GHOSTS OF SOTTERLEY

It’s the perfect time of year for a St. Mary’s County ghost story! The following is a first-person tale of an encounter with a ghost-like being at @Historic Sotterley. For this and other @Sotterley Plantation ghost stories, visit our website!

“My mother and father used to work here at night all the time so when I came to the mansion the outside spotlight came on so I thought my mother was here. Before I got all the way up the driveway, the light went out and then I looked and the house was completely dark so I didn’t think anything of it; I just went home. So the next night I came through here and the same thing happened, except this time a light came on in the library. I came up to the library and looked in the window and as soon as I looked in the lamp went off. Then a light came on over in the dining room, so I figured a person had walked around there, so I went over and that lamp went off. Then lights started coming off and on all through the house; upstairs, the kitchen, everywhere. I was just kind of fascinated, but I went home.

“On the third night, I came by and there was a light on so I went over to a neighbor and told them ‘the lights had been coming on and going off in the mansion; do you want to come and take a look?’. The neighbor came with me. We went up to the mansion and there were no lights on. Suddenly, lights started coming on. We looked in and lights were going off and on, even in the guesthouse adjoining Sotterley. While we were standing there, we could hear footsteps in the pantry. My neighbor said to me ‘let’s stand here and we’ll catch them now’. So we were standing there and the footsteps came in front of us towards the door; the doors opened and then closed and the footsteps went into the kitchen. The footsteps were right in front of us but there was no body. I was just standing there transfixed because it was amazing.

“I went to turn to my neighbor to say ‘did you see that?’, but she had her little boy under her arm and she was halfway across the yard.

“I’m saying it was ghosts.”