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Investigation at Duckett’s Grove 21st February 2014

After a long and difficult journey, I arrived in time to join one of the teams just heading out into the woods around the side and back of the castle.

There were 10 of us in our group and 4 groups in total so there were about 40 people in total at the open event which had been arranged as a charitable event by Wexford Paranormal – a fantastic team who I was privileged to join for the night’s investigation. 

Out in the woods we heard branches breaking underfoot but could not see where the noise was coming from or what was causing it.

The team leader used a Frank’s box or Ghost box – like a radio that is continuously scanning for channels, fragments of speech, music and static are heard. Some Ghost Hunters believe that spirits can use the built in echo chamber to manipulate these sounds and actually communicate through this medium.

The team leader asked various questions including, who had just joined the group? My name, “Kim” came clearly through the static. He then asked where I was from and once again the answer was clear, “West Cork”. 

More questions were asked but although I thought I heard answers to these, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t just picking out what I expected to hear. 

We then moved into the castle itself. The wind was blowing strongly through the narrow windows in the round tower-like room known as the “Growl” room. 

Several of the team, myself included, thought they heard scratching noises behind them in the stone walls. The lady filming the investigation felt that someone was standing very close beside her. Most of us heard tapping or knocking noises in the stone walls as if someone was rapping quite hard on the stone.

I asked if any of the others could hear voices at times and one of the team – standing beside me – said yes, he kept hearing murmuring coming through the doorway beside us. We tested to see if we were hearing one of the other teams but after asking them, by walkie- talkie, to speak loudly among themselves for a few minutes, we were unable to hear anything from them so ruled out that form of noise contamination.

The other person who had heard the voices agreed that they sounded like women chattering.

We moved into the kitchen area but did not stay long as another team had also moved into a nearby area so we all agreed to take a break.

After a much needed coffee, we went back into the castle. We decided to investigate a fairly open room near the wine cellar. 

As soon as we entered the room several people complained that they did not like the feeling in the room. We heard various noises like stones dropping to the floor and feet shuffling. 

The lady doing the filming said that once again she felt that someone was standing right beside her. 

Three of us mentioned that we felt very cold down one side all of a sudden. My left thigh and knee felt icy cold and we agreed that the coldness seemed to be coming from one particular corner of the room. The lady on the camera said she felt someone blow on her face. After a while she said that she felt like she was burning down one side. A temperature reading of both cheeks revealed that there was a difference of 9 degrees Celsius between her cheeks even though the hotter cheek was closer to an open window and the open door was also on that side. 

Our team leader left the room briefly to check on another team nearby and we began calling out, asking if anyone wanted to communicate with us. A quick succession of loud taps on the stone wall behind one of the team took us all by surprise. 

After this the tapping continues intermittently but did not seem to be in response to our questioning.

One of the team stumbled slightly and within a few minutes most of the team had swayed or lost balance for no apparent reason. We later agreed that being in the room was like being on a boat in a relatively calm sea – just enough motion to make you aware that you were not on solid ground.

Our next port of call was the upstairs room where “Mrs Brady” is said to have lived. This room is accessed by a narrow, winding, metal staircase. Some people – on previous investigations – have mentioned a strong putrid smell on the staircase but this time nobody noticed it.

By general consensus it was agreed that some of the team would try table tipping – a method thought to allow a spirit to use the energy of the people around the table to move or tip the table. The table was rocking gently and lifting slightly off the ground but as I am not a huge fan of this method of communication, I lost patience and decided to speak to “Mrs Brady” myself. 

I asked her to lift the table as I knew she was capable of this having seen it first hand the last time I was at Duckett’s Grove when we were seated around it. 

Suddenly the table began to tilt and eventually flipped right over. I continued to talk to Mrs Brady the whole time. 

A medium in the group then took over and set up a communication avenue using a glass with team members’ finger resting gently on the top– the glass was to be moved clockwise for yes and anti-clockwise for no. Mrs Brady apparently did not like the medium and managed to make this clear through moving the glass. Further questioning revealed that she was afraid that the medium would harm one of the other spirits by “clearing” him – the word “clear” was spelt out on the table surface. 

The team had encountered this spirit through the Ghost box in the garden before I had arrived. He called himself “David” but we were unable to establish who he might have been. 

When asked if “David” was happy the glass spun clockwise – yes – very quickly.

Just like the table tipping, I am not a fan of using a glass for communication as both these methods are not very easy to prove but it was interesting to see them in action. 

Conclusion

Although nothing outstanding happened this time, Duckett’s Grove is still one of my favourite places to investigate. I believe there is something here and look forward to my next chance to collect evidence in this amazing place.