Ghosts · Yorkshire

The White Lady of Skipsea

Skipsea Castle, on the Holderness coast between Bridlington and Hornsea

Spooky: for older readers

When William the Conqueror had beaten the English, he rewarded the men who had fought for him. One of them was Drogo de Bevere, a Flemish soldier who had fought bravely at Hastings. William gave him all of Holderness, on the Yorkshire coast, and Drogo built himself a castle at Skipsea to guard it against the Danes.

Drogo was brave, but he was cruel. He had terrible fits of temper, ground down the people whose land had been taken to give him, and even seized lands that belonged to the church at Beverley, until he was made to give them back.

As a further favour, the Conqueror gave Drogo one of his own nieces as a wife. She was gentle and refined, and he was rough and brutal, caring only for war, hunting and bullying his servants. He treated her harshly, often threatened to kill her, and at last, in a fit of rage, he had her poisoned.

No sooner was it done than Drogo saw what trouble he was in. The King would surely take revenge for his niece. So, while she was scarcely cold, he took the fastest horse in his stable and galloped south to the King's court. He told the King he longed to take his wife over the sea to Flanders, to meet his family. The King thought this a fine idea. Then Drogo complained that his land was so poor it would grow nothing but oats, and that he couldn't afford the passage. “If that be all,” said the King, “you shall not be baulked of your pleasure trip for want of money,” and he gave him the money.

Drogo hurried to the coast and sailed for Flanders. He hadn't been gone long when a messenger came from Skipsea with the news of the lady's death, and how she died. The King sent horsemen after him to bring him back, alive or dead. But Drogo had too long a start. He reached Flanders, and nobody knows what became of him after that.

Nobody knows where the lady was buried, either. But she has never rested. For eight hundred years, people said, a beautiful young woman with a sad face, dressed in long white robes, has walked on the castle mound and the slopes around it, sometimes even in daylight. No harm ever came to those who saw her, but no one in Skipsea would go near the mound after dark.

No plate yet. We are still looking for an old picture of this place.

What people said

  • The rider on the hill. Early in the 1800s, a gentleman told a party in Holderness that about ten years before, riding from Bridlington to Hornsea one afternoon, he had seen a young woman in white walking ahead of him down a hill south of Skipsea. He followed her to the bottom, where a small brook ran, expecting her to turn towards the bridge. Instead, while his eyes were fixed on her, she vanished.
  • The servant on Skipsea Lane. The lady of the house then told how her servant, a bold young man who scoffed at such things, had set off for Bridlington two hours before dawn one November. He came back that same afternoon. On Skipsea Lane his horse had shied right off the road, and standing close by was a fine lady dressed in white, with something like a black veil over her head. He was too frightened to go on, and walked up and down the hill until it was light and other travellers came by.
  • Both stories were printed in the Hull Advertiser, whose editor said he knew the writer and both witnesses well.

Other tellings

  • Ingram took the history of Drogo and his wife from F. Ross's “Yorkshire Legends and Traditions”, which was then appearing in the Leeds Mercury. [TODO: the date of Ross's article and the Hull Advertiser report]
  • Ross suggests the lady may have been a granddaughter of William's mother, Herleva, by her second marriage, but says nobody knows for sure who she was.

What the history says

English Heritage calls Skipsea Castle an impressive Norman motte-and-bailey castle, dating from before 1086 and among the first raised in Yorkshire, with the earthworks of a fortified “borough” beside it.

[TODO: what history says of Drogo de la Beuvrière, his wife and his flight, from a reliable source]

Go and See

Where
Skipsea, on the Holderness coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, between Bridlington and Hornsea.
Access
Open at any reasonable time in daylight, and free. There's no car park: park considerately on the road. You reach the castle through a rough field with farm animals in it, which is not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs.
Allow
An hour to walk round the mound and the earthworks.
Families
A ghost story with a murder in it, told gently. The White Lady never harms anyone. Best for older children. Keep dogs on leads.

Visiting details checked 25 October 2026 with English Heritage. Always check before you travel.

53.9787° N, 0.2296° W · Open in OpenStreetMap

Make a day of it

From our sister sites

The Name GeneratorsName a ghost of your ownPale ladies, grey monks and headless horsemen.Acorn & InkPrint a day-out prep sheetGet children ready for a visit to a real Norman castle mound.

Sources

  1. John H. Ingram, The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1884; illustrated edition 1897), “Skipsea Castle”, quoting F. Ross, “Yorkshire Legends and Traditions” (Leeds Mercury), and an account in the Hull Advertiser. Our main source. Internet Archive.
  2. English Heritage, “Skipsea Castle”: dating and visiting details, checked 25 October 2026.

This is a legend, told as people told it. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.