The Grim Up North

Gifted with a week of annual leave I found myself travelling northeast, via Hull, and landing in the village of Morpeth. I had binged my way through How Haunted? A podcast by Rob Kirkup, (author, paranormal investigator and local boy) and was ready to explore the sights, seen and unseen of this amazing part of the UK.

I was armed with my recently acquired EMF detector, English Heritage membership and a new device on the market; the Chattergeist Touch from Dimension Devices.

Chattergeist Loading Screen

Finding Dimension Devices through my trawls of social media looking for paranormal investigation groups I was struck by the company’s ethos of wanting to develop quality investigative equipment at a sensible price point, whilst fostering a respectful and understanding atmosphere within the paranormal community.

Their flagship device, the Chattergeist Touch, is a small puck like device that incorporates so much into so little space for only £150. I set about researching alternatives, looking at the Ovilus, Onvoy, Quadcom and the myriad of apps and other devices on the market for the more tech savvy investigator. I could not find anything that could match the Chattergeist for functionality, and for such a good price point (handily Dimension Devices had provided a nice chart that highlights the comparisons).

Dimension Devices state that the Chattergeist Touch is “designed to assess environmental data and convert into user-readable communication to attempt to connect to the realms of the living with the dead.” And this communication can be through its extensive (and updatable) word library; 8-ball-esq answers, a spirit board and even a drawing mode. I prepared my sales pitch to Mrs J who, fortunately for me, like the man from del Monte said ‘yes’.

Ordered and purchased, I waited for my delivery. I didn’t have to wait long and my first bit of expensive kit was in my hands. It was well packaged, the device itself having a little plastic flight case, and came with a cloth bag, USB cable, certificate of authenticity and to Mrs J’s delight – stickers.

Once plugged in to a battery pack the screen lit up and I started to have a play with the functions. Since I was at home I wasn’t too worried about the lack of spectral interaction instead content to stare at the ‘scanning’ screen counting the days until I was off on my holiday.

Menu Screen

After arriving, unpacking and getting accustomed to my new surroundings it wasn’t long until I was heading out to Pen Bal Crag, a rocky headland at the mouth of the Tyne, where I discovered Tynemouth Priory and Castle. The burial site of the early kings of Northumbria marked by the ruins of the Benedictine Priory surrounded by the moated castle-towers, gatehouse and keep. The Priory was founded in the early 7th century and became the final resting place of St Oswin.

Pilgrims were not the only visitors to the site, and after Oswin king of Deira was joined by Osred II in 792 where he rested in peace for 8 years before the Priory was visited by Danish tourists who proceeded to rape, murder and pillage the site until completely destroying it in 875. A castle is believed to have been on the site around the time of the Norman Invasion, and due to the threats and attacks from Scotland, was reinforced over the next 400 hundred years to include a gatehouse and barbican.

The castle was in use, until the departure of the British Army in 1956, and had seen use in WWII as barracks serving as part of the coastal defence for the mouth of the River Tyne. The site was passed to the care of English Heritage after the closure of the coastguard station in 2001.

Through the Window

Now standing as a site of Northumberland’s collected history of victory, defeat and defiance it is unsurprising that reports of ghostly apparitions stem from this location. 13th century accounts of the spectre of King John appearing to a monk foretelling of the Bishop of Durham’s place in hell unless he changed his ways, the spirit of Olaf the Viking – captured and a convert to Christianity – who stares out mournfully over the water and in more recent times a photograph of a behatted women in Victorian attire among the multitude of gravestones who was not visible through the viewfinder, all feature as spooky tales connected to the grounds.

However none of these, or any other voices from the past wanted to communicate with me – as I sat in several locations with my Chattergeist scanning, silently calling out amongst the scattering of tourists who had braved the overcast weather. Taking some photographs in the hope of capturing some presence resulted equally with nothing to report.

Remembering the warning I had read multiple times that 90% of the time you wait for the 10% of activity I packed up and headed out feeling very optimistic about my next location – reputedly the most haunted castle in Britain - Chillingham Castle.

I am an affiliate of Dimension Devices. Although I will receive a percentage of sales made through my affiliate link (https://dimensiondevices.co.uk/shop.php?affiliate=sjp), my reviews and accounts of the Chattergeist Touch are my own honest opinions.