Alnwick Castle (ANN-ick CAS-el)

In the year 1096 a baron by the name of Yves de Vescy first built Alnwick Castle. It has been sieged upon, occupied, invaded, abandoned, restored, and added on to over the years by the nobility that have laid claim to it. Today the castle stands as the second largest occupied castle in England. Alnwick Castle is open to the public and has been utilized in numerous films, but few tourists who visit it are aware that one of its past lords was a vampire.

The story, which originates in the twelfth century, claims that an unnamed ruling lord of Alnwick Castle was an evil and paranoid man (see ABHARTACH). One night he climbed out of his chamber window with the intent of creeping along the ledge to his wife’s bedroom window to see if he could catch her in an adulterous act. Before he could reach her window, however, he slipped and fell, hitting the ground with a fatal impact but not dying right away. He lay there helpless until dawn, when he finally expired shortly after his discovery. He was given a proper Christian burial; however, the lord of the castle returned from his grave that very night as a vampiric REVENANT and began to attack the local populace, spreading a plague as he went. It was decided to return to the lord’s grave and exhume the body. His corpse was discovered to be bloated and completely filled with blood. The body was stabbed and it exploded with such force it destroyed the corpse.

Source: Bunson, The Vampire Encyclopedia, 4; Hartshorne, Guide to Alnwick Castle, 16; Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore, 362; Stuart, Stage Blood, 15; Summers, Vampire in Europe, 85