Present from Abbey Ghost Hunters: Mark, Angie, Tracey, Steph, Jazz, Andy and Mike.

We arrived at 23:00hrs and entered the Castle, Once inside we found a spiral staircase leading to a platform on the first floor. We decided to go up there first to have a look, Angie heard a woman's scream and then a Man's wail. We continued up the staircase until we reached the top. We decided to stand there for a while and see if anyone picked anything up. Angie said she could a nervousness around us, Tracey and Jazz both commented on feeling sick, Tracey wanted to throw up and Jazz could feel acidic fluids in his throat. Just then Angie says a man by the name of William had followed us up the stairs, he was wearing peasants clothing and worked here, he is going about his business. She explains to the others the sickness feeling is due to nerves they are picking up on sensations of people who once lived here. We stood for a few moments when Angie says the name Aarron, he had something to do with the building of this place. (Later Angie said it was not Aarron but Alan, it just sounded that way the first time, Alan was responsible for the construction). (The castle was built by Alan, Earl of Richmond, in 1087, soon after the Norman conquest of 1066 on the site of the old Roman fort it was designed by Richard the engineer). Jazz then heard what he describes as a Ghostly wail, like Angie had heard when we first entered. Steph and Mark had not felt or heard anything at this point. Angie looks at Mark and says it's not all residual as you thought there are Ghosts here. (Mark was the only member who knew were we going and often thought the stories of this place were of residual energies). She then asks us to wait where we stood whilst she follows the a white lady down the stairs. Jazz looks over the balcony and points out to Mark a figure walking into the far corner of the castle, Mark did not see it. Angie gets down the stairs and she and Tracey who is stood next to Mark on the balcony both say the name Elizabeth. This is the name of the White Lady. Tracey says she feels the woman cries a lot and has somehting to do with her death. We went down the stairs to meet with Angie. Tracey stops and places he arms forward as she loses her sight for a moment. As we go to Angie ahe is already making her way to the far corner as she saw a figure moving there as Jazz had from the balcony. Once she reaches the corner she looks up to an archway and says there is a man up there watching us, he is called Henry and is Scottish. Mark turns and as he does he sees the figure move quickly in the corner that both Angie and Jazz had seen. Angie says anyone who stands in the corner will feel a tingling sensation. Suddenly she says "swords" explaining she can see crossed swords, then she says "battle commence". she then gives us the name James Mc Laughlin (see below in red) another Scotsman, that is why we have been sensing the nerves, it is the feelings of dread from those within the Castle at one time, as there was a battle nearby. There have been a few battles near here. A battle between two counties, this place had great importance, there were lots of bloodshed outside. (Bowes Castle has been involved in conflicts over the centuries with reports stating it was besieged as early as 1173 by King William of Scotland. It was so badly damaged it required rebuilding during 1187. Then in 1216 enemies of King John besieged the castle, and again in 1322 in a regional feud between Henry Fitzhugh and the then Earl of Richmond).

At this point we went back by the staircase and stood at the bottom of it. Angie feels the woman Elizabeth died of poisoning, she was a member of one of the important families here, there have been two and there has been a dispute over ownership of the Castle. (this may be connected to the regional feud above when Bowes Castle was besieged and taken by neighbouring lords, tenants of the Earl of Richmond). She then hears a wooden door being slammed, although there are no doors here anymore. Jazz feels someone nearby wants to lay claim to the land, someone Scottish. (Again this ties in with the battle). Angie can then see a large table in the room that has pewter goblets on it, but there are no chairs or seating around it. She says to us this was a horrible place to be in at one time, the anticipation they were feeling was unbelieveable, they were waiting to see what the outcome was, fearing their lives. (Again this is to do with the battle).
Jazz looks over his shoulder as he got the feeling someone was about to come charging down them, as Tracey hears a metal gate being slammed shut.
Angie then tells us the two armies were Scottish anf English that engaged in battle nearby, she says people should have felt safe in here but they did not, they were terrified. Jazz then comments he saw a pair of legs walking through the Castle, but there was no body that was visible. As Angie says listen can anyone hear two women's voices. Mark went outside to make sure it wasn't someone outside, but there was no one about. We went back to the other side of the Castle when ANgie and Andy both said they could smell meat being cooked over a fire, no one else could smell it, but we did all hear a voice although only Jazz heard exactly what was siad, he heard the voice Get out. Mark then hard the two womens voices again, and again he went outside to check, and again no one was around. Tracey heard a woman scream and the name Emily came to her, as she explains this Steph says for about ten minutes now, she has been feeling like she wants to cry for some reason and that she feels very sad with it, the feeling comes and goes she says. We then heard someone walking outside so went to check, but yet again there was no one there.
It was now midnight and everyone was feeling as though we were being watched from every possible angle in the place. Angie then says Robert the Bruce, the battle was to do with his army they were marching nearby here. They were returning home when they were caught up by the Englishamen and a battle took place, it was a bit of a massacre. The Scotsmen had been to York and were returning this way, they had split into two groups and made their way sepeartley but these ones were found out. (In 1319 Robert the Bruce intended a raid upon York, his aim was to relieve the pressure from the besieging English on the Scots, who held Berwick, at the same time he intended the capturing of Queen Isabella who was thought to be in York at the time. Luckily the Queen escaped to Nottingham before the Scots reached York. But because Edward II had sent the militia from York to Berwick to assist with that siege he left the citizens and clergy of York un-protected and slaughtered by the Scots near Boroughbridge.the Scots split into two groups to make their way home and those passing Bowes were set upon by the English, many were slaughtered froim both sides, but the Scots won and the English were scattered, it is possible this is the same battle Sir Henry Fitz Hugh was killed in). We all felt like we were in the basement and not the ground floor as you would expect to be (After some research I have discovered the Castle was on three floors, the ground floor was indeed a basement, and was only entered from a staircase situated at the south-east angle, having no external doorway. The basement was divided unequally into two parts, with the larger room being on the east covered by stone vaults inserted in either the 13th or 14th century).
We then went outside for a look around for about fifteen minutes and returned inside for a further fifteen minutes, the whole place had now gone quiet and we called it a night. It was now just gone half twelve.We called it an end to the investigation and made our way home.

© Copyright warning: All material, information, images, recordings, video and sound are protected by copyright © And is Copyright © 2004-2010 Abbey Ghost Hunters. Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording will constitute an infringement of copyright. And must not be reproduced at any time without our permission. All rights reserved.