Margam Castle was only built less than 2 centuries ago, between 1840 to 1850. The Castle was actually built on an area that has bronze age settlers. The park area has a religious overtone too, there is an actual ruin of an abbey that is still there today. In 1898 Robert Scott a trusted gamekeeper was murdered outside by a poacher, ever since then his ghost has wandered the gothic staircase and the Castle itself. Noises, shadows, and footsteps are heard regulary in the Castle. A dark male figure, children singing, and a blacksmith has been seen standing under a beam which was the only one to survive the fire in 1977.

The impressive Margam Castle can be seen looming over the surrounding countryside as you approach from the East and as we drove up to the main building the sheer magnificence of the castle came into full view. It's Gothic facade and long sweeping grounds with a forest backdrop certainly conjured images of Hammer House of Horror meets Pride and Prejudice. We were met at the entrance by our security guard for the night, Max, who had a little bad news which in fact turned into fantastic news when he told us that the Library was off limits, but to counter he had decided we could have access to the Tower and Cellars. These two areas had not been previously investigated by Paranormal Tours, and each was magnificent as a vigil location. Taking a brief walk around the building we ventured down into the cellars, where the sheer size is the first thing to take your breath away. It was like a labyrinth or corridors and rooms spanning the entire length and breadth of the castle. The tower on the other hand was an arduous walk up many stairs, with a winding stone stairwell at the top opening into a hexagonal room with majestic views of the entire castle grounds. Whether the night would bring any paranormal activity was secondary to the fact that we were privileged to spend our time in such an atmospheric location.

We were joined by John as our medium for the night, who had previously investigated Margam last October. Unfortunately our original mediums for this event had to pull out at the very last minute, so gladly John stepped in to take the spiritual reins. We informed our guests of the situation, and decided that this would be a useful opportunity for the investigation teams to try and link in with the history and supposed hauntings of the building. In fact this proved to be significant, as both Valerie and Jenny amazed us during the walk around by revealing the name Robert on the stairs, who they both felt was a Gamekeeper who would have been killed outside in the grounds. When pressing later for some more information Jenny revealed that she thought the last name began with an 'S' (offering Sullivan as a possible answer), while Valerie gave me the name 'Scott'. Indeed Robert Scott was the gamekeeper killed by a poacher on the grounds of the castle in 1898. Other investigators picked up on a number of additional items of significance throughout the building, including the name Bella (by 3 separate groups) believed to be Bertha Isabella, daughter of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

The first vigil of the night took place in the Tower where the team attempted automatic writing with the planchette. Unfortunately there were no movements of any note, although John had sensed a female energy entering the room. We asked the team to see if they could link in with the possible name and age of this energy, and the responses from 2 of the 4 team members included Annabelle and Bella (surprising close to Bertha Isabella). The team then started glass divination to help reveal more information, which brought slight movements. Further information included a suggestion that Bella was staring out of the window waiting for somebody who failed to return, and that she would have been aged 34 (or in her mid 30's). Interesting enough after reviewing the history of the tower with Max it became clear that it would have been used by the ladies of the family to watch the men while they would have been hunting in the grounds. Could we have picked up on the energies of Bertha Isabella, sister of Theodore Talbot, who was tragically killed in a riding accident. Maybe 'Isabella' had been watching him from the tower and it was her grief around the tragedy which the team had connected with. It was also interesting to note that Isabella would have possibly been around the mid 30's when Theodore was killed.

My second vigil took place in the nursery, which was the scene of one specific incident during the initial health and safety walk last October when Andrew and Jim witnessed the image of a small boy near the doorway who they were unable to find after approaching and searching the surrounding areas. Here we had setup a new experiment using a large crystal which lit up in various colours hanging from the low beam above a plastic children’s table. The idea was to remove the element of doubt when attempting divination with a crystal held in the hand, as subtle unconscious movements have been known to cause swaying a circular movements. Liz, Jenny, Ben and I sat around the table and asked out for signs of presence, with no responses, so we embarked upon some glass divination on the table. Again there was little significant movement, although the activity within the room seemed to be more pronounced. At one point a sharp knocking sound came from near the window to the left which sounded like branches from a tree rapping against the pane of glass, but there were no trees in the vicinity. We also heard the odd shuffling sound from the opposite corner of the room, while a number of the team witnessed odd light anomalies specifically from the area of the doorway and the space in the wall to the right of this. At one point I captured out of the corner of my eye a brief glimpse of a pale but large square light on the wall to my left which could easily have been a light source from the outside beaming in through the window, but no such source could be identified. We asked if Max had taken the park vehicle out at this time, which he had not, but being virtually 2 stories up it seems unlikely that car headlights would have been the cause. Liz then reached out in front of her and accidentally knocked the hanging crystal which began to sway from side to side, and aware of this I could see the reflection of the light from outside mirrored in the movements of the crystal, which was between me and the window. My attention was then drawn to the light refraction through the crystal as this seemed to have suddenly changed. Shining a torch on the crystal it was clear that it was now spinning quite rapidly rather than swaying from side to side. Without replicating this we cannot be certain that this was not a natural characteristic of the crystals motion once the swaying had subsided as the chord may have become twisted, causing the spinning effect. We then decided to move the table and chairs to an adjoining room for a final attempt at glass divination which again proved unsuccessful.

My third vigil of the night saw me taking a team into the Cellars, which stretched the length and breadth of the castle. We began in the hexagonal room in the centre with some glass divination which unfortunately brought no responses, so I decided to try an experiment with a linked séance. I gathered the other 3 team members and asked them to stand facing the pillar in the centre of the room and we all linked hands. We then began to ask out for some sign of a presence in the room, which was pitch black at this point. There were no responses to our questions although one of the team did start to feel very uncomfortable while standing near the entrance, so we broke the circle and took a short break. I then asked the team to link again around the pillar but this time with their back facing the pillar so they could each monitor the room around them for responses. Again after asking out there was no activity, however this team the team had switched places and the person again who was stood this time facing the doorway had described feelings of discomfort. I then took the team into the cellar corridors surrounding the central room and positioned each team member at one corner of the square corridor in an attempt to sweep as much of the location as possible. Again we turned our lights out and I asked for any sign of presence to make themselves known to one of more of the team. Again there were no responses. Finally I asked each team member to pick up a stone or piece or rubble lying around and upon my instruction throw it down the corridor to their left while instructing any spirit presence to respond by throwing one or more of the objects back. Unfortunately this experiment again left us with no responses. All in all considering the seemingly oppressive nature of the cellars this was a comfortable and quiet vigil.

The final vigil of the night took place in the first floor bedroom where a 'scole' experiment had been setup. The Scole Experiments were designed to investigate life after death and started at the beginning of 1993. Four psychic researchers embarked on a series of experiments which took place in the Norfolk village of Scole (hence the name), and we attempted one of these which consisted of placing an upturned crystal in a glass dish in the centre of a table. Each team member then attached 2 glow-bands to their wrists and placed their hands on the side of the table. With the lights out the intention was to ask the team to channel energy into the table which could be used by spirits to hopefully knock over the crystal. By wearing glow-bands we could also monitor the positions of every persons hands during the experiment to discount foul play. Unfortunately by this time the dawn light had caught up with us, and as the room had large windows without curtains or shutters the full glory of the morning sunlight rather dampened the atmosphere, and shortly after we concluded the experiment.

Even though the night was a yet another quiet one for me, the sheer magnificence of Margam more than enough made up for it. Also having the opportunity to investigate areas which the Paranormal Tours team had not previously had the good fortune to visit was also an extra thrill, and given the opportunity I would certainly welcome the chance to return, but maybe this time in the Winter months so as to make the most of the hours of dark.