Ghost
The Black Monk
A sinful monk, still walking the water meadows centuries later.
Private, don't visit
- What's there
- Gothic-style house on the site of a medieval abbey
- Legend from
- Medieval; sightings 20th century
- Tone
- Eerie
Missenden Abbey's medieval monks were said to enjoy life a little too much. One, the Black Monk, is said to drift by the River Misbourne still.
Missenden Abbey was founded in about 1133 for Augustinian canons, closed at the Dissolution and later rebuilt as a country house. The monks had a reputation in later centuries for loose living, and local tales say one of them still walks. A dark-robed figure, the Black Monk, is said to haunt the grounds and the water meadows by the River Misbourne, and some say he also visits the George Inn on the High Street. He is usually explained as a sinful monk returning to the scene of his misdeeds. Other stories tell of a woman in old-fashioned clothes seen drifting down the abbey's stairs.