Chillingham Castle

[blubird]

Ive been to Chillingham Castle in Northumberland.

Allegedly "the most haunted castle in the UK"

Ummmm I beg to differ actually.

Ive been there twice now and am making a return visit in September.

The first time i went we stayed in whats called "the Courtyard" apartment.

There was a definite and very spooky feel to it. Enough in fact to make our group leave a day early.
I cant explain what it was, but suffice to say the whole group of 8 felt it and believe me we had one of the biggest skeptics with us and he was the first to pack his case!

However on returning in May we were supposed to be staying in the "most haunted room", called The Grey apartment.

It was reportedly haunted by Lady Grey (very common name for spirits isnt it!) and the famous "blue boy".
Neither of them bothered us, they must have been elsewhere, and apart from one strange thing happening it was a lovely 4 night stay.

The strange thing that happened was the apartment door, a very heavy and large wooden door, opened all on its own while we were all sat round the huge dining table.

Of course we all rushed to investigate thinking it might be paranormal, and to be honest we found no explanation for it opening by itself.
The door had to be lent against to close and it was catching on the frame. I was the one who last shut it and i know it was definitely shut because i actually pulled it to make sure.

But having found no reason for it happening we went back to drinking ahem i mean carried on with out meaningful conversation.

On the visit in May we were able to go round the whole castle during the day as it was open for visitors, in February it was closed to non residents.

But apart from everything being very old, what youd expect in a medieval castle, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Were going back in September and staying in the Look Out yet another alleged "most haunted" apartment ( how many of these does one castle need!)
Were setting up locked off cameras this time, we had them last time but abit worse for wear we forgot to set them up!
We have the usual ghost hunting equipment so maybe just maybe well capture something conclusive but then again I doubt it :smiley:

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

A castle would feel left out these days if it didn't have at least one ghost to fill the marketing bumpf.

[median]

Blubird

Hope your visit proves to be fruitful in September. Have you devised some investigative protocols prior to this? Perhaps you would like to run them through with a few people here first?

MedianO0

[Dr B]

Hi Blubird O0


Ive been to Chillingham Castle in Northumberland.

Allegedly "the most haunted castle in the UK"

Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the case. Firstly, i dont know what 'most haunted' is supposed to mean and secondly, if i remember correctly there were no real decent first-hand witnesses. I remember some years ago the castle had money worries....and then got all haunted? :ponder:



Ummmm I beg to differ actually.
Ive been there twice now and am making a return visit in September.

Indeed O0



There was a definite and very spooky feel to it. Enough in fact to make our group leave a day early.
I cant explain what it was, but suffice to say the whole group of 8 felt it and believe me we had one of the biggest skeptics with us and he was the first to pack his case!

Demand charactersitics, expectation, and group dynmaics can do this - even more so in a spooky context.



The strange thing that happened was the apartment door, a very heavy and large wooden door, opened all on its own while we were all sat round the huge dining table.

Was it closed properly to begin with? I have encountered this myself and found it, in more than one case, to be a combination of - doors not being secured initially and possibly - something known as the Bernoulli effect (spelling????) due to a large chimmney in the room (this is still being tested for plausibility) inducing a varying air pressure under certain conditions.


I was the one who last shut it and i know it was definitely shut because i actually pulled it to make sure.

I see - but did anyone else go back to it? How secure are the fixture and fittings of the door and is it hung correctly and level? Is it worn?



Were setting up locked off cameras this time, we had them last time but abit worse for wear we forgot to set them up!
We have the usual ghost hunting equipment so maybe just maybe well capture something conclusive but then again I doubt it :smiley:


sounds interesting - as median said - why not tell us more about it.

[Dr B]

Some years ago I was asked to investigate the castle for a TV programme. I asked the production company to forward me the details of eyewitnesses so that i could interview them before taking part (there is no need for me to get involved if there was no real case).

Oddly, there was nothing of note other than legends and stories that could not be tracked down. I turned down the project on these grounds - that being - there was no haunting to investigate. :-\

Other less professional people did the TV programme and it was, predictably a joke. I am sure there are anecdotal random accounts in todays climate of amatuer ghost hunting - but there was nothing of substance many years ago - so one has to wonder.....

[Mongrel]

Not forgetting the expectation (and hype) that it's haunted\creepy will affect your perceptions before you've even opened your suitcase ;)

[Nicky]

If I had a £1 for each place I've seen market themselves as the "most haunted x, y or z" I'd be a very rich young lady indeed ..

Currently pursuing a case with the ASA re: a pub that promotes itself at "The most haunted pub in Wiltshire" .. I don't think so ..

Good luck with your investigations there, though .. As Median suggests a robust methodology would gain you credit and assist in any data collected being usable, and there are plenty of folks on here who I'm sure would be quite happy to feed into that ...

[blubird]

Blubird

Hope your visit proves to be fruitful in September. Have you devised some investigative protocols prior to this? Perhaps you would like to run them through with a few people here first?

MedianO0


Yep we have one or two things to be trying out.

Weve already done "table tipping" which failed miserably we decided to put our hands on the table palms up!!
We tried it this way to rule out anyone pushing or rocking the table, funnily enough no movement was detected by any of us LOL

We also did glass divination using a couple of methods.
We had a lovely old table, courtesey of Lord Humphrey LOL.
We placed our finger tips on a rather nice flat bottomed glass, and tried with all our might to call any spirit supposedly there.
Absolutly nothing happened.
We also tried it with our hands palm up, fingernails on the glass.
Nothing.
We tried just sitting at the table and asking out for spirit, the only spirit we got was one called vodka.
We all got a tadd board by this point!
We set up trigger objects, nothing happened. Nothing moved.

We did leave a camera running for an hour or so while we all went for a walk, and guess what, all we had was an hour of film looking at the doorway, no strange noises picked up and definatly no movement of any discription seen.

The door in question Dr B, was the main door to the apartment.
When it opened, like i say id shut it, we all rushed over to see why it had opened.
The door opens on to the towers stone spiral staircase. We thought maybe a strong draft had caused it to open but the door at the bottom of the stairs was wedged open and there was no apparant breeze or air flow.
Or someone had maybe shut the bottom door creating maybe a blast of air, but one of the group went to have a look and the door was still open.

The men in the group also shut the door "properly" and then tried like i had to pull it open, it wouldnt budge unless you pushed the handle down and pulled the door.
The frame was worn but to the point like i say where it made the door stick when shut.
We did spend quite a few minutes trying to make the door open on its own, even by just pushing it from the outside but nothing would make it open.

We did thoroughly investigate it, but we couldnt make it open on its own, jumping up and down the corridor was great fun but still didnt make it open.

Suffice to say im not saying it was something "paranormal" but we couldnt duplicate it.

We think it was maybe Sir Humphrey trying to keep the ghostie hype alive LOL

As to the reference to the Castle needing money!

When we read through the blurb that is in all the apartments and one of the group noticed a very telling statement by one of the workers at the castle.
Hed said in an interview that the castle was in need of rather alot of money to carry out extensive restorations.
We had been doing events at the castle and someone asked innocently if there were ghosts at the castle, then all the stories came out about all the ghosts we had.
The visitors were flocking in to experience it for themselves.
He said "the ghosts came to our rescue"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Says it all really!!

When you read the visitors book, there are some really good stories, but im afraid to say that in my experience of the castle, stories is all they really are.

[median]

Yep we have one or two things to be trying out.

Would you like to share them with us? There are individulas here that have a lot of investigative experience in this fieldO0