Haunted Britain and Ireland

This is as good a guide book as I've seen on castles (or ruins of castles) for the UK and Ireland. let alone one that covers the history of those castles and tells the reader about the ghosts who supposedly reside there. Inside most castles have colour photographs of the castle or ruins mentioned (some of the ruins also have sketches of the original castle as well). Richard Jones also tells the history of when they were built, who owned them, who lives in them now (if relevant) and all about the person or people who were killed there and now supposedly won't leave. You'll learn some fascinating stuff such as the horrible way King Edward 11 did in Berkley Castle as punishment for not hurrying up and dying after being locked by the Queen in one of the castle cell's in a dungeon filled with rotting animals after five months. The book is quite well done. The author states in the intro that he doesn't believe ghosts are dead people but does believe in them (his theory is they are a strong emotion that somehow became recorded on its surroundings and is waiting for the right person to come along and press play. So he gives an account from an impartial objective of tales he has come across not stating the ghosts are real just that people have said they were there. Although he does state at some of the castles while researching something made him feel uneasy. I've lived Ireland for a year and extensively backpacked the UK and Ireland as well. If I'd had this book I certainly would have gone to a lot of castles I didn't even know existed. Plus I visited some of the castles in here and didn't even know they were supposedly haunted. Like I said before even if you're not interested in the ghost element this book tells you where a fair number of castles or ruins actually are (complete with maps of the part of the UK/Ireland showing where they are). The book only has castles supposedly haunted (and ones the public can access) so isn't a comprehensive list of every castle but I've never come across a book with more castles than this one. Some major castles like Edinburgh Castle for example aren't in here but they're pretty hard to miss anyway. The book is fairly large in height and width so wouldn't really be ideal for the backpack but if you're taking a driving holiday or want to plan your journey before going it would be ideal. Anyone who has to do a school assignment would be hard to pass this great record of British and Irish medieval up as well.