Beware of ghosts in Jersey.
There are many ghost tales in the Channel Islands of Jersey, so here are some of the most famous ones for you to read.
At Devils Hole in St Mary many people have heard eerie noises of the sea being sucked in and expelled by the rock formation, the original devil sculpture there was believed to be the figurehead of a wrecked ship. It’s a place I wouldn’t want to spend the night alone and I’m not a coward.
The Bouley Bay Black Dog has been seen by countless people over the years, some of them friends of mine who honestly believe they saw this black dog. When you see the black dog of Bouley Bay, you just know there’s going to be a storm. Three of my friends told me that they had seen the black dog on the day of the Big Storm in October 1987 before the storm started to break, go figure!
I personally saw a large bay horse galloping in the grounds of St Ouen’s Manor as I was driving home one night, I called them at the manor and told them they had a horse loose in their grounds but they told me not to worry as many people had seen this horse, and that it was the ghost horse of Philippe de Carteret who the French were trying to kill when they occupied the island for a few years in the 1460s. Apparently, when escaping from the French on one occasion, this horse jumped a road twenty-two feet wide, but as he neared his house the horse fell dead under him. He was so grateful to the horse for helping him escape from the enemy, that he had it buried in his own garden. Since then this horse has often been seen in the grounds of St Ouen’s Manor.
Between Gorey Castle and Anne’s Harbor on Saint Martin is Geoffrey’s Leap. Now this Geoffrey committed some crime, although no one seems to know what it was, his punishment was to be thrown off the cliff into the sea to drown in what is now known as Geoffrey’s Leap. Crowds gathered to watch the event. Geoffrey was thrown into the sea by the executioner and later swam back to shore unharmed. People disagreed on whether or not it should be thrown again and the idiot got fed up and jumped back in to settle the matter, only this time he hit the rocks and killed himself, some are said to have seen the shadow of a man at dusk jumping off Geoffrey’s jump and thinks it’s Geoffrey. Who knows?
All I know is that I have seen many strange things on the island myself, and the place is well known for its heritage and long list of witches. Especially the Cabot line of the Jersey family: Of course, the line also continues on Jersey to this day.
