Catherine's old haunts

Haunted Gallery, Hampton Court Palace

Catherine was the fifth wife of King Henry VIII and in 1541 was accused of adultery and put under house arrest at the palace. But she escaped from her guards and ran down the gallery looking for the King to plead for her life.

She was caught and dragged back screaming to her rooms … and in due course executed at the Tower of London.  

 
Strange ... but true?

Is there any evidence to support the stories of Catherine's ghost? 

Anecdotal evidence

Grace-and-favour residents in neighbouring apartments have claimed to hear screams coming from the gallery.

Visitors today are often strangely affected in the gallery. On one evening in 1999, during separate tours of the palace, two female visitors fainted on exactly the same spot in the Haunted Gallery approximately half an hour apart.

So well known was Catherine’s story that, before the gallery was opened to the public in 1918, it was already called ‘The Haunted Gallery’.


Scientific evidence?

Psychologists from the University of Hertfordshire could not explain the eerie feelings of visitors following a week-long investigation in 2000.

They found, against their expectations, visitors’ experiences tended to occur in specific areas of the gallery.