A photo apparently showing the ghost of a woman in period clothing has been captured near an Anglesey house with a creepy reputation. Occupying a rocky perch above Trearddur Bay, austere-looking Craig Y Môr is known locally as the “spooky house”.
Completed a little over a century ago, the property is much-loved by local people. But its looming vantage point on a coastal headland can cast an eerie presence across the seaside village: it is known by some as the “Haunted House on the Hill".
A grainy photo has now emerged of a woman seemingly walking away from the house and carrying an object in both hands. The person who took the photo was left terrified when belatedly realising what she had captured.
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Some suspect a cook or maid as the figure appears to be wearing a long white skirt or apron. Attached to the main house when it was built was a servant’s lodge with two bedrooms, living room and a kitchen.
Others believe the figure is that of a man in a flat cap, long white beard and a white gown. Speculation over what it might be holding ranges from a basket or parcel to flowers and even a baby.
The family of the woman who took the photo said she wished to stay anonymous as she’s a social services manager. Her mother said she was visiting Anglesey (Ynys Môn) on a walking holiday which took them past Trearddur Bay.
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“She took the picture of the house thinking it was a beautiful place,” said her mum. “Later that night, while her husband was sleeping, my daughter was looking through the pictures she had taken on her mobile phone during the day.
“When she came across this particular photograph, she immediately called me as she didn’t want to wake her husband. She was a little scared and spooked, having seen nothing when actually taking the photo.
“She forwarded the picture to me to ask me for my thoughts. She then woke her husband anyway, such was her fear at what she had captured.”
Craig Y Môr was built as a Holy Island holiday home for a wealthy Englishman called William Smellie. Completed in 1922, Mr Smellie and wife Ethel moved there permanently a few years later. In 1978 it was inherited by their son-in-law Sir Edward Jones, Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland, and the house remains in the Jones family.
Its aloof location has led to comparisons with Norman Bates’ house in the film Psycho. When TV presenter Tmmy Mallett visited the house, he tweeted a picture with the caption, “Is this the Psycho house? Spooky!”
However there are few, if any, legends and stories associated with the property. Craig Y Môr briefly housed soldiers during the Second World War, and a few years ago it featured on the ITV crime drama Safe House. Some people claim to see strange reflections on the sea below.
Unlike Holyhead, which boasts numerous hauntings, Trearddur Bay is mostly apparition-free. Some reports refer to the “shade” of a woman who drowned in the bay - she was apparently seen at the village's Old Cricket Ground half a mile away. Just below Craig Y Môr, in Lon Isallt Bay, lies the so-called “Ghost Cave”.
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The picture of the ghostly figures was taken eight years ago, on a grey winter’s day, but has only just been shared on social media. However it’s interpreted, some people insist Craig Y Môr will always give them the creeps.
“We used to go here every year when I was little,” said one woman. “The house would always freak us out. It’s right on the water.... the lights would never be on but in the water’s reflection, every light was always on.” A local man who lives nearby added: “It’s haunted to sh*t.”
But not everyone is convinced. On social media, one accused people of pareidolia, the tendency to perceive shapes in random images. Another added mischievously: “I think it looks like Father Christmas in drag, but wearing a flat cap”.
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