The first official night of ‘Haunting
Experiences’ at Jamaica Inn and all our guests arrived
on a cold and very wet winter’s night; itching to start
on what we hoped would be a night to remember, we all settled
down to a lovely meal and once introductions were over we
set about investigating areas of interest. Splitting all the
guests up into four groups of approximately five we rotated
on a hourly basis around four main areas such as the reception
(former Generator room) , the museum, and various bedrooms
and corridors. Unfortunately the weather on this occasion
was against us so we were unable to conduct any vigils outside.
Groups were then swapped around with different guides for
the first three sessions, before remaining with the same guide
for the fourth session. After this there was a period of free
time in which people could return to the area(s) they felt
was the most worthy of further investigation.
· One guest had a camera malfunction
at the start; the camera had previously been working fine.
· Two male presences were detected by dowsing in the
corner of this room, by the television.
· It was impossible to measure any EMF fluctuations
due to the buildings electrics.
· Temperature variations were only picked up on and
adjacent to an exterior wall. Coincidently in the same area
the presences were detected.
· Another group independently picked up on three presences.
Two males and one female. The group carried out dowsing with
dowsing rods and also pendulums.
· One team carried out a group séance. Two of
the group felt a tingling sensation in their hands; this was
interesting because they both only felt it in one hand, which
were the hands they had joined together. They stated that
it felt like they were both squeezing each others hand tightly
but they had a loose grip.
· Orbs were caught on night vision while people were
calling out. Also a few of the group felt cold breezes moving
around them.
· A noise was heard from the bathroom, which sounded
like the light pull had been knocked against the door/wall.
· Points to note include: a temperature drop, in the
corner of the room of about 7 degrees over a twenty-minute
period. On checking there was no obvious reason for this cold
spot.
· While sitting through a darkness vigil we asked for
a sign and at that point we all heard somebody whistling within
the room itself, following this we asked again and uncannily
we all heard tapping. The whistling was recorded and a customer
kindly sent us a Wav. File clearly presenting this whistling
sound.
· Also while dowsing in this area we picked up on a
Male presence aged in his 20’s who gave the year of
passing as 1745. Through dowsing we picked up that this male
actually went through the wall into room 5; where another
group were present. Via walkie-talkie we conversed as to whether
anything had been picked up. No details were given about this
presence and we asked the other team to dowse to see what
they could pick-up; to compare our findings… At the
end of this vigil we met up and compared our results and to
our amazement we had got very close results. The team in Room
5 had picked up on a Male who had walked into room 5; aged
25 who claimed to have passed in 1744. Could such very similar
results have been a coincidence? Or proof that dowsing does
indeed pick up on presences?
· In the en-suite, orbs were caught with a locked off
night vision camcorder by one team. Later on the same team
asked for a sign if there was anybody there, at which point
a strong orb moved along by the mirror, before changing direction.
Again when they asked for a sign if someone wanted them to
leave, a second was captured. They then noticed that the door
had opened further than they had left it.
· Two interesting photos were captured and our professional
photographer Graham Billing analysed these photos for us and
commented…
Room 5
· The level of activity here was
somewhat disappointing.
· Cold spots were picked up and tracked with dowsing
rods by guests, but a large part of this was believed to be
due to exterior walls.
· A few light anomalies or orbs were captured on camera,
mainly in the vicinity of the bed.
· Interestingly rises in temperature were detected
and as in Room 4 were captured on, and adjacent to, an exterior
wall. This also had a television in the corner.
· Again, the building electrics made it difficult to
measure any EMF fluctuations.
· Perhaps the most interesting part of this session
was when a guest suddenly called out that he had been touched
on the leg whilst filming, and asked who had done so. The
recorded footage revealed that there was definitely no one
close enough to have done so without being observed. This
guest did not strike us as being prone to fancy, and it was
only felt the once.
· Through dowsing a male presence by the bed was picked
up and a Female presence by the bedroom door was also picked
up.
· The male was aware that he had passed. He passed
in 1744 from TB aged 25.
· He passed on the land and is grounded here. He did
not own the land his family owned it. His surname/ family
name was Holland. The male moves around the building.
· A female came into the room, moving from the door
to the bed. She is aware of the male presence, but they are
not from the same time period. She did not pass here; she
is not grounded but comes in visitation.
Reception (former Generator Room)
–
· This was by far the most active
area on the night! Little happened at first besides most of
the group disliking the smaller sub area of the bar leading
off from reception. However about half way through, whilst
in the corridor on the ground floor, a large number of ‘orbs’
were being picked up on camcorder. When questions were called
out and dowsing conducted lots of these ‘orbs’
appeared on request. Some were caught whilst just filming
was conducted but nowhere near the same level.
· It was interesting to note that both the ‘orbs’
captured on camcorder and dowsing results were predominantly
at a low level (waist height and below) and in the same areas,
adjacent roughly to the three radiators with pictures above.
Shivers and feelings of being uncomfortable were reported
by most of this group in these specific areas, both before
and during filming. Several also felt sick and dizzy, notably
not at the far end of the corridor or on the upper level where
one would expect to feel vulnerable. One person also saw something
with the naked eye resembling an ‘orb’ at the
far end of this corridor. Different groups picked up similar
results and the “appearing on demand of orbs”
occurred repeatedly.
· Several ‘orbs’ were also witnessed at
the same time on the security systems following several people.
One in particular was witnessed that followed Stuart across
the Reception area which then stopped as he entered the room
corridor, before returning back in the same direction to the
door to the bar. This was especially interesting as this was
the old Generator Room, and he was positioned in roughly the
same area where the very weird light anomaly was caught during
the Paranormal Research Organisation’s investigation
in 2004. This adds validity to this anomaly as further examples
were captured on this night despite the building being refurbished
to a high modern standard; from what was essentially an uninhabitable
outbuilding.
· The following group also got ‘orbs’ on
camcorder in the same areas, on demand as we had, with periods
of no questions resulting in no anomalies present. ‘Orbs’
were witnessed by the naked eye from another group down this
corridor, whilst in the reception area. It was also felt amongst
the guides for the evening that this area held the most significant
areas of potentially paranormal activity.
· We also had very good results here using pendulums
and dowsing rods, picking up on a total of 3 presences, 2
male and the other a female, though one of the males in this
area seemed to be giving us different information almost as
if he was playing with us he. Gave the letter ‘J’
as a name, the female gave us the letter ‘E’.
· Some of the team (3rd different team) witnessed orb’s
of light both seen with the naked eye and also on night vision
camera; one other thing to note in this area is that more
than one person felt very muggy headed here.
· It was an interesting night at Jamaica Inn. It was
the first time many had seen orbs caught on video camera and
been there when it was happening and certainly for the security
footage from the Inn to verify it was intriguing.
· Also in this area one person’s right arm from
the elbow down became numb and tingly which was very strange
and another felt something touching his hair and eyebrow!
Museum of Smuggling
· Most of the groups did not like
certain areas of this building, and not always the furthest
parts from the exit, suggesting that this wasn’t entirely
to do with feeling trapped or vulnerable. Some orbs were captured
on camcorder and camera although not to the level encountered
in the Reception area. We had a few strange noises to the
right in the vicinity of the crystal wishing well, which was
also reported by another group. A séance was held in
this area and one guest reported being touched, whilst another
witnessed a dark shadow behind the group in the area where
the following light anomaly was captured. The group all agreed
that this was the most unpleasant area of the museum.
· Again professional photographer Graham Billing analysed
this photo for us and commented…
“The anomaly pictured is a clearly
structured one as it is present throughout all of the testing.
The anomaly is 'unknown' in origin”.
· This was the only part of the Inn
that many of us felt uneasy walking around alone; however
the darkness and ambience of the museum does suggest this
at night.
· For another group this seemed to be the area to be
in “activity wise”. During their vigil here, plenty
of orbs were caught on both digital camera and night vision
filming, and seemed to be most active to the right on entering
the building. Dowsing results were also very good. A male
presence was detected, interestingly in the area where orbs
had been photographed, without the dowser knowing this. On
leaving that area to move on, some of us heard a noise like
‘a soft thud’ from behind us… on inspection
we found that a cushion from a stool had been completely removed
and was now laying on the floor a good 3ft away from the stool
itself. There was no way that this could have happened accidentally
and no explanation has been found for this phenomenon. It
amazed us and it certainly unnerved a few people.
· Dowsing picked up on two presences; both male.
· Male 1 - Passed in 1674 and was murdered. He was
not happy with us being here but was willing to communicate
with us. He was murdered nearby on the land. He had his throat
cut with a sword. At this point various members of the group
managed to capture light anomalies in the direction of this
presence
· Male 2 - Was also murdered but ceased communication
with us.
· We moved around to the entrance area of the museum
and carried out a group séance. During the séance,
whilst calling out, one of the females in the group had a
tingling sensation in her arm like pins and needles. One of
the males in the group felt as if he was prodded in the side
of the head. Another person felt tingling from head to toe
and cold breezes around his hands and legs.
· When we mentioned the word smuggling on a few occasions
the group heard a mumbling sound above us. This always seemed
to correspond with the timing of the calling out. Interesting!
· When we finished our investigation in the museum
we spoke to the manager about whether there was anyone directly
above us in the museum. He stated that there were two people
above the museum but they were a lot further down, so would
not have been directly above us.
· The museum had a very oppressive atmosphere, which
made some people feel very uncomfortable and they did not
want to be left alone. On a second visit later it felt completely
different. Interestingly Kevin picked up on two males and
an angry female using the dowsing rods.
· One guest whilst carrying out a lone vigil heard
the door open and close. He was so unnerved that he felt compelled
to leave the building, finding no one else in the area as
he left swiftly. He also reported an EMF meter picking up
unexplainably high readings in the vicinity of a particular
display.
Dining room area
· Through dowsing we picked up on five presences.
· One of the female members of the group stated that
they felt quite sick whilst standing in the corner of the
restaurant. This is exactly the same area where we picked
up on the presence of a male earlier. We checked with the
dowsing rods to see where the male presence was, and he was
in the same spot where the female member felt sick.
· At this point we passed the dowsing rods around the
group to carry out dowsing and quite a few of the group managed
to locate the male presence. Also one of the group stated
that the temperature was 18ºc in the area of the presence,
which was 2ºc lower than the rest of the room.
· Next we carried out a group séance and we
sat around a table and placed an upturned glass on top of
it. The group taking part in the séance placed out
index fingers on top of the glass, and began to call out and
it seemed very instant that the glass began to move. While
the glass started rotating each person removed his or her
index finger off the top of the glass, in turn, to cancel
out any human interference.
· Throughout the séance we picked up on a female
presence and the male presence from earlier.
· We also tried another experiment asking if any of
the presences could rotate the glass in a large clockwise
circular motion but to also turn the glass clockwise whilst
moving it and we were quite impressed to see the glass move
in the way stated above.
· The group also felt cold light breezes.
· During the séance in the main area the entire
group heard a mumbling voice when asking out. It did appear
to respond to questioning. During the séance one person
felt something prod the side of his head some people felt
a cold spot around their hands, plus a strange tingling in
feet and lower legs.
Overall
A debriefing was held before departing and
it was very interesting to discover that most people’s
reported experiences were encountered in the areas outside
of the main Inn, namely the Museum of Smuggling and the Reception
and new room block. Overall the latter held the most overall
interest, especially as the majority of the activity picked
up on during the Paranormal Research Organisation Investigation
in 2004 was also in this area. Certainly worth a further investigation,
and although tempting just to focus on this area next time;
it would be interesting to see if the pattern of unusual activity
repeats itself for a third time.
As always it was a pleasure to return to
Jamaica Inn and we feel that we weren’t disappointed
at all by the events that had were experienced here. Our thanks
go out to all our guests and the Jamaica Inn staff for making
this Friday 13th one to remember and we look forward to our
next visit. We would also like to especially thank all those
who attended the investigation and who raised money for the
Anthony Nolan Trust.
Overall: a very interesting and enjoyable
investigation at such an impressive venue.
