THE INVESTIGATION:
On the western side of Barry is Porthkerry Country Park. This is a large area of open space, with extensive woodlands, and a rich history. At the top of the park there is a car park from which you can either take a nice stroll down to the pebble beach (welcoming on a moonlit night), or you can take a walk through the dark fields towards the even darker woods…that’s the one we took.
As you get to the edge of the woods there is a small stream with a very small bridge. This takes you into the wood itself and along a narrow path. We followed this until we came to our destination: The a ruin of an old cottage, which according to legend was owned by a witch. The group did bear in mind that a witch feared in those days could have been merely a harmless woman who used plants and herbs to heal. It is also said that she had a son who lived there with her and it is believed that they are both buried side
by side in a Christian burial site.
On arriving at the cottage a few of the group ventured into what would have been the main part of the house. Even though not a lot seemed to happen there was definitely unease amongst some of the group members but this could have been down to the cold the dark and the preconceptions. We did however get a few good orbs on camera that seem to be in mid air and of a fair size. One of the digital cameras lost power completely despite having a fully charged battery in it, something it had not done before or has done since. Having decided that nothing of note was going to happen at this site we set off back to our cars. One group member did shout out because she saw someone running between two other group members, however there was no one else about. None of the rest of the group saw the figure but we all started to feel a little uncomfortable.
We then took a drive to the lower end of the park. Having left our cars at the roadside we walked down the bank and down onto a path that leads between another wooded area. Suddenly the atmosphere was very different. We all felt colder and a lot more nervous. One thing we had to bear in mind was that there was a stream nearby which could have led to the chill and there were a
lot of noises that could be attributed to animals. Two of the group members began to have prickling sensations in their heads and down their necks at this time. They both reported this, the one not
having heard the other. On looking at the photographs from this time we do seem to have picked up a lot of light anomalies when these feelings were happening.
One picture taken has been difficult for us to explain. In the middle of a bush we caught a purple light, in the picture immediately after it the light has gone. We checked the exact location where the light had been and found nothing that could have caused this. As a first investigation out and about this proved interesting for the group, not just in what we got that we couldn’t explain, but also in what we got that on first sight looked remarkable and then on closer inspection was easy to explain. In one picture for example there seems to be a host of orbs right around the camera, we studied this and then realised that if someone had been standing near the lens, with the cold air they could have caused this with their breathe. On trying this out we found it to be the case. On another photograph a group member seems to be being attacked by a great mass of bright light, this seemed especially exciting as just before the picture was taken that particular group member had shouted for someone to take a
picture as she’d heard something. What then came to light was that following this shout two people had taken a photograph. The split second difference was enough to make one camera pick up the flash of the other to create a spectacular effect.
As an investigation group finding logical explanations is as important as finding truly paranormal activity so for us this was a good learning experience. However with orbs, cameras loosing power and a strange purple light there were some things we couldn’t explain.
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