An inspectre calls (From Western Telegraph)

An inspectre calls

On March 18th, following a challenge from paranormal investigators at the supposedly haunted Craig-y-Nos Castle, 16 miles north of Swansea, we sent the most fearless (and most expendable) member of the Western Telegraph staff, Owain Carter, to get to the bottom of the strange and unexplained happenings that are alleged to go on there. He returned, mercifully unscathed. This is his story.

Since resident investigators at the castle had laid down a gauntlet challenging local papers' gumption, I had half expected to return to Pembrokeshire with my head swivelling uncontrollably about its axis.

Having armed myself with a crucifix and several phials of holy water, it would seem that I had overpacked.

Perched above the River Tawe, in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Craig-y-Nos is an early Victorian neo-gothic castle that some claim is haunted.

It is perhaps most famous for being home to the opera star Adelina Patti, who was among the world's most renowned and lucrative entertainers at the turn of the 20th century.

Her influence is still abundant today, and the castle boasts its very own opera house; it has since been renovated into a hotel.

It also provides the grounds for research by a team of in-house paranormal investigators, The Paranormal World, and the only live paranormal webcam in Europe.

The castle was featured in the fourth series of Living UK's Most Haunted TV show, and as such I was expecting the investigation that we undertook to be fairly sensationalist.

However, co-founder of The Paranormal World, Stephen Graham, was quick to dispel my expectations of fending off dark forces, pointing out that there have been no reported cases of demonic possession in the UK for a century.

Though not claiming that the work of Demon Derek Acorah and his entourage was contrived, Stephen expressed concerns as to how programmes of its kind reflected on those pursuing research into the existence of the unknown, and attempting to be as scientific as possible in doing so.

It was also stressed that a good deal of the work done was essentially repetitive and scrupulously analytical.

This would mean monitoring room temperatures and atmospheric activity every two minutes every day, looking for anomalous occurrences.

All believed and claimed to have experienced varying degrees of paranormal manifestation. It was a given that they accepted the concept of 'residual energy'.

This is the theory that visual apparitions and ghostly sounds are 'playbacks' of former events - a projection of the past.

In such an instance, the 'ghosts' are not really spirits. We were told that they were not "see-through as one might expect, but in fact completely opaque."

It was also professed that a group of people on the investigation, on March 12th, had seen the apparition of a child running through a room on the top floor of one of the castle's wings, and then disappear.

The room in question had once been a children's ward; the castle itself having been turned into a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis in the 1920s.

It is alleged that one member of the party - who began the evening a sceptic - ran from the room at this sight, and was found gasping and crying. He then refused to go on with the tour.

The most commonly told stories of hauntings at Craig-y-Nos involve Adelina Patti herself.

One tells of a lady who sat at a piano in the theatre, felt an eerie presence behind her, and played a perfect rendition of Patti's Home Sweet Home in its entirety; only to find there was no-one behind her.

Others tell of voices practising scales in empty rooms.

Stephen regarded such tales with scepticism. He theorised that, because the castle was best known for being the diva's residence, those who claimed that they had in some way experienced her benign presence were most likely 'tricked' by the expectations in their own minds.

After dinner, we started our own investigation. We were given equipment, such as an environment meter to measure atmospheric changes in the rooms, and a canum to monitor frequencies that might allow us to hear paranormal activity.

The results of most of the tests were inconclusive, although the canum did seem to allow me to hear nearby ducks remarkably clearly.

We also conducted three sances in different darkened rooms.

Although the first was marred slightly by rumbling stomachs and fits of giggling, the subsequent sances were unified by a genuine collective willing of something to happen. Sadly they passed without event.

However, we did experience one instance of unexplained scampering footsteps, which took place outside a room, which we knew to be the only occupied part of that particular wing at the time.

And this took place beneath the former children's ward. Paranormal activity perhaps?

It transpired a few days later that the camera I had taken - and left unattended in the dark and empty ward for about fifteen minutes - was mysteriously missing several screws on its casing.

Had they been taken by some prankster poltergeist using his spectral screwdriver?

The evening did not convince me of the existence of paranormal forces at play.

Yet it did not entirely rule them out either.

What it did convince me of was the team of investigators' steadfast belief in what they are doing, and I left with the slim hope that The Paranormal World will make a discovery that will lend real credence to their research.

They may just have a ghost of a chance.