St Nicholas Church, Pluckley - Red Lady
The Red Lady of Pluckley haunts this church and graveyard, searching for her stillborn child in a ghostly vigil that has lasted over a century.
St Nicholas Church sits at the heart of Pluckley, a village famously known as “the most haunted village in England” according to the Guinness Book of Records. The church dates back to the 12th century, though it has been extensively modified over the centuries. The graveyard contains the elaborate Dering Chapel, a private mausoleum for the prominent Dering family who owned much of Pluckley. It is here and in the churchyard that the Red Lady, one of Pluckley’s most famous ghosts, makes her sorrowful appearances, eternally searching for something precious that was lost.
The Red Lady is believed to be Lady Dering, who lived in the 19th century and suffered the tragedy of losing a stillborn child. According to legend, she is buried in the Dering Chapel alongside her lost infant, but her spirit cannot rest. Witnesses describe seeing a woman in a flowing red gown moving through the churchyard, particularly near the Dering Chapel. She appears to be searching among the graves, sometimes bending down as if looking for something on the ground. Her appearances are accompanied by a profound sense of sadness and loss that affects witnesses emotionally. Some report hearing a woman crying softly or calling a child’s name, though the words are never quite clear.
The Red Lady is most frequently seen at dusk and during autumn months, appearing as a semi-transparent figure bathed in an eerie red glow. When approached, she either fades away gradually or vanishes instantly. Several witnesses have reported that she seems aware of observers, sometimes turning toward them with a look of desperate pleading before disappearing. The Dering Chapel itself emanates an atmosphere of grief, and visitors report feeling unwelcome or experiencing overwhelming sadness when approaching it. Paranormal investigators have recorded EVPs of a woman’s voice near the chapel, electromagnetic anomalies in the churchyard, and photographs showing red mists and orbs. The combination of maternal tragedy, aristocratic history, and Pluckley’s general atmosphere of supernatural activity has made the Red Lady one of Kent’s most poignant and frequently witnessed ghosts.