Ghostly Atmosphere

The Ghost of a Challenge set by RichardDonkin for today gave me an idea for today's blip. I also needed to combine it with the last of the October Challenge Words.

This image is a combination of my granddaughter as a willing ghostly model using Photoshop to get the effect of ghostly eyes peering through closed hands. I then dashed over to the Dinton Folly (about 25 mins away) to get an up to date shot of the folly. Of course, when you could do with a bit of grey and murky weather it was bright sun and blue skies!

I had done my research on this building (details below) so I knew of its haunted reputation and combined the modern 'apparition' with the strange building. It is sited beside a busy main road and many will pass by without knowing of its existence. I could have returned at dusk to get a 'darker' shot but I didn't fancy doing that - you never know whether there's truth in the rumours!!

The Dinton Folly
The ruins of Dinton ‘Castle’ near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, are rumoured to be haunted at night by the ghost of John Mayne who was the executioner of King Charles I in 1649. Mayne fell out of favour with Charles II during the restoration and was stripped of his wealth. His ghost is now said to shelter within the crumbling walls of the octagonal folly constructed on a Saxon burial ground, built many years after his death.

The Dinton ‘Folly’ is a building in the form of a castle or temple originally constructed to satisfy a fancy or conceit of Sir John Vanhatten in 1769 to store his collection of fossils; these were unearthed in the local chalk quarry and some are incorporated into the limestone walls. Originally the folly was three storeys high with a newel staircase in the east tower, a fireplace on each floor in the west tower and was used by Sir John's servants.