A mum had chills down her spine after claiming to have captured a ghost with a bullet hole through its head appear 'out of thin air' in front of York's iconic castle. Robbie Natasha Walker was on a trip to York when she quickly snapped some photos of Clifford's Tower, a 13th Century castle keep in 'Britain's most haunted city'.
But when the 28-year-old was later looking through her photos back at the hotel, she had an adrenaline rush and was taken aback when she spotted what appeared to be a ghostly figure. Eerie images captured by the HR officer reveal what appears to be a black handless figure with a hole in its head stretching out its arms before it fades and 'disappears into thin air'.
The following day, the inquisitive mum-of-one went to speak to a local historian who filled her in on the landmark's dark history - being the site of one of the worst anti-Semitic massacres of the Middle Ages. Consequently, Robbie believes she could have snapped the ghost of a 'past protestor' killed by a bullet wound to the head.
Robbie said she can't seem to find any other justification for the peculiar figure not being a ghost, given it appears to be missing body parts and she didn't see anyone approach the tower. Robbie, of Cambridge, said: "I thought 'oh my God. Is this my phone? What's going on here?'.
"I was confused but was quite excited. When you watch certain ghost videos you can quite clearly see that it's been staged, and people are forever trying to capture this kind of stuff. But I guess I kind of felt special and excited - like I'd been ghost hunting and I'd been successful.
"I had an adrenaline rush, was quite shaky, felt chills and was a bit frightened, but also excited. At first glance I thought it was a figure of someone. The historian mentioned there were a lot of protests and mass killings at the tower. This sounds really morbid, but it looks like someone got shot in the head and that's the ghostly figure of them protesting.
"I believed in ghosts before this happened. I asked my fiancé if he now believed in them. He said 'no, however, I wouldn't rule out if it was a ghost. It's made me think twice about it'."
Robbie said she visits York every year and always gets a picture of the historical landmark. Robbie said: "I took the pictures because the clouds next to it looked cool. I got my phone out and I have a baby, so I wasn't taking too much interest in the picture itself.
"I pressed the camera shutter three times, snapped them and put the phone in my pocket, that was that. I'd been taking pictures throughout the whole day and when we got back to the hotel I was going through them all and looked at the first picture of Clifford's Tower and it was a bit blurry but because I knew I took three I looked at the second one, and I spotted the figure.
"I showed them to my family and they were trying to find explanations for it because they don't believe in this kind of stuff or ghosts. They said 'it could have been someone popping up from underneath a bush' or a person walking around the building. I'm trying to justify it in my head thinking 'maybe they're right, maybe it is a person' but then I think there's just no way.
"I feel like when you compare both justifications and the opinions we had as a collective, you had my opinion who believes in ghosts and theirs who don't, I feel like based on the images alone, not the beliefs, mine are more justified."
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The following day, Robbie said she spoke to a historian who provided her with a run down of the landmark's haunting past. It's the largest remaining part of York Castle, which was once the centre of government for the north of England.
The 11th-century timber tower on top of the earth mound was burned down in 1190 after York's Jewish community, some 150-strong, were besieged there by a mob. Many chose to commit suicide rather than be murdered or forcibly baptised by their attackers.
The present 13th Century stone tower was probably used as a treasury and later as a prison. Robbie shared her spooky snaps online hoping to get other people's verdict on them.
Robbie said: "I took the pictures at quite a distance, if there was a person approaching that spot they would have been seen somewhere else in the images. I don't think human shadows have reflections like that, if it was a person, it would be a solid figure.
"I managed to get him to disappear in the shot. In one picture, some of his body is there and some of it isn't. It's quite possible to take a picture of a moving object and it looks distorted but all the body parts are there, but he's missing a lot of his body to justify that that's a person. He's even missing his hands, unless his sleeves are just a bit too long for him. In the other picture he's only really got a torso and some arms.
"I can't seem to find any other justification for it [it being a ghost]. People might think that I'm nuts, and that's ok. People will agree or disagree with me, or find and answer because they don't believe, or an explanation if they do. I for one believe that it's certainly, based on the history of the place, and the images that I've caught, it may well be a ghostly figure."
