The ghost hunt

Claire

Oct 31

There is a local abandoned hospital/orphanage that holds regular overnight ghost hunt events. I noticed they were holding some 'mini' early evening events (7.30pm to 9.30) and asked Simon and the teen if they would be interested. Both loved the idea. so the booking was made.

Unfortunately just before we were due to go the teen decided to break his ankle, unable to change the booking it was just Simon and I who went.

We arrived just as the sun was starting to set.

The building is from 1871 and was first an orphanage and then converted to a hospital for mental illness, not an asylum or enforced detention. The building has been boarded up and disused for many years.

We entered through the main doors and were lead into a large room, originally used as a dining room. It would have had long tables and benches. The organisers introduced themselves and how the evening would be. They split us into smaller groups then took us off into different parts of the building.

Our first stop was upstairs, the naughty boys corridor. They had set up a light sensor and asked for a volunteer to sit with blindfold and headphones, listening to white noise. The rest of us had to ask questions to see if anything would come through the white noise. We didn't get anything. They gave us some hand held equipment for us to try out.

Mine was an EMF reader, electromagnetic and I tucked myself into a small, dark cupboard to ask questions. It was a little spooky at first but soon I relaxed and started whispering questions. Suddenly the machine lit up and this frightened me. I quickly left the cupboard and joined the group, it lit up a couple more times while there. Nobody else had anything happen so that was strange.

From here we went back down the stairs to the laundry/locker room, here we tried a different technique using another volunteer sitting in a chair, eyes closed with a small light on their face watching for any changes. It was an odd experience. Simon thought he could see shadows in a doorway across the room.

The building didn't feel 'spooky' or scary but was fascinating to see. I'm hoping to book a longer tour to see more of the building and the history.