Time for another history and ghost tour. I really get a kick out of looking into the history of the old places. There is so much history around here with Kings, wars, Vikings and such. Loftus Hall history goes back to the 1200s but the current house dates back 666 years. They are having a huge halloween this year because of the 666 anniversary. We did two tours, first was the pure history tour ( ignoring legends ) concentrating on the families and how they acquired the house and lands. The house had been sitting vacant for over 10 years. When the current owner purchased it the roof had big holes in it and the rain was getting in on everything. There is a set of stairs (Jacobean staircase?) in the main room that is very well built. Once they cleaned the stairs and fixed the roof the stairs look like new. There are only three similar set of stairs known to exist, one is in the Vatican, one in the Titanic, and the one in Loftus Hall. A huge amount of money was spent in the house in the 1800s in preparation for a visit by Queen Victoria. It is believed £125,000 was spent. In today's money it is equivalent to £50,000,000. The detail of the carvings in the timber work of staircase is excellent. It was said that today machines would not be able to obtain the detail that the timber carvers could achieve. Due to the legends and the haunting stories of the hall, Queen Victoria decided not to visit. Because the Queen did not visit all debts were called in and the owner of the house was declared bankrupt. See the link below for the legend and other historical stories of the house https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loftus_ Hall for the legend and history. Must have been a very bleak windy place to live. Karen's niece Jodie came with us. Karen is Jodie's godmother. she has been to the hall 5 or six times. Jodie has a disabled arm and no use of her fingers. There is a room in the house that is supposed to be very haunted with the ghost of lady Anne. Every time Jodie goes into this room the fingers of her disable hand twitch constantly, as soon as she leaves it stops. This happened twice while we were there and very noticeable. She is not bothered by it, just interested. Tintern Abbey: on the way back from Loftus Hall there is Tintern Abbey which is said to have been built in the 1200s. As soon as you arrive you could understand why they built there. The scenery with the old bridge on river next to the a abbey is fantastic. Quiet enjoyably wandering around the ruins. Karen and I were planning on a quiet night but Colin and Jacquie talked us into one or two quick drinks (they really are a bad influence on us). In one pub Colin and I had the Aus V Irl darts championship. Unfortunately Ireland won 2 - 1. Maybe next time. Karen and I wandered back into our hotel about 11.30pm, great night though. The atmosphere in the pubs here especially with the 'musco' in the corner is so different to Australia. You have such a good time you forget what the time is.