I'll start by saying I'm fairly sceptical of this sort of thing, but I will admit to seeing (and hearing) a few strange things happen on this ghost watch at Lincoln Castle.

Paul Sims

Now I've come to some conclusions (and as you'll find at the the bottom of this page, I certainly saw some weird things - have a look at the photos (especially look out for the orbs) >>) but I'll try and just present the evidence as I saw it so you can judge for yourself what happened that night.

This watch took place between 9.45pm - 4am at Lincoln Castle on 22nd of March. Undertaken by The Bassetlaw Ghost Research Group at Lincoln Castle, especially in the old Victorian Prison.

9.45pm: Outside Lincoln Castle - I arrived at the castle and was met by the gate guard who directed me to where the group was meeting inside the Victorian Prison.

Some members were already there with one of their mediums Sandy Sinclair giving an interview to a small film crew from a local cable channel.

10.23pm: Victorian Prison: Main wing - The rest of the Bassetlaw Ghost Research Group arrived and the castle gates were closed. We were now in the castle for the duration.

Various bits of equipment were moved into the main part of the prison and assembled. Dave Wharmby from the group explains more >> (Real 56, 56")

Joy cook started to map the whole area for reference - an unenviable task as there are a lot of different levels with off shoot rooms all over the place. From my own immediate point of view it certainly appeared to be a warren of cells and rooms.

10.39pm: Victorian Prison: Cells - Two members of the research group moved from room to room leaving 'traps' set up in some of them. These were simple and consisted of a small wooden cross left on paper with talcum powder spread over it. The basic idea as Steve Littlewood, one of the research group's mediums, explained was to see if there had been movement at any time during the watch.

11.17pm: Coffee in one of the top rooms - After setting up all the equipment it was all off to one of the top rooms in the building for a quick coffee break as it was going to be a long night. It also gave me the opportunity to have a word with Sandy Sinclair, one of the group's clairvoyants >> (Real 56, 3'04")

11.31pm: Cobb Hall - The first part of the actual investigation took place at Cobb Hall in the North Eastern part of the castle. Carvings were noted on the wall although not much history was known about these.

As a quick history lesson - above us was where condemned prisoners were hanged - if anywhere was going to be haunted it would be here!

We then climbed down the steep ladder to the small dungeon below Cobb Hall. Sandy Sinclair, the medium was one of the first. As I reached the bottom of the ladder Sandy had gone into a trance and a 'spirit' was speaking through her >> (Real 56, 7'27").

Now, as all lights were switched off so we didn't break her concentration I didn't see anything myself but James, the TV camera man told me something interesting he'd seen through his image intensifier lens of his camera. As the 'spirits' spoke 'through' sandy her hand would slip into one of the manacles on the wall.

I was the last to leave the dungeon and I must admit I climbed that ladder pretty quickly.

Sandy seeing what she can feel

11.40pm: On top of Cobb Hall: Where the scaffold used to stand - We ascended the stairs to the top of Cobb Hall. The view across to Lincoln Cathedral was, as ever, stunning.

Again Sandy went into a trance after explaining what psychic feelings she was picking up >> (Real 56, 4'24")

11.50pm: Path from Cobb Hall back to Victorian Prison - Now I must admit I didn't smell any of this, but there was talk by the group of smells of incense masking the smells of sick. Conjecture was that this smell could have been a manifestation of maybe a monk using incense to cover the smell of the condemned' sick.

12.00am: Lucy Tower Cemetery - Yeah, I know what your thinking. I thought it as well whilst climbing the stairs 'perfect timing'. I was just glad there were a few of us in the graveyard.

At 12.13am Sandy started picking up things in the cemetery >> (Real 56, 3'44").

At 12.17am we left the graveyard, but not before we heard the timely sonic's of a bat.

A picture of the table (took whilst the light was on)

12.30am: Inside a cell in the Victorian Prison - Gathered around a table Dave and Sandy led our ghost researchers in contacting the spirits through a table.

Now as there was no light in the room (at all) I didn't see a thing but this is some of what I heard >> (Real 56, 1'43").

1am: Main wing of the Victorian Prison - Dave seemed quite excited and said that the recording equipment had started on it's own (it'll certainly be interesting if anything appears on the video footage). We then spent the next half an hour looking around all the cells (that were unlocked).

1.38am: Victorian Prison Chapel - We entered the old chapel. A spooky place this time of the morning with it's imposing pulpit looking over all those individual cubicles for the prisoners, (If you've never seen it it's definitely worth a visit). The group talked of feeling that it was colder in here as if a breeze was blowing through. After a bit of investigation I found that a window was open with quite a breeze blowing through it. Sandy picked up what may have been the spirit of one of the old chaplains >> (Real 56, 2'07")

2.08am: Main wing of the Victorian Prison - The cameras that had been set up to video any activity (apparently) switched off by themselves. It will certainly be interesting to see if anything appears on the tape.

2.31am: One of the top cells - This was weird. A plastic ball on the floor was moving on it's own. The floor was metal, very thick and there was no way you could influence the floor to move the ball.

After people had left I had a good look around the cell and found a small grate with a small breeze blowing occasionally through it - enough in my reckoning to move a small plastic (and very light) ball.

3.42am: Guard's or Governor's room of the Victorian Prison - As our investigation was drawing to a close one last 'table' was tried to contact the spirits. Again there was some movement of the table. Impressive but I must admit to being still sceptical of the table rocking.

Sunday: 12.30pm: My desk at work - This is well weird - I've got strange globes on some of my photos taken with my digital camera - have a look >> - freaky or what!

Ghost hunters believe this to be a manifestation of spirit energy although I feel as though I do have a more rational explanation which will appear in this unexplained section soon - but for now this was all that I saw at Lincoln Castle, presented with just the facts.