Paranormal Discovery

The Paranormal Discovery team have returned to investigate the Auld Hoose twice since last August.  The second visit, on the 8th December 2007, was purely an attempt to record more EVPs and was to see if there would be more or less chance of this happening without anybody being present.  Various pieces of recording equipment were set up around the 2 bars and left overnight in the empty building.  Trigger objects were also set out on top of the pool table and filmed.  Questions were pre-recorded and set to play back when the place once the team had left.  A printed list of the questions was also left out on top of the bar.  

The results of this were not as astounding as the voices recorded during the team's initial investigation but several strange noises were indeed recorded.

What appears to be the sound of pool balls being hit was heard on several occassions.  Before leaving we had ensured that all of the pool balls were in the trough at the side of the table.  No balls were left on top of the table and a video camera was filming trigger objects which had been set up on top of the pool table.  The sound of the balls was captured on this video camera as well as on digital voice recorders.  No balls were seen moving on top of the table.  This phenomena is something which has been reported several times by customers and staff.

  .   The female voice is from our prerecorded questions and is not 'ghostly' in any way!!  Listen to the end of the clip - it sounds like a pool ball being hit off the cushion.

 Here you can clearly hear the door being locked as we leave.  Following this there are 2 loud knocks which sound like footsteps very close to the microphone followed by 2 clicks then what sound like pool balls being hit.  You can hear the faint voices of the team outside.

 This clip is for comparison only and was recorded while we were still setting up. You can hear Tori's footsteps as she walks away from the pool table.  (The back bar where the pool table is situated has a linoleum floor covering and the lounge bar is carpeted).

Noises which sounded like movement and footsteps around the room were recorded in both bars.  Nobody could have been inside the building without us knowing about it as we would have seen them on video and would have heard the main and only door being opened.  The cleaner was the only person to enter the premises early in the morning and she was clearly seen on video and the door being unlocked was very loud and unmistakable.

 This clip is baffling and was recorded just after 4am in the back bar.  The rhythmical banging, which sounds like footsteps, is towards the end of the clip.  It certainly doesn't sound like the usual noises of the building settling, timbers creaking etc

There is a strange male sounding voice recorded immediately after we leave.  The main door can be heard being locked and the voice does not sound like any of the team or the owner.

 We are just about to leave the building on this clip.  You can hear the owner's voice followed by the lights being switched off.  Then there is a 'shhh' noise which is perhaps the bottom of the door dragging across the lino.  Straight after this 'shhh' noise there is a weird sounding male voice wich seems to be slowed down (this is how it was recorded and not slowed down by us).  The 'voice' is not recognisable as anyone present.

The team had returned to the pub a few times socially between the investigations and a male spirit appeared to be keen to let himself be known.  Tori saw a man's face looking over Katrina's shoulder at one point (drawing bottom left was drawn after seeing him).  On the same night Katrina saw movement in front of the pool table and was sure she had seen an arm or hand moving when there was nobody there.  The same male figure was seen by Tori and sensed by Mike standing between a couple who had come into the bar to chat to the team.  We assume that this spirit is the 'Joker' picked up on before, the drawings by Tori are very similar.

 

 

 

 

 Tori's pre-investigation impressions

Tori picked up on three main spirits before the investigation:

Spirit 1:   "'The joker' - he has brown, short hair and a scar on his face.  He is in his late 30s and he is the spirit that comes through the strongest.  He likes to play jokes and moves things, although he can be nasty, taking his jokes too far (or was like that in life anyway).  He likes interacting with people and is very happy about the fuss being made about him and people talking about him.  He may have worked at the pub but I doubt it, he is more likely to have been a customer.  I think he liked the pool table."

Spirit 2:   "'The bearded man' - small, but quite big built/stocky man.  In his late 40s/early 50s.  He has a thin, but full beard.  He appeared to me wearing glasses some of the time and other times not, so I assume this means they are more likely to be reading glasses.  He has salt and pepper hair (dark/black and grey mixed) - I feel he started to go grey at a younger age and always appeared older than he was.  I see the letter 'F' related to this man and his name could have been Frank or Francis.  He was in a position of authority, either managing or owning the place.  He died in a fire, but I don't feel that was on the premises.  He has unfinished business in connection to money he acquired by illegal means.  I feel he hid money that was stolen.  I don't think he broke into a house or anything like that, but I do feel he was fiddling the books or it was fraud or something similar.  It's like he either wants to tell somebody about the money, where it was or where it came from and it's as if he died without getting the chance to finish what he started."

Spirit(s) 3:  "This is two or three spirits that go round together, I almost want to say that they are attached to each other.  They are very old and have been around for a long time.  One of these is certainly a female but I don't know about the others.  They could be linked to the graveyard as I don't feel they are connected to a person or the building itself.  I think it was their voice saying 'we're moving' before.  I was warned to stay away from them as they may be dangerous if provoked (but not to the people who work or stay in the place)."

I asked if there are remains on the premises and was told yes, there are.  This would indicate to me that part of the building was part of the graveyard at one time and somebody would have been buried there long before this.  I think last time I saw the rotting remains to indicate that these people died due to disease.  I think they may even have been linked to the rumour of the plague victims' mass grave in the graveyard, but cannot be 100% sure of that."

Residual spirits:   "There are a few more visiting that are partly residual.  I still feel that there is a busy pub going on.  There is still drinks being served and the bustle of people.  The evps of the male voice we got could well be a residual spirit though this wouldn't explain why they seemed to answer to us, so perhaps there is a little more than just residual, but there certainly still is a pub serving drinks etc from a time gone by.

I see a 'J' linked to the place - not a John, James or Joe, but a Jim or Jock, or something similar shortened.  It's like I want to say that 'J' could tell us about the ghosts there, like 'J' was of more recent times and knew of the ghostly goings on, though I feel he wouldn't admit it.  I don't think it's likely that 'J' is still there.  Unless he visits.

The investigation

Investigators present: Katrina, Natalie, Tori, Bozzie, Steve

Weather: dense fog, cold

The investigation didn't get underway properly until around 1am, at which point baseline readings were taken and the various equipment set up.  Trigger objects were placed on the bar and a camcorder set up to film them.  4 voice recorders were placed around the building to record sound over as wide an area as possible.  

Lounge (first vigil):   Not long into this vigil, a light mist was seen by Natalie behind Katrina as she walked away after standing up from the bar stool.  It was seen rising upwards and could be seen in the dim light against the back of Katrina's black coat.  At the same time, an orb was filmed going up from the bar stool towards the doorway followed by a line-shaped anomaly near the ceiling going towards the doorway (closer examination of these suggests they are perhaps an insect and a hair and nothing interesting)

Back bar:   The team headed outside to the smoking area (this area was where the pool table was on the first investigation).  Tori still sensed an energy hotspot, but said that this was much weaker since the area had been converted.  After a few minutes, everybody headed back inside as there was no apparent paranormal activity.  On entering the back bar, Steve commented that he felt like there was someone in the bar, just as he walked in.  Nobody was in there and all team members were accounted for.  As the team were sitting quietly a short while later, a yelp was heard by everybody coming from over the other side of the bar, in the lounge area.  Tori initially thought that it was Katrina or Natalie, but it became evident that nobody present was responsible for the sound.  This sound was  recorded on audio, but it is unfortunately quite faint.  Steve also remarked, as the ladies were returning from the toilet area, that he heard a noise in the lounge, but this may have been the sound of the women returning - the noise could have travelled down into the lounge from the toilet corridor as the door to the lounge was open. 

Glass divination was tried in the back bar.  The glass started to move within seconds, by a spirit claiming to be 'the joker'.  Contradictory answers were given, however, and no facts given that could be verifiable.  The communicating spirit answered that there was a spirit of a bearded man in the pub, too and that he was responsible for moving things.  This man had unfinished business in connection to money gained in an illegal manner.  The spirit also said that there were another 7 spirits in the building, 3 of whom are just people going around their daily business unaware of what is going on around them.  An orange light was seen to briefly flash in front of the porch door by Natalie and then Tori saw the same thing a few seconds later - there was nothing to account for this.  And almost immediately after, Katrina saw a horizontal white line move down the door from halfway up to the ground.  After a team member asked for the spirit to show itself or make a noise, Bozzie exclaimed that he had filmed a huge light anomaly near the ceiling above the bar.  Strangely, upon playing this footage back, nothing at all was recorded.  A few shuffling noises were heard but, again, nothing was recorded.  The only notable noise captured was on video camera, and this was, like on previous visits, the sound of pool balls hitting together.  Most requests for help in giving the team genuine answers or providing other phenomena, such as showing itself or making a noise, were ignored or refused by this spirit.  As a result, the divination session was brought to an end.

After this, table tipping was attempted in the back bar, but with no success.

Lounge (2nd vigil):  It was decided that table tipping would be attempted in the lounge, on a different kind of table.  While casting the protective circle around the participants and the table, Tori became aware of a threatening presence near her and had to repeatedly tell it to move away.  Just prior to this, Natalie had seen shadowy movement next to Tori's left side.  After a few minutes, the table did eventually move in response to requests for this.  All 4 team members taking part felt as if the table was being pushed from underneath.  Tori at one point even saw an extra hand placed on the table.  The table also rocked backwards and forwards a few times.  Tori and Katrina felt a light tap coming from underneath the table and Tori saw a white mist in the centre of the table.  Strangely, everybody simultaneously felt on one occasion that the table was moving slightly when it wasn't.  Bozzie, who was filming the event and sitting just inside the circle, suddenly stood up and stated that he was moving from that position because something had been breathing down his neck for about 5 minutes.  Katrina, at around the same time, said she could feel a draught on her arm and Tori felt a breath on the side of her face.  Tori indicated that she felt a man was watching from the end of the bar, in front of the doorway to the corridor.  An orb was filmed at the same time near the end of the bar.  Tori also saw a golden ball of light coming out of the newspaper sitting on the end of the bar and Katrina saw movement in the darkness in the same area.  After significant movement from the table, this gradually died down to nothing and the vigil, and investigation, was concluded.

Review of findings

The team commenced the investigation with high hopes that similar phenomena to the first investigation would occur and be recorded, such as the clear evps.  Unfortunately, this did not happen.  It is interesting to note that the sound of Terry's footsteps in the flat upstairs were only just audible, and this is particularly helpful when listening to the footsteps caught on the voice recorder from the evp night a few weeks before - it would suggest that the footsteps heard could not have been caused by anyone in the flat above.  They were simply too loud. 

Various orbs were caught on the video footage, but these are more than likely due to dust.  All of the visual light anomalies were only seen by the naked eye and not seen on tape, although an orb was filmed at the same time as the mist that was seen behind Katrina at the beginning of the night.  Likewise, an orb was filmed at the same time and in the same place that Tori sensed a man standing. 

The trigger objects on the bar had not been moved. 

The table tipping experiment in the back bar was unsuccessful, as expected, due to the low and heavy table.  The tall, lightweight table in the lounge did move and subconscious movement from the participants cannot be ruled out.  The breeze felt by the 3 team members in the lounge could have been due to a draught coming in from the toilet corridor - it is known that the gent's toilet window was open slightly, or it may have been from one of the fridge fans that had switched on. 

The renovation work involving what was the pool table area revealed an old fireplace built into the corner.  The flue is actually built into the graveyard wall and this is the exact area that Tori had sensed a 'hotspot' of energy on previous visits.  What function this part of the building served is unclear, but a large flooring slab was uncovered and holes in the graveyard wall are evident where roof beams had once been.  It is quite possible that there used to be a path running alongside the graveyard wall and onto the street and that an extension of the building was added a long time ago, effectively joining the building to the wall.  From old maps, and from the appearance of the wall as it is now, it looks likely that part of this wall has been moved inwards by a few feet (towards the cemetery) at some point.  This would mean that land that was once part of the graveyard (and presumably that had human remains in it) is now incorporated into the site of the building. 

Despite the lessened activity, Paranormal Discovery still enjoyed their investigation at the Auld Hoose and are aware that it is still a very paranormally active location. The owners and staff are used to the strange goings on and accept the phenomena as part of the pub's character. 

 Photos below show the changes to the pub since our first visit.

1. The pool table with trigger objects on top. The corner where the coats are was originally thought by Tori to be a 'hotspot' or area of high energy or even a portal.

2. A beam hole found during renovation work. This goes into the graveyard wall and suggest an earlier building on site rather than the small garage-like annexe. Was this older building here before the pub was built ?

3.The corner flue/ fireplace discoverd in the exact spot Tori had deemed significant before.

4.Outside the pub. A view of the graveyard wall adjoining the pool room. The curved part of the wall is where the flue/coat corner is. Why does it curve around the little added on building? The wall is straight till it reaches this point as we checked. It is also lower at this point where it meets the annexe. The very old gravestones can be found right along the length of the wall until you reach the part in front of the pub and the curved wall. There is only one family gravestone there from the mid 1800s. If you look closely at the wall, if it were to carry on in a straight line it would pass through the corner of the pub where the flue is and the coat rack was previously. Has the wall been moved back to accommodate the building of the small addition to the pub? (or the older building that may have been there before?) Or was the smaller building squeezed into the space between the main pub building and the cemetery wall? Close inspection of the wall from the cemetery side shows housebricks built into the wall by the flue so the wall may have been altered or rebuilt by the pub.     

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To go back to the first Auld Hoose investigation report click here.