Having booked my spot on one of Chillingham Castle’s rare ghost hunting masterclasses I was excited to experience what the castle’s residents had to offer, as well as learn from their resident paranormal investigator.
After typing in the castle’s postcode into my Sat Nav, I checked
the email instructions again to make sure I knew where I was going. My journey
took me past Warkworth Castle (although that’s not how I read the road signs)
which I mentally added to my itinerary, through Alnwick and soon I was looking
for the signs for Chillingham Cattle, turning right after the ford and driving
up a gravel driveway to park alongside the imposing castle walls.
The sky began to darken as I walked towards the front door and met
some of my fellow guests who would be investigating this now looking imposing
building.
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| Chillingham Castle |
Chillingham Castle has a bloody history. Occupying a strategic position during Northumberland’s border feuds with the north, the captured Norman stronghold was further fortified with battlements to assist in its defence of the frequent Scottish attacks. The site being a home to the Grey and Bennet families, a prison, a battleground and a place of torture in its long history.
Although remaining a family home, the Castle reportedly retains
the spirits of those who lived and died within its walls. Famously the Blue (or
Radiant) Boy, the White Pantry ghost and the restless spirit of John Sage all
reside here but some merely remain, as Tennyson stated, as “Impalpable
impression on the air.” So who will I discover.
Whilst standing, talking to a really nice family from Blackpool who were celebrating their son’s birthday, on the green outside the front door. My attention was grabbed by the flashing of lights and the sound of banging coming from the top floor. Grabbing my phone and switching to video recorder I managed to capture a window, seemingly opening and then shutting on its own. On speaking with a member of staff I was informed that the apartment was empty tonight and it was likely that the spirits of the castle were wanting to welcome us with a spectacle of their abilities – or maybe to warn us of their power.
A whistlestop tour of the vast array of equipment on display was
conducted. EMF detectors, Spirit boards and boxes and rem-pods of varying
designs and styles were exhibited and explained. A presentation on Electronic
Voice Phenomenon was very useful and appeared surprising easy and noted for
future use. Richard showed us his full spectrum camera and photographs of
ghosts captured. This device, a hacked SLR camera could, captured a greater
array of light as the Infra-Red and Ultra-Violet filters had been removed –
this was quickly added to my wish list.
The talk concluded with dowsing rods. 2 bent metal rods that could
give indicative answers and something I had used back in Tonbridge Castle.
Volunteering to use them again I was handed a set and we were off to our first
stop of the night – The Torture Chamber.
As we walked through the corridors we were met with a large room,
bedecked with instruments that were designed to illicit confession from even
the hardiest Scotsman or fulfil the sadistic whim of the resident torturer,
John Sage.
John ‘Dragfoot’ Sage is considered the evilest spectre in the
whole of the UK. In life Sage enjoyed the freedom to indulge his darkest
desires as long as it fell under a royal warrant. Reportedly Sage was a
handsome but hateful soldier ending his career as a Lieutenant in King Edward
I’s army. Hate was not reserved solely for William Wallace and his rebellious
Scots but was freely gifted to those in authority, his own men and even his
horse. Sage, during a violent skirmish with his enemy from the north, suffered
a career ending injury to his leg and was due to his reputation made chief
jailor, interrogator and torturer at Chillingham.
Hatred and a thirst for revenge fuelled Dragfoot’s new role and
Scottish men, women and children were soon queued up to receive his specialised
interview techniques, mostly involving fire. Sage wore a hood made of the
blackened skin of his victim’s and he was reputedly not without a fresh supply
with his turnover rate being approximated at 200 a month.
Sage appears to be running a 24/7 death machine with stretching
racks, expanding metal pears, a chair of nails and devils claws at his
disposal. The preferred choice of equipment, however, was a cage that would fit
closely to his victim’s body and allowed him to slowly cook them over an open
fire.
The whimper that was the end of the Scottish rebellion saw Edward
return to the south and Sage’s customer base dwindled. Those that he had kept
alive were ordered to be released, and released they were – into the courtyard
where a bonfire had been prepared and the exits sealed. The children of the
‘released’ prisoners were however separated from their parents and spared the
agonising death by fire - to instead be culled by John’s own hand one-by-one
with a small axe, their bodies thrown into the raging fire post mortem.
His torturous nature also transferred to the bedroom (not wanting
to kink shame) where choking got him off. A night of passion with Mary Charlton
(reports say guest but her ability to leave the castle is
unconfirmed) went too far and she breathed her last with his hands
around her throat, spreadeagled on the stretching rack. Charlton’s father, a
powerful chief demanded that justice for his daughter was carried out and
Edward handed the Butcher of Chillingham Castle over to the Charlton family who
publicly hanged him with a short rope (to cause suffocation rather than instant
death) before cutting at his naked body, removing fingers, toes, ears, nose and
genitals and throwing the mutilated carcass into a cess pit.
Imagine my delight then, stood in the pitch black surrounded by
Dragfoot’s playthings, when Richard called out “John Sage! Is there anyone here
you feel an affinity or attachment to?” And the glowing ends of my dowsing rods
crossed.
The reaction of my fellow investigators did nothing to quell the
disquieting feeling I had. Their mutterings and observations were silenced by
the brightest of purple flashes to my left and above the heads of the family
from Blackpool. Richard asked “Did anyone see that?” The excitement in the room
increased when we were told that he had never seen anything like it before. A
search of the wall uncovered no identifiable source of this strange
illumination. The spirits of the castle were definitely with us now.
Peter was the spectre that was accredited with this phenomenon. As
Richard called out for him to come forward and make himself known the Rem-Pod
at the front of the group lit up and sounded. It was explained that Peter was a
malevolent spirit who was not adverse to physical contact, grabbing guests and
hitting members of the investigation team.
As time was moving on we were divided into groups to look at
different areas of the castle. My group was stationed in the dining hall, where
a scrying mirror was set up. Richard re-joined our group as we began to see
yellow orbs darting around the ceiling of the room. Further attempts to
communicate with Peter were made through the dowsing rods and a strong smell of
what I would describe as cordite or the smell after a firework party permeated
the room. The mirror would go unused as the occurring phenomena took more of our
interest – and I was happy that I would not have the chance to look into the
eyes of the castles Butcher if he were to continue his interest in me.
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| Dining Room 1 |
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| Dining Room 2 |
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| Dining Room 3 |
The group in the attic were reporting some fantastic communication
with the female spirits of the castle. They reported that Sally and Eleanor
were coming through and responding to EMF detectors. We regrouped and squeezed
into the space. Armed with dowsing rods the resident spirits selected myself
and 2 others in the group to be part of a human pendulum experiment.
The human pendulum relies on an individual standing between two
others to serve as a conduit for communication. The direction of sway of this
central person indicates a positive or negative answer. The other two are there
as part of the heath and safety risk assessment to make sure our ‘pendulum’
doesn’t fall on their face.
As interesting as this experiment is, and I would repeat it, it
relies heavily on a lot of human factors. To reduce this human
subconsciousness, I maybe would add an element of sensory deprivation or
disorientation which would assist in validating this method.
The energy in the room was feeling charged, bangs and taps could
be heard from the corners of the room. This could have been caused for a number
of reasons; the number of people, the environment, rodents, external noise,
creaking of the wooden structure. The final show of the room was activation of
the K2 EMF detector which gave us a show of yellow LED’s.
Thanking the spirits and informing them that they could not follow
us home as they had to remain within the castle, we walked back to the café.
The walk took us through the dining room, in which
there were two bats flying around – were these the sources of what
we perceived to be orbs when we were last in here?
Saying thank you and goodbye to Richard I found myself back
outside the front doors. Looking up I realised what they meant by Dark Sky
Areas – as due to the lack of light pollution the universe was spread out on
the black tablecloth of sky above me.
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| Dark Skies over Chillingham |
A review of the few photographs that I took in the dining hall shows two points of light. I took three photos in quick succession, the first showing 2 points, the second 1 point and nothing in the third. The lights looked very different from the sweeping ‘orbs’ I saw with my eyes and the ‘orb’ activity was not seen when I took the pictures.
I will let you draw your own conclusions.
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