Caldicot has had many owners. The de Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, rebuilt it in the 14th century, and it later passed through the Duchy of Lancaster before falling into ruin. In 1885 J. R. Cobb bought it and made the gatehouse into a family home, filling it with antiques. The council has owned it since the 1960s and it is used for events, weddings and ghost hunts.
The ghost reports are general rather than specific. The Great British Ghost Tour records brown-robed monks and grey ladies, footsteps with no one there, objects found moved, and cold that comes on suddenly. Dogs, it says, have been known to behave strangely in certain parts of the castle, a detail that turns up in a great many British hauntings. There Be Ghosts adds a ghostly beggar boy and suggests one of the women is Alianore de Bohun, of the family that built the great towers.
That list also includes Henry Marten, which is a mistake worth flagging. Marten was confined at Chepstow Castle, a few miles away, and died there. Some ghost lists, including one quoted by search engines, say he was imprisoned at Caldicot. The Caldicot haunting needs no help from him.
A second small tradition belongs to the town. Caldicot Hall, which the Great British Ghost Tour says was once called the Great House, was said to have a Lady in Grey. The house no longer stands and the source wonders, reasonably, whether she has gone with it.
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