I’m A Celeb’s Ruthie Henshall and Russell Watson have both encountered GHOSTS before

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! newcomers Russell Watson and Ruthie Henshall likely won’t have problems sleeping in the supposedly haunted Gwrych Castle, given their history with ghosts.

The pair revealed ahead of entering the show on Tuesday that they’ve encountered the supernatural in the past.

Ruthie, 53, recounted: ‘I remember when I was about 17 or 18 I stayed in an old mill. I was on my own and I got myself in a state.

‘I kept hearing the fridge door opening and closing and people padding around on carpet. I got so frightened at one point I had to just put my head under the covers.

‘Then when I poked my head out I saw a little boy in a grey school uniform sitting at the end of the bed. Shorts and an old fashioned shirt.

‘To this day I have no idea whether that was my imagination or if that’s what I saw!’

Russell, 53, shared his own ghoulish encounter.

‘I used to live at an old farm and I had this housekeeper. And one day she came to me and said, “I can’t work here anymore! I have seen something and I don’t feel comfortable here on my own!”

‘Then she left and that was it.’

He went on: ‘Six years later, after I’d moved out, this chap approached me and said, “Oh you lived in that house didn’t you? Did you ever seen the old lady sitting in the chair in the lounge?” 

‘I never did see this woman but whenever I went to bed there it felt like the house was breathing. It was in the middle of nowhere. Outside, if you put your hand in front of your face you wouldn’t see it.’

Of staying at the Welsh ruin, Russell revealed that a friend of his has already warned him that it’s haunted.

‘A friend of mine is a spiritual medium and he searched for ghosts at the castle once. I’m not a big fan of ghosts or the dark,’ Russell recounted.

Of his fear of the dark, he said: ‘It’s a control thing. If I can’t see things and can’t control  them.

‘And I am definitely scared of heights. I went to Marbella once  – to the Ronda hills. And we went up this hill where there are all these panoramic views, it’s really high. And I walk out onto this balcony and my feet start tingling and I start sweating and worrying that this thousand-year-old rock was going to crumble.’

During the premiere episode of I’m A Celeb on Sunday night viewers noticed a shadowy figure stood at one of the castle windows during the broadcast. 

While rumours of the Regency era castle being haunted have been discussed at length in the lead up to this year’s series, no-one expected a ghostly sighting this early on.

One of the medieval-style windows appeared to have a spectral shape stood in it as the camera panned across one shot of the castle.

The most famed ghost at the castle is said to be previous lady of the house Winifred Hesketh, the Countess of Dundonald, who died in 1924.

The apparition of a woman has been seen by several eye-witnesses over the years – sometimes seen in a red dress, other times in white, said to be floating.

The ghostly countess is said to be a vengeful spirit, reeling after her husband – Scottish aristocrat Douglas Cochrane, the 12th Earl of Dundonald – removed all of the valuables from their several properties. 

A chilling photo taken 10 years ago shows a pale, shadowy young woman on the first floor — in what used to be a magnificent banquet hall.

Some locals also believe that the spirit of a servant girl who died falling off a horse haunts the land. Others say ghosts of former groundskeepers have been seen around the 200-year-old castle, amid its 250 acres of deer park.

Winifred inherited the castle from her father in 1894. She was married to Douglas when she was 19 and he was 26, against her will.

They were unhappy, with Douglas rarely at the castle, while Winifred doted on it, at one point in talks with the royal family about making it their Welsh residence.

She died, however, in 1924 of heart failure, with the royals abandoning plans to take over the castle, apparently goaded by Douglas.

Following Winifred’s death, Douglas stopped their children from living at Gwrych and took it upon himself to sell his late wife’s art, literature and jewellery collection, against the wishes in her will.

Desperate to amass a fortune out of it, he tried to sell the castle off as a quarry site, then as a hotel, but his plans were constantly thwarted – with legend suggesting Winifred continued to interfere from beyond the grave.

Boxer Randolph Turpin trained at the castle in 1951 and was running on the grounds one morning when he came across a woman in tears. He approached her, only for her to vanish before him. 

The Abergele rail disaster of 1868 took place less than a mile away, which saw 33 people killed, and the cliffs the castle sits on have been the site of shipwrecks over the years, prompting speculation that victims of such tragedies also haunt the local countryside.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! airs at 9PM on ITV.