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 The runaway lovers died together in the Winnats Pass - divine justice lent a hand in punishing their five murderers.
If you drive through the Winnats Pass on a dark night it is easy to believe that it is haunted.
The story of its ghosts begins with a tragic love story of the 1700s. A young couple, remembered only as Allan and Clara, were riding to Peak Forest to be married at the famous “runaway church”.
The lovers had travelled a long way, arriving at Castleton in the dark. They stopped briefly at a local inn, where a group of lead miners noticed that they were carrying a bag of money.
Allan and Clara resumed their journey but as they rode through the Winnats Pass were robbed and murdered by the five men. Their bodies were hidden and not discovered for many years.
The murderers however met “divine justice”. One broke his neck (in the Winnats); a second was crushed by a fall of stone; a third committed suicide; a fourth died mad and the fifth made a death-bed confession.
You can see Clara’s red leather saddle in the shop of Speedwell Cavern, at the entrance to the pass.
Want to know more?
Highways and Byways, J.B. Firth. Macmillan 1908
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Crime & Punishment
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