As we walked through the twisting corridors of the ancient castle, the rain continued to fall outside. It had been raining heavily since we arrived, but now a full-blown storm had rolled in. Water trickled into some rooms from cracks barely hidden behind ornate paneling, while the wind, whistling and moaning, slammed doors in distant rooms as night fell. At least, we assumed it was the wind, after all, IFLScience was exploring Chillingham Castle – what is meant to be England’s most haunted castle – in the hope that we might actually be faced by something unambiguously paranormal.
Ghosts are a perennially popular topic, inspiring books, films, TV shows, video games, and so on. But while they are a source of entertainment – who doesn’t love a good ghost story? – they can also be a deeply contentious topic.
“Do ghosts exist?” has been a question that refuses to die, and although there is currently no scientifically accepted evidence to answer positively (only anecdotal evidence), they nevertheless feature prominently in our culture.
Anyone who uses social media has likely encountered at least one post or video that allegedly captured a ghost on camera, and TV shows hosted by “ghost hunters” have seen a lot of success with viewers eager to hunt their own spooks. The restless dead clearly influence us, whether it is due to their actual posthumous activities or quirks of our psychology.
So, with that in mind, IFLScience’s own “Scooby Gang” decided to take courage in hand, along with a rucksack filled with popular “ghost hunting” tools and tech, and brave a night in Chillingham Castle to see if we could settle the debate once and for all.
The Chill in Chillingham Castle
Chillingham Castle is located in Northumberland, near the Anglo-Scottish border. Although there has been a human presence in the area for thousands of years, the site became a stronghold and the home of the Grey family and their descendants from 1246 onwards. Then, in 1344, the building was turned into a fully fortified castle.
Given its proximity to the border, the castle’s main function was to guard against Scottish invasion and raiding parties while also housing English soldiers as needed.
The site seems to have witnessed its bloodiest events during the reign of Edward I of England (otherwise known as the Hammer of the Scots), after William Wallace, the Scottish leader made famous by Braveheart, attacked the stronghold in 1297. During the attack, members of the Grey family were apparently burnt alive in a nearby church. In retaliation, English forces billeted at the castle captured and interrogated many suspects, innocent or otherwise, as they hunted for Wallace. Of course, these interrogations included torture designed to force confessions and information from prisoners.
According to those who know the castle, as well as modern ghost hunters, some of the souls who witnessed those events have stuck around long after their deaths. The castle is allegedly haunted by one of the chief torturers from that time, as well as the spirits of servants, masons, and various other people from its troubled past.
There is apparently the “Blue Boy”, whose ghost manifests as a blue light above the beds of sleeping guests, as well as the “Spanish witch”, who is said to curse anyone who steals from the property or wishes it harm.
So, this is the lineup of characters that supposedly stalk the grounds of this ancient castle, but how are ghost hunters, or our little investigative party, meant to “contact” them?
Tricks of the trade
While ghosts are ancient things, appearing within the stories of people from all cultures throughout history, ghost hunting is relatively new. Its intellectual roots stretch back to the popularity of the spiritualist movement in the mid-to-late 19th century.
At the time, many scientists, scholars, artists, and philosophers became deeply interested in exploring the possibility of life after death. This enthusiasm even produced the Society for Psychical Research in 1882, which explicitly sought evidence of various paranormal phenomena and attracted numerous eminent minds of the age. However, as more mediums were proven to be fake, those who took this subject seriously moved to the fringes of scientific society.
Modern ghost hunters, or self-proclaimed “paranormal investigators”, became popular at the turn of this century, after shows like America’s Ghost Hunters and the UK’s Most Haunted captivated wide audiences. Paranormal reality TV shows are now staple entertainment for many, while others have become amateur hunters themselves.
But are these investigators actually conducting scientific enquiries or is it something else? In short, modern ghost hunting is not a scientific activity. Despite the various electrical gadgets and devices they promote, hunters are seeking out spirits in a way that doesn’t align with the scientific method. Again, no attempt to scientifically confirm the existence of ghosts has ever been successful and ghost hunting can be considered pseudoscience or, as Professor John Potts of Macquarie University calls it, “techno-mysticism”.
Favorites among the ghost hunting tool kit are audio recorders, electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, night vision cameras, and more “traditional” tools, like dowsing rods and crystal pendulums.
The IFLScience Scooby Gang brought a bag of these tools with them to Chillingham Castle in order to put them to the test. Of course, no paranormal investigation would be complete without the addition of a Ouija board, something so infamous within our cultural minds that it barely needs introducing. Armed with these tools, we set off to see what awaited us in the dark.
Stories by the fire
At 10 pm, as the storm continued to buffet the walls of our ancient home for the night, we gathered at the castle’s entrance where we met one such ghost hunter. This gentleman has been working at the castle for several years and is well acquainted with the entities and spectral characters that allegedly roam its halls. The ghost hunter was extremely charismatic and, after leading us into a hall that serves as a café during the day, he told us ghost stories by the fire. Obviously, this is a fantastic way to set the stage for any visiting “investigators”, but it also primed our minds with the types of experiences we could expect in the night ahead.
Priming is a psychological experience where an individual’s subconscious is influenced by prior belief or what they’ve been told to expect in a given situation.
In this case, we were told where we were likely to encounter some ghostly activities and in what form they would manifest. In fact, the ghost hunter told us that the spirits of Chillingham Castle interact with men and women in different ways – women may have their hair pulled or feel a force touching their necks, while men may find their hands/wrists being touched by invisible hands or something pulling against their legs.
Part of the magic and atmosphere of the evening for me came from my battling the quiet voice in my mind asking ‘…but what if is true?’, and it certainly ramped up my fear factor.
Chris Carpineti
Of course, all these ghostly interactions are subtle and could easily be produced by anything we brushed up against in the dark, a stray breeze blowing through the drafty space, or a random itch on our skin. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t likely think about such sensations, but when we’re told they could be caused by spirits, we become more sensitive to them, especially when standing in a dark, atmospheric room.
“One of the best moments of the night was between 10 pm and 11 pm, when our ghost-guide sat us in a great stone hall, switched off the lights, lit a large fire, and told us ghost stories in the flickering flames,” Chris Carpineti, IFLScience’s Senior Video Editor, explained as we discussed the night.
“As we sat there, he told tales of the ghostly and demonic inhabitants of the castle and their encounters with previous guests. While I was fully aware that these stories were pure priming material, it took a lot of effort not to be seduced by the fear the stories instilled. After all, part of the magic and atmosphere of the evening for me came from my battling the quiet voice in my mind asking ‘…but what if is true?’, and it certainly ramped up my fear factor.”
Divination in the dark
Armed with this knowledge, we set out for our first ghost hunter “experiment” in a space referred to as the Torture Chamber. Although the room has certainly been decorated to appear like some grisly death chamber, housing various replica torture instruments, the castle’s original torture chamber is apparently located elsewhere and sealed up.
According to the ghost hunter, this space is haunted by the spirit of a John Sage, the arch-torturer who apparently tormented numerous suspects as he searched for William Wallice in the 13th century. In order to contact him, we were each given a pair of L-shaped dowsing rods with luminous tips to hold. Standing in the pitch black, the ghost hunter would ask questions of Sage, encouraging him to interact with us. If he was willing, Sage would move the tips of our dowsing rods to indicate his response.
Dowsing rods are a popular tool among paranormal investigators. Although they have been used for thousands of years for divination – seeking out sources of water, buried treasure, and lost goods – by various cultures, these magical instruments became associated with ghosts in a modern adaptation. As with so many features of the contemporary ghost scene, their inclusion in the ghost hunting tool kit appears to be linked to the rise of spiritualism in the 19th century and the later popularization of ghost hunting at the end of the 20th century.
While some advocates believe these rods can track paranormal energies, much like the diviners looking for water, our ghost hunter used them as signals in a conversation with the dead. However, despite many questions and prompts, John Sage seemed reluctant to talk to us. For at least 10 minutes our glowing-tipped rods stood still in the darkness like unenthused spectators at a 90s rave.
I did finally get some movement towards the end, mind, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this was when I started getting jealous of everyone else’s dowsing rod action, so make of that what you will.
Rachael Funnell
When my rods eventually did move, it coincided with me shifting my weight as my shoulders were starting to ache. So, while the ghost hunter saw this as a positive result, it was merely an accident on my part.
After a little while longer, other rods started to twitch or move in the dark as the ghost hunter asked more questions. Unfortunately, it seems this was also the outcome of people fidgeting or adjusting their hands, or the result of the ideomotor effect – small unconscious movements. How do we know this? Well, if these movements were the results of a ghost, then the dead were not imparting any meaningful messages as the results seemed completely random.
“I was eager to be proven wrong as the lights were dimmed in such a spooky setting, and then somewhat dismayed to see my sticks still stationary 20 minutes in,” Rachael Funnell, IFLScience’s Writer and Senior Digital Producer, explained. “I did finally get some movement towards the end, mind, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this was when I started getting jealous of everyone else’s dowsing rod action, so make of that what you will.”
Similar experiences were had by Johannes Van Zijl, IFLScience’s Managing Director.
“I stood there in the stillness of the night, the glow-in-the-dark rods casting an eerie light around me. It was around 11 pm, and I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly I was doing there, waiting for something, anything to happen. Anticipation hung in the air as I watched the rods closely, expecting movement, a sign, something out of the ordinary,” Van Zijl added.
“But nothing. The rods stayed motionless, undisturbed by the energy that was supposed to stir them. I guess whatever was out there decided to give me a pass that night.”
Spirit voices and Spiderman
Following our experience with the dowsing rods, we moved on to the Edward room, one of the highest rooms in the castle. Here, our ghost hunter introduced us to his Spirit Box, which we tested as a group and with one of us listening to the device through headphones while wearing a blindfold and saying what they heard.
These devices scan backward through AM and FM frequencies at high speeds, usually at ranges between 76 to 108 megahertz. According to ghost hunters, these frequencies can be manipulated by spirits who can project their voices so that the living can hear them.
Typically, a ghost hunter will ask questions as the device is scanning and, if a ghost is near, it can provide relevant short responses that come out of the surrounding white noise.
However, because the device is scanning radio frequencies, it picks up bits of transmissions that vary from music to adverts to talk shows. Because it rapidly switches between stations, it only provides brief snippets that come out as one or two words, or disjointed phrases.
Although believers hold that these words, or at least some of them, could be the utterances of ghosts, it’s more likely they are just words from radios. If, however, the words appear to answer a specific question then it may seem significant at first, but it is hard to discount mere coincidence or the outcome of pareidolia – the tendency for humans to see or hear meaningful information (words in this case) in random noise.
An example of this was evident among our Scooby Gang. At one point, the Spirit Box apparently answered “Simon” when the ghost hunter asked if anyone was there. The name Simon had been mentioned earlier in the night as one of the ghosts associated with the castle. Was this proof that Simon was trying to speak to us?
If spirits were trying to communicate with me, I was doing a rubbish job interpreting the fast sound bites – I probably frustrated them a lot!
Dr Beccy Corkill
The ghost hunter certainly saw this as a positive answer, but other people in our party thought the device had said “Spiderman”. It is impossible for us to know what actually came out of the Spirit Box, but, as with our experience with the dowsing rods, if the spirits were communicating through this device, they were not saying anything meaningful.
“The Spirit Box experience was strangely relaxing and cosy,” Dr Beccy Corkill, IFLScience’s Custom Content Manager, explained. “During it, I had white noise playing through the noise-cancelling headset with a Jack Skellington eye mask on. I feel that if spirits were trying to communicate with me, I was doing a rubbish job interpreting the fast sound bites – I probably frustrated them a lot!”
“Going to the chapel and we’re gonna” speak to a demon
Our final adventure for the night was something foreshadowed from the very start of our discussion with the ghost hunter: a confrontation with something demonic.
While we were being told stories about the castle’s many ghostly inhabitants, we heard about a ritual-gone-wrong that had apparently been performed by Alestair Crowley, the (in)famous occultist, when he supposedly visited the castle in the early 20th century. As the story goes, Crowley contacted a demon at the castle that he subsequently lost control of. Of course, this non-human entity is still meant to lurk within the castle and has become particularly attached to the old chapel that sits above the tea rooms today.
When contacting ghost investigators, the demon is said to pretend to be a small child called “Tim”, in an effort to earn people’s trust, but as “conversations” continue, the entity starts to reveal its true nature (it was not clear what this involved).
Once again, the Spirit Box came out and one of our Scooby Gang listened to it with headphones while they were blindfolded. We had done this in the previous room as well, the idea being that this person would be the only one to hear the words emanating from the machine’s white noise while they were oblivious to everything else that was going on.
At the same time, the rest of us would attempt to speak to the demonic entity or any other chatty ghosts, and we would await a response from the person plugged into the device. As they were unable to hear us, any answers they received from the Spirit Box shouldn’t be influenced by their expectations. That was the theory anyway.
At the same time, the ghost hunter introduced us to another divination favorite – the crystal pendulum. They typically consist of a weighted object – such as a stone or mineral crystal – fixed to a chain. People will hold the end of a chain and allow the weighted end to dangle freely. They then ask any supernatural entities to move the crystal in response to their questions in a similar way to the dowsing rods – though this time the pendulum could swing over a circular grid with the words “yes”, “no”, “maybe”, and “ask again” printed on it.
When we tried to communicate with the supposed demonic entity in the room, we noticed the person in charge of the pendulum was put into another awkward position as they tried to keep the crystal steady. As with the dousing rods before, although the pendulum remained still for a long time, it did eventually start to move as the holder got tired, adjusted their position, or fidgeted in their seat.
However, if the demonic presence was really trying to communicate with us, it was not doing so in any coherent way. Any movement from the pendulum seemed to convey contradictory answers to the ghost hunter’s questions or simply did not make sense.
Although the person on the Spirit Box did utter some appropriately “spooky” words, including “demon”, “the void”, and “poison”, they did not match anything being asked at the time and seemed random. But maybe that was the demon’s aim all along, who can tell?
Ghosts busted?
Our stay at Chillingham Castle was certainly atmospheric, but was there anything paranormal at play? Unfortunately, none of the Scooby Gang experienced anything that could be categorically regarded as evidence of ghosts in this famously haunted house.
Obviously, those who believe in ghosts may object that we were too skeptical from the start, that our minds were not open to the possibility of contacting the dead, given our respective backgrounds. But this feels somewhat weak given that our team participated in the same types of activities that any ghost hunter can perform, and despite the various gadgets in use, nothing wanted to talk to us. Perhaps the spirits of Chillingham Castle don’t like journalists.
Maybe I am more afraid of ghost hunters than of ghosts.
Dr Beccy Corkill
“It’s been two weeks since we returned from the castle. Even now, whenever I turn the lights off last thing at night, I feel momentarily on edge, the residual effect from being primed so strongly at the castle is still clinging on,” Carpineti concluded.
“There was one particularly heart-stopping moment and that was in the chapel. The ghost hunter was sitting next to me when he thought he saw something behind me. It made me incredibly jumpy for the next hour, as I glanced behind me so often that I nearly got a neck injury. However, I didn’t see anything, and he did a good job of making the night spooky. So maybe, I am more afraid of ghost hunters than of ghosts,” Corkill added.
