Borthwick Castle - Paranormal Investigation Media Files
Use the links below to view some of our photos, view some video files and to listen to some of our EVP files captured at Borthwick Castle. Please listen to the EVP files before reading the report in order to maintain your own perception of what is being said. Some of the video clips include audio phenomena, please ensure that you have your speakers turned on.
Investigation Photographs>>>
EVP File 1- EVP File 2 - EVP File 3 - EVP File 4 - EVP File 5 - EVP File 6
Video File 1 - Video File 2 - Video File 3

Having video problems? Click here to download the latest version of Windows Media Player.

Date: 13/01/07
Outside Temp: 5 Degrees
Weather Conditions: Wet & Windy
Moon Phase: Waning Moon, 50% approx

Investigation Team
Mark Turner, Domenic Capaldi, Paul Muir, Lynn O'Hara, John O'Hara, Robin McKenzie

Equipment Used
Digital Night Vision Camcorders, Trifield Natural EM Meter, EMF Meters, Digital Cameras, Infrared Thermometers, Laser Thermometers, Two Way Radios, Infrared Motion Sensor Kit, Dowsing Rods, Infrared Booster Lights, Digital Voice Recorders, Panasonic RR-DR60 Recorders, Analogue Voice Recorders, Parabolic Microphone, Low Frequency Microphones, Trigger Objects, Wireless Night Vision Camera, Laptop PC.

Walkround
We commenced the investigation by conducting a walkround of the entire castle. Thorough temperature and EMF readings were taken in every area that of the castle we planned to use during the investigation and many still photographs were captured. Robin, our psychic medium for the evening joined us on the walkround to inform us of any spiritual presences or information that he was able to sense. This information, along with details of past paranormal activity at the castle would give us a basis by which to concentrate our scientific experiments. The information that was sensed by Robin is detailed in the relevant areas of our report below. On concluding the walkround, we then split into teams to commence our experiments. Team one consisted of Mark and Domenic who were concentrating on EVP experiments. Team two consited of Paul, Robin, Lynn & John who were conducting filmed vigils and various experiments.

State Room
Base Temp: 16 Degrees
Base EMF: Normal
Team One - Mark and Domenic set up three audio recorders each to commence their EVP experiments in the State Room. These were made up of four digital recorders and two analogue recorders with external microphones. The analogue recorders were being monitored live during these experiments by way of headphones. The weather outside at this time developed into gale force winds, but the walls of the castle that Oliver Cromwell had so much trouble in penetrating were more than ample to keep sound contamination to an absolute minimum. The castle walls are up to 20 feet thick in places. The EVP experiments were conducted by Mark and Domenic who worked through a series of questions specfically relating to the Castle's history and to the time that Mary Queen of Scots spent in the Castle. On detailed analysis of the many sound files captured during these experiments, it was found that some extremely interesting and relevant responses were recorded in response to the questions. In the following file, you can hear Domenic asking a question relating to the maid who was murdered in the castle, "who actually killed that girl?", a voice replies "here face was cut", EVP File 1. The following file consists of Mark asking for a name and a voice replies "my names Bruce Scott", EVP File 2. In the next file, you can hear Mark asking a question relating to whether Mary Queen of Scots was guilty or not, a voice replies "she was guilty", EVP File 3. Many more suspected EVP files were recorded during this session but they were not conclusive enough for us to clearly make out what was being said, although on analysis they appeared to have a distinctive voice pattern and were partly made up of frequencies not contained in human speech.

Team Two - Paul, Robin, Lynn & John conducted a filmed vigil in the State Room in order to attempt to pick up on any unusual activity. Many light anomalies had been captured on still cameras during the walkround in this area and our guest psychic medium Robin had sensed the presence of a man in his mid 30's along with a boy child. Robin also sensed that this area may have been an eating place as he claimed to have witnessed the residual energy of long tables set out for dining purposes. During this vigil Paul felt that he had been touched on the leg when he was sitting down filming with a night vision camcorder. He could not find any physical object nearby that could have caused this sensation and no other team members were moving around at the time. Lynn tells that whilst sitting down during this vigil, she felt the couch vibrate as if someone had disturbed it, again no explanation for this was found as it occurred at a time when everyone else had remained still. Given the sheer mass and structure of this castle, building vibrations were also ruled out. Noises in the form of clicks and bangs were heard by more than one person during this vigil coming from the bar area. Notably, the small bar area has no electrical devices or pumps on it or nearby and the team were unable to verify the source of the noises which seemed to occur sporadically throughout the vigil. Two items of equipment that had been fitted with new batteries a short time before, both lost power shortly after the vigil commenced. Temperature and EMF readings remained unchanged.

Dungeon
Base Temp: 6 Degrees
Base EMF: Normal
Team Two investigated the dungeon area by conducting filmed vigils whilst trying to encourage 'spirit presences' to come forward to make themselves known. Motion sensors were set up to cover various doorways throughout the dungeon area in the hope of detecting any movement that would occur. Although various noises were heard during this vigil, the team put these down to the wind affecting the door at the end of the corridor. Robin did not sense any spirit presences in this area of the castle although at one point he claimed to have witnessed a ball of light moving near the dungeon door but was unable to give any further information. Team two spent quite some time in the dungeon area attempting various techniques to encourage paranormal activity, but apart from a slight temperature variation no more unusual activity was picked up. Light anomlaies were picked up on still cameras during the earlier walkround in this area but these could not be supported by any other activity. EMF readings remained unchanged.

Garrison
Base Temp: 10 Degrees
Base EMF: Normal
Team one - Mark and Domenic spent a short time in the garrison conducting more EVP experiments, however, they found that there was some slight noise contamination coming from team one who were conducting a vigil in the state room below. They decided to move to another area of the castle so as to ensure that their sound recording experiments were conducted in a controlled environment.
Team two - Paul, Robin, Lynn & John conducted a filmed vigil in the garrison area at the top of the castle. On entering this area, Robin sensed a woman with a brown shawl sitting in the back row observing, he also got the impression of a noose hanging from the celing in preparation for a hanging. Most of the team's attempts to capture any unusual activity in this area were in vain. Although the team spent quite some time here monitoring for activity, this vigil passed off with no notable occurences. Again, light anomalies had been picked up on still cameras during the earlier walkround. Temperature and EMF readings remained unchanged throughout.

Red Room
Base Temp: 20 Degrees
Base EMF: Normal
Team One - Having moved from the garrison because of noise contamination, Mark and Domenic went immediately to the red room to set up their audio recording equipment for some more EVP experiments. As before, six audio recorders were set up in various areas of the room. They both continued to ask a series of questions relating to the legend that a maid and her illegitimate son were put to the sword in this room in the hope of receiving some relevant information. On analysis of the sound recordings, many responses were picked up, some of them quite distorted but one or two were disturbingly clear. We have a duty to report exactly what we capture during our investigations and this is the reason that we include this next file, although the content is not pleasant. In this file, you will hear Domenic ask the question "was that girl heavy with child" (this dialect would have been used to ask such a question in the relevant time period), a voice replies "it was a bastard" EVP File 4. Another relatively clear voice with a strong Scottish accent was picked up saying the words "ye cannot sit down", EVP File 5. Domenic reported feeling rather dizzy and nauseous whilst experimenting in this room. During an earlier experiment, a night vision camcorder was locked off in the Red Room to monitor the area in hope of capturing some unusual actvity in our absence. Some interesting light anomalies were captured moving around the room by this camcorder. See Video File 1, Video File 2 and Video File 3.

Great Hall
Base Temp: 19 Degrees
Base EMF: Normal
Team One - Mark and Domenic moved to the Great Hall to conduct their final audio recording experiments. Robin had earlier sensed a female who was pacing up and down the great hall and described her as being extremely worried about someone's illness or medical condition. He also claims to have witnessed the figure of a man standing in the gallery that overlooks the Great Hall, he appeared to be dressed in dark clothes and was "watching us intently". On display in the Great Hall is a photograph that was captured on a 35mm camera in the early 1980's. The photograph contains two figures that were not in the room at the time of taking, those of a small boy and a woman dressed in white. Mark and Domenic's audio experiments were focused on the apparitions and paranormal activity that has been witnessed in this area of the castle many times in the past with relative questions being asked. On detailed analysis of the audio files only a few replies to the questions were recorded. Again, some of the files were distorted but had definte speech patterns. In this last file, you will hear Domenic ask "are you happy here" and a voice replies "Im happy", EVP File 6. This was a fantastic reply by which to end our investigation.

Summary
One important factor that we have not mentioned during our report was the extreme fatigue that the team felt throughout the night. We have over the years become accustomed to being awake for long periods of time during our investigations and have all built up a certain tolerance to lack of sleep! We feel it important enough to mention that during this investigation we all felt abnormally fatigued to the point that we ended the investigation prematurely. These feelings seemed to descend on every one of us rapidly from the beginning of the investigation and never left. The investigation as a whole produced some interesting results, the light anomalies and clicks that were captured on a locked off camcorder in the Red Room were extremely interesting and our Electronic Voice Phenomenon experiments once again have given us much cause for excitement producing some quite startling replies to our questions.

We would like to thank staff at Borthwick Castle for their outsanding welcome, hospitality and for giving us the opportunity to investigate such a stunning historic location. Visit them at www.borthwickcastle.com