Helmsley Castle

Northern Ghost conducted an investigation at Helmsley Castle, North Yorkshire, in mid autumn 2006, accompanied by a member of staff, a representative of English Heritage and two reporters from a local radio station.

This 12th Century site has two distinct parts – the castle remains and an Elizabethan manor house. It was decided to concentrate, for this investigation, mainly on the manor house.

Although it was a fairly quiet night, there were some areas of activity, and significantly, most of it was witnessed by our observers.

Even before the investigation started, our guests from Radio Minster noticed a motion sensor security light we had placed outside the cellar entrance kept switching on and off, even though there was no one nearby to trigger it and checks revealed nothing wrong with it.

After an uneventful full group vigil in the lower manor house, the team split into smaller groups to cover as much of the site as possible – with some success.

The group covering the upstairs manor house reported hearing shuffling noises and footsteps near the table. One of our observers was even convinced he felt something brush against his leg.

But most intriguingly, when one member asked for a light to be shown above the fireplace, there was a flash of white light in the middle of the wall, above the fireplace, a short time later.

Similarly, the group on the floor below was hearing unexplained knocks and shuffling and seeing flashes of light.

Although the activity on the top floor quietened as the night progressed, the downstairs area, with its oppressive atmosphere, continued to attract interest as streaks of white light and unexplained noises were regularly reported.

Only the groups covering the cellar reported a quiet night, although two groups did hear footsteps coming from the area around the stairs.

Unusually for an investigation, none of Northern Ghost’s equipment such as the EMF meter and Negative Ion Detector were triggered during the five-hour investigation at the site.

Although quiet compared to other sites investigated by Northern Ghost, we certainly feel enough happened to whet our appetite for a return visit.

(Note: after intensive investigation the team could find no rational or natural explanation for the strange footsteps / shuffling or the unusual flashes of light)