#nugents

By Emma Holohan©

So once again I found myself at Ross Castle, this time helping to guide a paranormal investigation with BumpzInTheNite. It was a small investigation of only 6 people in total including myself. However, three of the individuals attending considered themselves 'sensitives'.

We started off in the top tower room where I had previously experienced a lot of activity in the form of knocks, bangs and growls. However, on this night it was very quiet. We did hear a sound like talking from outside the door, but upon inspection we put this down to the water tank gurgling and filling up. Temperature fluctuations were experienced near the bed and two individuals saw what they thought was a shadow passing across the window nearest the bed, crossing in front of the bed post.

Next was the lower tower bed room. Here one of the attendees began to feel very unwell with a headache. I experienced something tickling me on my back and there was nobody sitting close to me. Another female attendee experiences something tickling her arm. The three sensitives, including myself, sensed a menacing male presence in the room. Upon asking the presence if it wanted us to leave the fellow who was experiencing a headache was slapped on the back of his neck by unseen hands, as if to communicate that he was no longer welcome.

We moved down to the tower sitting room. The two females sat together and began to feel a female presence near them, one of them believing she was being tickled on the arm. The room was generally very cold, but there was a cold spot in front of the two females, which seemed to move when males moved near. The sensitives in the room felt the spirit of a small woman and a child in the room. There was also still the ominous presence of the male energy on the stairs, as if he had followed us from the room above and was watching us with keen interest. In this room a chair was seen to move very slightly and there were a few tapping on the stairs.

The unpleasant presence on the stairs slowly began to grow stronger and it was then that I had a very unusual and frightening experience. I am not sure if it was due to some hidden psychic abilities on my part or just my mind playing tricks due to the atmosphere of tension, but all I know is that I found it very unpleasant. I began to feel an overwhelming sadness and tears began to well up in my eyes. I felt that this was the emotion of one of the female spirits in the room being transferred to me, possibly that of the little girl. Shortly after this I began to shake uncontrollably as if afraid, although I myself didn't feel afraid. It was as if I was experiencing the emotions of another person. I called out to the little girl in the room and asked her if she had been hurt in someway in life by the man on the stairs and received a tap in confirmation. I asked her if she was trying to tell me she was afraid of him and received another tap in confirmation.

We had spent a fair amount of time in this room so it was decided to take a break. However, I was still shaking and the shaking became worse when I left this room. All three of the sensitives felt that we should return to the room as we felt the spirit was seeking our protection. We felt guilt for abandoning it. We spent another few minutes in the sitting room where we made it known to the presence on the stairs that we would not be intimidated and that was would protect the child.

It was then decided that we should take a break as everyone felt drained. Following the break we began to investigate the ground floor rooms. We started off in the Green Room. Here we heard tapping and shuffling in the corridor and sensed a presence outside the door. I asked the presence outside the door if it wanted us to leave the room so it could enter and heard a tap. We left there and decided to investigate the corridor. But then we sensed that whatever had been in the corridor had in fact left and gone into the Green Room as it requested!

We next investigated the Yellow Room. Here one of our party felt very unwelcome and threatened and believed he sensed a man watching angrily from the corner of the room. Another person felt that the presence was a 'grumpy old man'. All of us agreed that the atmosphere in the room felt unpleasant, so we left and moved on to the en-suit room. Upon entering the corridor on the way to the en-suit room, one of us felt a tap on the arm. In the en- room people felt very uncomfortable near the window, as they felt as if something was in the corner of the room near the curtain. It was not a negative energy, but just unpleasant as if a trickster was there waiting to pull a trick. Three of us even did not want to hang our feet over the edge of the bed as it felt like someone would pull our feet from underneath it!

Following another break we decided to return to the lower tower bedroom and the sitting room. In the lower tower bedroom the atmosphere felt more threatening than before. Three of us began to experience headaches and I even began to get an earache. At around the same time one of our party, the one who had felt unwell in this room previously, experienced a slap to the side of his head. It was as if the male presence was showing off his power. This was his place and we were not welcome. We all agreed that whatever was in this room did not want us there and it was unsafe to linger, so we moved back to the sitting room.

Back in the sitting room it at first felt very calm. But after a while one of our party sensed a powerful energy at the top of the stairs. He felt that it was watching us, but he did not know its intention. He felt that it may have been building up its energy to do something. We believed this spirit to be 'scraggy'. We also once again felt the presence of the child, but it was calm.

I believe that 'scraggy' was in fact at the top of the stairs protecting us and the child spirit from the threatening presence in the lower tower room. However, the story is that 'scraggy' likes to play unpleasant trick for its own enjoyment, so we did all feel on edge. The room itself felt calm and we did feel that 'scraggy' was in charge and keeping the malevolent male presence at bay. So much so we even thank 'scraggy' before we left the room.

We wrapped up the investigation here at around 3am, all of us feeling drained of energy and somewhat afraid of the place!

For my part I can't explain what happened to me when I felt sad, threatened and was shaking, but it was very powerful. The thing that interested me most about this investigation is that we had decided to hold back telling the guests any of the stories attached to the location in order to limit suggestion. But they still picked up on things, such as the unpleasant man on the stairs and the woman and child, which I had experienced with other mediums in this location. I had also previously experienced scraggy's protective influence and clash with the 'man on the stairs' with another medium. I also spoke to the family who run the castle and they told us many people had picked up on the presence on the stairs. Even their youngest son had recently told a guest to be careful of 'the man on the stairs' because he 'tries to push you'. It is all anecdotal evidence, but surely too much of a coincidence?

Ross Castle: http://www.ross-castle.com/