The Hexham Courant's Halloween feature on Tynedale, drawing on Rob Kirkup's Ghostly Northumberland, tells the story of Archie Armstrong of the Liddesdale Armstrongs. On a raid into Tynedale he was captured and thrown into the dungeon at Haughton Castle, owned by Sir Thomas Swinburne.
Swinburne was summoned to York by Cardinal Wolsey and set off in haste. Well on his way he noticed the large dungeon key still hanging from his belt, the only key to the cell. Archie had by then gone three days without food. Swinburne turned back, but when the dungeon was opened Archie was dead.
According to the story, the reiver's ghost then haunted the castle with fearful shrieks from the dungeon. A priest from Simonburn was brought to exorcise it, but when the Bible was taken away for repair the shrieking returned, and it stopped when the Bible was put back.
This is a single-source local legend. The Courant piece is a general feature and cites no earlier record, and Wolsey's period (before 1530) is the only dating given. The castle is a private house.
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