Ghost · Kimbolton
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A queen who died a prisoner, still gliding above the floor.
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Kimbolton Castle is now Kimbolton School and opens to the public twice a year, on the first Sundays of March and October, 1pm-4pm (adults £10 in 2026), including the Queen's Room where Katharine died. At other times the castle can be seen only from the village street.
Kimbolton: Henry the Eighth's first queen died a prisoner in this castle. Some say she still climbs its grand staircase.
Katharine of Aragon, divorced by Henry VIII, was sent to Kimbolton in 1534 and spent her last months as a semi-prisoner in rooms in the south-west corner of the castle, dying there in January 1536. Her body was carried to Peterborough for burial. Ever since, she is said to haunt the house, seen on the grand stairs. Some say only her head and shoulders glide along, because she walks on the old floor levels. The castle's own history also mentions Sir John Popham, said to have thrown his baby daughter from a window, as the subject of other ghost stories. Kimbolton School's historian says she has never seen anything.