Thoughts about an old friend

Lockdown Blues

We all know how hard it is to stick to the lockdown laws but finally, with the vaccination programmes progressing albeit slowly, it looks like we may finally, be turning a corner.

There are so many places all over Ireland just waiting to be explored. All of the team have kept busy virtually hunting out these locations so that we can get back out on the road as son as we get the go -ahead.

I have been to many amazing places - from Leap Castle where I believe my father reached out to me from beyond the grave, to Ballinacarriga Castle where the spirit of a man called Stephen waits forever on the top floor.

'Stephen' has haunted me for along time. Not like a ghostly haunting but in my thoughts a lot. Who was he? Where was he from? What age did he die? 

I don't even know if that is his name. The name comes to me whenever I go to the top floor but I can't say for sure that it is really his name.

He has the power to make emf meters light up around the room when asked and I have heard his footsteps several times, shuffling though the loose stones on the floor.

Research

I have searched for records of a Stephen who may have lived or worked in Ballinacarriga during the fifties or sixties - as that is when I believe he died - but I have never come across any information about him. I think he died in or near the castle. Perhaps he took his own life? He seems a gentle soul and his energy feels warm and refreshing. 

I would love to find out anything at all about this man. This would validate the thoughts and feeling I have when I am in the castle. 

I am not a medium but sometimes strong feelings come to me and I would really like to know if these are simply my imagination or if they are something else entirely.

For now, I will be content to keep believing that my friend Stephen is still waiting for me to come and visit him when this lockdown finally ends.

Lockdown Blues

2020 proved to be a very challenging year for us all. At the beginning of the year the team and I had looked forward to a year full of investigations, evidence reviews and late nights. Although we did manage to get a few investigations done between the lockdowns, it was still a disappointing year.

One of the investigations we managed was in this abandoned asylum. It was a calm, dry night outside. We checked out the perimeter before we entered the building to make sure there was no one around to disturb us or contaminate the investigation.

We entered the building and immediately set up a camera and motion sensor covering the entrance so that we would know if anyone else entered the building. 

We carefully made our way along the corridor as the floor was not in very good repair and we didn't want to risk a fall into the basement. 

We set up our equipment not too far into the building - in a small side room - and began our investigation. 

On this particular floor, we have had a lot of reports of stones being thrown so we called out asking if there was anyone around us who wished to communicate by throwing pebbles up the corridor. 

As usual on these investigations, we spent a lot of our time laughing and joking amongst ourselves as we get on well as a team and, this time in particular, we hadn't seen each other for some time.

As we settled down to begin calling out again we were shocked to hear an incredibly loud bang coming from the direction shown in the picture below. 

We thought someone had entered the building without tripping our motion sensor so we all went to have a look. 

On reviewing the footage from the entrance, we could clearly see that no one had been near the entrance when the stone was thrown and the stone had not come from outside. I had been standing looking up the corridor when we heard the bang and there was no one to be seen.

We also had a look around to see what could have made a bang like it but although there was a lot of rubbish around we were unable to find anything big enough to re-create the sound.

You can see the video at the link below.

Stone thrown at us

Later on as I was standing with my back to  the corridor I clearly felt someone come and stand beside me. I mentioned this and Matt swung his camera towards me. He caught a weird light anomaly just beside me. We tried to re-create this but were not able to do so.

You can see the video here

As you can see from the pictures the place is massive and quite eerie. During the investigation we heard another sound which we thought was a broken window frame being moved. We made our way back to where we had seen the frame on the ground near the entrance but once again our motion sensor had not been tripped and we caught nothing on camera. 

Two members of the team returned the following night to try to capture some more footage but, as is so often the case, they had an extremely quiet night.

All in all, the first night was a great night which left us with plenty to think and talk about.

Thanks must go to Matt from Cork Supernatural Society for his excellent camera work. Follow the link to check us out on Facebook and while you're there don't forget to give us a like so that you don't miss any of our investigation reports.