Episode 362
Haunted Pub Crawl : Wales - Phantom Music, Flying Glasses and Ghostly Guests
In this episode of Pursuit of the Paranormal, we head into Wales to explore two historic pubs with chilling reputations and richly layered pasts: the Prince of Wales Inn in Kenfig and the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon.
First, we uncover the eerie story of the Prince of Wales Inn, a building that began life as Kenfig’s old town hall and has served as a courtroom, market, inquest room and even a mortuary for shipwreck victims. With reports of ghostly organ music, disembodied voices, and alleged recordings made during a 1980s investigation, this is one of the most compelling haunted pub stories in Wales.
We then travel north to the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon, one of the oldest inns in Wales, where guests and staff have reported glasses flying from shelves, strange knocks and bangs, a crying child, and even an old woman appearing at the end of a bed. With over 500 years of history inside Caernarfon’s ancient walls, the Black Boy Inn is steeped in atmosphere and unsettling legend.
Join us as we dive into the history, hauntings and public reports surrounding these two remarkable Welsh pubs — and ask whether these are simply stories born of age and folklore, or whether something unseen still lingers within their walls.
The exploration of haunted establishments in Wales offers a compelling intersection of history and the supernatural, particularly evident in the narrative surrounding the Prince of Wales Inn, a historical edifice situated in Kenfig. This inn, with its origins as the town hall, encapsulates centuries of human experience, weaving a complex tapestry of civic life, commerce, and tragedy. The haunting claims associated with this venue, including spectral organ music and disembodied voices, are not mere folklore but rather documented occurrences that have intrigued both locals and investigators alike. The interplay between the building's storied past and the eerie phenomena reported provides a fertile ground for discussing the nature of memory and the persistence of human emotions in physical spaces. The haunting at the Prince of Wales Inn transcends simple ghost stories; it invites reflection on the very essence of history, memory, and the traces left by those who once inhabited its walls. Conversely, the Black Boy Inn in Carnarvon presents a different yet equally fascinating narrative. Established in the early 16th century, this inn is steeped in the lore of the region, drawing visitors not only for its historical significance but also for its rich array of haunting tales. The reported phenomena, ranging from moving objects to apparitions, contribute to a vibrant narrative that resonates with both the spectral and the historical. The inn's name itself is shrouded in mystery, with various theories regarding its origin, reflecting the layered complexity of historical narratives in Wales. The haunting experiences recounted by patrons and staff serve to reinforce the idea that these old establishments are not merely venues for hospitality but repositories of stories, emotions, and perhaps even the echoes of those who have come before. Here, the haunting is characterized by a tangible presence, as if the very essence of past visitors lingers in the atmosphere, shaping the experiences of those who pass through today. In synthesizing the experiences from both the Prince of Wales Inn and the Black Boy Inn, one discerns a profound commentary on the nature of hauntings themselves. The former is steeped in a haunting of echoes, where sounds of the past seem to reverberate through the building, while the latter embodies a haunting of presence, marked by the movement and disturbances that suggest an ongoing interaction with the past. These contrasting yet complementary narratives compel us to ponder the broader implications of how we relate to historical places and the stories they harbor. Each establishment stands as a testament to the enduring connections between the past and present, serving as a reminder that history is not merely a record of events but a living entity that continues to influence and inform our experiences in the present day. Such explorations of haunted locales in Wales not only enrich our understanding of the supernatural but also deepen our appreciation for the intricate tapestry of human history that persists within these storied walls.
Takeaways:
- The Prince of Wales Inn in Kenfig is a historical site with haunting tales that intrigue visitors.
- This inn has served multiple purposes throughout its extensive history, including as a mortuary for shipwrecked mariners.
- Local investigations into the supernatural claims at the Prince of Wales Inn captured eerie sounds and voices on tape.
- The Black Boy Inn in Carnarvon features various reported phenomena, contributing to its reputation as a haunted location.
- Both pubs embody different types of hauntings, with the Prince of Wales representing echoes of the past and the Black Boy showcasing active disturbances.
- The enduring presence of history and memory in these establishments invites deeper exploration of their ghostly legends.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Prince of Wales Inn
- The Black Boy Inn
- King's Arms
- Fleur de Lys
- BBC
- In Zone
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of Haunted Pub Crawl.
Speaker A:Tonight, we're heading back into Wales in search of haunted pubs with more than just a creepy reputation.
Speaker A:These are places where the stories are tied to real buildings, real history, and in some cases, very specific reports that have kept the legends alive for decades.
Speaker A:And the first of them is one of the locations where the haunting almost feels inseparable from the building itself.
Speaker A:We're at the Prince of Wales Inn in Ken Fig, a place that stands on the edge of lost medieval world and carries with it centuries of memory, tragedy, and strange claims that refuse to fade.
Speaker A:The Prince of Wales Inn is not simply an old pub with a ghost story attached to it.
Speaker A:It began life as Kenfig's town hall, built to replace the earlier civic center after the old borough was overwhelmed and buried by the nearby sand dunes.
Speaker A:The inn's own history says the buildings date back to around the 15th century and that the upstairs room, the old town hall, has served as a guild hall, courtroom, market, coroner's inquest room, dance venue, Sunday school room, and on occasion, even a mortuary for shipwrecked mariners brought in from the nearby coast.
Speaker A:So before you even get to the hauntings, this is already a place steeped in law, trade, grief, ritual, and death.
Speaker A:It's exactly the kind of building where you can imagine layers of emotion settling into the stones over hundreds of years.
Speaker A:And then comes the reports that turned the Prince of Wales into one of Wales's better known haunted inns.
Speaker A: iece reproducing reports from: Speaker A:That alone is eerie enough.
Speaker A:But the story goes further.
Speaker A:Two local men, one described as an electrical engineer and the other as an industrial chemist, became interested enough to investigate the sounds for themselves.
Speaker A:They reportedly set up recording equipment in a room above the bar.
Speaker A:And according to those accounts, the tape captured voices, organ music, and even the sound of a ticking clock.
Speaker A:The point here is not whether we can prove what was on those recordings.
Speaker A:It is not that.
Speaker A:Just an old local tale muttered in passing.
Speaker A:At the time, people were actively trying to document what they believed was happening inside that building.
Speaker A: the Prince of Wales from the: Speaker A:It suggests that whatever was being claimed at Kenfig had grown large enough to attract wider media interest beyond the village itself.
Speaker A:That does not prove the paranormal, of course, but it does tell us that the haunting was being taken seriously enough to be discussed outside simple public folklore.
Speaker A:And that is part of what makes the Prince of Wales so compelling.
Speaker A:It sits in that fascinating space between history, legend and investigation.
Speaker A:The stories are old, the building is older, and the claims are strong enough that people try to test them rather than just repeat them.
Speaker A:What deepens it more is chemig itself.
Speaker A:This is a place forever associated with loss.
Speaker A:The old medieval town was gradually swallowed up by sand, leaving behind ruins, fragments and memory, rather than a surviving townscape.
Speaker A:So the Prince of Wales feels like one of the last standing witnesses to a vanished settlement.
Speaker A:When people talk about voices in the night, phantom music or unexplained sounds in the old town hall, it's hard not to imagine the building almost replaying pieces of its own past.
Speaker A:The echoes of court sessions, gatherings, celebrations, arguments and the grim silence of bodies laid out after shipwrecks.
Speaker A:Whether you believe in stone, tape theory, residual haunting, or simply the power of suggestion, in a building loaded with history, Prince of Wales has a sort of backstory that makes every claim feel more potent.
Speaker A:It's not hard to see why people still talk about it.
Speaker A:So from South Wales, we head now to the walled town of Carnarvon and to a pub whose name, age and haunting stories have all helped keep it in the spotlight for years.
Speaker A:The Black Boy Inn.
Speaker A: described as dating to around: Speaker A:History Points notes that the building was once formed from two neighboring inns, the King's Arms and the Fleur de Lys, before later becoming one larger pub.
Speaker A:So, again, it's not a modern venue dressed up with spooky branding.
Speaker A:This is genuinely old building in a town already saturated with.
Speaker A:And that gives the haunting stories a very strong setting before they even begin.
Speaker A:The name itself has its own history and uncertainty.
Speaker A:The inn says that there's no single confirmed explanation for the origin of the name Black Boy.
Speaker A:One theory is that it referred to a black buoy or buoy in the harbour, used as a navigation marker for the ships entering Caernarvon.
Speaker A:Another is that it referred to Charles ii, who was sometimes nicknamed the Black Boy from because of his dark hair and complexion, with the suggestion that royalists may once have used the inn as a secret meeting place.
Speaker A:The inn has also published material linking the name to John Stum.
Speaker A:Sorry, If I've ruined that name.
Speaker A:An African born man who became a notable figure in North Wales.
Speaker A:At the same time, another article on the In Zone site argues that Charles II's theory is the likeliest of the competing explanations.
Speaker A:What seems clear, though, is that the name is very old and deeply rooted in the town's past.
Speaker A:And then there are the haunting claims, which are much more active and varied than the usual vague pub folklore.
Speaker A: In the: Speaker A:Those reports included glasses flying from shelves, bangs and knocks, voices, pictures moving, guests waking to find an old lady sitting at the end of the bed and other guests hearing a little boy crying.
Speaker A:One member of staff in that same report also described taking a family photo in the inn and later noticed in an unexplained gap in the image where nobody had apparently been sitting.
Speaker A:Again, none that proves the supernatural, but gives the Black Boy something important for storytelling.
Speaker A:Multiple kinds of phenomena repeated over time, described in public news piece and attributed to a named people associated with the M. That range of claims is what makes the Black Boy so effective as a haunted pub story.
Speaker A:You have a classic poltergeist style detail of objects moving, the atmospheric sounds of knots and voices, the visual apparition of an old lady on the bed, and the almost heartbreaking image of a child heard crying somewhere in a building set that against carnarvon stone walls.
Speaker A:A castle nearby and a pub that stood there for half a millennium.
Speaker A:And the whole place starts to feel thick with the suggestion of lives layered one upon another.
Speaker A:Old inns often gather stories because people pass through them, sleeping them, celebrating them, mourning them, and leave pieces of themselves behind.
Speaker A:The Black Boy feels like one of those places where the stories had had centuries to accumulate.
Speaker A:There's also something striking about the contrast between the two pubs in this episode.
Speaker A:The Prince of Wales at Kenfig feels like a haunting of echoes, phantom music, disembodied voices, a room heavy with civic and maritime history.
Speaker A:The Black Boy Inn, by comparison, feels like a haunting of presence, movement, disturbance, figures seen, sounds heard, rooms that do not feel empty when they should be.
Speaker A:One seems to be tied with the long memory of a lost place.
Speaker A:The other feels tied to the restless traffic of a building that has lived in and passed through for generations.
Speaker A:There are both haunted pub stories, but they haunt in very different ways.
Speaker A:So if you ever find yourself again in Wales with a taste for history and the paranormal.
Speaker A:There are the two pubs well worth knowing about.
Speaker A:At Kenfig, the Prince of Wales stands as a surviving fragment of a town that sand tried to erase, and stories of organ music and voices in the old town still cling to it.
Speaker A:At Carnarvon, the Black Boy Inn sits with the ancient town walls with half a millennium behind it, carrying tales of flying glasses, phantom crying, and a woman who may still be visiting the bedsides of sleeping guests.
Speaker A:Whether these places are truly haunted or simply saturated with the atmosphere of age, grief and memory, they have exactly what the best haunted pubs always seem to have a sense that the past is not entirely finished with them just yet.
Speaker A:Join us next time when we hit a couple more pubs in Wales.
Speaker A:Ash will be back next time.
Speaker A:As it is, there's lots going on in everybody's lives.
Speaker A:We're coming to the end of winter, there's moves, there's all sorts happening.
Speaker A:But we'll be back together.
Speaker A:And if you haven't already watched it, head over to to investigate UK's YouTube channel where you'll see the House of Christ video where me and Ash might just guest on there for a little bit.
Speaker A:Anyway, thanks for listening.
Speaker A:If you've made it as far.
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Speaker A:Anyway, thank you for now.
Speaker A:I'm Greg and I'll see you later.
