Moon Cycle - Full

Weather Conditions - snow showers, windy with very strong gusts, extremely cold!

Upon arriving at Kielder, we were greeted by the Grey Ladies - Angela, Nicola and Carol, their friend, Andy and Malte Eden who is a guide at the castle. We were a little late due to the adverse weather conditions and quickly discovered from the Grey Ladies that prior to our arrival something strange had already happened! Whilst they were doing a walk around of the building, they thought we'd arrived about 45-60 mins before we actually did! Apparently they heard sounds similar to that of male and female voices and people coming up the stairs. They headed back to the main room where we would be based for the duration, fully expecting us to be waiting for them, only to discover nothing! A very interesting start to the night!

We introduced ourselves and unpacked a few bits and pieces for the night ahead. Malte took us on a tour around the building, during which he shared a few accounts of people's spooky experiences and provided some historical background. After this, we headed back to base and had a good chat about the various items of equipment we'd brought collectively. The Grey Ladies had an "EMF" meter, thermometer, camcorder, digital camera and two-way radios. We had a camcorder, digital camera, 35 mm camera, digital Dictaphone and night-vision monocular. There were also the usual odds and ends, such as torches, spare batteries, note-pads etc. Andy had brought and new digital recorder and extremely powerful torch!

The first vigil was to be held in one of the attic rooms. Malte had left by this time and we headed up to get started. Angela lit some candles as a means of helping us to focus our energies and for the spirits to use to communicate with us. She asked for protection for the group and then began to ask the spirits to make communication. There was a window which one of the group had thought they'd heard fingers rapping on earlier, but it was being buffeted regularly by the wind which created a number of similar sounds. Nicola noted at one point that her shoulder was beginning to hurt, something she'd experienced in this part of the castle before. She also felt very uncomfortable about the adjoining attic room. Mary thought she felt a presence from through there and a digital photograph was taken. A light anomaly appeared on the picture to the left of John Hill, who was standing nearest the doorway. When a second picture was taken, the light appeared to be brighter, which was of some interest (1). We waited patiently for a wee while before deciding to ask for the spirits in the next room. There was a wooden 'gangway' which lead from the back attic room all the way through the next one to the door we came in originally. We stood in single file along it and continued with our questioning. There were a few slight noises; however the more compelling ones seemed to be in direct response to questions we were asking. Some of the noises sounded like muffled taps. During our stay up there, the wind continued to howl, which was very atmospheric, but could also be distracting.

After listening to the Dictaphone footage, Angela and I decided to spend a short while in the attic in an attempt to communicate with any spirits present and hopefully capture some sort of response on the machine. Unfortunately there was nothing unusual on playback. We spent a little time in another room adjoining our base. We took chairs through again, asked the spirits to communicate. There was a light above one of the doors which was changing colours, Andy highlighted that this was a motion sensor and would have triggered the alarm had it been left on. Nothing else happened. We left this room and headed back down for a break. I suggested putting the Dictaphone up in the attic to see if anything would come up and then we sat down for a chat. We left the Dictaphone up there for about 45 mins. When we retrieved it, there was an unusual sound, a bit like heavy shuffling, waves, breathing etc. This was very intriguing and we wondered if it could have been paranormal. At the time, we ruled out the wind as we thought it had been more constant and would therefore have recorded for longer. There were about 8 or 9 loud, clear shuffling sounds. We have subsequently examined this further (2). The Dictaphone was used several times in the attic areas and John left his camcorder running for approximately half an hour (3). Later on, we split into two groups, Mostly Ghostly in the Bird Room and the Grey Ladies and Andy in the Cinema area. We were left with a radio to contact them. We sat for a bit then got into a circle and held hands, asking the spirits to make an appearance. Nothing much was happening, when Derek shivered and stepped out of the circle, stating that he thought he'd seen a shadow moving across into the corner of the room.

This had clearly unnerved him. John spent some time in the adjoining wooden panelled room with the monocular and Derek joined him, although he felt what he described as a 'primal fear' whereby he just wanted to get away from it. He couldn't explain what was causing the sensations. At one point, John thought he felt a blowing sensation (cold) on his neck. Mary stood in the same area and felt what she described as a **** feeling, like that of a needle on her neck.

We then swapped over and our team headed for the cinema. There were a number of strange noises emanating from outside, scraping etc. The Grey Ladies said it was a metal object outside and they had heard it too - nothing paranormal. After leaving the area, John subsequently mentioned that he'd felt a bit uncomfortable and was unable to settle in the cinema. He wasn't frightened as such, maybe a little apprehensive. The other team had nothing to report in either the Cinema or Bird Room.

There have been reports of paranormal activity associated with the outside well, but as it was so bitterly cold and windy, we decided against holding a vigil there.

In a different part of the castle was situated another attic room with tables and chairs. We sat at a table and continued with asking the spirits, we linked fingers on the table and placed candles in the centre. We felt light-hearted at this point, but there was nothing to suggest any paranormal activity.

Following that, we went to one of the downstairs rooms that had a large old key in the door. We waited around to see if anything might happen and Nicola did some filming. Nothing of note occurred.

The night drew to a close at approximately 4:30 am and we felt it had been a real success, both in terms of the investigation itself and the relationship we had started to build with the Grey Ladies.

1. I personally have been sceptical about orbs and their apparent origins since first witnessing them on 'Most Haunted'. I am aware that some believers think that this is the first sign of a spirit attempting to manifest and would like that to be the case, but being realistic, it would be foolish to ignore scientific facts. This 'phenomenon' has only become more prevalent in the last 15 years or so, with the advances in e.g. digital photography. There are also so many variables - dust (which is everywhere), small insects, cobwebs, water droplets etc that may have been reflected to create circular lights. Derek and I have subsequently read a bit about orbs and it would seem that there are explanations for most of them, relating to the equipment being used for photography. I feel that it would be a waste of time to dwell on the appearance of orbs on camera, there are I'm sure more important things to be aware of. It is of course up to the individual what they believe, but there is strong evidence to suggest these lights have very little, if not, zero connection to the spirit world. Please feel free to read more on the subject and make your own decision. Plus, note that orbs can appear in pictures taken anywhere (certain conditions required), but it seems to be that if they are taken in a haunted location, people are influenced by that when making a judgement. If an orb appeared on a picture in a location not known to be haunted, would the photographer be so inclined to believe it were ghostly?

2. When the unusual sounds were heard on the Dictaphone, most of us initially believed the noise to be created by a source other than the wind, although we couldn't say this was paranormal. Later in the night, Derek tried to re-create the sound by dragging a heavy plastic bag across the floor of the first attic room and I recorded it in the same room, then from the second attic room. The volume of the recordings obviously varied with the second, quieter recording sounding like the original unexplained noise. This was intriguing! There was a great deal of discussion after the investigation and we listened to it time and time again (normal speed, quick and slow). When we were back in our own environment and with time to reflect, we concluded that the most likely cause of the noises was strong gusts of wind, which we know were taking place frequently. There were a couple of other sounds which raised debate including a 'clicking' and a loud bang. We couldn't totally agree, some thinking it was the banging of a door (by us), others not so sure. It was certainly loud and clear! An idea that arose at our last meeting was that when we investigate a 'haunted' property, we could make some sample recordings of e.g. doors being closed, footsteps on floorboards and the wind outside and use it for the purposes of comparison and elimination. Another useful idea that came about recently was to contact the local University campus or college to see if any of the information technology students may be able to help us with establishing sources of sound from the Dictaphone using their skills in this area.

3. John's footage also helped us to detect potential sources. Very near the beginning, a vertical column of lights were shown, but due to their uniformity etc, we felt it must have been created by a reflection of some sort. There was also laughter (more than one voice), which we are pretty sure was us in the room downstairs. The sound of the wind was picked up again, the constant blowing was fainter (not picked up on Dictaphone) with intermittent gusting (which was). The bang also made an appearance and we listened to it a few times, our conclusions still mixed. While we do not all agree it was a door banging, we are erring on the noise having a physical as opposed to paranormal explanation.

Ultimately, whatever caused the sounds has created plenty of discussion and we all feel like we've learnt alot from the experience, which will help to prepare us for future investigations.