Ballincollig 24th October 2022

We started our night out by visiting a beautiful, old church and graveyard in Ovens.

We had often seen the church's spire from a distance and had always presumed that the building was a ruin. 

The church seemed to be in a good state of repair but sadly had been boarded up to prevent vandals from destroying the inside.

We had a walk around the grounds in the fading light reading the old gravestones and thinking about the people buried there.

We then moved on to our main location.

The old castle in Ballincollig is just a ruin now but the remains of the walls are still visible along with a little of the outbuildings and the main castle building itself.

There is a small room at ground level at the back of the main building with a low doorway. We did a calling out session in there and although we thought we heard movement outside at one point, we were not able to capture anything on our equipment.

The castle is three stories high and is located on a small hill. I sat on the hill outside while the other lads climbed up into the castle. 

I could hear them talking but apart from that, an the sounds of distant cars, the night was very clear and still.

I was sitting at the front of the building and had a fantastic view of the city and surrounding countryside. As darkness fell I began to feel a bit cold, so I moved a little closer to the main building. 

The lads were still inside the main building but the entrance is too high for me - age and arthritis have begun to make it difficult for me to follow the lads everywhere.

As I was sitting in the dark, I heard a large animal moving around just at the side of the castle. This would be about 10 or 12 feet from where I was sitting.

Thinking it was a cow, I turned on my torch and went to investigate. 

There was nothing there.

I made my way quickly around the whole castle allowing my torch's beam to cut through the darkness and stopping briefly a few times to sweep the beam over the surrounding fields.

There were no animals anywhere near the castle.

The lads returned shortly after this and we all had a quick scan around but found nothing.

Unfortunately,  we did not catch any evidence during this investigation. 

As we all enjoy visiting ancient sites and ruins, we still had a great time and did not feel it was a waste of time.

Sometimes the ghosties don't come out to play!