West Walls, Carlisle
The ghost of a Cavalier has been seen close to the West Walls early some mornings, though I am unaware of anyone seeing him recently. The West Walls are the last remaining example of Carlisle’s defensive wall that encircled the early city. They served the city well especially during the Civil War when Carlisle was besieged by Cromwell’s soldiers during 1644 and 1645. It would appear that the apparition would date from this time period.
The section of wall photographed features a door like orafice; this was the West Walls Sallyport, most likely a defensive feature primarily but also where tithes were received.
Re: West Walls, Carlisle
The following experience was e-mailed in by a Mysterious Britain & Ireland reader:
‘The West Walls Cavalier. I was very interested to read about this as I experienced a sighting of this on a night out in the early 90s and have never been able to find anything to substantiate what i had seen or make people believe it.
In probably 1990 on a November night me and a friend were walking down through the archway by the cathedral and along west walls towards the twisted wheel on a night out. It was about 10 o’clock. We turned down towards the wheel along west walls walking on the pavement on the carpark side of the road. About halfway along on the opposite side of the road near the wall opposite walking along I suddenly saw a man dressed in an old fashioned cavalier outfit. It was of a bright blue colour. He had on a blue jacket, blue trousers which stopped at the knee, knee length socks, black shoes with a square buckle on each, and a square belt buckle. He wore gloves, and had a blue hat the same colour as his uniform which was pointed, like a small witches hat, and he had sort of ruffled sleeves. He passed us walking all the way along towards the entrance we had just come through. He had a grin on his face which never changed.
I turned round to my friend and said do you see that idiot he must be in fancy dress or something. My friend said I don’t know what he’s grinning about he will get his head kicked in walking past the Wheel in an outfit like that. We watched him go past and laughed at how stupid he was walking around Carlisle dressed like that at that time of night. I thought nothing much of it at the time other than he was someone in fancy dress, but then it struck me a few weeks later that he seemed to be sort of covered in a neon blue sort of light. And i joked it was probably a ghost. I asked my friend if he remembered and he did, and he still remembered years later. This confirmed I hadn’t imagined it, also my family remembered me telling them about it when I got home. I was amazed when I saw your article because the map shows the thing in the same exact area where we saw it, and it confirms that someone was dressed as a cavalier. This is the first confirmation i have had after trying to find information to back up what i saw, as people have said i must have imagined it, as it is many years since it happened.’
Re: West Walls, Carlisle
The Wheel was a nightclub called the Twisted Wheel and no I wouldn’t have walked past it dressed like that either.