Day 1: Dimbola Lodge - Few ghosts are more formidable than that of pioneer Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. She still inhabits her former home, now the photographic museum and gallery Cameron House, restored and run by a charitable trust. The main areas of paranormal activity are in the corridors and lofts upstairs, in particular the corridor through the Olympus gallery, the loft above which once served as servants' quarters (there have been sightings both of Julia Margaret Cameron and of a maid in grey) and in the corridor leading to what is now the warden's flat but was earlier Julia Margaret Camerons bedroom. Photographic fluid has been smelt when there is no-one there. The fisherman Jacob Long has also been linked to haunting this property.

Our weekend began on the Island with a short drive to Dimbola Lodge, former residence of Julia Margaret Cameron. The building, which from the outside resembled 2 residential Victorian houses, seemed welcoming enough as we setup base camp for the night in the dining area. After a brief walk around with John, our resident staff member for the night, we organised the vigil areas and set the various teams on their way. This was my second event working with renowned psychic medium Ian Lawman, who even after a short time had already appeared as much a part of the Paranormal Tours team as any of us - hopes for the night ahead were high.

Before starting my first vigil I took one of our guests up to the attic space to assist and witness the set-up of a trigger object experiment. We took a 35mm film, still in its plastic case, and placed this on a tray in the middle of the attic floor. We then dusted the film with flour and setup a Dictaphone and motion sensor to monitor any activity. The idea of a camera film was purely as an attempt to encourage any resident spirits which may have an interest in photography, most notably of course Julia Margaret Cameron herself.

Returning to the vigil, which was taking place in the Seminar room on the ground floor, Kelly had already setup the remainder of the team around the large conference table where a Planchette had been setup for an automatic writing experiment. Each of the team members took it in turns, in pairs or groups of three, to encourage movement of the Planchette in the hope of receiving a written indication of spirit presence in the room. Results were for the most part inconclusive, as only one of the groups managed to get any response, and even then only a short line was drawn on the paper. Another of the team did however suggest seeing a small light move quickly underneath the table, which at the time remained a subjective and uncorroborated experience. It wasn't until after the vigil had ended that another of the team members noticed a light similar to that described shooting under the table in virtually the same position. The footage was taken much earlier in the vigil, but certainly was intriguing enough to pose more questions than answers.

Our second vigil of the night took a team to Julia's Gallery on the upper floors, where Ian joined us for a short glass divination experiment. Meanwhile Kelly took half the team to the office area on the top floor, where John the Manager had previously encountered a man who had poked his head around the door only to be asked to wait by John, after which he made his way downstairs only to find no trace of any person in the building. In the gallery the divination was unsuccessful, with little or no movement, however CJ, who had been recording the experiment from the doorway to an adjoining room, sensed activity behind him and disappeared with Ian to investigate. CJ later described having heard something behind him in the other room, and as he stood in the doorway pointing the camera at the fireplace he heard approximately five or six quick childlike footsteps, which also did not resemble the sort of creaks which were clearly heard when the team moved around the wooden floors. He also managed to capture two big flashes of light moving quickly past the camera. Sue, Mark, CJ and I then made our way up to the top floor office, relieving the other team as they joined Ian in the Gallery. The second half of the vigil was pretty uneventful with the exception of Sue suggesting that a dark image of a lady appeared to be standing behind me on a number of occasions, although no other team members could see this and no physical activity took place. Once the vigil was over one of Kelly's team asked me to review something which was picked up on camera in the office. What appeared to be a large red mist was captured moving slowly past the camera. The night vision on this particular camcorder did appear to slow and distort the picture somewhat, although it was still not obvious to any of us what the possible source of such a large red anomaly in such a small room could have been.

My third vigil of the night took place again on the upper floors, where we split the team into 2 groups again between the room which stood as a recreation of Julia's bedroom and the main exhibition gallery. This was the most uneventful vigil of the night, where the team attempted some scrying in the mirror and conducted another unsuccessful glass divination experiment.

Our final vigil took place in the dark room, where a the entire team assembled themselves around a large wooden table. It was all very claustrophobic and tight for space in the room, yet a number of other teams had undergone some profound psychological experiences in this room during earlier vigils. The main similarity between all of these was a sense of dizziness, or intoxication, as well as laughter and giggling. No such activity greeted any of our team, as apart from Anita's suggestions that a small boy was following her around the building we had very little to report as our first night drew to a quiet conclusion. The evening had seen some interesting activity, most notably by the other teams, but the footage of lights and mists on the digital camcorders were certainly worthy of further analysis.