Investigation Report
Eglinton Castle 2nd Investigation - 31st May 2008
In attendance were:-
Ian McCallum - WOSPR Founder
Alison McCallum - WOSPR Co-Founder
Susan Cocozza - Investigator
Tommy Miller - Investigator
Vince Cocozza – Investigator
Investigation Report
We arrived at Eglinton Castle just before 11pm for the start of our second investigation there, after a gap of some 11 months. Whilst most of us had taken the precaution of covering ourselves with insect repellent, it didn’t stop the midges taking bites out of us.
Vince and Tommy set off to take some baseline readings of the location. During this time, I setup the camcorder for filming. After meeting back up at the base location (centre of the ruins) we started the investigation proper. It was at this point that we could hear voices in the distance, this wouldn’t be the last time tonight that we’d hear them either.
At the remaining tower, Vince reported seeing a golden coloured light flash out of the corner of his eye. Even though Vince had this personal experience, nothing was caught on video or audio. Vince claimed to have seen something similar before we started filming. After a few uneventful minutes, we decided start an EVP session near the base of the tower. Tommy had just started the session when we heard voices way off in the distance (probably more than 150 yards away). Vince reported seeing lights in the trees, but again nothing was caught on video. We saw no cars during this period in the vicinity. Tommy resumed the EVP session and we introduced ourselves to whoever might be there. At this point on the digital audio recorder can be heard a faint possible EVP after Tommy says his name.
We moved towards the part of the castle that still has some substantial walls still remaining. It was whilst we were in this area that Vince pointed out the evidence that someone had recently used this area as a drinking den and a latrine. Broken bottles crunched underfoot whilst we made our way cautiously around this area. Vince, Tommy and Susan decided to take a look at the Eglinton Castle Coat of Arms around the corner.
It was at this point that I filled in some of the recent history for Vince’s benefit, Susan commented upon movement in the trees again accompanied by snapping twigs. She put this down to people moving about, perhaps drunken teenagers as this area can attract them at times. It could also have been deer as this park is noted for them. After a slight bit of unrelated comic relief, Tommy reported see a shadow move behind the windows from where we’d just been a few minutes previously. Upon further investigation, nothing was found and nothing recorded on video unfortunately.
Moving back towards the tower, I noted that the voices of the apparently drunken teenagers were getting somewhat louder, thankfully they were too far away at this point to be picked up on either the audio recorder or camcorder. Susan and Tommy both reported the strong smell of perfume or aftershave. Tommy thought that I was wearing a strong aftershave at the time, but I wouldn’t for this very reason. Just a minute later we heard an odd noise in the distance which turned out to be a heron flying along the nearby river, I spotted it flying in a gap between the trees. Back to this “phantom” smell, which vanished as quickly as it came. We were quickly distracted again by the sounds of people passing by.
This gave us some cause for concern as we didn’t want drunken teenagers hanging around us causing bother and interfering with the investigation. As they got closer and the noise intensified, we decided to curtail the investigation on safety grounds. After packing away the camcorder we headed up the stairs of the castle, it was at this point that Vince told us that he was positive that he saw a shadow moving near the top of the stairs. We reached the top of the stairs fairly quickly, but saw nothing up there. The teenagers were too far away at this point for the shadow to have been them.
Results:
Baseline test results were as follows: - Maximum temperature of 17.8°C at the start of the investigation, falling to a low of 15.7°C. Relative Humidity ranged from a high of 73.9% to a low of 56.8%. There was a constant reading of 0mG throughout all areas, with a slight fluctuation.
No video anomalies were detected.
Here's two potential EVP's that we're not sure about, make up your own minds on them. The first one is Tommy saying his name, straight after that is the potential EVP. The second one is anyone's guess...
Conclusion... We collected no video evidence of anything paranormal, but did get some interesting potential EVP’s. These noises weren’t heard at the time of the recording and any passers by seemed too far away to cause these sounds. With regard to the potential EVP’s, whilst we can’t discount the possibility that this could have been us making these noises or even the teenagers in the distance, they do sound almost human to the ear. We’ll leave you to make up your minds what they maybe.
On the subject of potential EVP’s, we’ve picked up our best potential one here during our last visit. Maybe in the future when there aren’t some many people around, we’ll get another chance to investigate the place for longer than the 35 minutes we were there.
Whilst some of us had personal experiences, what this means is that it can’t be used as evidence as there is no corroborating evidence to accompany this. This isn’t to belittle anyone’s personal experience, it’s just the way things work in our group. Some of these experiences maybe due to environmental and psychological factors on the night, or even perhaps there was something “paranormal” going on. Only a further and more details investigation will reveal this…
Investigation Video
Investigation Photographs
A good False Positive shot showing both the midges (flies) that were eating us and dust/pollen particles - not "orbs"!
A model showing Eglinton Castle in it's heyday (1802-1925), all that is left is some walls from the left wing and front left tower.
Daytime Location Photographs
The stairs where Vince was convinced he saw a moving shadow
Where the shadow Vince saw moved to
Copyright © 2008 WOSPR.