This was Ghosthunters PI’s first visit to Stirling Old Town Jail and what a fascinating venue it turned out to be.
While setting up cameras on the second floor Kirsty and Niki reported seeing a large male figure that was clearly watching what they were doing and was very intimidating.
David gave all the guests a guided tour of the jail and we let the guests choose their equipment and we got underway with the investigation.
Straight away Stuart became aware of a large intimidating figure standing at the bottom of the corridor so we started there. The figure was very tall and very well built and wore prison guard uniform.
Using the EVP recorder and dowsing rods we were able to confirm the presence and sex of the spirit but at this stage get no names or why he was there. At this point the energy in the area seemed to increase with a few guests reporting temperature changes and feeling draughts. Again using the rods we confirmed that there were now three spirits in our presence and even got the rods to point out where they were standing. The Alice box gave us the name Tina, but apart from the fact that this part of the prison was used for female prisoners we were unable to verify the name Tina.
Several guests and team members then reported seeing lights (described as a firework type effect) in the stair area. This matched what we had seen on the cameras earlier so we moved through and managed to get some faint responses using the EVP recorder but nothing we could clearly make out.
We moved from here to the exercise area where on the walk round Stuart had felt a presence with us. However it was a very cold windy night and it was very difficult to get any clear responses with the equipment without any interference from the wind.
In the stairwell to the other tower we were again joined by the spirit we had encountered earlier. This time we were able to get his name “Charlie” and were able to confirm that he was a prison officer. He clearly thought he was the man in charge of the prison too. He was a very intimidating figure and his presence made several in the group feel uncomfortable.
At this point David joined us and confirmed that Charlie had been mentioned before by previous groups. David suggested that he spoke to Charlie so we moved back to the stair area where we had seen the lights and tried to get the story as to why we kept seeing lights here and what had happened there.
David made it clear to Charlie that he was now in charge of the jail, a point Charlie clearly didn’t like. He roared several times in to the EVP recorder when David spoke and even threw in a few choice names for David. He clearly didn’t like David and the fact he was in charge, a point confirmed with a clear “no” response when asked.
The EVP recorder and dowsing rods seemed to suggest that someone was pushed down these stairs and that’s why this area was so active. Unfortunately we were unable to verify this with David, who has no knowledge of this happening.
We moved on to cell 2, a cell Stuart had felt a little uncomfortable in at the start of the night. This room contained a pillory and a prison ball. The pillory was made by David himself and was there for display purposes, but did the ball carry a story?
Between the rods, EVP and Alice box we were able to get the name Peggy and tie her involvement to the jail to 1849. Peggy also told us that she was unaware that she was dead. While David was unable to verify the name Peggy he did again confirm that that cell would have been for female prisoners.
The ball itself also seemed to have its own energy attached to it. We were able to establish that it possibly dates from 1797. This is from before the jail was built, but David did verify that the ball was brought to prison and was not used there.
Other names we picked up on during the night were Clive, Ellie and David (possibly as a reference to the David currently running the jail). We will work on trying to verify these names.
This was a truly fascinating venue with several stories to tell, and I am sure each visit will throw up something very different. However perhaps the strangest things to happen on the night were the fact that the power to the building seemed to be turned off before David did it. David was present with us at the time the lights dipped and went out. The sockets and sounds that are on a different system were still working so we can rule out a power cut, and the lights came back on later when David turned them on for us. The heating also came on during the night, again David confirmed that this was on a timer and should not be on after hours. Very strange and as yet we still haven’t got a reasonable explanation for it happening.
We would like to thank David and everyone at Stirling Old Town Jail for welcoming us to the jail and allowing us to investigate this amazing venue.