SCEPTIC TEL

“If there’s anybody there would you please make a noise for us?” The group remained quiet listening attentively for a sign that we may not be alone,  then as clear as anything, we heard “Hello” Eek!! If that was paranormal then it’s the best thing I’ve ever heard! We all looked at each other our minds ticking over, our senses tentative of our surroundings.

“If that was you could you please repeat it?”

“Hellooo?” Came the eventual reply, a rush of curious excitement rushed through the group.

“Let’s go into the tunnel to see if we can pick anything up...”

We all moved into the tunnel, much more huddled now than before. We walked along the tunnel when we heard two almighty bangs “My God what the hell was that!!!?”

“Hello” The voice again, it’s was too clear, surely it couldn't be a ‘ghost’.

We decided to split into two groups; Debbie beckons me to come with her as she headed towards where we thought the sound was generated from. We rushed off leaving her virgin ghost hunting sister Jenny behind fretting whether to follow her sister who was quickly deserting her or stay with the rest of the group who were heading in the other direction. Eventually she catches up with us, video camera in hand.

The tour guide tells us that it’ll be best to head back outside to the mouth of the tunnel to check it out. As we all make our way out we find a small group of people standing by the main gate to the fort.

“Did any of you call out Hello?”

“Yes we’re Paranormal Investigators and are interested in doing an investigation here. We thought we heard someone but wasn’t sure where they were…”

Arghhh!!! What an anticlimax. We figured that the ‘Hello’ we heard probably wasn’t paranormal but finding out still came as a disappointment, if we hadn’t found the source though I would have still remained doubtful about it’s origin. And the loud bangs? They were very likely to be the main gates being closed and the sound reverberating down the tunnel.

We had been looking forward to visiting Coalhouse Fort for a long time. Joining us on this investigation were Gaz; a truly sceptic friend, Caz; a ghost hunting novice from work, Debbie; an experienced Ghost hunting friend and Jenny; Debbie’s sister who was also new to ghost hunting. Coalhouse Fort had recently been on Most Haunted and we had read many of the ghostly stories about it, we were eager to get in there.

Unfortunately though the night was pretty quiet for us which was obviously disappointing not only for ourselves but also for our guests who we were hoping would come away a little more convinced about the paranormal. This was a public event although we did stay together in our group of six we also had at least one staff member with us, as many parts of the Fort is deemed unsafe and we also had the company of Maggs, who was a medium visiting that night.

Our night began by taking part in vigils in two of the many rooms that line the tunnels. In the first room we did hear a kind of scratching noise but we dismissed this as a rodent of some kind, it just didn’t seem to be paranormal, although it could have been…

In the second room two of the staff (who are sensitives) and the medium picked up on a showgirl. We did not get any physical sign of her being there and had to rely on what we were being told. I don’t normally mention what the mediums get at investigations that I attend but in this instance I observed something that I would typically expect from “clairvoyance”. The medium and staff seemed to be openly creating a picture of what they could see, bouncing ideas of each other to the point that even the novice and sceptic ghost hunters could predict or see what they were saying. Basically it was a sceptics dream three people discussing what they could “see”. Now obviously perhaps they could, I don’t like to say they couldn’t but I wasn’t convinced…

After a break we went back to the tunnels to attend vigils in a couple more rooms. This is when the fiasco with the “Hello” described above took place. During this incident as we stood in the tunnels Caz and Rosie both heard what they believe to be a whistle quite close to their ear. There was no obvious source for the whistle.

Once the source of the "Hello" had been fathomed out we continued our vigil in another of the rooms. In this room the medium and a staff member picked up on an “officer” stood in the doorway. Again despite numerous attempts to coax him into communicating with us he just wasn’t forthcoming. I stood in the doorway where he was allegedly stood hoping to feel something but alas I did not. Although when I entered ‘his space’ the walkie-talkie I had in my pocket went off, a member of staff checked with the other staff to check for other experiences of “white noise” to which there had been none.

In the notorious latrines the atmosphere was different although once accustomed to didn’t feel any creepier than the rest of the fort. I thought I could see dark shadows moving in the darkness but was uncertain and due to the darkness I can’t dismiss my eyes tricking me. Also in here most of us heard a weasing breath. This tied in with the medium picking up on a man with Angina so quite possibly this was paranormal, but again being my sceptical self I can’t dismiss the fact that two new members of staff had joined us and that perhaps one of them had a bit of a wease, being in the dark I couldn’t tell for sure. One other incident in the latrines was a sensitive member of staff picked up on a soldier and using the “human pendulum” technique answered a series of questions asked by the Fort historian. Apparently the soldier answered the questions correctly via the staff member, despite her being unaware of the answers to the questions. I checked one of the answers on the Internet and it did confirm that she was right but for me I was a little dubious due to it being two members of staff despite their apparent genuineness and honesty.  

There is one other incident worth mentioning and that is of our experience with the planchette. We appeared to pick up on someone that had a connection with Debbie. She asked the ‘Spirit’ various questions that none of us knew the answers to which were mostly answered correctly, as further proof she asked if the Spirit would give its first initial so that she could work out who it was. When the paper was examined after the planchette session the initial ‘B’ was seen which was indeed the initial of an unfortunately recently deceased family member…

We had some false alarms with the dripping from the torrential rain sounding like footsteps on some occasions and with a couple of the staff members unexpectedly joining us and inadvertently giving us a bit of a surprise.

For me and a few of my group what we experienced wasn’t enough, there was a lack of unexplainable physical phenomena. Clairvoyance is all very well but I am not convinced by it at the best of times due to the fact that I do not experience it myself and don’t understand how it works, that’s not to say that those that do are deluded. In true Derren Brown style Gaz wrote down a few predictions of what the medium may tell us on the night. . Despite having a few misses he was surprisingly accurate on two of his predictions. An excellent experiment that I may well continue.

Despite it being a disappointing night we did enjoy the company of our group, the hospitality of the hosts and exploring the fort. There are so many stories of ghosts attached to the fort that they can’t all be fantasy and I do believe that if you visit there you may well experience something. I guess it’s the name of the game; Ghost Hunting sometimes they do sometimes they don’t – on our night at the Fort they didn’t

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