THE night has drawn in and the darkness gives the woodland site a menacing appearance despite fairly lights and a welcoming fire.
Walking alone along the gravel path to the fire pit, I sense someone behind. I wait for them to go past and when they don’t, I turn. There’s nothing there. A couple I spoke to moments earlier confirm, no one followed me along the path — yet there are sounds on the video that I can’t explain…
The paranormal evening at Kilminorth offered a thrilling investigation of old farm house against a backdrop of local history and tales of ghostly goings on.
This ancient manor site Kilminorth, on the edge of Looe provided the ideal location for a first ever evening of paranormal investigations by the team from Shadowtor, with some unexpectedly chilling encounters.
Over 90 people signed up for the paranormal event which promised ghost stories, and a paranormal investigation of the house led by host and TV historian for Channel 4’s Time Team Matt ‘Bear’ Clark.
The farmhouse at Kilminorth and its surroundings in the parish of Talland are recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086. The outbuildings have long since been converted into holiday accommodation but the old farmhouse stands mostly untouched aside from renovation work that has come to a halt.
Matt explains how the event came about: “Our general interest in the paranormal became known and once we met the owner of Kilminorth, she started telling us about the house and her experiences.
“Whilst Jayne has renovated the beautiful holiday cottages through the years, we have continued swapping stories until we said, let’s do it, let’s investigate the old house.
“It’s taken what feels like 10 years to make this event a reality.”
A marquee set up in the grounds overlooking the woods has become a supernatural hub for the evening, with a screen showing films providing a historic backdrop to the manor and an interview with former resident, Grahame Rickard, who grew up in the house and lived there for 30 years.
His first visit back to his former home in over a decade, the film follows him around the property capturing his memories and feelings treading familiar floorboards. Cameras in the house record the comings and goings for the big screen in the hub, as the party of 90 are divided in to smaller teams to explore.
Candles light the way as part of the first group, we enter the house just as dusk is setting in. Access to the rear courtyard is via an outbuilding, a former abattoir. The first room we come to is the old living room where Grahame has told the team he’d regularly hear footsteps overhead of an evening. Gadgets that monitor magnetic activity and fluctuations are handed out to the group and they each signal one single green light. Nothing is registering.
Heading out of the room though a small passage kitchen to a back staircase, we head up towards the first floor and bedrooms. Matt stops on the stairs to talk about activity here but what he is about to say is already palpable. An oppressive feeling descends over me, and I start to feel slightly nauseous.
We climb the rest of the stairs to the first bedroom; Grahame’s old room when he was a teenager and a guest room when friends came to stay. Some never returned after spending a night witnessing the door moving on its own, and scrapping noises along it. Oddly, this is the room where Grahame says he felt most safe. It’s staged with a rocking horse and rocking chair, and motion detectors. None of us seem to sense anything.
We move out of the room to the next landing and the oppressive feeling returns. Our gadgets are lighting up madly. A hooded figure was a common sight for Grahame as a child running from his old bedroom to the bathroom and back, avoiding the shadow in that corner of the landing; the corner where I am stood. He referred to it as ‘the dreaded landing’ in his interview. I can feel why.
The evening offered so much more than expected. A whistle-stop tour of the site with a fascinating round up of its history led by local historian and tour guide Mark Camp; marshmallows and storytelling at the fire pit on the edge of the Kilminorth woods, said to be the largest (and possibly most haunted) ancient woods in Cornwall led by the captivating Jo Frances who waxed lyrical on local witches and ghostly encounters, mostly centred around Looe’s Jolly Sailor public house.
Matt summed up the evening: “We definitely had activity, both felt and some detected by various gadgets and on camera. It was also interesting too how different groups felt similar things around the house. It was a fascinating.”
Going by the buzz around the site during the evening, this paranormal investigation into Kilminorth has been a complete success, and is one set to be repeated.