Readers Stories The Carisbrooke Reaper? This begins on the grounds around Carisbrooke castle on the Isle of Wight. Three other friends and I witnessed an unexpected late night visitor. It was a few years ago now and we were all just 16 years old. We'd been messing about on the moats and surrounding grounds of the castle for hours and it was well into the early hours of the morning. We were making a lot of noise, and could have been the brunt of a quite eerie practical joke, but there were unexplainable details. We were walking past one of the four corners of the castle (for people who know the castle, the corner with the mini traffic light and steps down into the town). When a figure appeared on the first level of the castle - the first of a set of walls approx 3 metres above us. The tall figure was all in black, the head covered by a shroud, and a cloak covering its body. The only illumination was from the mini traffic light used on that corner (because of a small side road leading to the car park) and the moonlight. Details of the figure were difficult to make out but it told us, in an unusually low and unsettling voice, to "leave this place" and produced a small illuminated object (maybe a candle) from under its cloak. Naturally, being young, we taunted the figure to 'come and get us' etc. (but using more expressive language&ldots;). As we did so the figure revealed a 2-metre scythe and waved the illuminated object in front of it. At this point we had come to two conclusions: firstly, it could be a ghost/spirit/grim-reaper, and secondly, it could be a man dressed up. Either way we decided whatever it was, had a massive offensive weapon, so within moments we were off and running down the length of one side of the castle to the next corner (approx. 400 metres to steps leading to an entrance to the shrubbery). Once we reached this corner we turned to find ourselves facing the same figure - it was still on the upper level looking down on us as before but at the corner that we'd just reached! Disturbed by this: we then fled the area and agreed to return the next day to investigate. The following day, after a careful look at the upper level which the figure had been, we concluded that it would have been impossible to reach the second corner at the same time as we had, and for it to still be facing us again. This was based on the fact that all four of us were sprinting on flat open ground on the moat bank whilst the figure (if a man) would have had to negotiate several tall walls, lines of bushes and ditches on his upper level to reach the second corner at the same time! This made our practical joke theory sit uneasy, and still makes us wonder what we really saw. I would like to hear from anyone who's had a similar experience at the castle.
Andy.
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