Craig y Nos - March 2005

Five of us (Amanda, Helen, Alison, Tony and myself) were among the 55 visitors to Craig y Nos Castle, in the South West of the Brecon Beacons National Park, on this Saturday night. Craig y Nos was built in the early 19th Century and is a large stately home with lots of towers and the like. It has been the home of the opera singer Adelini Patti and, until eighteen years ago, when it fell into a state of neglect, it was a hospital. It is now gradually being restored as a hotel.

After a meal we sat down to a pre-investigation session in the castle's theatre with three purported mediums. As usual they picked out people in the audience for a reading, with the first one, June Ellis, giving readings to both Amanda and Alison. Being very sceptical towards people who claim to get messages from the dead, this turned out to be interesting with Alison feeling that there was about a 70% hit rate but with Amanda's being over 80%, including picking out three names of her deceased grandparents (including the unusual name of May) and several other things about her life which seemed relevant and specific. I thought that June was way off target when she said Amanda had an association with Leicester, as I know that Amanda is from the north-west, but later found out that she has recently purchased a new house in Leicester Avenue. Several other readings for people followed from the other two mediums with some obviously way off the mark but a few getting apparently precise information that they could relate to.

At 11pm the investigation started with Alison and Tony in one of three groups and Amanda, Helen and myself in another. Initially our group started out in a room under the stage to try some table-tipping (thoughts of tables suspiciously hopping round the room sprung to mind). Despite several of us having a go the table steadfastly refused to move (though some claimed they could feel it vibrating). But what was more interesting was Amanda's reaction while watching. She felt what she described as energy building inside her and those of us around her noticed her breathing intensifying and her head nodding. Eventually it seemed very intense and the group leader had her escorted out - Amanda said she didn't feel too worried and although she is a 'sensitive' it was the first time she had experienced anything like that. We then moved on to other rooms, which were wards when the castle was used as a TB hospital, where we carried out vigils with nothing much physical happening to any of us, though Helen believed she may have seen a scary odd white glow by her feet when she felt there was a presence in the former male ward (the conservatory). However Amanda was sensing more and felt that she could hear patients voices in the male ward and the presence of a 'little girl who desperately wanted to play' in the former children's ward - this matched the description of another sensitive who visited that room with another group. Our last vigil was done in the cellars where we held a seance in almost complete darkness. We held hands and spirits were encouraged to manifest. After a while a couple of people said they could see blue lights moving round and then (much to my surprise) I believed I saw a small blue light (like a light blue LED) apparently appear, speedily move a couple of feet from right to left (a bit like a meteorite does) and disappear. It all happened in about a second, and could be put down to a mixture of tiredness and suggestion, but was quite interesting. At about the same time several people reckoned they could see a shadow in an area of the cellar not visible from where I was sat. The session was closed and our tour finished at just after 4am. We were also glad to get rid of our guide (Steve) who he had a love of talking and kept telling us stories about activity in the rooms (thus suggesting things we might observe) and then annoyingly closing down sessions once any activity started.  Alison’s report (with a better guide, Austin) :

In the former children's ward, a couple of people in my group thought they saw a shadow move across the room. The guy with the infra red thermometer turned round to get a reading and as he turned round he thought he saw a small child of about 7 years standing behind him. As he was a sceptic this came as a bit of a shock, causing him to half collapse and have an asthmatic attack (he was known to have asthma). At this, half our group went hysterical and shrieking. I saw and felt nothing, nor did the EMF meter I was holding register anything, so while they were all shrieking I was going "what? what?!"

The other incident my group experienced was in the cellars. We were lined up each side of a narrow corridor leading to a windowed door, standing in pitch dark when a middle aged lady near the door shrieked, terrified and had to be escorted out of the cellar. It transpired she thought someone had grabbed her arm in a pinching fashion. We were told after that there is apparently a ghostly presence by that door who delights in grabbing people. However, by the door were a couple of full length cupboards with dodgy (not fully closing or staying closed) doors and it is possible that one of the doors opened and the small acorn shaped handle banged her arm as it was the right height and shape to feel like someone's thumb or finger. When a torch was turned on, the cupboard door nearest her was slightly open, however no one knew whether it had been like that prior to the incident.

Whilst in the conservatory, some of our group thought they saw a lady in a white gown in the doorway to the outside, standing there watching us as if she wanted to enter. Needless to say, I saw nothing unusual and my interest waned as I became cold enough to shiver violently - not due to anything more unusual than the low outside temperatures of minus 3'C. On the first floor in the small room which had been destroyed by fire, I thought I saw some greenish glowing lights on the outside wall. These lights appeared to be different from reflected car lights shining down from the hill road opposite which occurred shortly after, but as we were standing in pitch dark, I put it down to my eyes playing tricks. Two people in my group were alarmed by the apparent sound of tapping from the wooden wall cupboard in that room - the same cupboard that alarmed Phil on the Most Haunted episode from there. We thought that was it for the night - we were wrong!

We went to our beds in the bunkhouse (which was the former South Ward of the hospital) and during the early morning those of us in four adjacent beds (modern sturdy metal ones) in the bunkhouse felt that their beds moved like they were being shaken. It awakened me twice and it was strong enough to wake others up as well. It should be noted that this room had a concrete floor, is in a single storey building, is nowhere near a busy road or railway and, because the room had the lights left on and a couple of us were in bunks on their own, it can be safely said that no-one else was involved in the shaking. Definitely the most inexplicable physical phenomenon we experienced - I even checked the list of British earthquakes to check that one hadn't occurred. Overall Craig y Nos is a fascinating place to visit and I hope to organise another visit with The Paranormal World at some time in the future, though I'd ask for a different guide!