By the North Tyne stands the 14th century Haughton Castle, and is said to be haunted by the notorious clan chief Archie of the Armstrong family. Centuries ago the Lord of Haughton Castle Thomas Swinburne captured and imprisoned Archie in the dungeons, but he forgot to tell anyone to give his prisoner any food and water. While at a meeting in York a few days later, Swinburne remembered about his prisoner only because he found the keys to Archie's cell in his pocket.
Thomas Swinburne panicked and quickly left the meeting to gallop his horse all the way home back to Northumberland. Unfortunately he was far to late to save Archie Armstrong. There on the cell floor lay the horrorifying sight of Archie's dead body, as it seems in desperation for food Archie had gnawed the flesh from his own arm.
It was not until many years later that the ghost of Archie Armstrong was exorcised from the castle, by a local vicar and a black lettered bible. When the bible had to be taken to London for binding the ghost of Archie Armstrong returned to Haughton Castle, but when the bible was returned to Northumberland the ghost was very rarely seen again.
