Amanda

19:15pm – My flask is ready and I’m packing my rucksack when a loud banging on my door starts my heart racing!  Who else could it be but my partners in crime Johanna and Louise?  They come bouncing through the hallway, full of beans and raring to go on our first mission with Haunted Devon.  Rosie (my jack Russell dog) notes we all have our walking shoes on and immediately starts to run around, yapping and jumping up excitedly.  Wagging her tail, she looks for her lead but sorry Rosie, this time you can’t come!  I grab my rucksack, give my youngest a hug and we head out the door. 

19:50 – We’ve made it to the meeting point, pulling into the car park of the Burrator Inn.  There is a young man and woman sitting in the beer garden studying what looks like a map of the area!  Bingo, “must be members of the group” pipes up Jo, as she gets out of the car a walks towards them.  “Hi there” she calls over, “Are you members of Byron’s group?”  They look blankly at each other and then politely say no.  Oops!! 

We head into the pub and are greeted with the delicious aroma of freshly cooked chips!  Jo and I look at each other and decide that the smell is just too good to ignore and order a portion each to be washed down nicely with a diet coke (how ironic is that?)  We head to the smoking area of the bar and see 2 smiling faces.  They must be members of Haunted Devon, we decide and this time we were right!  Introducing themselves as Caz and Lucy we strike up conversation and exchange details about ourselves. Our chips are delivered to the table.   Breakfast, Dinner and Tea all at once! 

Soon the bar is buzzing with more members of Haunted Devon, what a friendly bunch of people.  We are talking about the venue for this evening’s vigil and speculating what may happen when we are joined by the host meister himself, Byron.  Isn’t it funny the impression you form of what you think people will look like before you actually meet them.  Byron, I was definitely expecting you to look like a “mad” scientist.  Well I couldn’t have been more wrong!  

21:10 – We head out to the car and follow some of the group to the venue, a derelict tin mine not too far from Burrator Reservoir.  The clouds were rolling in and promising a downpour, but this just added to the atmosphere of the moor.  Arriving at a small parking area, we gather together and Byron briefs us about the area we are to investigate.  Torches on, we are ready to go! 

Walking with Caz and Louise, we chat about our kids and compare notes on parenthood.  She really doesn’t look old enough to have a child of nineteen, in fact I’m wondering now how she managed to avoid the wrinkles, the tell tale signs of parenthood stress!  She chats openly about her work and about some of the vigils she has attended with the group.  This is definitely going to be an interesting evening. 

Once we reach the location we familiarise ourselves with the area and Lucy provides everyone with a delicious pasty (thank you W C Rowe), Byron splits us up into groups, Caz puts protection around the group and we head off to our first location, the old mine shaft. 

Following Byron and Dave James, Louise, Caz, Hails and myself, head into a small area that is thought to have been the entrance to an old mine shaft.  It’s warm and dusty and we are soon joined by a bat, which flits around the group before exiting the shaft and departing into the night.  Torches off and the area is plunged into total darkness, the girls are seated on the muddy floor, Byron is standing towards the entrance and David is filming the vigil.  Caz is picking up on some energy and describing a character that she feels is present with us and I point and shoot the camera.  Interestingly, in the area where Caz has sensed energy, what appears to be an orb is clearly seen on the digital photo I have just taken.  I have to admit though, that the area is dusty and it could just be a dust particle.  We stay for around 30 minutes discussing all things paranormal, hoping that it may just encourage some phenomena. But it is to no avail! 

Next stop is the river, where there have been sightings of a man washing his clothes after commiting a murder.  The area is open with a stone bridge to the left and a river flowing gently in front of us.  The wind is whistling through the trees and a full moon is rising to cast more light into the area we are standing.  It is very atmospheric, yet so calm and peaceful.  It’s hard to imagine that such a deed could have taken place in these beautiful surroundings. 

Caz is describing what she is experiencing to Byron and David is filming.  STOP!  The Dictaphone that Byron is using to record Caz has stopped recording.  What is going on?  David continues to film and Hails and Louise wander around the area, I stand and absorb the atmosphere for a bit longer. Peace and harmony is what I experience, tranquillity.  But this is soon shattered as David turns towards me and lets out an almighty shout!  I jump and Byron almost falls of the rock he is perched on. 

We soon dissolve into laughter, as David explains that he thought he saw or heard something behind me.  Great!  I seem to attract spooks wherever I go, believe me, they love me!!!  Anyway, it gave us a bit of an adrenaline rush, all good fun. 

Louise and I spent time talking with Byron about how and why he decided to start the group then headed off across the bridge to see if we too could sense anything as Caz and Hails didn’t seem too keen on that area.  Louise was giggling and explained that she sensed there were two children around us a boy and a girl, playing hide ‘n’ seek.  At the same time as Louise, I thought I heard a young boy’s voice laughing and saying “come out, come out wherever you are” although I did not sense an energy.  We were discussing this when the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary quite contrary pinged in to my head!  Louise thought that it could be a reference to the young girl she sensed and reasoned it may be her name.  Who knows. 

Heading back across the bridge, I stopped to point and shoot at random areas to see if I would pick anything up on the digital camera, although there was nothing unusual about the pictures on review.  We headed back up to the ruins and took a break for a cuppa and chat with Tracy and Johanna.  A good place to camp, we decided, but not tonight. 

Resting on our laurels wasn’t an option for long as Byron continued his pursuit of the paranormal with Louise and me, to an open area on the left.  Surrounded by trees, this open glade bathed in moonlight sent shivers up my spine.  The area was cold, but offered no hostile feeling, just a sense of peace.  “I’m just not getting anything” I said to both Louise and Byron “Are either of you?” shaking heads answered this for me but Byron did say that some of the others really didn’t like it. 

We moved on to the derelict buildings next stumbling a few times over the stones and almost falling in the stinging nettles that were carpeting the ground.  Where’s Johanna we wondered she normally manages to slip and slide her way through an area we investigate, much to the amusement of Lou and myself.  But she wasn’t going to entertain us this evening, she was too busy working!  So we carried on through the openings and ventured up to a quiet area behind the house.

Now Louise is a bit of a practical joker and often scares the living daylights out of us when we are searching for spooks, so it was amusing for me when she jumped out of her skin when David looked up from the stone he was perched on and spoke!  Well done Dave, you did it again…..  Well that was both of us who had had a scare now, thanks to the same culprit.  Don’t worry Mr James, we’ve got your card marked now….he he he! 

So what was this area, we mused for a while.  Louise suggested it was a dungeon and that there were bodies beneath.  With such an imagination she should have been on Jackonory!  I perched myself on a large stone and spent some time talking to Dave.  We discussed childhood, partners, our children and the paranormal and the vigils he had attended.  But, as is always the way, time catches up and it was time to gather the group together, close the circle and return to our homes and families, who would be tucked up nice and warm in their beds. 

The trek back up to the area where the cars were parked seemed longer than when we had originally arrived.  We crossed paths with several Dartmoor Ponies and almost took the wrong path and went trekking on the moors.  But we managed to make it back to the car, where we said our goodbye’s to everyone and headed home. 

The night was uneventful in a paranormal aspect; however I really enjoyed meeting with everyone and sharing experiences and stories.  It was a fantastic location and well worth visiting.  So congratulations Byron, good choice. 

I sincerely hope that the group enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed theirs and would just like to thank everyone who made me feel so comfortable and like I had been a member forever.  It was truly great to meet like minded people who are as mad as my friends and I and I can’t wait to meet up again and go on another Ghost Hunt.

Jo 

The evening for me started as a get to know you night, but as the evening wore on my investigative gene took hold. As I explained my mediumship is somewhat rusty as I have spent a good number of years now concentrating on my healing development.  However the spirit world has been prompting me for some little time now to go back into the mediumship side of things, hence joining your group.  So onto Friday night investigation of the old Tin mining works somewhere on the moors. 

We all drove to a car parking area where we were given health and safety advice from Byron. Then Jacqui warned us about the dangers to the environment from discarded dog ends, that’s coggies to the non smokers. Sorry that should have read ciggies, as it was not raining that night.  We then moved as a group down the track to the mining site, I was walking with Lucy who was carrying essential equipment in the form of pasties, we had an interesting chat along the way, thanks Lucy. 

Then we all reached the site and everyone was having a look around, I felt something and then realized I was drawing a symbol of a pentagram in the soil at my feet. This indicated to me that this had been a Pagan site in the past. Caz opened in prayer and asked the spirit world for protection for the group.  Thanks Caz. 

Byron then gave us a little history about the site before sorting us into individual groups. We were then given our assignment to investigate. While all this had been going on, my attention was drawn to the main building behind me. Don’t fancy that one I thought, but you guessed it that’s where my group had to go, so off I went like a good little investigator. 

The first room we entered seemed ok it had two doorways adjacent to each other, one directly facing me with another to its left hand side.

This was the one that drew my attention, I tried to enter the other room through this doorway but found I couldn’t go through the opening. How strange I thought, it also felt very cold there? It felt like an invisible force was barring the entryway to the inner room. 

I left the building via the other doorway and moved around the building and entered the other room. It was at this point that Jamie called down to me from a spot on the upper level, she had discovered a shaft so I went up to have a look.  This looked to me as if it could have been a chimney at some time although there wasn’t a hearth visible I couldn’t think of another use for the shaft at that time.  Someone in the group below us called out that they felt there was something going on over by another doorway.  This is becoming spooky I thought, could these doorways be portals to another dimension, oops letting my imagination run away with me again.  So anyway I approached the doorway in question, funny though it was on the opposite side of the room from my spooky one.  It led to the outside of the building everything seemed ok there so I came back through, that’s when I felt the presence of a male energy.  The others had wandered off to the other side of the room, which then left me on my own.  I turned off my torch “who’s afraid of the dark?” not me! 

The gift’s (or are they curses) that I am able to tap in to are: 

1.       Clairvoyance (seeing in the mind’s eye)

2.       Clairaudience (hearing within my mind)

3.       Clairsentient (feeling within my whole body) 

Clairaudient, I heard a male voice with a Scottish accent.  I asked him who he was he replied that his name was Mac.  Then he added Mack the Knife!  I then asked him if he was connected to the tin mine, “yes” he replied.  I then asked him how he was connected to the area, did he work there or was he an owner?  He replied that he was a ganger, which meant nothing to me at the time, however Jacqui later clarified this for me. 

The energy started to fade at this point so I switched on the torch and moved forward in the room.  I wanted to know why I couldn’t go through the doorway on the opposite side of this room, I’m a bit like a dog with a bone with these things and can’t let go until I know what’s going on.  I entered the first room again and then relayed to the group the information I had received so they then decided to go and investigate themselves.  This left me alone once more so I sat down and linked with my master guide, having once again turned my torched off (to conserve the batteries!) and questioned “what’s going on?” 

It transpires the reason I was unable to go through the doorway was because a woman’s body was blocking it, she had been chained or bound by the hands to a point each side of the doorway and was being flogged (not sold you twit) but being beaten with a strap, birch or some such object.  She was dressed in full-length skirts and a bodice with full-length sleeves and a bonnet.  This didn’t make sense to me, I could feel her pain and humiliation but it still felt bizarre.  Why would a woman be flogged in this manor in an inner doorway of a dwelling? (It will all become clear, I promise)  I am however relating the events as they happened. 

I rejoined the group as they had called out to me as I was alone; I explained what I had been doing and then relayed the information I had received.  I then examined the doorway in order to see if there were any points where the shackles could have been, but found nothing.  I could still feel the pain and suffering this woman was going through at the hands of a male.  Although I could not see him, I sensed his rage, ok I thought its time for this to stop but was unable to communicate with either, as what I was seeing was a replay of an event that had occurred as opposed to actual entities. 

I felt that the two different things I had encountered were not linked and were form different time periods. 

Our group reassembled at the meeting point as Tracy was in a lot of pain, it was at this point I offered her healing and the rest of the group departed to investigate another area.  I remained in this area with Tracy so she wouldn’t be alone and we were joined intermittently by other members of other groups. 

The evening came to a close all too quickly, I had really enjoyed myself.  Caz closed the circle and we all headed back to the cars.  Louise and Mandy were discussing the big cats seen on the moor and how they who would get to the car fastest!  Oh never mind Jo then, who incidentally has the keys girls!! 

When we reached the parking area, we said our good bye’s to everyone and left. 

Eating a pasty at 3 o’clock in the morning with a nice cup of tea to wash it down, I mulled the evenings events over in my mind.  It became clearer to me that the event involving the woman was a period of time long before the mines were built.  Earlier in the evening I had drawn a pentagram on the ground indicating that pagan rituals had been carried out on the site.  This would certainly seem more logical, with the punishment of witches it was common place to have floggings. 

I hope that this is the first of many investigations that I will be invited to attend and would just like to thank you all for such a good evening. 

Johanna (joknite)