Brevint's note is short, but it catches how people thought about witch prisoners in the early seventeenth century. A sorcerer locked in the keep was still dangerous: his own kind, or his master, might come for him over the water. The cloud people claimed to have seen rose from Herm, crossed the Little Russel, nearly overturned the fishing boats in its path, and broke up over the castle. The prisoner, Maugier, was later burned. Brevint recorded it as something "quelques uns tesmoignent", some people testify to, which is about as careful as a minister of his time got on such things.
The castle had plenty of real reasons to be remembered as a grim place. Thomasse Troussey's evidence in the 1613 Omont case mentions her husband being on guard at the castle. Jean Nicolle, husband of Rachel Alexandre of Little Sark, was held there and examined three times before being whipped, having an ear cut off, and being banished. On 30 December 1672 lightning hit the magazine in the keep. The explosion destroyed the old tower, and the governor's mother and wife were among the dead.
The modern haunting reports are much less specific. The Guernsey paranormal group PIGS wrote up an event at the castle, around 2015, in which their team reported a soldier who stands watching in a room, the spirit of a child and the spirit of a witch, "to name a few". The Guernsey Press has covered ghost-themed evenings there. These are the impressions of investigation nights, not independent sightings, and they are tagged as such here. The castle is a museum site run by Guernsey Museums and is open to visitors.
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