Hey, everyone! Today, I’m excited to have Robbie Cheadle as my guest. This is her first time to visit, so please give her a warm welcome!
Castles with secret tunnels and chambers
I love English castles and always arrange tours of a few when my family travels. My favourite UK castles are: Dover Castle, Leeds Castle, Warwick Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Dunvegan Castle, and Eilean Donan Castle.
Castles are all different and have their own clandestine secrets. The secret features I enjoy the most are secret passages and chambers. I think Enid Blyton, children’s writer extraordinaire, is responsible for my love of these features as she frequently included them in her numerous adventure stories. It always sounded so exciting when the children discovered a tunnel that went for miles under the sea and came out in the cellar of a house on an island or discovered a secret room behind the panelling.
There are several reasons why medieval castles were built with secret passages. These are a few:
- Secret passages were built to offer escape routes for castle inhabitants during periods of siege or other danger.
- Some passages were created for purposes of espionage and surveillance. They enabled spies and castle guards to discreetly observe the behaviour of visitors to the castle.
- Secret chambers were built as safe storage places for valuables, important documents, or as private sanctuaries for the lord and lady of the castle.
- During times of war or political unrest, secret passages allowed smugglers to secret essential supplies or contraband items in or out of the castle.
- Some secret rooms were used for secret rituals, religious ceremonies, and other activities that the inhabitants of the castle wanted to keep secret.
- Secret passages were used by the castle’s staff to go about their duties discretely and without causing intrusion.
- Secret passages were also used by the defenders of castles during times of war or siege. They enabled warriors to move about the castle and create ambushes and surprise attacks.
My interest in English castles led to my incorporating one into my short stories in And the Grave Awaits entitled Hide-and-Seek. This story is set on a dual timeline between 1794 and 1844, a period of fifty years.
Extract from Hide-and-Seek: The room in the attic
10 September 1786
The counting started… one, two, three… The listener huddled behind the thick, dark curtains covering the landing window. They were drawn to keep the cold out on this miserable, rainy day.
A mixture of footsteps clattered on the flagstone floor, as the children scattered in all directions.
A pretty, ten-year-old girl appeared at the top of the stairs. Anne. The flat gaze of the listener watched her skip along the carpet, with its twisting black pattern, and climb the small staircase leading up to the attic.
Why is she going up there? Mouth slack and eyes frighteningly empty, the listener stood and waited for the slow wheels of her mind to turn and make the connection. Animation flowed back into her heavy, plain face. She’s looking for somewhere to hide in the attic. They’re playing hide-and-seek.
These thoughts were followed by a flash of hurt that her brothers had excluded her from their game. Again. They never ask me to play. They don’t like me.
The curtains moved, and the listener emerged, making her plodding way towards the attic stairs. At the top, she stopped and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. The two small, dirty windows on each end of the large room revealed intermittent piles of wooden chests and old furniture.
Some of the chests had burst open and their contents had spilled out, perfuming the air with the stench of rotting fabric.
The white-clad figure of Anne vanished behind a large pile of chests.
About And the Grave Awaits:
A collection of short paranormal and dark stories.
Includes the award-winning short story, The Bite.
A group of boys participate in a reality television challenge; to the death.
What does it mean to be a Canary Girl? One young woman is about to find out.
Where is the bride? A beautiful young woman goes missing during a game of hide and seek on her wedding day.
Some stories will make you cry, some will make you gasp, and some will leave you believing in vigilante justice. All will end with a grave.
Amazon USA pre-order link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7745TZB
About Roberta Eaton Cheadle
Award-winning, bestselling author, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, is a South African writer and poet specialising in historical, paranormal, and horror novels and short stories. She is an avid reader in these genres and her writing has been influenced by famous authors including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Amor Towles, Stephen Crane, Enrich Maria Remarque, George Orwell, Stephen King, and Colleen McCullough.
Roberta has two published novels, a collection of paranormal and historical short stories, and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories included in several anthologies. She and is also a contributor to the Ask the Authors 2022 (WordCrafter Writing Reference series).
Roberta also has sixteen children’s books and three poetry books published under the name of Robbie Cheadle and has poems and short stories featuring in several anthologies under this name.
Roberta’s blog features discussions about classic books, book reviews, poetry, and photography. https://roberta-writes.com/
52 Responses
I love visiting castles also, Robbie! What a privilege you had to have visited many castles in the UK. It’s great you included one story about the castle in your new book. Thank you for hosting, Joan. I hope all is well with you. 🙏
Hi Miriam, I have always enjoyed castles and they feature in a few of my books. I’m so pleased you enjoyed this post.
Thanks for the well wishes, Miriam. I’m doing good! And thanks for visiting Robbie’s post.
Good to hear you’re doing well, Joan. Take care. 💞
Wonderful to see Robbie out and about.
Thank you, Craig
Thanks for visiting, Craig.
I’ve never been to Europe, so I’ve never seen any of those magnificent castles. Great excerpt!
HI Priscilla, I’m pleased you enjoyed the extract. I am fortunate to have seen so many castles in Europe. I have also seen the castles in Budapest and Oslo as well as Buckingham Palace and Holy Rood Palace in the UK.
Me either, Priscilla. Maybe someday…
Hi Joan, thank you for hosting me today. The post looks wonderful.
So happy to have you, Robbie. Wishing you all the best on the book.
Robbie really shows her chops for storytelling in this book. I’m not into paranormal and still hung on each story!
Hi Jacqui, thank you for the lovely compliment.
Now you have me intrigued even more. Thanks for visiting, Jacqui.
I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and tour some castles. How wonderful that you’ve done so!
Best wishes on your release, Robbie. Thanks for hosting, Joan.
Thank you, Staci, for the well wishes. I love castles and I’ve been to several more than I mentioned here. My family are always castled out after a trip to Europe.
Does it not surprise you, that I’d also like to do that? Thanks for stopping by, Staci.
It does not. lol
I’m also fascinated by secret passages, Robbie. I’d love to have a hidden room behind a bookcase – maybe my own private reading space. Enjoyed the excerpt!
Hi Teri, thank you. I am pleased with this collection of stories. It’s my best work to date, I think.
Ooh, that sounds like a wonderful idea, Teri. There is a house near us that has a “tornado” room in the center (basements don’t work well around here because of the soil). This room, while not secret, would be a great place to escape.
Good to see Robbie on the march. Super extract and love the cover. Congratulations to Robbie and thanks to Joan.
Hi John, I will love you forever for your comment about the cover. I was so worried about using my own artwork for a book cover.
You did great. It communicates extremely well.
Thanks for stopping by, John. I think Robbie did a great job on the cover.
I do too. 😁
I, too, wished for secret passageways and hidden rooms when I was a kid! Thanks for the information about the various ways in which they were used in a castle.
Hi Liz, I have always found castles and castle life fascinating. I have a few books for children (boys mainly) about castles with all sorts of interesting fold outs.
The closest I’ve come to a castle is Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I found it gloomy and damp inside with way too many passageways and stairs. Nice ocean view, though. https://www.hammondcastle.org/
Right there with you, Liz!
😃
I am in the middle of reading this book. I love the stories. They are dark, intriguing, fascinating, and they feel real, and some of them are based on real events. This post is a great presentation of the books and to Robbie. I am originally from Sweden where there are also many old castles but I did not know all that interesting information.
Hi Thomas, I am hoping to get to Sweden and Denmark at some point. Castles are always on my visit list. I am so pleased you are enjoying these stories. I was pleased with the re-writes of all of them.
Both Copenhagen and Stockholm are nice cities and they both have centrally located Royal castles that are easy to visit.
Nice, something to look forward to in the future.
I would love to visit an old castle. The closest I came is a small “castle” in Riverside, California that was built by a Hollywood actor in the early twentieth century.
I visited a couple of Dracula’s castles in Transylvania. The Bran castle and the Poienari castle. The Bran castle is the famous one but irononically that was not Dracula’s castle and is largely a tourist ploy that make it look like a Disney World castle. Still fun though. The Poienari castle is one of his real castles, or his actual real castle, and is said to be haunted. I would not like to be visiting there at night.
Hi Thomas, thanks for this great information. I may get to these castles one day.
Looks like another winner from Robbie. I too love castles, and hidden rooms and passageways.
Hi Darlene, thank you. You have also featured castles and other ancient buildings in your story writing.
I could (literally) get lost in one. Thanks for visiting, Darlene.
A lovely introduction to your book from Joan…I love castles and yes on my visit to Denmark many moons ago I was delighted and awed by the amount of castles…the thoughts of all those secret passages and rooms was exciting 🙂 x
Sounds like an exciting trip, Carol. Thanks for visiting and supporting Robbie.
It was a pleasure as Robbies work is always good to read so well researched and yes I too love a castle they bring the whimsy out😍
💕
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Always a pleasure. Joan x
Hi Carol, thanks for your lovely comment. Castles are fascinating.
Great presentation, Joan, about Robbie and her writing! Excellent excerpt from Robbie’s wonderfully spooky “Hide-and-Seek,” and I loved the information about secret castle spaces. 🙂
This one I will buy. I’m fascinated by old castles. Modern secret passages are there for the same reasons, just modernized. We still have spies and secrets and things to hide — and sometimes need to run away (or bring visitors) in secret. In some ways, the world hasn’t changed much.
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