The last owner of I’m A Celeb’s Gwrych Castle in North Wales who is said to haunt the towers in anger at her tyrannical husband, was an extremely wealthy heiress who had land that stretched across Wales, Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
Winifred Cochrane, the Countess of Dundonald was the only surviving child of Robert Bamford-Hesket and Ellen Jones-Bateman, which made her part of the Marchudd ap Cynan, one of the 15 noble tribes of North Wales.
Her former home, Gwrych Castle, will host the 2020 series of I’m A Celeb, after bosses shelled out £1 million to secure use of the site when production was forced to relocate from Australia due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 1878, aged 19, she had an arranged marriage to Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, who later became world famous for leading the charge at the Relief of Ladysmith, during the Boer War.
But while her husband was lauded as a British Army general, the marriage was unhappy, with Douglas spending most of his time in Scotland, while Winifred stayed in Wales with their three children.
Winifred Cochrane, the Countess of Dundonald is said to haunt Gwrych Castle, where I’m a Celeb’s next season will be filmed. She is pictured on her wedding day
When she died in 1924, Winifred attempted to leave the castle to the King George V and the then Prince of Wales, ending 1,000 years of private ownership in her family.
But the gift was refused, and the castle was instead put in the ownership of the Venerable Order of Saint John.
Four years later, her widower bought the castle for £78,000, selling the contents to meet the cost.
It is believed the Countess haunts the castle in anger that her husband sold off her belongings.
Legend says she is angry at her husband for taking all of her valuables from her home, with some people claiming she, or another spooky spirit, stalks the area in a white dress.
According to Gwrych Castle’s official website, Winifred owned landed estates totaling several thousand acres – a rare circumstance for a Victorian woman.
The website also claims she gifted a large quantity of diamonds and rubies to the church and was a Welsh speaker, despite growing up in London and Toquay.
Shea was also a patron of Welsh art, music and literature during the early twentieth century and founded two hospitals at her own expense during the First World War.
‘Art and music were undoubtedly some of the Countess’ passions. During the early 1900s for instance, she founded a North Wales harp competition and recently, a medal presented in 1915 by the Countess for harp playing was sold at auction.
Ghosts? The castle is said toLegend says she is angry at her husband for taking all of her former homes’ valuables, with some people claiming she, or another spooky spirit, stalks the area in a white dress. be haunted by the Countess of Dundonald
‘Her poetic writings published in 1907 were well received and there were calls for her to carry out a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte,’ the website reads.
Sightings of Winifred are common around the castle.
Earlier this month, Gemma Williams, 35, from North Wales, told MailOnline she ran away from a haunting figure in Victorian clothes with blonde curly hair when she slept at the ITV show’s new location.
The mother-of-one said her sighting of the red dressed woman took place when she was 20 and the terrifying ordeal proved to her that ghosts do exist.
A chilling photo taken there ten years ago shows a pale, shadowy young woman on the first floor — in what used to be a magnificent banquet hall.
Underway: Construction work has started on Gwrych Castle in Wales just days after it was announced it would play host to I’m A Celebrity this year
Some locals also believe that the spirit of a servant girl who died falling off a horse haunts the land. While others say ghosts of former caretakers have been seen around the 200-year-old castle, which boasts 250 acres.
Gemma saw the woman at Gwrych Castle, which will be the new location for November’s series of I’m A Celebrity, hosted by presenting duo Ant and Dec.
She warns this year’s campmates that the derelict castle is also the home of a mysterious presence that put her and four pals into an unnerving trance.
She continued: ‘My friends and I stood there in absolute shock looking at her.
‘She had an old fashioned red dress on, a white shawl going over her arms and curly blonde hair.
‘We heard an almighty scream from her, it was really, really loud, which made us run again, it broke the trance. We ran down the front of the castle at full pelt.
‘We all got to the bottom and said one by one that we had seen a lady in a red dress. There was no explanation for it at all.’