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Castleton: Winnat's Pass, The Ghosts of Allan and Clara
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Derbyshire's Own Gretna Green
Winnats Pass is a narrow limestone gorge which lies to the west of the village of Castleton and climbs a steady 1300 feet. Local legend has it that the Pass is haunted by the ghosts of two ill-fated lovers, murdered while they were on their way to be married at the ‘runaway church’ in the Peak Forest.
The Peak Forest chapel had been built in 1657 by Christiana, Countess of Devonshire. The chapel was ‘extra parochial’ and was exempt from the control of the ecclesiastical authorities. ‘Foreign marriages’ could be performed in this chapel which meant that couples from outside the parish could be wed there and as such marriages could go ahead without the normal legal requirement of banns being posted. The chapel became Derbyshire’s own Gretna Green in a way and enabled couples who were perhaps facing objections to their marriage, to be legally wed.
This is exactly what Allan and Clara, a young couple from Scotland, were on their way to do in 1758.
A Premonition?
Allan’s family were noble but poor and Clara’s wealthy parents objected to the match to the point where Allan was threatened by Clara’s brother. So the couple decided to elope to the Peak Forest chapel in Derbyshire. They had made their way to Stoney Middleton and stopped overnight in an inn there, the Royal Oak. During the night Clara had a terrifying dream in which she saw Allan being attacked and killed by robbers. She told Allan of the dream but they both put it down to the weariness of the journey.
They then made their way to Castleton and stopped for a rest and some refreshments at another inn before embarking on the final leg of their journey. A group of miners were also in the inn, quite raucous and drunk, and noticed that the couple were dressed in fine clothes. The miners overheard the landlord of the inn give directions to the couple to the chapel by way of Winnats Pass and once Allan and Clara had left they continued their drinking until a short time after when the landlord threw them out – presumably for drunkenness.
The group of men decided that by the look of the fine clothes of the couple it was likely that they would be carrying a substantial amount of money. They decided to rob them and so they set off to intercept the couple at Winnats Pass by taking a short cut stopping only to pick up another friend to come along with them.
Murder of the Young Lovers
As Allan and Clara were halfway through the Pass the miners jumped out and dragged them from their horses. They found that the couple did indeed have some money - £200 - which they stole and after pushing the couple into a nearby barn they then had to decide what to do with them.
Allan realized that he and Clara were in danger and he pleaded for their lives but to no avail. Allan fought with the men only to be brutally beaten to death and Clara was then cruelly killed with the pickaxes that the miners had brought with them.
The men shared out the money between them and once it was dark they returned to the barn to dispose of the bodies.
Poetic Justice
The murder only came to light when one of the men on his death-bed confessed to the awful crime probably to ease his conscience or in the fear of being refused entry into heaven. Whatever his reasoning he named the other men who had been involved but it seems that none of them ever benefited from the money that they stole and in one way or another fate seems to have punished all of them for their crime.
James Ashton, who had confessed on his death-bed, used his share of the ill-gotten gains to buy some horses but these all proved to be unfit animals and he died a poor man. Nicholas Cook and John Bradshaw both had accidents which killed them – Nicholas by falling from a buttress and John who was hit by a falling rock - coincidentally both these accidents happened close to the scene of the crime in Winnats Pass. Thomas Hall took his own life and hanged himself and Francis Butler, haunted by the memories of the crime, went insane.
Allan and Clara’s horses were found on the fourth day after the murder and a saddle which is supposed to have been Clara’s is on display in the museum at Speedwell Cavern.
Ten years later the bodies of Allan and Clara were discovered in a mineshaft. Sadly they never did make it to the ‘runaway chapel’ but their spirits are said to still wander Winnats Pass and sometimes can be heard begging for their lives.
Although the perpetrators of the crime were not punished in a legal sense, perhaps natural justice was done as they each suffered during their lifetime.
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County: Derbyshire
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