A Cumbrian Ghost Story The Highest Inn in England  

I was born in Dorset, and absolutely love these stories. I have such fond memories of ghostly tales being told around Christmas, and whilst I adore late Victorian and Edwardian writers, the stories that always managed to elicit waves of goose flesh were the ones that were set in remote villages and inns. Even better if they are rooted in folklore whose origins are shrouded in the mists of time. Thank you for giving me that delicious chill down my spine as the days are getting shorter, and the nights ever longer.

Wonderful contemporary ghost story, wonderfully read as always, and by the author! In addition to being well-written and enjoyable, I feel like I've been learning so much more about the Cumbrian region beyond, "well, Wordsworth liked it..." via ramble.

Very spooky this one.Well done

Been across there many times, worked at the Patterdale hotel when it was refurbished.. Thanks for this, subscribed.! 🙏

When my daughter turned 15 she went from a darling child to an evil twin. For about a year and a half she was totally impossible. You absolutely nailed it with your description of the surly, joyless daughter. Another great one. Keep it up, Tony!!

Hope the move is going well, and Happy Birthday to your girls! Great story, as always.

Engrossing and perfectly narrated, as always. Thanks Mr. Walker.

Been to the Inn a few times. Actually camped at the roadside on the struggle in the fog. A proper eerie place indeed. Great story thanks

Most enjoyable, and (as a parent myself) unnerving. One of those tales that feeds one just enough to have an inkling of the horrible thing that might happen, that you can't help hope doesn't happen, but that the story wouldn't be complete unless it does happen.

As always, great story with fantastic narration. Also I wanted to thank you for recommending the EnCrypted channel. Props to you Sir for not being selfish and turning us listeners on to another fantastic storyteller. As always...keep up the great work👍

Tan Hill highest inn in England?

I really enjoy stories about doppelgangers and mimics! The aspect of something terrifying taking over someone that you know or someone you love, lulling those around them into a state of false security, is such a frightening concept. Wonderful story! Thank you, Mr. Walker! 😊

I really enjoyed this but there's one thing I don't understand. Why would she be found in a secret room? Did Alf just happen to discover the secret room the day they left? If it wasn't him or his wife, why would the police or anyone even think to ask nevermind look there? I was dozing as I listened to this so maybe I missed something. Anyway, lovely story and nicely read.

Hope that all is well. Thanks for this, love your work.

Beautiful set up for the story. Love your accent for this narration. Feel sorry for the father who lost his daughter in such a majestic setting.

“I’ll tell you where it is & how to get there” … Uhhh 🤔 nooo thanks! I’m good at a nice long canny RU-vid cuckoo free distance 😳 … happy birthday girls!

My brother used to freak me out when we were kids by just staring at me from an expressionless face - your comments at the end just reminded me of that!

I have teenagers! Love that description of sulky rebellion and being vegetarian mainly to annoy meat eating parents, I was definitely Hazel at that age! I’ve always wanted to stay somewhere creepy, brilliant story!

My first time here, Such a Nice emotional voice! I'm Subscribed! Thank U! 😊

We stayed in Troutbeck for our honeymoon in 2018 and the names of the places in this story are familiar. My husband wanted to visit the Mortal Man, having seen it referenced in a book by Rebecca Tope. The range of ales met with his approval. Thankfully no shapeshifters spotted during our stay. There is something comforting about a story set in familiar surroundings.

Thank you, it was quite entertaining! Good spooky story for a Friday night. Best wishes in your new home.

Whoo hoo! I just happened upon your channel and that I must say was bloody brilliant. From America kansas.

Kirk, as a word I mean, could be coming from the German word for church which is kirche. Very good narration of a very good original story. Thank you.

Great story, thank you!

I love “Donkeys” as a unit of measure.

Shivers! I love your writing about this family. Real people with warmth and affection for their daughters, but they also take turns being the one to smooth over the others inevitable irritation with their surly teen. Then we know somethings not right when she becomes so docile after her proclamation about never being able to leave. Nice touch with the changing picture as well. It seems to be a clue, but it also strikes me that it’s reflective of the narrators understanding of what’s happening. It reveals and mirrors the truth.

Yay!

Thank you very much!

Thanks, I'm enjoying your self-written, self-read tales!

Dark...subtle but dark...Good story!

Thank you Tony 😊.

Been for a pint in this pub! It was in winter and snow had blocked the road... With fires roaring I can imagine ghosts frequenting the bar😁

Brilliant as ever ❤❤❤❤😊

Welcome to Chaos Magick. That pub is now genuinely haunted

Oh well done! I really enjoyed this ghost story. Happy birthday to your girls.

Thank you!! 😀

Ive been to that inn years ago.

Many a great visit to Tan Hill more than 66 years ago

Some keen eyed RU-vid viewer reminded me about this video which is the Kirkstone Inn on which this was based. I actually appear in the vide as a much younger version of myself. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--44epg6slDw.html

Good one , Tony ! Happy Birthdays to the twins ! 💀🎱💀

great story!

the story has a certain power and dark charm yet it seems two simple and direct compared to most of the stories you write. as if it is over too quickly and we would be better if there were some more complications or possibly the longer period when they suspect their daughter is not really their daughter. can you talk at the end you mentioned that the story is just sort of a mild Horror Story not a full blown or as if you were inoculating us a little with horror. but it's about losing a daughter which is about as horrible as you can get. it is horrible but it moves by pretty fast, so maybe that is what you meant. I'm not sure the speed of which it moves in the short time we spent and suspense is really a good idea. you speak at one point in your talk at the end about the monster or monstrous thing that comes home with them. Yet the dead simulation or ghost she seems passive and vulnerable, not contentious as she was when alive. She enlisted my sympathy rather than frightening me. one detail that struck me is incongruous -- apparently for more than 200 years no one had been able to find the hidden room but the police find it almost effortlessly. When trivial detail setting your talk, not about the story but it would use that brings up the proverbial reference to the barrier that separates the United and UK, the common language . You mentioned you mentioned at one point a trolley, which in the United States means the streetcar or some such thing , whereas we would always call your trolley a cart. I have to think for a moment anytime I encounter a British use of the word trolley just as I do when I find British use to the word lorrie, which I need to translate in my mind to track . I did enjoy the story but it seems simpler and therefore less effective than most of yours. I hope you don't mind a little frankness in hearing one readers reaction. hopefully it will be a pleasant change in the monotony of hearing the constant intense praise from your readers and me in particular

That was awesome, very creepy!

Oh, *Happy Birthday Twin daughters* you *Tony Walker* are double blessed🧁🧁🍨🍨

Marvelous!!!! Fantastic. Hard to choose which tale is my favorite in "Cumbrian Ghost Stories: Weird tales from an old land", but your presentation has fired it to the top of the list like a rocket. The vividly painted word images made me drop the dirty dishes, sit down, close my eyes and watch the mind-film. Can't wait to hear the other stories! Good luck with your move and a very happy birthday with your daughters

Cerreg means stone in Welsh also.

This is the scariest story I've ever listened to on youtube ever. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Great story and so well read. Thanks very much.

Could you repeat those directions again? Jk...creepy inn stories are some of my faves. No clowns in them...usually. Buuuttt just how big were that dude's shoes....?

Actually this is really well written! Thanks again!

Thank you for telling us about Kirkstone Inn! Ended up looking it up and reading about it. Very pretty place and I love the ghost stories I'm reading that occur there!

I loved it!!!! Thank you. Great story the end gave me goosebumps!

Excellent story. Eerie and unnerving. 👍👍💕

Brilliant!

Superb :)

Loved it.

Mr Walker, you are such a marvelous narrator and a wonderful man. Thank you for all your spooky tales.

Really loved this and your voice is great to listen to 😊

Relistened to this tale so happy to see you in the end chat. Best wishes.

A thoroughly entertaining and spooky story full of atmosphere. I really enjoyed it! You're a really talented writer.

Nice.

Nice story and psychology talk. I could never guess what happens next. The mystery kept me wondering right till the end every step of the way. As humans I think our feelings become slowly intensfied to become emotions. On the other hand our memories are mental imagies that stand motionles. So we can mould them to become what we want.i like how you fine tune these elements. Also the word kerk is the same for church in flemish. I remember growing up in Belgium.

I really enjoyed that story. Thanks Tony!

Thank the lord for Tony Walker and this channel!!I don’t know how I ever lived without it!!! Great story Tony, as always…

Absolutely wonderful story! Reminded me a bit of the story “The Wardrobe” by MD Vickers and a little bit of your “The Dernwentwater Haunting”!

I was a barmaid in the Yorkshire Inn. Very old and spooky but I never saw a ghost but hated being in caller alone

I remember Kirk, on my green class to the lake district, many years ago...beautiful.

Guessing my new sweatshirt would be perfect for this place!

Thank you for such a great tale, so well-told. Nice twist on the Changeling.

You could have been describing my own 15 yr old daughter haha

That was excellent! I really enjoy your stories! Were the 2 girls in your story named after your own children? You sure packed a lot of suspense in that short story!

Great story Tony, Thank you.

Great narrator. The Lake District has a history of ghosts. Some great stories about the old corpse roads there.

👍.😬agree, it is uncanny & scary...nice ending sound effects

Great story and ramble. Thanks! It is good and eerie!!

The highest inn in England is the Tan Hill Inn, Yorkshire.

I love it when you magically transport me off across the pond for a supernatural adventure. You fed my mind's eye just what it needed, even to the descriptions of the girls, everything was so easy to visualize.

Great twist, by the way!

Always entertaining!

Great story Tony. You know how I love straightforward ghost stories that go straight to the fear. I had a hunch I was taking a little peek into the real life of Tony Walker with that tale. Another thing is that one story which frightens me more than almost any other is 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' yet I never trained my incisive intellectual powers on why it disturbed me so. Luckily you were on hand to call my attention to Dr Freud's thoughts on the unfamiliar familiar and I thought "There. He got it in one." I became very anxious indeed as it grew clearer that your daughter was no longer your daughter. I really love the clarity and humor and really everything else about it. You would have been a perfect fit with our old friends at Pan Ghost Stories. Their loss I say. I chatted with Lloyd Cole of all people on Twitter today. Not sure if you're a fan but I think he's got a real knack for the melancholy love song and have been listening to him since his first album came out when I was 15 and now I'm 55 so that was a real treat. I also had to offer my much belated condolences to him regarding the suicide of his lead guitarist Robert Quine who was truly one of the most innovative and unique guitarists ever. A genuine genius and his death came as a real shock to me. Who's shoulder better to cry on than Lloyd Cole's ? Anyway I thought it was pretty cool to watch that switchover from a magazine image to a flesh and blood person who was kind as could be. So that was my night. Thanks again for that story. A perfect fit for this vampire !

Excellent!!!

Kerk is church in Dutch Kerker is dungeon

I just recently found your channel , and I am so glad I did . I am in the process of playing catchup with all videos on the homepage .. This one really held my attention .. A nailbiter at the end . The vampire tales were as well very good .. Thank you for all the effort you put in for our benefit ... Jeff from USA

Really great story. Chilling & classic.

I was wondering if you would do Jeruselams lot by Stephen king? Or maybe your own rendition of the story? Your American cousins would greatly appreciate it….Love your Vampire tales….😎

Thanks, I'm enjoying your self-written, self-read tales!

Brilliant story. Well read. 👏😀

Wait a minute… If Hazel was possessed, she still has her own body… And the remains of the young girl that was found in the secret room belong to someone from a few hundred years ago. They would be mummified or skeletonized at this point, and there’s no way the police would imagine that they were the bones of a recently missing girl. In the photographs, the shadowy shape of a man is seen behind Hazel… So I can see how you could say that the ghost of the warlock possessed Hazel and now she’s run away, but what could the bones of a young girl possibly have to do with it? Hazels body would be relatively fresh.

Creepy Tony! I want to tell ya my fav part but don't want to say too much here. Ty as always for sharing! Ik you're super busy but wondering if you've given any more thought to my "phone" request/idea? I'm trying to be cryptic here bc I don't want to give away the idea or mention it publicly again until you come out w/it. Clear as mud? LOL Lmk if you want converse thru email & I'll leave my info in a comment which you can then delete. Cool beans? 😁

Enjoyed this story. The beautiful Lake District is a great setting for a creepy story like this with its mountains and large bodies of water, not forgetting the rainy days!

Very enjoyable, thank you!

Love this frightening story!

20:00 So - like Dunkirk or Kirche (german for church)... nice2know - thx :)

By coincidence I visited that pub a couple days ago, unfortunately it was shut. Great Story

i dig this story mr. walker🤍

So, you accidentally returned home with an unwanted souvenir of a family trip? Great narration.

They are interestin these tales

Had many good hols in the Lake District and even Manchester got a mention and you know that me, being a Manc, would always be glad to get out of the city. Brilliant story and memories. Thanx, Tony!

So so good. Thamk you so much. 😪

I've been to the Kirkstone Pass, but haven't been inside. It was fun knowing the areas in this story!