Green Dragon Inn: Spooky paranormal activities experienced at Yorkshire Dales 13th century pub including flying CDs and a floating beer glass

The Green Dragon Inn is nestled in the Yorkshire Dales village of Hardraw and is believed to date back to the 13th century, which makes it one of the oldest pubs in the Dales.

Its rich history is one of the biggest draws to the pub as well as being the filming location for the Channel 5 series All Creatures Great and Small.

Mark Thompson has owned the pub since 2001 and claimed to have encountered ghosts over the years.

“When we came [to the inn], I was taking all the 70s paraphernalia out, [my partner] Yvonne was there polishing everything and giving it a feeling of home and of love. That’s when the spirits started to appear,” Mr Thompson told The Yorkshire Post.

“They come at different times, if you believe in these things they come at a time when they feel comfortable. We had one behind the bar, who was a boy, we had one in the graveyard.

“The boy was there for many many years. There used to be a little marble or glass ball, we were sitting [at the bar] at night before we went to bed at one or two in the morning after everybody had gone.

“The ball would regularly come down and it would turn right on its own and disappear. We loved all of that. We talked to them.”

Mr Thompson describes a time when the boy ghost would throw CDs.

“After everybody had gone, I’d sit and relax and have a couple of pints behind the bar,” he said.

“It was about two in the morning, I’d put the music up loud because I liked it, CDs would start to fly a little bit.

“There was one occasion, Yvonne was somewhere else in the building and we had closed [to the public] and I couldn’t get in, so I was banging on the door, eventually she came to open the door for me.

“Obviously we disturbed him, the little boy, we didn’t know he was a boy at this point, and as we walked in there was a pile of CDs on the counter and they went up in the air, left and right, and at the same time down, it was like a six handed poltergeist, a massive force.”

A woman who believed she could communicate with ghosts explained to Mr Thompson why she believed the boy ghost threw the CDs.

“I was down in my office, this was when we lived down at Rose Cottage, Yvonne said I should speak to this lady because she has a gift, she reckons she can communicate with ghosts,” he said.

“I was very sceptical about this and I said to her ‘are you serious?’ She said ‘she told me some things that only I can know’ about the bar. 

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“It had only been me who’d experienced the things that I’ve seen and what happened. She told me that the reason why this was going on [throwing CDs] was because there was a little boy there and he was frightened of the noise. 

“He didn’t like loud noises and he was getting apprehensive and trying to calm down. How would she know that there was this noise and these CDs being thrown, nobody had told her.”

There were a couple of other incidents Mr Thompson told The Yorkshire Post.

“There was a group of us who were all standing talking by the large fireplace and an Irish man with a pint of Guinness in his hand said ‘I don’t believe in ghosts’ gesticulating. 

“The Guinness was three quarters full, it came out of his hand, stood in the air for three seconds and then it [smashed] on the floor. He was shocked.

“[The boy ghost] was also turning my music up and down. So I calmed him down and I used to say to him when I was sitting having a pint and [the volume of] my music was being reduced, ‘oh no, just turn it up a little bit, go a bit steady there, we’re not going to fall out tonight over it’. 

“Sure enough the volume would turn back up a bit. We got it eventually to [both of our tastes].”

The current owner of the Green Dragon Inn is still officially Mark, but the pub is being bought over a period of time under a ‘phased purchase agreement’ by the current operator, Andrew Hields, who also shared some stories from members of staff at the pub.

“I haven’t had an experience myself but a few of the staff members have talked about when they were in a room by themselves, they’ve heard their names being called out,” Mr Hields said.

“A few other staff members mentioned that they saw an individual at an unsociable hour, followed them into the next room and they weren’t there. 

“There’s a lot of history with the old owners and old operators whereby there are about five ghosts apparently in various sections of the building; there are two children and three adults.

“With the amount of reports and some of the things we’ve experienced up at Tan Hill, it’s undeniable, we’ve got CCTV footage of certain things happening that are quite unexplainable.”