertained by their ghostly barman’s spine tingling tales from The Beyond.
The Swansea Haunted Castle Hen Party & Ladies Fright Night is £80.00 per person for a minimum of 10 persons. This includes a pre-tour two Course Dinner Party sat at a private party table, and an overnight stay in a private apartment building. The Hen Party has its own private lounge and kitchen diner, and is taken on a 2 Hour ‘Fright Night’ ghost tour.
The Hen Party will enjoy late night use of the Castle’s Haunted Bar and use of sports room and hot tub for a girls-only get-together before dinner. The Lounge and Kitchen Diner can be decked out for a private party. There is also an optional Castle History Tour on the morning of departure.
Recent comment by a Hen Party Guest: “Was at the castle for a hen do and we all had a blast. I hated the thought of ghosts but when you’re at the castle it feels good and safe. Loved the tour and the staff were class. I will definitely be back in the future. Thanks very much for all the information over Twitter/email. Great service, awesome castle, class actors. Thanks again.”
For More Info
Enquiries via website Most Haunted Castle: https://www.mosthauntedcastle.com/hen-parties-swansea.html.
Phone: 01639 731167 / 730205.
Minimum 10 Hens per Hen Party, max 16.
Check-In
Are you married? Did you have a bachelor/stag or bachelorette/hen party?
I had a teeny tiny bachelorette party with some co-workers. There were a total of four us (including me) who went out for happy hour drinks one night after work. That was it.
Although, back then I wasn’t really much of a girls’ girl anyway. (Maybe a little more now I am, but I’m still pretty much a loner at heart.)
However, the idea of a bachelorette party in a haunted place? I would’ve been all over that. I couldn’t have scared up a minimum of 10 ladies back then to accompany me though. Even now that’d be hard.
What about you? If you could do your bachelorette party all over again, would it included haunted places? Or, if you’re not married yet, would you consider spooking up your nuptials with something like this?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I have mild-mannered friends. I wouldn’t have been able to gather 10 of them for a haunted-location bachelorette party. They’re sweet people, though. I wouldn’t change them for the world.:-)
That’s what really counts. The where you do most anything never matters as much as with the who. So awesome you appreciate your tribe!