February ghosts

While February is most all about sending love letters, Valentine's gifts and romance, it's got hauntings too with some of the most tragic stories attached to them. I will list a few of these here.

A 17 year old girl was executed by beheading and her ghost haunts the Tower of London, always on the anniversary of death, the 12th February. Her name was Lady Jane Grey and she was also known as the "Nine Days Queen". She became queen of England because her brother, Edward VI, passed away and he wrote in his will that he chose Jane to succeed him to the throne and not his older sister Mary. After he died, Jane succeeded to the throne. She was reluctant to take the crown as it was, but due to such political pressure she gave up the throne to her popular and ambitious sister Mary. This led to Jane's arrest and imprisonment in the Tower of London. Jane's father led a rebellion against Queen Mary, which resulted in Lady Jane's end. Her spirit has been witnessed multiple times, especially by tower guards during the 1950's who reported the royal apparition.

More tragedy as slaughter of about 38 members of the same family in 1692 still haunt the area of Glencoe on 13th February. These hauntings recur every February and they're the shades of slaughtered people from Clan MacDonald. They were murdered by Scottish forces in what is now known as the Glencoe Massacre. Screaming, wailing pale ghosts witnessed in the ruins of Inverigan and Coire Gabhail of the Hidden Valley. It's also believed that a local witch named Corrag predicted the massacre before it happened.

A strange hole in the ground makes otherworldly screams. The Shrieking Pit is found in the area of Hungry Hill in Northrepps, Norfolk. Every 24th February near a lane, sounds of screams come from the pit and is believed to be the ghost of a woman that took her own life. Others think it's something darker and hopes to lure people down there. 

It's believed the spirit of Charlotte Bronte appears as the ghostly white lady spectre in a vicarage, located in Hathersage, Derbyshire. It's a regular haunting every late February on the 28th. A white spirit seen around opening a door, and once reported in a 1927 newspaper that a family dog was upset by the ghost. Why her return? It's believed she stayed there a little while and was in love with a Reverend Henry Nussey, inspiring her to write Jane Eyre. However the vicar J H Brookbank at the time of the news report denied such things as ghosts.

Back to royalty, Mary Queen of Scots haunts the Talbot Hotel in Oundle, Northamptonshire. This occurs every February, only because the staircase in the hotel was what was used by Mary during her execution at the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1587. The refurbishment happened in 1626 and this carried traces of Mary's energy, as her ghost brought along from the stairs to wander the hotel, appear in bedrooms and look out of windows. Her portrait on the wall often falls down on the anniversary. 

Now to finish with a nice tale. Magical waters of the Loch Monar in the Highlands is believed to have healing powers. First Monday of February is to enter the water three times at midnight, then sip some of the water and throw in a coin as payment for healing. The sick should leave the water before sunrise or the magic would wear off. Is this true? There is a lot of legends and therapies around healing waters so yes this might be very true.

She Wolf Night  

Happy Valentine's Day

She Wolf Night here and recovered a lot. Thanks everyone for the well wishes and kind hearted warm comments. Special thanks to Violet Dark for making posts here at this blog and keeping it active, especially doing the Spooky Quicks this month. Lots of hugs and kisses to those who've been there. 

Anyway I will try to remember what I was planning to post about! Since we're near the 14th February it's going to be a holiday themed entry, which is easier for me to think of a subject. I've been talking about the origins of Valentines Day so much now so this time I wanted to mention a humorous side to this lovely time of year. 

In Victorian times, most people used to send love letters just as we do now. These were written either plain, perfumed or included small amounts of dried flowers. But also there were some who wanted to play mischief. They sent something offensive and silly to others! They might coat letters in unpleasant smells or tell crude jokes, insults and name calling. They also liked to send Vinegar Valentines cards. These were rude cards, designed to insult and mock someone. The recipient would open their mail and find a cruel Vinegar Valentine card instead of something sweet and romantic. That is just vicious. 

For images of these Vinegar Valentines cards, visit Pinterest HERE 

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day!

She Wolf Night 

Prayers for flying foxes (fruit bats) in Australia's heatwave

This blog should really be about werewolves and lycanthropy all the time, but it's not always. It delves into other aspects of folklore, including paranormal legends and even descriptions of unknown creature/cryptid sightings. It's never posted about anything else much. She Wolf Night's main owner and founder has been unwell recently so Violet Dark, Charlotte Woods, Luna and other friends have sent healing towards her and many others. We'll post about different things in the meantime before She Wolf Night returns.

I wanted to mention the sadness of losing thousands of flying foxes (fruit bats) due to the severe heatwave in Australia in January and February 2026. It's been a shocking discovery that 80% of the bats from the Naracoorte Colony died. Hundreds of flying foxes have been rescued. Quoted from Animal Survival:

"Temperatures over 42 degrees are known to cause mortality in flying foxes, sometimes at Biblical scales,"  said Professor Justin Welbergen, of Western Sydney University and expert in flying foxes. 

This is just awful news. Fruit bats/flying foxes have got a bad reputation as superstitious people associate them with vampires. This is a myth. Flying foxes are actually vegetarians. They're sweet animals and need to be understood properly. Here are some facts on these cute animals with a link to Wild Nomads page. 

The public was advised not to attempt helping the bats alone and instead contact their local wildlife centre or a vet. Members of the public have their hearts in the right places but they're not fully aware of how to handle flying foxes/fruit bats. 

Healing sent to Australia's poor suffering animals ❤️🌹❤️🌹❤️🌹 

Violet Dark