West Sound Halloween Special

Farmhouse Nr. Castle Douglas

Present; Mostly Ghostly, Cameron Murray and Gavin Wallace from West Sound and Bert*, Farm Tenant

*Names changed to protect anonymity

INTRODUCTION

After having a talk amongst ourselves about how we could raise the group’s profile and source new haunted properties, Derek came up with the idea of carrying out an investigation in partnership with the local radio station – West Sound F.M. We decided to contact Cameron Murray at West Sound, who we knew had an interest in the paranormal, to see if this was something they might be interested in.

The basis of our idea was for the radio station to invite listeners to volunteer their haunted homes and businesses for a paranormal investigation by Mostly Ghostly with West Sound in attendance. Originally we had thought of recording it live on Halloween but this wasn’t feasible so West Sound decided to pre-record it instead and put it out as a podcast for listeners to download.

The competition ran from 21st September to 13th October 2009, at which point the radio station picked a winner and passed their details on to the team.  Since the investigation was due to be recorded one week later, it didn’t leave a lot of time to plan and prepare.

PREPARATION

According to the information forwarded to us from West Sound, there had been voices heard in the house on several occasions and nothing more. Kathleen, Derek and Mary paid an initial visit on 15th October to meet with Bert, the farmer who lived in the house, to find out for themselves what exactly had been happening. Bert told them that several times while he had been on the phone with his girlfriend Liz,* she had heard voices on the line that sounded as if they were talking to Bert. He also said that she had heard footsteps in several parts of the house. Bert told us that he hoped he wasn’t wasting our time since he hadn’t heard either the footsteps or the voices on the phone. Derek asked Bert if it would be possible to speak to Liz and he said he would contact her to check.

Bert then showed us round the house before we thanked him for his time and arranged to see him again the following Tuesday. We wondered on the way back to Dumfries how we were going to keep things interesting for people listening in, given what seemed to be minimal activity. If only we had known!

Later that night Derek received a phone call from Bert to say that Liz was quite happy to talk to us, so Derek called her and she informed him that she had heard footsteps in various parts of the house and also told us something that hadn’t been mentioned up till now. One night she had heard her 3-year old daughter Amy* speaking to somebody in the small hallway leading from the doorway past the kitchen to the main sitting room. When Liz went to see who she was talking to, there was nobody there except Amy. Liz asked Amy who she was speaking to and she said it was ‘the little old lady’. After this phone call we felt things were starting to look up.
The following morning Derek got a phone call from Bert to say that when he had been sitting at his computer the previous evening, he had heard a sound like something falling against the door. Bert looked round and noticed the bunch of keys he had left hanging in the door were swinging to and fro in what seemed an excessive manner. He also noticed they were showing no sign of slowing down. Bert then went through to the sitting room for something and when he returned the keys were still swinging. Now whether or not this was paranormal we don’t know for certain, however if you would like to try this yourself with a bunch of keys and see how long they swing for, you can draw your own conclusions.

Derek told Bert that sometimes spirits seem to be more active if somebody strange is in the house or trying to change their surroundings from the way they remember them. Bert told us his father, who died in an accident on the farm 10 years previously, had been resistant to changes around the home.           

We headed out on the night of the investigation with a little trepidation. We knew there were a couple of things we would have to take into account. Apart from it being our first investigation with the media in attendance, it was our first in a building as small as a farm cottage.  It had also been 4 months since our last indoor investigation.

SETTING UP

We arrived at the farmhouse around 8.00 pm and introduced Bert to John whom he hadn’t yet met. We had asked Bert if he could bring in something used on the farm but not usually found indoors. He showed the group what he had chosen. Derek recognised the implement but it didn’t look familiar to the rest of the team. What was this strange looking object? Well in short they were castration pliers, not something that had sprung to mind when we had asked for a trigger object but one which I’m sure you will agree looked out of place in the sitting room!  During this time we got a phone call from Cameron to say that he and Gavin were running a little late, so to save time later on, we decided to set up our trigger objects.

At around 8.30pm the guys from West Sound arrived and we gave them a quick tour of the property and the areas we were going to focus on.

We went back down to the main sitting room to start Mostly Ghostly’s first media covered investigation. Gavin showed us the recording equipment he had brought and described how things would be covered from West Sound’s point of view and that the main idea was for them to remain in the background and just let us go about our business as normal.  This was fine by us and we informed him that we would usually begin by carrying out some baseline tests. Derek and John would, for the purposes of this investigation, go round with the E.M.F. meter and check for any high magnetic fields. Kathleen and Mary meanwhile, were going to photograph each location and check for any obvious draughts, creaky floorboards and the like.                                                                                                                                    

Things got underway with Gavin interviewing Derek in the main sitting room. Derek was explaining why we had left a sherry bottle and glass in the kitchen. The reason for selecting this particular trigger object was as follows: We had asked Bert if he could think of anybody who might have been the little old lady that Amy was talking to in the hallway - the only person he could think of was his Grandmother. We asked if there was anything in particular that she might relate to and Bert recalled that his Grandmother liked a glass of sherry now and again, hence the sherry bottle. Gavin turned the recorder off and was about to move on to the next location when there was a loud bang which seemed to come from the area of the front door. Both Derek and Gavin turned to look at the door and Derek was just about to comment on how strange it was, when the door started to open by itself.  He exclaimed “I don’t believe that just happened!” Gavin asked if anybody else had witnessed this and immediately turned the recorder back on. It was also noted that the bottled crystal had started to swing. Gavin then interviewed Kathleen who explained why we had chosen the other downstairs locations.  At one point Cameron, the other person present from West Sound, said that he felt a presence in the main sitting room. A further interview was carried out with Derek upstairs and on the way back along the corridor towards the staircase; Derek felt what he later described as a fresh wind in his face. He mentioned this to Gavin who said he had experienced the same thing earlier whilst accompanying Kathleen and Mary during the baseline tests. Kathleen confirmed this; however she and Mary had not picked up on it. The team decided to have a small break before starting the investigation proper. The bottled crystal was still swinging.

Minutes before this photo was taken, the door mysteriously opened…

VIGILS

AMY’S* BEDROOM

Kathleen got things underway by asking all those present to introduce themselves. She then asked the spirits if they would like to show themselves to any one they might feel a particular affinity with. Cameron saw a light flickering on the stairwell and described it as being like that caused by a candle. It was at this point John noticed there was a lot of interference on the camcorder and that the picture kept blacking out.

The strange light on the stair area was still visible, and Cameron seemed to think that it looked like something working off a low battery. He then thought that he heard some footsteps. At about this point Derek remembered the T.V. had been on in the living room before we started and wondered if this could be the cause of the strange flickering light. He went downstairs to check the T.V.  It was still on so he switched it off. Another lesson learned.

Gavin asked Cameron how many footsteps he had heard, to which he replied “three” and that to him, they had sounded like someone going down the stairs out of the house.  He also got the impression of somebody shuffling around as if drunk. Gavin suggested to Kathleen that this could be related to the sherry bottle we had left in the kitchen. Kathleen laughingly remarked that she would have to check the bottle to see if anyone had partaken of said sherry.

Kathleen was more interested in the footsteps and remarked to Cameron that even though she hadn’t heard them herself it was not unusual for paranormal experiences to be witnessed by only one person. Derek commented that the house was very quiet and Kathleen said that while doing the baseline tests she noticed the stairs were a bit creaky, so if we were to hear anything resembling that sound whilst everybody was in the bedroom, it would be fairly compelling.
 
Kathleen then asked the spirits to make the sound of footsteps again. Gavin said that he thought he saw a shadow passing across the skylight window at the end of the corridor. Derek backed this up and said that he had been watching the window for some time and that there did seem to be something moving back and forth across it. Kathleen commented that she had just noticed something moving across the window and asked again for the sound of footsteps.  Both Kathleen and John heard a tapping sound. Kathleen thanked the spirits and they both heard the sound again. Just after this John spotted further interference on the camcorder.

Gavin suggested that Cameron might like to ask the spirits something. Cameron asked if the entity present ever owned the Lloyd loom, (a type of woven chair) in the bedroom. Not long after he asked, Derek saw a shadow coming slowly around the top of the staircase. When asked to describe it, Derek said it was more like a black mass than a shadow.  He then invited any spirits present to come into the bedroom and make themselves known, perhaps by touching somebody.  Next, Derek heard a loud thump, also witnessed by John and Kathleen, who pointed out that it was difficult to detect the exact source of the noise.  Kathleen thanked the spirits and encouraged them with their attempts to communicate, inviting them to manifest in either full or partial form.

Derek asked if the spirits that were making the thumping noise would like to try the good old fashioned one tap for yes, two taps for no scenario.  He asked “are you a male spirit and did you used to be a tenant of the farm?” Unfortunately there were no answering taps this time.

Gavin’s attention returned to the shadows moving across the window. Kathleen said she had been watching them and although she saw something, she was unable to make it out clearly and had tried looking at it indirectly to see if that might help. Gavin said he had tried squinting at it for the same reason. Kathleen pointed out correctly, that looking slightly to the side of something, rather than directly, can help form a clearer picture. This is especially true in the dark.

Derek then asked if anybody else could see a light coming up from downstairs. Kathleen agreed, stating that it looked like the one from the T.V. earlier. Suddenly out of the blue Kathleen said she could feel tears in her eyes, this caused some concern, but she said she felt fine and was happy enough, although she had felt a shudder just beforehand. Cameron asked if the spirits were annoyed at us being there.

Derek told the group that he was now sensing a big set man stood in the doorway looking in and noticed that the figure was now blocking out any light coming through the window. We again tried to encourage spirit communication. This time several people heard a tap in response. Kathleen asked are you a male or female, this got a metallic tap in response. Kathleen checked with Bert if the noise was one he was familiar with, or if he knew of anything in the house that made that sort of noise. He answered no. Kathleen asked the spirit did you live here. Again a response, but yet again nobody can say precisely where it was coming from. We also agreed that no-one had heard a noise like it before we started asking questions and checked what time the heating was timed to turn off in case that could have been the cause.

Kathleen continued to invite communication and Cameron saw a figure at the top of the stairs; he moved to the doorway, offering his hand to see if the spirit would try to touch it. Derek said that the figure was moving away towards the stairs again. Cameron assured the spirits that we posed no threat and wished them no harm. He suggested if they were not willing to communicate directly then perhaps they could move one of the trigger objects left downstairs. He then said he was getting the impression of an older man with swept back hair and sunken eyes.

Kathleen asked John to try whistling, something we have found to be a successful trigger in the past. Just as she did this, some of the team heard a banging noise apparently coming from the hallway. Kathleen then got a feeling of something cold on her leg then moving right up through her body and Cameron saw something he described as having a greyish colour. Kathleen reassured the spirits that our equipment posed them no threat nor could it hurt them in any way.

John tried whistling and asked the spirits if they could reply in kind; on the third attempt he asked them to reply by making any sort of noise they were capable of making. This time a tapping sound was heard by a number of people. John tried tapping three times on the wall, asking the spirits if they could repeat it.

John and Gavin then moved along the corridor to the top of the stairs where they noticed what seemed to be a light from somewhere downstairs shining outside. This turned out to be a light above the front door on the outside. It was decided that this would be a good point to end this vigil as the batteries had run flat on the West Sound recording equipment.

DOWNSTAIRS – SECOND SITTING ROOM We moved to the second sitting room downstairs for our next vigil. Kathleen got the proceedings going by asking if the spirit who had made the footsteps earlier could do it again. No response was heard. She then asked if there was a male spirit nearby. We noticed that the house was now very quiet. Next it was John’s turn to invite spirit communication however, there was no obvious reply and the house remained very calm and quiet. We decide to move out into the hallway and try our luck there.

A most unusual trigger object

DOWNSTAIRS HALL

Kathleen suggested that we try saying the letters of the alphabet out loud to see if any of them triggered a reaction, perhaps if the letter was significant to a spirit person. Derek said that as the letter J was mentioned he felt something lean on his arm. Kathleen asked Bert if the letter J meant anything to him as his family had been tenants of the farm for three generations. He said he couldn’t think of anybody in his family whose name began with a J and that the letter meant nothing in particular to him.

Derek remembered that when checking the valuation records in the library for previous owners, there was a James Lindsay listed as tenant in the late 1800’s. He asked if James was connected to the pressure on his arm. For a second time, Derek felt this strange sensation. At this point Kathleen got tears in her eyes again. She thanked James on the chance that he was responsible for leaning on Derek’s arm and trying to communicate with us.

Kathleen tried to confirm who the spirit was and asked first, if a male spirit and then a female spirit was present. Cameron commented that he felt icy cold. Conversely, Gavin started to feel really warm and broke into a sweat. Cameron pointed out that he was sensing a female presence on the stairs and wanted Derek to take a look. As the group prepared to move to that end of the hallway, a flashing light was witnessed coming from the sitting room we were using as base. Gavin said he was starting to feel really warm. Derek felt his forehead and he was indeed sweating. The flashing light in the sitting room seemed to have an almost mechanical regularity to it which seemed to discount it as paranormal. The origin of the light source was shortly discovered to be the owners Bluetooth headset on charge.

BOTTOM OF STAIRS

Derek joined Cameron at the bottom of the stairs, and the rest of the group got as close as they could given the limited space. Cameron asked Derek if he could see the figure of a woman and Derek said he could see something on the left hand side of the stair. They both continued to watch this figure moving up and down the stairs for quite some time. Kathleen asked for whoever made the footsteps to try and do so again, also inviting the figure to come down the stairs and join us.

A ghostly female presence was felt on the stairs

Cameron and Derek reinforced this before Cameron held out his hand and invited the spirit to try to touch it. Derek tried the same thing and the figure seemed to head down the stairs and reach out towards his hand. He described the sensation as being like a surge of energy shooting up the length of his arm and pushing him backwards. He later referred to his days as a welder and that it felt similar to receiving an electric shock from a welding plant – a feeling he had experienced numerous times before.  At the time however, he just described it as weird. Cameron, Derek and Kathleen continued trying to persuade the figure to interact with them. Kathleen told the spirit she was going to go through the alphabet and if any of the letters meant anything to the woman on the stairs could she let her know somehow. No sooner had she started when Derek said that she was moving down the stairs again. Gavin asked if she would like to touch his hand and then felt that someone was breathing on it. Kathleen thanked the spirits for trying to communicate. Derek said that the figure was now moving between the landing and the top of the stairs. Kathleen thought we should try the whistling again and after John had done this, Derek thought he heard a faint whistle in reply. Kathleen then whistled a couple more times but regrettably there were no replies.

Next, John came up with the idea of throwing something up the stairs.  Cameron told the spirits he was going to throw a florin* (an old coin replaced by 10p piece) up the stairs. Kathleen asked the spirits if they could perhaps throw the coin back to us or move it elsewhere. Just after this, Mary said she could feel something pushing against the bottom of her legs and whilst everyone else was concentrating on the stairs, Mary suddenly lost balance completely and fell against John, almost knocking him over as well.

After checking that Mary was okay, the group decided we should use this unexpected distraction to take a short break. Derek was on his way upstairs to check the camcorder we had left running in Amy’s bedroom when Cameron drew their attention to the top of the stairs. There on the second step from the top was the coin he had thrown. The reason this caused great interest was because Cameron had only thrown it up three or four steps. Derek, who had been standing next to him at the time, confirmed this. There was no way it should have been up there and nobody on the investigation had moved it - at least no living person.
   
AMY’S BEDROOM – SECOND VIGIL

After a small break to charge our own batteries, we moved back up to Amy’s bedroom. Kathleen informed the spirits we were back in the bedroom and invited communication. After receiving no obvious response she asked if the lady spirit we had witnessed earlier would like to come forward.

Derek asked if the woman who had tried to touch his hand earlier and sent some sort of power surge through his arm, would like to join us in the room. Kathleen thought she might have been poked in the shoulder. Derek asked if they would like to try to touch someone else in the group.

Kathleen took some photos on the digital camera to see if anything would show up, and Derek observed that contrary to the last vigil held here, it was very dark and probably the darkest room we had held a vigil in to date. Kathleen agreed.

Cameron held out his hand and asked if any spirits would like to take it. He then tried to illicit a response by clapping his hands. A few sounds followed, but it was agreed by the whole group that these noises were caused by the weather outside.

John tried the whistle-response and Derek thought he heard a noise from downstairs. He then felt as if somebody was lightly running their hand across the top of his head. Kathleen asked for this to be repeated and Derek stated that it was happening as she spoke. Next, Mary said that she felt cold air on her neck. Kathleen thanked the spirits for trying to communicate with us and encouraged them to continue.

Cameron asked the spirit if the Lloyd loom chair was important to them, and Kathleen asked if they would like to have a seat. She repeated her request for the spirits to join us and Derek felt  something cold pass in front of his face for a third time. Gavin thought he saw a shadow-like head and torso shape pass in front of the skylight, and Derek thought he saw something by the doorway at the end of the corridor on the right hand side. Gavin said he saw something cross the window again and that this time there was a more distinct head shape. He asked if the spirit was there could he answer by knocking once for yes and twice for no.  He also asked whether the spirit was male or female. A definite knock was heard by most of those present.

Gavin again saw something by the window and asked if the spirits were comfortable with us talking to them.  Derek said he could now see something by John who was laid down in the door area. John asked if the spirit beside him could let him see it.  According to Derek the spirit had now stepped in front of him. John asked the spirit if he would like him to move. Derek said the spirit was moving alongside him and had crouched down beside him as if taking a closer look. John asked if this was the spirit’s bedroom. Some of the group heard a knock.

Gavin said he was having problems with the West Sound recording equipment and asked if any spirits would like to make a noise for us.

The West Sound recorder stopped working altogether.

We continued for a short time and came to the end of the tape in the camcorder. It was decided that this was a good place to stop the investigation. As we were packing up our gear the guys from West Sound said they were leaving and that Gavin would be editing the recording he had made ready for broadcasting. They said goodnight and that they both had an excellent night and was better than they had expected. With West Sound gone, we finished packing our gear away and said goodnight to Bert and thanked him for allowing us into his home for a night that definitely surpassed our expectations.

CONCLUSIONS
 
There were a couple of things on this investigation that perhaps we should say a little more about. The first thing was the keys swinging in the door. We know that this is only one person’s account of what happened, however, having spoken with and met Bert before; during and after this investigation we have found him to be an honest, down to earth person who tends to look for the rational explanation first.  Something obviously triggered the keys to move and we still cannot find an explanation for why they sustained momentum for a noticeable period of time.

Some of you will have noticed that this is the first time we have mentioned an E.M.F. meter on an investigation. This does not mean that we have changed our position on these devices. We used it purely to see if there were any high magnetic fields in the areas we were going to hold vigils in, not as a ghost detector.

The front door opening; there may be a case for thinking that the dogs could have jumped up and opened the door, but when we asked Bert if this was likely, he said the dogs didn’t know how to do that. This is easy to believe because these dogs are working Collies and as such they are not renowned for hanging around inside the farmhouse.

The camcorder blacked out on a couple of occasions and had a lot of interference on it. While we cannot explain the interference, we did discover the reason for it blacking out. When John was panning it across the white painted door frame, the light coming from the night-shot function shone on to the white paint, thus accentuating its brightness and blanking out the screen.
There is mention in the report of Derek going to check a camcorder left on upstairs while the group were downstairs. He discovered, unfortunately, that it had not recorded anything. This was disappointing as quite a bit happened while we were standing at the bottom of the stairs.  We will never know if something was missed because we didn’t double-check the record button had been properly pressed.  Another hard lesson learned.

A number of shadow-like shapes and figures were noted by different members of the group. We recognise that spending a lot of time in dark/low-level lighting can potentially play tricks on the eyes along with the ever-present anticipation of strange happenings.  However, there were independent witnesses and some of the shapes were accompanied by sensations e.g. temperature changes and touch which may suggest the presence of spirit forces.

This investigation far exceeded any expectations we may have had for our first media covered event and left us with plenty to discuss and contemplate.  We are very keen to learn more about the farm’s ghostly inhabitants and plan to return in the future.

The group would like to thank Bert for calling into the radio station; kindly inviting us to his home and making us feel very welcome throughout.  We would also like to thank Cameron and Gavin from West Sound FM for their support and enthusiasm. 

To listen to the podcast of this investigation, please click here.