Welcome to my offering for The A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018.
My theme this year is Ghostly Inspirations:
a collection of spirits that have been prompted by my encounters with places and times. Some are spooky, some more about atmosphere. I'll be describing each inspiration and the phantom that came to my mind, and then I will share a drabble, which I hope will entertain. :)
Disclaimer: The places and experienced I have used for my inspiration are real, but my ghosts and drabbles are complete fiction, linked to nothing and no-one, alive or dead. When writing about my inspirations, I may have changed names and obfuscated specific details to 'protect the innocent' :).
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C is for Chapter (House)
Inspiration:
I have spent a few summer holidays in North Yorkshire, and one of my favourite places to visit is Rievaulx Abbey. The ruins of this Benedictine Monastery are situated in a beautiful river valley with an atmosphere that never ceased to calm me down. I could spend hours just walking between the broken walls and huge open arches of the chancel. There was an audio tour, which I took the first time I visited, and it explained that the Chapter House, a room with stone benches in a circle for the monks to sit on, was the meeting place where a chapter from the Benedictine Rule was read out. It’s a small part of the site, but it has its own special feeling.
Rievaulx is a wonderful, spiritual place with a long memory.
Ghost:
I have spent a few summer holidays in North Yorkshire, and one of my favourite places to visit is Rievaulx Abbey. The ruins of this Benedictine Monastery are situated in a beautiful river valley with an atmosphere that never ceased to calm me down. I could spend hours just walking between the broken walls and huge open arches of the chancel. There was an audio tour, which I took the first time I visited, and it explained that the Chapter House, a room with stone benches in a circle for the monks to sit on, was the meeting place where a chapter from the Benedictine Rule was read out. It’s a small part of the site, but it has its own special feeling.
Rievaulx is a wonderful, spiritual place with a long memory.
My ghost today is not so much a person, but a sense of history and place. Ancient stones like those of Rievaulx have not passed through the years without gathering memories. The past lives in those rocks, and only needs the right ear to hear it.
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Relief
Too hot and not a roof anywhere and he’d just walked into a dead end! David sat down on the staggered stonework. Huffing and rubbing the sweat from his face, he looked up around at the broken rocks that were reaching up to the cloudless blue sky.
He sighed and closed his eyes.
Cool air flowed over him, he welcomed it. Then, at the back of his mind, he heard the lilt of a male voice. No words, just rhythm; David relaxed into it. No longer too hot, losing himself in the moment, peace settled over him and David smiled.
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He sighed and closed his eyes.
Cool air flowed over him, he welcomed it. Then, at the back of his mind, he heard the lilt of a male voice. No words, just rhythm; David relaxed into it. No longer too hot, losing himself in the moment, peace settled over him and David smiled.
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Other paranormal and spooky stories by Sophie Duncan.
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Ooh, the memories of ancient stones! I love it!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteNice! I haven't spent much time in ancient monasteries, but I've felt the stones' memories in Anasazi ruins in the US southwest.
ReplyDeletePlaces do carry history with them, don't they :)
DeleteI love sitting in places like this. And touching the stones, trying to imagine what all they have seen. It is a very distinct feeling :)
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary: Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales
There are some places that are uplifting and some that are really not, I love the first, not so keen on the second :)
DeleteI love old places like this. And your drabble is soothing. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
DeleteHi Sophie - loved this excerpt ... and so many wonderful places to reimagine history in the stones at their place ... in little old GB - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteYorkshire is jam-packed with old abbey ruins, but Rievaulx is my favourite :)
DeleteNice, evoked the long history of that place for sure!
ReplyDeleteAndi
Thank you :)
DeletePlaces and stones have an essence.
ReplyDeleteThey really do :)
DeleteNicely done!
ReplyDelete