Tutbury Castle 18-11-05




This Friday saw the (K)nights of Fear assisting at a charity ghost hunt in aid of Children in Need at Tutbury Castle. For the 28 participants, the night started with a meal at a local restaurant which was attended by Karl and Stuart from Most Haunted, before the whole group assembled at Tutbury Castle at about 11:00pm.

Before commencement the participants were split into 7 groups of 4 so that various areas of the castle grounds could be covered almost continually throughout the night whilst the (K)nights of Fear were left to monitor the more active areas throughout the night, giving advice and assistance when required. As there are certain limitations on what we are allowed to do at Tutbury we focused our attentions on the Kings Bedroom, Great Hall and Torture Chamber. The former being reputedly the most psychically dangerous area, where in the past visitors have received scratches or have been taken ill and the latter being the darkest part of the castle grounds where sensory deprivation could lead to the guests compensating with their other senses.

Other areas that required to be kept an eye on were the South Tower and Undercrofts where 2 further vigils were taking place, although not many of the groups went the full distance in these 2 areas with the overnight temperatures dropping to -6ºC.

Although with these temperatures it would be almost humanly impossible to detect any cold spots it was noticed an the commencement of one vigil in the Torture Chamber that the temperature dropped for a 5 minute period from 5ºC to 2ºC before mysteriously rising back to 5ºC. In this location, several of the guests were aware that they weren’t possibly alone and at one point noises were heard emanating from one side of the room where stairs would have once led to the dungeon below. Several of the guests were also conscious of breathing on their faces and one person reported what they could only explain as something or someone blowing up their nose.

In the Kings Bedroom an overpowering scent was at one point noted which for one of the guests started an asthma attack. Another of the guests felt really hot whilst those around were feeling cold. Whilst sat in a corner one of the guests became aware of a little girl sitting along side her and many of the guests were aware of various types of activity on the stairs. There were also reports of twinkling lights and cold spots in what was by far the warmest section of the castle and grounds.

During their stay in the Great Hall, one of the guests was aware of a freezing cold patch on either knee which was thought to be caused by 2 small children sitting upon her knees. Strangely, this was the only point where any Electromagnetic Fields were detected all night. After the guest moved the EMF reading dissipated and was never traced again all night.

We hope that all the participants enjoyed their night and would like to thank them for raising money for such a worthy cause in such a way on an extremely bitter night.