This castle is best known as the royal retreat of Queen Elizabeth II. Perhaps it was also the favorite residence of other monarchs, as at least four of them have chosen to remain here after their death! They have a lot of company - no less than 21 other ghosts have been reported here!

This castle has been in use as a residence since the time of William the Conqueror, who built it to replace the old Windsor residence that was there when he decided to set up residence. It has been inhabited off and on ever since as a royal residence or retreat.

Every castle that Henry VIII visted seems to continue to host his presence! He has been seen fading into the castle wall. Investigations revealed that at the time of his residence, there was a door at the place he disappears. He was spotted last in 1977.

One of his wives, Anne Boleyn, has been seen standing at the window in the Dean’s Cloister

Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth also enjoyed her time at Windsor. The famous playwright, William Shakespeare, wrote a play called 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.. It was performed for the first time in the Castle Library for Queen Elizabeth I. Maybe bewcause of the merry times she had there, the spirit of Queen Elizabeth I has been heard and seen in the library.The sound of her high heels are heard on bare floorboards, before her imposing figure appears and passes through the library and into an inner room. She is always dressed in a black gown with a black lace shawl draped over her shoulders. An officer of the guard once followed her into the library, but when he reached the doorway, she disappeared. Queen Elizabeth has also been seen wandering other areas of the building - once she was spotted by Princess Margaret!

The library is also the haunt of another monarch. King Charles I has been seen in the library many times since he was beheaded in 1649. He has is seen standing by a table.

King George III went blind and then completely mad. He was kept locked up at Windsor Castle for 10 years until he died there on January 29, 1820. He has been seen and heard in several rooms of the castle,repeating one of his favorite phrases, "What, what?"

A bit of horrible history is that King Edward III used the Castle as a prison. Prisoners were kept in the Devil's Tower or in the dungeons of the Curfew Tower. When executed, their bodies were hung from the Curfew Tower as a warning to others.

The first Duke of Buckingham, Sir George Villiers, is said to haunt one of the bedrooms of the castle. This ghost story started with a different ghost story - that of a crisis apparition. A terrfiied servant called Parker approached Sir George saying that he had three visits from the ghost of Sir George's armor-clad father, the Duke of Buckingham. He said that unless Sir George changed his ways, he would die. Sir George laughed and was assassinated 6 months later. He has returned to the castle after his death - perhpas to mend his ways...

Many spirits haunt the Long Walk, one of whom is a young solider who shot himself after, while on his guard watch, he saw marble statues moving "of their own accord." He ghost was seen by another soldier on guard duty afterwards. Maybe the statues are haunted - In 1873, a night-time visitor to the castle noticed an interesting new statuary group had been erected near St. George's Chapel: three standing figures, all in black, and a fourth crouching down. The central standing character was in the act of striking with a large sword. The sentry knew nothing of this artwork and when the visitor returned to re-examine it, it had gone!

The Deanery is haunted by a young boy who shouts, "I don't want to go riding today". It is probably his footsteps which are heard in the same building.

The 'Prison Room' in the Norman Tower is haunted, possibly by a former Royalist prisoner from Civil War times. Children playing there have seen him and adults have felt him brush past.

The kitchen of one of the buildings which make up the horseshoe cloisters is haunted by a man leading a horse. They walk straight through the wall, for the cloisters were once the cavalry stables. A young girl has also been seen here, standing by a Christmas Tree.

Ghostly footsteps are heard on the staircase in the Curfew Tower and, on one occasion, the bells began to swing on their own while the temperature became distinctly chilly.

My favorite ghost associated with this castle is Herne the Hunter who is more often seen in the Great Park. Herne was a Saxon hunter who was known throughout the area for his exceptional hunting abilities. One version of the story says that Herne became the favourite huntsman of King Richard II(1367-1400) when he saved the monarch from being mauled to death by a cornered stag. Being wounded in the process, he was later healed through witchcraft and the wearing of the stag’s antlers. Unfortunately though, his subsequent friendship with the King and skill in the field, bred jealousy in his colleagues and he was framed for theft. Shame led him to hang himself on 'Herne's Oak in the Home Park and, with a Wild Hunt, his spirit has since been seen many times careering across the Great Park searching for lost souls.

Slightly different versions vary concerning witchcraft and suicide, and a demonic horned being upon whose appearance brings illness and misfortune to all who see him, especially the Royal family. He can be seen in the castle’s gardens with "his trademark stag’s head."

Herne was seen by a Coldstream Guard in 1976. he described him as a man wearing deer skins and a helmet with antlers sticking out from the front. Hundreds of people have seeen him over the years, running through the grounds with his spectral hounds.

The tree from which he reportedly hanged himself had to be cut down in 1863. Queen Victoria had the logs from the tree burned in her fire to help lay the ghost. It didn't work, as we have heard!