BACK

Investigation Date: 14th October 2005

Guests of The North East Ghost In-Spectres (Lead by Darren Ritson)

Investigators present:   Darren Ritson and Lee Stephenson (from G.H.O.S.T.) and members of North East Ghost In-Spectres and Team Phenomena

On 14^th Oct 2005, we once more ventured into Newcastle Keep to investigate the ghostly goings on of this ancient and historic building. This is the third time our team has had the keep and it was my 10^th Investigation there to date. It did not disappoint. Before our first vigil, (at 11.15pm) we decided to place a trigger object (a crucifix in a flour tray) and two Dictaphones recording in the upper galleries of the building while we investigated the lower regions of the keep. My groups first vigil was in the Garrison room and chapel and we started at 11.25pm. Prior to entering The Garrison room I set up my beam barriers in The chapel in the hope they may be set off by a ghost during the vigil. The average room temperature was 11 degrees in The Garrison room and a preliminary EMF sweep surprisingly showed quite high readings all over the area, was this a sign of things to come? On retrospect I think it was as not long after the brand new batteries on Suzanne’s torch drained away and had to be replaced. At 11.30pm I called out the atmosphere only to have the side of my face touched by what I can only describe as a cobweb feel. Suzanne then picks up on three spirits in the room and gets the name Alfred for the male entity in there. At 11.35pm I then see a bright red light appear on the back wall, as though someone had fired the laser on the thermometer gun, they had not. Lee had pointed out that he had just seen two green lights appearing in The Garrison room, and we all then heard shuffling or movement outside the garrison room door near the bottom of the stairwell. No one was there! so what made this noise and what were these lights? Were they spirit lights, or just tricks of the eyes? I am convinced they are light anomalies and they were not the last ones to be seen either on this particular vigil. A light show like no other was soon witnessed by all of the group and for about 25 minutes we sat at the top of the stairs next to the condemned cell and watched about 30 or 40 of these red, green and white coloured lights just appear and disappear in front of our eyes. They were all over The Garrison room on all three walls we could see, and then they appeared to be getting closer to us. One was spotted on the arch we were sitting under, and then Suzanne got worried when she saw one appear on her arm. Its interesting to note that Suzanne picked up on three spirits and we had a light show with three different colours, Red, Green and white! for the lights on the back wall we checked for any kind of alarm system or sensors that could produce these lights and there were none. Paul, the warden of the keep (who joined us on the investigation) also confirmed there were no alarms or anything in there that could account for this light show the four of us in my group had witnessed. We also concluded that lights from outside the keep coming in were ruled out simply because Paul had put up black covers at the windows leaving The Garrison room in pitch dark. No external lights could get through. I then decided to call out again to the atmosphere and we all felt a cold breeze hit us from the rear, at the same time these lights kept on coming in all different shapes and sizes and from all over the room. Feelings of apprehensiveness and fear were felt by the investigators, along with excitement and joy due to the results we were getting. On re-locating to the right hand side of the garrison room at the bottom of the stairs we continued to see these lights but not as many. Four footsteps were then heard while everyone was sitting still on the bench and again they came from outside the room near the entrance of the chapel. 11.57pm, Mark feels as though something touched him on his leg and lee spots some more green lights within the room. I felt (unlike normally) that I did not want to move around or take photos in The Garrison room, I was sat on the bench with everyone and did not want to move for fear of being touched. I was rooted to the spot which is unusual in comparison to other investigations we have carried out in the location. This was a vigil like no other in the respect of the light show. 12.10am Suzanne get a young boy called Robert. The end of the vigil came and along with the sense of fear and untoward, and the sense of being apprehensive, I think we were all glad to leave this location and as we left Lee felt his arm being pulled at! No one was near him! Although no one saw any ghosts it will be a one to remember. We then retrieved our trigger object and Dictaphones from the galleries and then left them in the next empty location which was the mezzanine chamber! During the first vigil the crucifix did not move and the tapes still need checking. After the first location and during our break Karen Smith (Team Phenomena) said she had felt as though she was being followed and felt threatened by an unseen force, outside she was shaking like a leaf and then she suddenly burst into tears. She was absolutely terrified and did not want to venture back into the keep. After some words and protection from Suzanne she was alright to continue the investigation. Karen is a good investigator with a good approach to investigations and is not prone to making things up. I feel she was scared by something, but what? No one knows.

Location Two saw us in The Great Hall and upon walking in I felt the same cobweb feeling upon my arms as I did on my face earlier on. Mark set up his video camera and it was locked off in The Kings Chamber and then we sat down and waited. At 1.13am Suzanne picks up the name Gregory MacDonald. We then venture in to the blood room just of the stairwell in The Great Hall. It was not long before Suzanne saw a figure in the doorway and thought it was mark, on shinning her torch she realised mark was to the right of the shadow she had seen! At the same time Mark thought he had felt someone standing to his right just at that time, coincidence? Maybe, maybe not! Suzanne then became all upset and anxious and had to leave the room and she was accompanied by Lee, leaving myself and Mark to investigate. We sat in there for a while to no avail so after about 15 minutes we joined the others in The Great Hall leaving the beam barriers to monitor the doorway. When we joined Lee and Suzanne Lee seemed to be talking to a spirit and he explained that his legs were going hot and cold. When I measured the temperature with the laser thermometer it did indeed show temperature fluctuations from 25 degrees to 17 degrees and back up again. Total drop and increase in temperature of 8 degrees indicating something odd was definitely going on. 1.52am Suzanne feel as though she has been struck in the eye and feels her eye is puffed up, on looking at her eye it was indeed puffed and looked swollen.

Very strange indeed. 2.00am and the end of vigil came around and we went down for another break. Again we picked up our trigger object and Dictaphones from The Mezzanine Chamber, the crucifix had failed to move again and the Dictaphones need listening to see if we have recorded anything on there.

Location Three and we went into the Mezzanine Chamber, Queens Chamber and Museum, and we left the beam barriers on the stairwell as we came in. Time 03.20am.

The average temperature was 15 degrees and no anomalous recordings were made on the EMF meter.

A couple of light anomalies were caught on video camera and apart from my camera showing a “picture error” sign nothing much else happened at that time. I asked and called out for phenomena to no avail and my photographs showed no anomalies or orbs. The rest of this vigil proved rather fruitless so we ventured up to the queens chamber, I then asked for phenomena. Orbs were caught on the video camera and they seemed to be centred around Lee. It was not long until this vigil was over and apart from those orbs nothing else happened. I retrieved my beam barriers and the trigger object and Dictaphones and we had another break. Before our next location we put the trigger object in the flour tray and left the Dictaphones recording in The Chapel.

At 4.08am we venture into The galleries and almost straight away Suzanne picks up on the name Sarah and gets the feeling of vertigo! I took some digital stills to no avail. I also sent up my beam barriers on the other side of The Galleries in the hope something trips them. Suzanne smells cats urine, or a strange horrible odour. Nothing else happened at all in this location. After our next break we had a séance in The Garrison Room, which proved very interesting and frightening indeed.

We started the séance at 5.10am and Mark, Molly, Paul (the warden) and myself sat out to observe and monitor. In The Chapel we placed Paul’s CD player with my CD of Gregorian monks chanting being played in the hope we could entice paranormal activity. If anything it would add to the whole atmosphere and to the ambience of the experiment. The circle began by Suzanne asking out for phenomena and one or two strange incidences occurred during the proceedings. A video camera turned itself off for no reason as well as lights being seen around the garrison room area. Footsteps and movement was heard outside The Garrison Room and John Maltman heard a breath or sigh coming from next to him (hopefully he would have recorded it on his video camera). After a while Terry Smith (Team Phenomena) took over and then I came in to have a go. The séance lasted about 25 - 30 minutes in total. Just before rounding up the strangest incident happened. Claire Smith (Ghost In-Spectres / Team Phenomena) started to cry and was very distraught indeed. She could not breath and lost all the strength in her body, thus she could not stand up. I picked her up and took her to the bottom of the stairwell in the hope she would be ok. She was not, she still found it hard to breath and was progressively getting more upset and frightened. I then picked her up completely and carried her up the stairs and outside and with the help of Ghost In-Spectres and Team Phenomena psychic, Suzanne McKay, she made a slow but definite recovery. An Interesting point to add is that the other psychic, Glenn Hall (Ghost In-Spectres / Team Phenomena) saw the figure of a woman about 5ft 5inches, standing behind Claire with her hands pressed down on her shoulders. Not long after this Claire took her funny turn. So was it psychological or spirit drainage? For a brief moment we did actually think it could have been spiritual possession, as not long before this, we did ask the spirits to communicate through one of the sitters. We are now inclined to think that it was just energy drainage. Whatever it was though it frightened us all and we are all glad it is now over and Claire is fully recovered. So all in all an interesting nights vigil at the keep. At about 6.00am we packed up our equipment and headed home for some well deserved sleep.

Written By Darren Ritson.

 G.H.O.S.T.

© copyright North East Ghost In-Spectres 2005.