Llancaiach Fawr Manor House – Near Caerphilly South Wales

A house with a plan to single you out!

 Llancaiach Fawr isn't one of the most well known locations for hauntings but it didn’t disappoint. A large country manor house situated in vast grounds, It’s now owned by the local council about it’s history runs deep..


Built in 1530 for Dafydd ap Richard it was designed to be easily defended during the turbulent reigns of Tudor Kings and Queens. By the start of the Stuart dynasty the Prichard’s had prospered and the house was extended in 1628.


This was a first for us as we were taking guests on this ghost hunt and rather skeptical guests at that. As we approached the building the first thing that became visible is the tall front tower of the house, it’s walls leaning inward at an exaggerated angle add to the mystery and macabre of the building. Small dark glass windows are randomly dotted over the surface with iron criss-cross wire on every one. Llancaiach is most definitely one thing – lonely and desolate.


After a brief introduction about the history of the building the small group of 6 of us are ushered through into room 1.......



Room 1 – the entrance room and main staircase. Two young boys are said to haunt the stairs and have been seen and heard running and playing up and down the stairwell. Tonight they seemed to be just patiently watching us…. The room seemed quiet apart from a few slow small whimpering sounds coming from one corner which were heard by 2 of the group, could have been the outside wind whistling under the door frame so we moved on.


Room 2 – Mattie’s Kitchen An intriguing room, full of old pots and pans and a large solid oak table in the centre, we circled the table and stood quietly, as soon as we had closed our eyes there was a swift bang on metal from the corner of the room, a few screeches were heard – mostly human!.. followed by a small almond shaped white light that shot from the window through the opposite wall. An amazing sight and one to quiet the skeptics amongst us.. Mattie may have been there – had we disturbed her cooking the evening meal I wondered…. 

Room 3 – the invisible hand that rocks the cradle.. This room is accessed via a metal staircase and on first glance seems open and friendly, but the furtherest corner where the cradle sits is heavy and dark. The main activity in this room is a feeling of swaying and the cradle being rocked on its own, this has been caught on camera numerous times. We experienced a strange creaking noises but didn’t capture any movement on the cradle, there were some curious squeaks from near ground level that seemed to be moving around the group… could easily have been the creaking floorboards as the floor was very uneven.

To sum up Llancaiach Fawr it is a magnificent manor house with a deceptive and queasy feel in every room, on advice beware of loosing the group as it seems that this old, and dominant house can pick people off and target their fears….

Check out the Live web cam on the BBC Site for up to date images of the Manor....you may even spot something yourself..........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8418000/8418089.stm

Malicious Margam

Margam Castle on a cold dark, dreary Winters night..... there's no where i'd rather be!


Margam Castle is a grand old mansion house that sits in the middle of Margam Country Park, near Port Talbot in South Wales. Originally built for the Talbot family in the early 1800's, the castle is of gothic style with lots of intricate stone work.


It was 9pm as we approached the tall towers of the castle and it was all a little weird. I know Margam Castle very well and had visited the gardens throughout my childhood, although not to seek out the paranormal.  I always remember the Castle to be a grand building that smelt of old people. I'd never felt uneasy here in my past or seen anything unexplainable, until this night...

Reported activity

The angry spirit of old Robert Scott the gamekeeper is frequently encountered on the Gothic staircase. It is said that he was murdered by a poacher and his spirit will not settle due to the rage his still feels…


Apparitions of children in Victorian clothing have been witnessed going in and out of some of the rooms. Stones have been thrown, chattering voices are often heard with no sign of any living intruder! The ghost of a white lady is said to roam the castle.  The castle is said to be one of the most haunted castles in Britain



The base room and staircase
A grand room with a very regal red carpet, the air was heavy in the room all evening, there were a few people in the party who kept suddenly turning and looking behind themselves when we were all sat down in a circle.  The medium picked up on the spirit of an angry man dressed in long boots and overalls.  There were unexpected noises on the stairs almost like a clinking of china.

1st floor room 1
Many people were not keane to enter this room, it was open and drafty with a strange smell of tabbacco, I found this room the most comfortable in the castle, it felt almost settled and peaceful as though it had been forgiven of a dreadful dead. We conducted numerous paranormal test in here, including throwing small stones into the corner, the activity in here seemed to start as soon as we were making our way out into the next room.  One lady felt her hair being pulled from a very low angle and stones were thrown onto the back of myself and someone else. 


1st floor - the back room with the hatch!
now this was a room so heavy it weighs down on your lungs as soon as you enter, a small damp and windowless room, which has a small wooden hatch opposite the doorway, a boarded up tunnel maybe. Just about big enough to hold us all but we squeezed in and formed a circle, not seconds after we all went quiet were scuffling sounds heard and someone felt as though they were pushed into the centre.  I had an overwhelming urge to move away from the back left corner of the room, as though someone was holding a red hot poker to my back. Definitely the most oppressive area of Margam Castle...  but don't take my word for it...why not go and find out what you feel

Woodchester - the abandoned mansion

This was an amazingly hard building to find, just as you’d expect set amongst forested countryside and miles down country lanes, lies Woodchester Mansion House..
We got there just after 8.30pm and the sky was black, very appropriately it was a full moon, which Wayne failed to find any relevance to…! He’s the skeptical one out of the two of us….

The approaching dirt track to the house is over a rough terrain and my little clio was having trouble. 

As we reached the bottom there stands the Mansion House an unfinished, gothic style house, which has lain in its unfinished state since 1870. The house was abandoned by its builders in the middle of construction, as the story goes they were disturbed by an unexplainable presence and left suddenly one night leaving behind a building that appears complete from the outside, but with floors, plaster and whole rooms missing inside.
We gathered with the group and made our way inside, after a brief but disturbing history tour we got down to the juicy bits and started our investigation.

Ground floorA vacant space with a strangely modern feel to it, modern wooden stairs are oddly joined to some of the original intricate stonewalls. It had an airy feel to it and nothing seemed to be triggering my senses. One of the more eerie rooms was the chapel, lit by two large stained glass windows. One of the more intriguing stories surrounding the chapel involves apparent 'Satanic rituals', which are said to have taken place, during the 1980's.

CellarThis was a completely different ball game! We all stood in a circle of about 12 and remained deathly silent for about 15 minutes, there were clinking noises coming from the corridor behind us as if some one was putting tools into a metal toolbox. Also the air became very oppressive and a few people had to leave. This may well have been claustrophobia as the ceilings were very low.

Floor 2
Open doorways and shear drops met us on this floor; the feeling of abandonment grew more prominent.  We stood huddled together in a close secure group and listened. One lady who was about 40 began to giggle, then the giggle turned into hysterics, it seemed to be out of place as she was with her 17 year old daughter and was having trouble controlling this fit of laughter, we asked her to move away from the circle to see if it continued. It stopped. She came back into the atmosphere and once again she could not stop laughing. It proved more than slightly strange, as she couldn’t explain it herself… 

The guide asked if one of us would like to go it alone and sit on the pews which lined the back of the corridor, about 20 yards away. I happily volunteered trying to get the most out of the venue and experience something unexplainable myself. I sat on the cold wooden church pew and closed my eyes, I suddenly felt as though someone was playing with my shoelaces, untying them then tying them together in jest. I could feel a cold draft to my left and the others seen a bright white light appear over the top of my head. I didn’t feel threatened or anxious just curious…

The other rooms in Woodchester proved somewhat uneventful although the whole building is most definitely in a preserved state of abandonment – for what reason who knows.

The Otherworld Building - York

The Devil's Funhouse

Without a doubt the strangest building I’ve ever set foot in, and I’ve been in a few!...

As you walk the street of Stonegate in York no building really stands out from any other, they are mostly Georgian style architecture. The otherworld building – 35 Stonegate – from the outside appears no different. But it’s many an old house that hides a sinister secret and otherworld building has a few tucked neatly up its dark sleeve.

For over 200 years, the building was the home to “The Sign of the Bible” a publishing house. In 1873, John Ward Knowles purchased the home as the last heir to the publishing house had passed away.

On entering the house you could be forgiven for thinking it was the fun house of the devil, dark and damp but with an air of playfulness about it.

Room 1 the living room/print room.

A surprisingly light room, which looked out onto the main street. The feel of this room was peaceful and airy and the group seemed at ease. It proved to be a lull of false security..

The attic room.

We split into smaller groups and myself and another entered the attic lower room. A small room with a large fireplace in the centre and a tiny window to the right. Opposite the fireplace was a church pew, on which we both sat. The room was darker than the rest of the house and bare floored so naturally cold. After sitting for 5 minutes or so we called out….. a light tapping seemed to respond from near the window. We called again – once more a precise tapping noise responded. It was on the third request for recognition that we both spotted a long white light float down the side of the fireplace to the floor. At this moment I had the strongest sense of a male figure in my minds eye. I never physically saw anything as it was pitch black. But over the next few minutes this impression of this dark haired, religious man grew stronger and stronger in my mind. It became oppressive and close by almost as though he was peering into my mind. And asking what I wanted.  Now I’m not of faint heart but after asking him to back off and getting no response this became too much and I choose to leave rather quickly…

The other room, which seemed to house some unusual activity, was the séance room in which we practiced glass moving with encouraging results and there was a sinister atmosphere with us until we left the building at 4am….

Now I’m quite the rationale objector but this place holds some strange and inquisitive energies that I definitely would like to ask more questions to…… Other world building – if you want to dance with the devil in his playground then go there…..

HELL FIRE CAVES - West Wycombe

Fright Nights - Hell Fire Caves - Saturday Jan 16th 6.30pm 
'til 12 midnight

Wow this venue most certainly didn't disappoint on impact!!!


As we pulled into the car park this towering and atmospheric building front dominated the area.  It was the first time that we'd taken friends on a ghost hunt and the reaction was 'blimey that place looks spooky'


To give you a bit of a background - the Hell Fire Caves were excavated by 
Sir Francis Dashwood between 1748–1752. They get their daunting name from 'The Hellfire Club', which was founded by Sir Francis and has been linked with secret meeting clubs including the freemasons.

We were given the history tour of the caves by a rather spooky but knowledgeable guy. He hinted at the strange experiences he'd had over the years in the caves, but was quite guarded with any detail...

Then the tour with the medium! A jolly fellow in a kilt carrying a Sgian Dubh in his sock....on touring the caves he picked up on a young girl somewhat in distress and a rather angry fellow who was looking for something (guess he'd read the ghostly history of the caves ad I had).

We carried out different vigils in the different areas. One of the most active being Paul Whitehead's chamber. Whitehead who died in 1774 left his heart to Sir Francis along with £50, with the request that it be used to provide an urn in which his heart was to be deposited, to be placed in the cave system. Someone stole the urn and his heart in it and to this day Whitehead’s ghost is said to haunt the caves looking for his heart. Well it certainly felt that someone was looking for something here - a fight maybe...

Pic above shows the orbs captured where we saw the white figure move 

into the centre of the pathway.

We had numerous noises in response to calling out and tapping noises as though small stones were being thrown in our direction. Also whilst standing there in a tight circle in the blackest place i have ever been my eyes started the play tricks on me - or so I thought.....

I spotted something white move further up the cave to shadow over the pathway, then slowly move back to the wall. I saw this 3 times before announcing it to the group, upon which another older gent said he had just witness exactly the same movement in the same place. A few people in the group also seen a white triangular light appear in the centre of the circle and then fade out.

The last room we investigated was the inner temple. Where, thanks to the rather spooky statues of the members of the Hell Fire Club, it became a bit too oppressive to be.  Apart from the odd strange noise which was more often than not body related not that much was captured here.

On conclusion - Are the Hell Fire Caves haunted? - I'm not sure, I mean there are definitely strange forces of some sort at work there. But maybe another visit would prove otherwise..... Go and visit - If you're brave enough!