Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

The Ghost Cat of King John’s Hunting Lodge
Phantom Felines

by Gerina Dunwich

King John’s Hunting Lodge in the small English village of Axbridge is a timber-framed Tudor building that dates back to the sixteenth century. It is currently owned by the National Trust and used as a museum of local history and archaeology. A paneled room located on the first floor of this medieval building is reputed to be haunted by the mysterious ghosts of a tabby cat and an Elizabethan woman, who has come to be known as the White Lady.

On August 22, 1978, two people claimed to have seen the White Lady sitting in a chair in the paneled room. Their report was recorded in the museum’s diary. No sightings of the White Lady have since been reported.

The cat apparition, on the other hand, continues to make appearances from time to time and is usually seen after dark and at the top of the stairs. A number of individuals have also sighted it entering the paneled room through a closed door. On one occasion, the feline stirred up quite a commotion when it entered the room while a lecture was in progress. Witnesses reported seeing it sit down and curl its tail around its paw before vanishing into thin air.

A spiritualist medium that visited the museum verified the hauntings and claimed the room where the sightings of the White Lady and the cat took place possessed a violent past.