Date : 8th November, 2009
Investigators Present : Katrina, Gordon, Lesley, Natalie, Tori
A full report is not available due to the majority of our video and audio recordings being worthless due to noise contamination from outside. No interesting temperarue fluctuations were recorded on our data loggers throughout the night.
Niddry Street vaults were interesting but not the best place for carrying out an investigation for a few reasons. The noise : 4 pubs on top of the vaults, one playing live music till 6 am plus the voices and steps could be clearly heard. Customers were continually running up the communal stone steps and banging on the door and the fire exit at the opposite end.
Frequent high and erratic emf readings were noted but the source could have been anything. Who knows what is embedded in the stone work above and around the vaults. Plenty of cables, I bet. Traffic right above going across the bridge WAS probably causing vibrations as well even though this wasn't noticable to us at the time.
So was it a waste of time going?
Absolutely not. It was brilliant to be able to nosey about undisturbed. What an interesting place.
The best thing to happen all night was for a candle to 'fall' off a ledge apparently in repsonse to a question.
It wasn't the fact that the candle fell that was interesting but the way in which it fell. The team were sitting together on the steps in the long corridor facing the lower end. One camera on a tripod was fiming up the corridor. Gordon was using a handheld camera too. Katrina asked if there was man present and then the candle 'fell'.
It was on a ledge about 4 feet up in an alcove right at the bottom end of the corridor. It was seen falling by both Katrina and Tori and Natalie saw it out of the corner of her eye. The place was not dark as the emergency lighting was on plus numerous candles. The alcove was maybe about 60 feet from where we were sitting. The candle was a large pillar one, about a foot high.
Ok, it had been moved by us earlier when we borrowed it to go into a dark room. It had then been replaced where it had been found and lit. It stayed in place for several minutes before it fell. However, what was seen doesn't tie in with a candle just falling. Katrina could see that the light around the candle had dimmed and she thought that something had either passed in fronnt of it or that it was about to go out. She was about to comment on this when it suddenly brightened up again. It then moved forwards still lit to the edge of the ledge before moving towards the ground. It didn't fall. It was slower than a fall, controlled in some way, and strangely, remained lit. The candle 'fell' about 3 feet still upright and then dropped the last foot or so banging to the ground. This is when the flame went out as it toppled sideways when it hit the floor.
Of course we tried replicating this but the candle tipped over every time either forwards or sideways with the flame going out straight away.
So what happened? Well if we follow Ockham's Razor and that the simplest explanation is the most likely then we must assume that we didn't put the candle back properly and it just fell. The fact that it fell just after a question was asked is then coincidental.
Fine. We don't have any 'evidence' to the contrary as the camcorders were filming the other way (typical). However, we do have 3 eye witnesses who are sure that something strange had occurred simply by watching the way the candle had moved. Plus this movement couldn't be replicated.
This will have to be noted as another interesting event to add to our list. Sadly, not proof of the paranormal as we have no evidence to back up what we thought we had seen.
Has anyone else had a similar thing happen at the vaults? It would be nice to hear about it.
