This story dates to the early 20th century and was first told by staff who worked at Castlewellan Castle. One bitter winter night a long-serving servant making his rounds heard a crash from an upper floor. On the landing he saw a tall figure in flowing white garments rushing out of a bedroom at great speed, as if fleeing something that pursued it.
He described it as moving unnaturally fast yet gliding. Terrified, he went to his own quarters, locked the door and stayed there until morning. Over the following years he said he saw the same figure several more times, each time coming out of a different room, always at night and always agitated. He became convinced it was a former member of the Annesley family with unfinished business.
When he finally told Lord Annesley, the reply was unsympathetic. The nobleman is said to have laughed and told him to get to bed earlier instead of wandering the corridors frightening himself with shadows.
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