The Maid of Sker House

Uncovering the history behind one of Wales’ most haunted places

Wales is a small country. Unassuming in many ways. Its cities are modern machine cut stone and metal bolted to old brick buildings. Its country is wild and untamed, all rolling hills, valleys, and coastline. It’s beautiful to look at from afar, a breathtaking view.

It is in this small land of castles, under a particularly oppressive grey cloud threatening thunderous rain that we find Sker House. It’s tall turrets and small square windows were built atop the carcass of a 900-year-old Monastic grange built to house the Cistercian order. It is in this house that a love story met a tragic end.

Elizabeth Williams was in love. So the legend goes, Williams and her lover, a carpenter named Thomas Evans, planned to marry but her father did not approve of the union. Isaac Williams saw Evans as beneath his daughter and so he forbade their union. The star-crossed lovers founded a drastic plan to run away so they could be free to marry and live their life together.

Unfortunately, they would never see through their plan. When her father uncovered their plan to run away he locked Elizabeth away in the bedroom of Sker House. She was subsequently locked into a different kind of prison, a loveless union within which she would last nine years. It is said that Elizabeth died of a broken heart but even her spirit could not break free from the walls of Sker.

Upon entering the manor house many have reported feeling a wave of grief and dread befall them. Those able to venture further into the house have been said to have heard high pitched screams and wailing cries. Most notably, however, visitors to Sker House have been witness to a dark shadow in the bedroom where Elizabeth had been imprisoned, broken-hearted, before her death.