Five miles north of Abergavenny in the village of Llanvihangel Crucorney lies a ghostly place steeped in legend and folklore. Nestled at the foot of Sugar Loaf Hill in the Bannau Bycheiniog National Park, the Skirrid Mountain Inn’s 900-year-old charm has been preserved down through the centuries, possibly thanks to its nightly ritual to the devil.
Owner Geoff Fiddler said to WalesOnline in December 2021 that he became fascinated by the inn and its history. After seeing it for sale in a trade paper in 2005, Geoff and his wife decided to return to Wales from Hertfordshire.
"I only knew about the myths,” he said. “Going back to when I was a kid, even then people would mention the Skirrid having a ruinous spooky past, it always had a reputation”.
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The Inn’s nightly ritual is an ancient Celtic tradition known as the 'pwca cup' intended to ward away the devil or evil spirits. The idea was that they would take a sip of the ale from the glass and move on.
It is believed that Shakespeare himself took inspiration from the Inn’s ritual for the character of Puck, a mischievous fairy, in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. "There's a tenuous link that Shakespeare might have used that pwca cup to name Puck in a Midsummer Night's Dream with 'pwca' being Anglicised to 'Puck,'” said Geoff.
It is also said that Owain Glyndwr may have even rallied his supporters in the cobbled courtyard during the Glyndwr Rising against the rule of Henry IV. Upon entry, the Inn feels like a castle with its stone-flagged floors and its bar from the Tudor period. Upstairs is a Cromwell-era courtroom where over 180 criminals were sentenced to death by hanging. Today it’s where guests can stay the night in one of three rooms.
Today a noose still hangs from the staircase, its wooden beam peppered with score marks caused by the weight of hanging bodies. At the top of this infamous oak staircase is a room, thought to be a cell where the damned were held.
“Sometimes you go in there and you could be the happiest person in the world and come out and feel like crying,” Geoff said. The Inn’s dark history has led to many sightings and reports of ghostly figures and unexplained phenomena giving it the reputation of one of Britain’s most haunted pubs.
“The main ‘resident ghost’ is a lady called Fanny Price who died in the 1800s. Her gravestone is visible just 300m away up the road," Geoff said. “Before she’s seen or sensed there’s a strong smell of lavender perfume, the kind you’d associate with your grandmother, that sort of musty, lavender smell.”
Fanny is said to have been in her 30s when she died of consumption, leaving behind her young children. Since Geoff has taken over the Inn she has been spotted around a dozen times.
“When sightings come she is almost ever-present in one of the rooms upstairs,” he said. “Sometimes, when ladies take off their jewellery to go to sleep, they say they wake up and it’s been re-arranged, almost in a childlike manner in a kaleidoscope of rings and earrings.”
“I’m not a fan of ghosts, to be honest with you and that sort of stuff puts me on edge,” Geoff added. Despite the myths and stories of apparitions that surround the building, Geoff says that in the 18 years that he has been at the pub he has only seen a full figure once. "It was daytime and it was the sort of figure you see on a Toby jug – a coachman with a tri-cornered hat and almost like a long, scarlet coat on.
“People always asked if I was scared and for some reason, I wasn’t. The thought of it scares me but in that moment it was more amazement than fright. It was over in a glance and over the years I’ve tried to convince myself that I didn’t see it but I know I did.” As a result of the numerous sightings and apparitions, the Inn has become very popular with paranormal hunting groups.
“Each group that comes in now gets more and more professional and they look at it properly,” he said. “If nothing happens nothing happens. I was with a group of paranormal hunters and it was the first time they’d been and they just couldn’t stop telling me all the wonderful things they’d experienced.”
Some of the instances that Geoff and these investigators have encountered in the Inn have included glasses and customers’ change flying off the bar, unexplained cold spots in rooms, and one young woman who said an unseen presence whispered, then roared in her ear.
Geoff believes that the paranormal presence that both he and his guests experience can be felt as soon as you enter the Inn.
“It’s so hard to put your finger on but there’s something here that is not right,” he said. “People ask if I believe in ghosts and I say I’m not sure but I can tell you this much - there’s something not right here.”
Bookings for the Skirrid Inn can be made over the phone or in person.
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