N I G H T B R I N G E R . S E
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THE RESTLESS SOULS OF WHITBY ABBEY
If the legends are true, the majestic ruins of Whitby Abbey in northern Yorkshire, England, are alive with ghosts. First established in A.D. 657 on a cliff overlooking the sea, the abbey was destroyed by the Vikings some two hundred years later, then rebuilt upon the same site by the conquering Normans in 1067. The founder of the original abbey, Saint Hilda, never left, it is said: Her ghost, wrapped in a shroud, frequently appears in one of the abbey's highest windows.
Saint Hilda may also be responsible for another apparition reportedly seen at the abbey. She became well known during her tenure as abbess for ridding the district of snakes. She would drive the snakes to the cliff's edge and decapitate them with the whip. Since then, a great hearselike coach, guided by a headless driver and pulled by four headless horses, has been seen racing along the cliff near the abbey, then plunging over the edge and into the sea.
Perhaps the most troubled ghost of all those said to inhabit the abbey ruins is that of Constance de Beverley, a young nun who broke her sacred vows for the love of a brave but false knight named Marmion. As punishement for her misdeeds, she was bricked up alive in a dungeon in Whitby Abbey. Her ghost as allegedly been seen on the winding stairway leading from the dungeon, cowering and begging release.
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