Gardens inspire romantic writer

Aberglasney Gardens has provided the backdrop for Iris Gower's latest romantic novel

A 17th Century ghost story centred on a west Wales mansion has offered the inspiration for the latest novel by romantic writer Iris Gower.

House of Shadows is set in Aberglasney near Llandeilo, and based on the local legend of five serving girls who all died there in mysterious circumstances.

Gower, who has written more than 40 novels set in and around south west Wales, visited the attraction.

But the writer said she did not see any ghosts herself during her trip.

The local legend has it that one day in the 1630s, a housekeeper at Aberglasney saw five disembodied candles, floating around the mansion's newly-plastered Blue Room.

The next morning, five maids were found dead in their beds.

I do keep an open mind about these things because a lot of people have said they have seen things Novelist Iris Gower

A charcoal stove, which had been left burning to speed the drying of the plaster, had asphyxiated them as they slept.

Over the years, the "corpse candles" developed into one of Aberglasney garden's most abiding legends, and their fearsome flicker became renowned as a dreadful omen of approaching death.

The Swansea-based writer said: "I was allowed into the Blue Room at Aberglasney to do some research and get a sense of the room.

"I didn't see any ghosts myself.

"But I do keep an open mind about these things because a lot of people have said they have seen things."

Her latest work is a love story involving a young artist and a US airman stationed at the gardens near Llandeilo just after the war, and the house in the story is a dilapidated mansion reputed to be haunted.