Explore Bolsover Castle at night if you dare. The castle was built on ancient burial grounds and is notorious as one of the most haunted sites in the country. Staff provide visitors a 'ghost book' to record their paranormal experiences. Ghost hunts take you on a chilling past exploration with tales of supernatural sightings and historical horrors. You'll need a torch - it's going to get dark...

This heritage site in Derbyshire dates back to the 12th Century when it was known as Bolsover Manor. It was taken over by Royal Seizure in 1155 and saw a battle in 1216 before being abandoned in 1322. The Cavendish family took residence in 1600 and added the little castle, turning it into a lavish estate. Bolsover Castle has been owned by the English Heritage since 1945 and is known to be haunted, with guests often reporting paranormal sensations.

The castle was founded in the late 11th century by William Peveril, one of William the Conqueror's knights, but it was neglected from the mid-14th century. Its ruins provided the setting for the Little Castle begun in 1612 by Sir Charles Cavendish as a retreat from his principal seat at Welbeck, a few miles away.

The design of the Little Castle was intended to evoke a Norman great tower, which it resembles viewed from a distance, rising sheer from the cliff. The interior continues the impression, with massive round Romanesque vaults in the basement and pointed Gothic ones on the entrance floor. The great windows of the upper floors were designed to give panoramic views across the landscape.

When Charles Cavendish died in 1617, most of the structure was finished. His son William – playboy, poet courtier and later first Duke of Newcastle – inherited the Little Castle and completed the interiors with the help of the architect John Smythson.

What resulted was a kind of ‘toy keep’, housing tiers of luxurious staterooms. The exquisitely carved fireplaces and richly coloured murals, and panelling of its exceptionally well-preserved and beautifully restored interiors still take the visitor on a metaphorical journey from earthly concerns to heavenly delights.

William also added the vast and stately Terrace Range overlooking the Vale of Scarsdale, now a dramatic roofless shell. To show off his achievement, in 1634, he hosted Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria here, when the entertainment Love’s Welcome, a masque specially written for the occasion by Ben Jonson, was performed in the Fountain Garden.

During the Civil War, William fought for the Royalists, but he was defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644 and went into exile. During his exile, William met his wife, Margaret, who had travelled to Paris as a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.

Upon the return of the Cavendishes to England in 1660, William and Margaret began to restore their estates. At Bolsover, they rebuilt the state apartment in the Terrace Range and built the cavernous Riding House Range with its magnificent roof and viewing galleries. The Riding House is one of the earliest England to survive complete and a landmark in British equestrianism. Here William indulged his passion for training great horses in stately dressage.