Paranormal Discovery

The Scottish Fisheries Museum is located opposite the harbour in Anstruther, Fife.  The museum was opened in 1969 but the history of the land on which it is situated goes back as far as the 14th century.  In 1318 the site was given to Balmerino Abbey by William de Candela, Lord of Anstruther.  The abbey received 100 salt fish from every barrel caught as payment from the local fishermen for using the site to dry their nets and for hire of booths.

The museum consists of several old buildings including 2 'A' listed properties: a merchant's house dating from 1721 and the Abbot's Lodging from the 16th century.  In 2000 a new gallery was opened which houses a 78 foot ship.  This area was built on the site of a former smokehouse, cooper's yard and tavern called The Sun Tavern.  If you look across the courtyard when you enter the museum and look up you will see what appears to be a church window.  There was indeed a chapel here in the 15th century which was demolished in 1850 only to be replaced by a storehouse.  Parts of the chapel window were saved and built into the new structure which is what you can see in the photo below.

Reports of paranormal activity at the museum have gone back several years.  These have come from staff for the most part.  However, the museum is quite keen to share these stories which regularly feature in their Halloween event.

Here is a summary of the type of activity witnessed:

• Visitors and staff report a feeling of unease and of being watched in the Zulu gallery, especially in the area where the Sun Tavern would have been (this inn was reputed to be haunted itself).
• Footsteps have been heard by staff when working in the engine room.  This has been after closing and the steps appear to be coming from above in the Days of Steam room.
• A dark figure has been seen crouching down by a boat in the boat yard.  The member of staff who witnessed it had just been painting this particular boat.  It was as if the spirit was inspecting his work!
• Poltergeist activity was reported in the Days of Sail room when a pair of old boots were put in there.  The activity stopped once the boots were returned to their original place in the cottage.
• A child commented after a night-time themed visit to the museum that a spirit man had accompanied them around the museum.
• The door to the cottage is sometimes especially difficult to open as if there is someone's full body-weight pressing on it from the other side.  Even taking into account that wood swells, the door is reported to feel as if it is actually being pushed rather than just being stiff to open.

 The boots

  The Zulu Gallery

Weather: dry  Moon: full

Equipment used:

5 Camcorders: nightvision Sony Hi8 analogue, Sony DCR-HC35E digital

4 Digital cameras: Sony cybershot 3.2mp, Lumicron LDC4013 4.1mp, Epson Photopc 2100Z, Kodak Easyshare C633 Zoom

2 Digital voice recorders: Olympus VN96OPC set at high quality recording

3 Thermometers: Thermomark in/out digital thermometer & Tronic H5546 in/out digital thermometer for ambient temperature, IR101 infrared thermometer for surface temperature.

2 EMF meters: Electrosensor with detection range 50-60Hz & display range of 1.334-30 milliGauss, Cellsensor meter with detection range of 50-60 Hz and display range of 0-50 milliGaus

The investigation started with a walkround so that the team could familiarise themselves with the layout of the building as not everyone had been present at the initial visit.  Trigger objects and a voice recorder were set up in the Days of Steam room on a display case.  A locked-off camera was positioned to film these objects.

Just after the team had arrived in this room, loud footsteps were heard coming from the other side of the room and down in the corridor (to the right of Tori in the picture).  There was no mistaking that we were hearing footsteps and we were supposed to be the only people in the building.  Jennifer and Lindsay had been left in the tea room and we had just seen them as we passed a window in the corridor and they were still there.  However, we were to learn later that Jennifer had indeed entered the building just after we had left her as she needed to unlock a door for us.  She stated that she was in the general direction of where we had heard the steps coming fom but also pointed out that she was wearing trainers and had deliberately tried to be quiet.  The steps that we heard were some time after we had left the 2 ladies in the tea room as we had been into other rooms first, taking photos etc on the way.  If Jennifer had entered the building just after we left then these footsteps could not have been hers.

Time: 20.30-21.00  Temperature: 15.2.C  Investigators present: Katrina, Natalie, Tori, Jennifer, Lindsay

The ladies decided to stick together for the first vigil and headed for the cottage loft.  This area has an interconnecting window to the Days of Steam room which can only be accessed by going back into the courtyard and in through another door.  The loft is home to the boots mentioned earlier. Very little happened during this time.  Lots of noises were heard, such as taps and clicks but these were explainable due to there being birds walking on the roof outside, traffic going past and the wooden beams expanding etc.

Tori did sense that there was a male presence with us in the cottage and briefly saw the shadowy outline of a head and shoulders behind the baskets by the stairwell.   The figure was smaller in height than her at about 5' tall.  She had the impression that this spirit did not really want to be seen and had disappeared as soon as she had seen him.  Tori did not think that we would experience anything much in this area so we decided to move next door into the Days of Steam room.

Time 23.55-00.40 :  During this time Eric had spent some time alone filming in the cottage and then Mike and Bozzie also spent a little time in this area.  Nothing unusual was heard or seen during this time.  Some orbs were photographed in the loft.  The photo above shows an orb near the ceiling above the interconnecting window.

Days of  Steam Room          Time: 21.00-21.30  Temperature: 16.4.C 

Again not much activity in this area.  A loud click was heard by everyone present and seemed to be quite close-by in the corridor but could have had any number of natural causes.  Tori later saw a shadow which blocked out part of a reflection in the glass display case she was looking through.  Katrina walked over to the 3 wall plaques whose reflections had been obscured and the effect was replicated when she walked  in front of them.  Although the lights in this room were off, it was not completely dark as light was coming in from across the corridor.  The lights in the Memorial Room had been left on as the team did not want to enter that particular area during the investigation out of respect.

Time: 20.30-21.30  Temperature: 16.8.C  Investigators present: Mike & Eric

Again a quiet vigil for most of the time.  This was a very large room and filming was limited due to its size.  Half an hour into the allotted time here, Mike started to feel quite hot.  The ambient room temperature had incresed slightly to 18.3.C but this is not significant.

At 21.03 two loud noises were heard by both Mike and Eric who were at opposite ends of this room.  Mike's camera had just swithched off automatically but Eric was still filming.  The noises are clear and loud on the video tape and Mike and Eric are heard asking each other if either had made the noises.  Each noise sounded like something being thrown or falling and bouncing off something hard. 

Female voices and footsteps were heard later but a quick check of the room's location on the map showed that it was next to a road and this was attributed to passers-by outside.

Time: 22.45-23.30 Temperature: 18.2.C Investigators present: Tori, Laura, Bozzie, Jennifer and Lindsay

The team felt the sensation of being watched again in this particular area, especially at the higher part of the gallery.  Tori again sensed a male spirit who was staying well out of reach and did not want to communicate.  Several orbs were filmed.  Tori asked out for a sign of the spirit's presence but nothing happened in response.  Later a noise like a squeak was heard by Laura and one of the guests.  Bozzie then called out and there was a loud cracking noise heard by everyone almost immediately after he had spoken.

Time: 22.50-23.30  Temperature: 15.2.C  Investigators present: Katrina, Natalie, Mike, Eric 

Natalie, Katrina and Eric decided to stay on the ground level while Mike went up onto the gallery/walkway.  A voice recorder was left sitting by the large boat and Katrina asked various questions to see if an evp would be captured in response.  At one point after asking out for a sign there was a very loud crack from above Katrina and Natalie and right in front of Mike who was standing by the banister at the time.  This could well have been due to the rafters expanding/contracting but it was extremely loud and very well timed!

Later Mike, who was on the balcony, saw a dark shadow-like figure move across in front of the boat called 'Jubilee'.  It appeared to move across and then disappeared at the side of the boat.  Katrina who was facing that way and quite close to the boat did not see anything.

This figure was seen a second time by Mike later on when all of the team were standing on the balcony.  He said that it was as if someone had been inside the boat, sat up as if to look over the edge and ducked down again.  Unfortunately, nothing was seen by anyone else or captured on film.

When the time came to leave the voice recorder was moved up onto the balcony, another was placed in a room further down the corridor.  This room housed old radio and navigation equipment.

Time: 11.50-00.40  Investigators present: Katrina, Natalie, Tori, Laura, Jennifer, Lindsay

Prior to the investigation Tori had been having dreams about a yellow dining room and had been told by her spirit guide that the word 'merchant' and the Merchant's House would be important to the investigation.  On our arrival at the museum we were kindly allowed to use the tea room as our base.  This was painted yellow and off it through a small door was an additional seating area called the Merchant's Tea Room (this was the lower floor of the Merchant's House)!

For this reason we decided this would be a good place for our planned glass divination session.  The 2 guests were allowed to observe only.  The glass began to move after a few minutes and we soon ascertained which way it was moving to show 'yes' or 'no'.  The glass moved quite forcefully at times and it was possible to feel it starting to move in anticipation of the next question!  The whole experience was quite lengthy and emotionally draining (Jennifer actually had to leave the room at one point as she felt that the information we were receiving was accurate and could be somebody that she had knowledge of from her work at the museum).  We managed to gain a lot of information including the spirit man's first name, his occupation, how he had died and which town he was from (it was these 4 facts seemed to point to this particular person).  Other pieces of  information were also received but did not relate to the same individual.  We have decided not to publish any of the information we received via the glass divination.  This is to prevent upset as the man in question may well have relatives who still live in the area and he would be easily recognisable from the small amount of details we have been given. 

Audio: nothing unexplained was recorded on the digital voice recorders.  Various taps, clicks and bumps were heard but these could have many causes, especially in such an old building with wooden beams.  There was a lot of noise from outside whether from traffic, birds or people outside the next-door restaurant.

Video: several orbs were filmed, notably in the Zulu Gallery and BoatYard.  Twice and orb appeared in front of the camera  in the Boat Yard after a request had been made for any spirit there to show itself.  Coincidence?

Two loud noises were recorded on the video footage from the Zulu Gallery.  Nothing to cause this could be seen on the video but it was very dark and too large a room for the nightvision to see across the room.  The causes of the noise could be perfectly natural, something falling from the ceiling perhaps.

Trigger Objects: once the video tape had ran out we decided to leave the objects where they were and to collect them later. They had not moved at all while being filmed.  However, at the end of the night it was noted that all but one item had moved. This was quite exciting for the team but this cannot be used as evidence of paranormal activity. The room was easily accessible as it was part of the route through the museum and the items had moved while not being filmed.  For this reason we will not be showing the before and after pictures of the trigger objects.

Other: a figure was seen by Mike twice in the Boat Yard.  Jennifer confirmed that this was in the same place as it had been seen previously by a member of staff.  Katrina had spoken to Jennifer before about this and had mistakenly thought that the figure had been seen beside another boat in the yard.  Mike would not have known that a figure had previously been seen in the same place where he had seen it during the investigation.

Tori felt that the museum is indeed active but that it is probably home to just one male spirit.  She felt that this man was the same spirit she had sensed in different parts of the museum and that he had followed the team around.  However, nothing malevolent was sensed.

The team would like to thank Jennifer for allowing the team to investigate the Scottish Fisheries Museum.  It is such an interesting location and we all enjoyed our time there very much.