A haunting in the city..

It is hard to imagine a ghost roaming amongst the hubbub of the City of Cape Town, with its trend setters on every side walk, night clubs in almost every street and everlasting traffic. However, we must bear in mind that the City of Cape Town is where it all started and it is where we find South Africa’s oldest building, the Castle of Good Hope. In most old buildings, the perceptive will find lost souls wondering around looking for a way to the other side...

There many stories about ghosts haunting the Castle of Good Hope. One of the most infamous ghost stories told is that of the Lady in Grey.  It is said that she was often seen with her hands covering her face, as though she is weeping. Other sightings of her have been made at Government House. Apparently, there was once a passage that linked the Castle and Government House.  During a recent excavation,  the skeleton of a women was found. This is thought to be the remains of the Lady in Grey as her ghost has not been seen since the skeleton was found. Hopefully now she can rest in peace.

There is a tale of another ghost, Governor Noodt who is also thought to roam around the Castle of Good Hope. He was known as a unsympathetic disciplinarian. One night, four of his soldiers were caught trying to escape and so he sentenced them to death, a punishment perhaps a bit too cruel. The Governor did not care for human life. The night before the executions of the four soldiers, they sat and prayed with their minister. The following morning the Governor didn’t show up for the executions. Even the last man who was brought out to be executed cursed the Governor and demanded him to come out and witness his death. Still he did not show up. The man challenged him to appear before God to answer for what he had done to these four men and then was hanged. The officers came to report that the sentence had been carried out and found Governor Noodt dead in his room with a look of horror on his face. Apparently he had died of a heart-attack and his soul still roams the Castle at night. Spooky stuff!

Taken from plpinfo.org