By Tim Binnall
A 17th century chapel in Wales has gone up for auction and, depending on who you believe, the property comes with a rather unsettling feature in the form of a spectral hound said to lurk on the grounds. The spooky site, which is reportedly located near the community of Cwmbran, served as a place of worship centuries ago, although today it largely consists of the remnants of the building and an adjacent graveyard. Long standing local legend says that, at some point in the distant past, the then-minister of the chapel found himself being pursued by a sizeable black dog and, when the menacing creature caught up with him, the man of the cloth was forced to strike the hound with a Bible in order to keep it at bay.
As the story goes, the blow from the holy book wound up causing the creepy canine to burst into flames which burned the minister's beard and seemingly confirmed that the beast was supernatural and sinister in nature. In the centuries since the apocryphal account unfolded, people living in the area have shared stories of the ghost dog said to reside within the chapel grounds. According to a local folklorist, the spectral hound associated with the site could be either a more benevolent guardian spirit tasked with protecting the graveyard against ne'er-do-wells or, alternatively, a darker force which serves as a harbinger of doom to anyone unfortunate enough to encounter it.
Some 'lucky' individual may soon be able to find out for themselves whether or not the purported 'ghost dog' is friend or foe as the chapel and the property surrounding it has recently been put up for auction. Perhaps sensing some reticence from potential buyers, the sellers downplayed the local legend of a spectral hound residing on the land and, instead, simply suggested that the building could be converted into "a lovely house or maybe an unusual AirBnB property." With the promise of possibly encountering a otherworldly creature, one imagines that such a rental property would be quite appealing to ghost hunters and paranormal investigators who have grown bored with pursuing spirits of the human variety.