On the edge of Halkyn Mountain stands Ffagnallt Hall, an ancient farmhouse with medieval foundations and a fine Jabobean staircase. The farmer and his family share their home with an occupant perhaps even older than the house itself - the yellowed remains of a skull, reverently locked away in a glass-fronted case on the mantlepiece. A well-known legend states that this macabre relic belonged to a Welsh hero - some say Dafydd, Prince of Wales, a relation of King Henry I - who was murdered by his brother-in-law while taking refuge in the hall.

There had been a price on the hero's head and the treacherous lord of Ffagnallt had poisoned his cup, in order to claim the reward from his English overlords. But before he died, the hero cursed the house. He said that after his death, his head should be removed from his body and put in a place of honour in the house, so that the cowardly deed should never be forgotten. After the murderer had given over the corpse to the English, and he had received the bounty, his fate was sealed. His wife, his son, and, eventually, the whole court left him, and he died in madness, alone in the empty hall. His son then retrieved the hero's head, now a fleshless skull, from its spike on the gateway into Chester, and he, his mother and their retinue returned to Ffagnallt. The skull was placed in a casket on a table in the main hall where all could see it.

For many years the hall prospered, but then came a period of repeated tragedy. The heir of the hall died in a hunting accident, his sister drowned in a swamp, the crops failed and the farm animals were all found dead one morning. It was then that the casket containing the skull was found to be missing. A magician was called in to try and end the run of bad luck. He interviewed the servants, and suddenly one of them cried out in terror. An apparition of the skull was hovering above his head! The magician told the terrified man that if he told the truth the skull would not harm him. The servant explained that he had stolen the casket, guessing that it was filled with jewels. He had carried it to the churchyard and buried it. At once, the skull was retrieved and returned to its former position, thus ending the misfortune that had fallen on the house.

The skull was also removed from Ffagnallt in the 19th century by a peevish maid, anxious to be rid of the 'dusty old thing'. She threw it in the duckpond! That night bloodcurdling moans and shrieks echoed through the house, doors crashed open and closed and heavy, ghostly footsteps tramped the corridors. The maid was found in her nightie splashing about in the pond in a delirious state, searching for the skull which she had foolishly found out. As soon as it was found and returned to its rightful place, the creepy disturbances ceased. And, the current owners tell me, that is the way it is going to stay - they intend to make sure the skull remains peacefully in its box on the mantlepiece for as long as they live there!