Paranormal Discovery

Date: 19/09/09 Times: 20.30 – 05.00

Moon Phase: new moon Weather : damp, calm

Investigators present: Katrina, Natalie, Tori, Gordon, David, Kyle, Gary, Geraldine

Walkround

The start of the investigation was promising for as soon as we had arrived and entered the shop via the main door Tori saw what she described as 2 red coated soldiers standing behind the counter in the shop. Nothing odd about this really as this would have been the back wall of a vaulted cellar at one time. Some time later Gordon also had a strange experience on the ground floor level when everyone had congregated in the old kitchen which is next door to the shop. He saw a man's face peeking around the door frame of the doorway between the shop and kitchen. He described this man as having dark hair and a moustache. Of course, nobody could be found to account for this.

A lot more time than usual was devoted to our walkround and familiarising new team members to the layout of the castle. It was decided to start at the top and to work our way down to the ground floor and then on to the opposite side of the castle into the newer Victorian wing to finish. Whilst on the topmost floor in the attic area it was decided to set up a locked off area for experiments. Unexplained footsteps had been heard and recorded in this area before and Tori and Natalie had both felt a spirit presence. A spirit male was sensed in the turret room to the left of the main door into the attic. Tori named him Lachlan. A Polish soldier was also thought to have been active in the area. He had been killed in a brawl that had begun in the attic area. Tori could see the 2 men involved rolling around on the floor in the centre of the room with a crowd gathered round cheering them on. It all went too far and one man died but she didn't think that he actually died in the same area, but perhaps in an area of the now demolished wing to the rear of the castle.

A friendly note was written in Polish and pinned beside some trigger objects (coins and playing cards) left as a gift for the soldier in the hope that something might be disturbed. A camcorder was positioned to film part of the room where the trigger objects, data logger and voice reorder had been set up. The camcorder was about 15 feet away from the voice recorder which is noteworthy later on. The whole area was secured by room alarms.

Following our walkround it was decided to divide into 2 smaller groups. The first group took up position in the Dewar room in the Victorian Wing and the second as far away as possible in the attic. We then changed location, the 2^nd group then spending time in the Dewar room and the 1^st relocating to the Chief's bedroom on the second floor. It is important to point out that voices/steps etc from each group could not be heard from the other. The only time that one group was detected by another was during the second vigil when the group in the Dewar room could see flashes in the window above the open stair case. These lights were caused by the camera flashes of the other team members in the Chief's room.

Dewar Room, Victorian Wing

Both groups spent time here and both heard rustling at the foot of the stairs and in the corridor below. However, it was noted that there were some sacks beside the back door and a member of staff had been in earlier. Perhaps she had disturbed or moved something in the corridor or kitchen which was then settling back down ( a plastic bag for example).The camcorder which had been set up in the middle of the room and which had more than half of its battery power remaining died suddenly 21 minutes into the vigil and would not switch back on. It was discovered later that the battery was drained.

Some of the team felt unusual sensations such as breezes and cobweb feelings on their faces all of which can be explained. Tori thought that she had heard a female mumbling voice whilst in the centre of the room. Nothing was recorded to account for these murmurs but Geraldine, who was using a sound amplifier and headphones, did say that somebody had said 'shhh' after Tori had spoken to tell su about the murmuring. This was recorded. Nobody present could remember saying 'shh' plus Geraldine had been facing everyone in the room when it occurred. Katrina and Gary had been sitting next to each other also and neither had heard the other say anything. This happened one more time later on. However, it could be argued that one of us had said 'shh' and had forgotten and so this has to be dismissed.

Natalie sensed the presence of a young man, maybe in his teens or early 20s , in the centre of the room. He was wearing a white shirt, was dark haired and was a little apprehensive about coming forward.All of those present during the 2^nd vigil had commented on how the temperature must have dropped because everyone felt so cold. The information collected from the data logger showed that there were no temperature fluctuations during the vigils in this room.

Chief's Room (Room 19)

Gordon immediately got a headache upon entering the room.Tori felt very nauseous when standing by the tapestry. She had sensed an angry male spirit pacing up and down in that general area and another well built man watching everyone from the top of the stone steps which lead into the room.Lesley and Katrina both heard what they described as movement upstairs in the display room. Everybody was accounted for and all sitting in the Chief's room.

Two episodes of whistling were recorded during this vigil. They were recorded on a voice recorder which had been placed on the stone step of the threshold between the stairs and the strong room off them, some distance away from the team members. Nobody can recall anyone whistling at all but for lack of any other footage or evidence these noises will have to be attributed to one of us present. The whistles are tuneful and not the sounds of wind through a window frame etc. They sound like someone whistling through their teeth.

Pink Room

Divination was carried out in this room with no new/interesting information being passed on. Both Tori and Geraldine saw 2 flashes of light while facing the big window at the end of the room. The flashes were within the room and were seen by both women at the same time. Tori also saw an indiscriminate figure standing by the tripod nearest the windows ten minutes later.Calling out was attempted and a few minutes later Gordon remarked that he could see a woman standing in the corner of the room by the store cupboard door, near the door to the withdrawing room. He described her as being the same lady he had seen before in Victorian dress.Photos were taken of all areas but nothing unusual came to light.

Shop

Last vigil of the night with everyone present except one investigator who was asleep in the office one floor up with the door closed.Again communication was attempted via glass with the group of soldiers who had quickly made themselves known to Tori making her feel threatened and surrounded. Only one new piece of information was gained which may be relevant and that was that the alleged spirit soldier communicated that the Redcoats had been garrisoned at the castle for at least 10 months (he had been killed after 10 months at the castle).

Various attempts to gain a physical response were tried by calling out. At one point a loud noise was heard by Katrina, Tori and Lesley. This sound was thought to have been fairly close, maybe even in the corridor but had different interpretations by everyone who heard it. Katrina thought that she had heard a deep cough, Lesley described it as 2 taps and Tori thought it sounded like a man's voice. Despite the 3 of us all hearing something and commenting that it was quite loud, it was not recorded on voice recorder or camcorder or was perhaps too faint. The spirit soldiers were asked if they could move or touch anything physical. The response to this was that the glass began to move (some of us touching it) across the table in a manner not seen before. The glass continued right to the edge of the table to push a tealight that was sitting there right over the edge. This was found to be quite humorous.

Interestingly during the session in the shop, Natalie who had been asleep upstairs in the office had been awoken at one point by loud tapping which had startled her. This sound had come from the area by the entrance to the Pink Room from the small hallway and had been loud enough to wake her up. Nobody else had ventured upstairs at this time.

Attic

The room was left vacant during our walkround and break. During this time the team can be heard becoming fainter and fainter as we made our way through the rooms of the castle ending up on the ground floor. We can be heard in the bottom corridor. It is at this point as we were making our way to the new wing that a 'voice' was recorded in the attic, both on camcorder and on voice recorder. There is silence apart from this 'voice' of 2 syllables. It is too close to have been any person from 3 floors below and in another wing. We had considered the possibility that something had brushed the external mic of the voice recorder and the resulting sound had been 'voice like' but this is impossible given that it is recorded on 2 devices 15 feet apart. There is the possibility that this is interference that sounded like a voice but again on 2 separate devices? This doesn't occur at all during the rest of the 1hour 40 minutes of recording when the room is empty. 

<----Position of voice recorder on beam near floor.

 Final position of camcorder is shown in photo below

Whispery voice recorded on voice recorder approximately 3 seconds into clip.  2 syllables/noises can be heard. There appears to be some faint background noise, bumps and what almost soundslike singing. This is most likely the team's footsteps and voices echoing we made our way along the ground floor corridor to the new wing.

Same again but taken from camcorder footage, about 9 seconds into the clip.

One group conducted a vigil here. Only 3 minutes after arriving Gordon's camcorder battery had drained despite being half full seconds earlier.The group spent some time in the entresol tower room down a flight of steps. Gordon quickly became aware of what he described as someone breathing on his neck. This made him decide move and sit across at the other side of the room. Photos were taken which showed no anomalies. Nothing was recorded on audio that is unexplained from this time except for the earlier 'voice' when the room was empty. There were no temperature variations and the trigger objects had not moved.

Photo below was taken just as Gordon felt what he desribed as something breathing on his neck.

Glass divination was carried out. 

A spirit apparently desperate to communicate came through and the information given was that she was female, not here all the time but visiting, that she could move to other areas of the castle, died young and used to come here socially and is now looking for her husband. She indicated that she doesn't need any help and is not frightened.

During this session Tori gasped as she had seen a young woman standing in the centre of the room. This woman matched descriptions that have been given before by team members of her appearance : young, long gown, brown hair in some kind of loose bun.

Later both Natalie and Tori stated that they thought she was sitting on the piano stool. Natalie said that she could see the outline of her dress over her knees and legs. Photos were taken but showed nothing unusual.We were not in darkness at this time as the wall lights were on.

Most of the audio recordings from this time were compromised because of the noise from the nearby party and from movement from the other team upstairs and in the corridor. The stonework was also causing all of our voices to echo and so deciphering what was being said was impossible at times. However, it was an interesting vigil with almost everyone seeing something strange at one time or another. We were joined during this vigil for part of the time by two investigators from the Glasgow team who joined us left for a while and then rejoined the group.

We were quickly aware of the presence of the usual gang of spirit soldiers surrounding us. We had worked out long ago that some of these spirits seem to take up set positions when we are there. There is one in particular who stands behind Tori and one who appears to be attracted to Natalie. Another always waits out in the corridor guarding the door. Another stands right in the corner to the left of the door as you enter the room.

Natalie soon felt nauseous after sitting down which indicates to her the presence of a nasty spirit. Tori also kept describing how she was smelling 'sewage' yet nobody else could smell anything until much later on when Gordon also stated that he could smell it.

Lots of movement was seen out in the corridor, a spirit man walking past the doorway and another standing to the right of the door in the photo.

Some of the team had various visual experiences seeing things such as movement and white misty shapes etc. For example,  Natalie saw a column of white mist behind a chair in front of the low doorway into cellar 5. This was right in the centre of the area being filmed but nothing unusual was recorded. Katrina saw a red triangle which appeared left to right and then moved back, a foot above the floor in the corridor to the left of the doorway.  One explanation of course is that we were sitting in the dark and these visual  experiences could be attributed to the poor light conditions and our eyes playing tricks on us. However, on more than one occasion more than one of us appeared to see the same thing. 35 minutes after the vigil started Katrina, Tori and Gordon all said that they had seen something move from left to right past the door into the corridor. There was nothing to account for this. No living person had gone past and nobody was using a torch or handheld camcorder which could have cast a shadow.

Later, Katrina who was sitting on a chair with her legs crossed felt the back of her heel being gently squeezed which she didn't find frightening just rather strange. Tori, who was sitting next to her, indicated some time later that her ankle had been pinched.

The soldiers were asked if they could try to show themselves to all of us as until now Gordon was the only one really seeing them. He had been describing how the one standing beside him behind the door was becoming increasingly angry and waving his sword about as before. He had also seen a human shaped figure in the corridor pass the door a few times as had Tori. As an apparent response to our request Natalie,Tori and Katrina all saw a wispy white swirly form appear above the chair back of an empty chair opposite them. A few seconds before this Natalie, Gordon and Tori had seen a similar manifestation between the empty chair and Natalie's chair. This area was out of shot of the camcorder.

Some sounds were also heard during this time but these could be easily explained. Rustling was heard towards the back of the room but it was noted that there was a large pipe in the wall leading to outside. Footsteps were also heard in the corridor nearest the stairs but again the other team could not be ruled out as the sound of their steps may have echoed downstairs.

The equipment was set up and everyone sat down only to hear loud approaching footsteps which appeared to be very fast and perhaps in the room below (Green Room). They sounded as if they were on wood. Nothing much was thought about this because we assumed them to be someone human. It was only then that we noticed that Gordon was not present. Natalie and Sarah thought this must have been Gordon walking about downstairs as we had left him behind in the Green room. However, Katrina said that he was not there when she had collected the camcorder (he was filmed leaving the room before Katrina collected it). Both Katrina and Tori were sure that he had followed them upstairs and Katrina was adamant that she had seen him pass behind her when she was setting up the camcorder and that he had gone down to the entresol tower room.The thought had passed through her mind that he was brave to have gone down there on his own in the dark. Katrina went to the top of the main stairs to shout for him but no answer. She then went to the top of the wooden steps to the entresol tower room and shouted his nickname, "Bozzie". She thought she had received no answer but Natalie asked who had spoken if he wasn't there. Nobody else heard anything but Natalie was convinced that when Katrina had shouted "Bozzie" that a male voice had answered from downstairs. The audio recordings from this time do indeed have a male sounding "voice" in reply to Katrina and nobody had heard it except Natalie. Natalie has since informed us that this may have been recorded but isn't exactly what she had heard at this time.

Gordon eventually reappeared 7 minutes later. He had been outside having a cigarette break and we only heard his footsteps on the stone stairs when he was nearly at the top. It was at this time that he informed us that the other team members were asleep in the new wing. The source of the earlier fast footsteps was then a mystery as was who had passed into the entresol tower room at the start of the vigil.There is only one way into and out of  this room.

The footsteps that were heard sounded exactly like others heard when the team have been there before. Fairly loud, on wood, quite fast and lasting about 20 seconds, perhaps the time it would take to cross the Pink or Green rooms below.

Footsteps recorded in the attic area. These sounded louder to us as at the time than they do recorded. They were recorded on both voice recorder and on video camera at about 5.42am.

1. The following clip is the audio taken from the video recording. It goes like this : "Pardon me"... faint steps ..."Is that footsteps?", "Yes"..louder steps ...."Who's hearing them?", "I'm hearing them"

2. As above taken from voice recorder.

3. Clip taken  from the voice recorder at about 5.37am. Katrina shouts, "Are you down there, Bozzie?" followed by a faint grunt/coughing noise at 2-3 seconds into the clip. This is followed by Katrina saying "No, he would have answered" then Natalie saying "Who spoke there?".The grunt/voice does actually sound quite like Gordon saying "aye".

4. As above but from video. The grunt/voice is much quieter yet the voice recorder and camcorder were in virtually the same spot.