Scottish Paranormal Investigations

The advance party arrived at Balbirnie House around 2:30pm to meet with the Manager who escorted them around the premises. The team carried out Baseline testing and noted the areas in which staff and guests had reported strange activity or actual sightings.The areas that were to be part of this investigation were: Room 304, Room 307, Room 308, The Game Keepers Inn, The Ballingal Suite and the corridor and lobby leading to the suite.

The team Mediums arrived around 4:30pm and were led separately through the building to establish what they were able to pick up. Neither were prompted or advised which were the areas of interest to the team or allowed to discuss their findings until the walk through was completed. This blind testing is always a good indication of genuine activity and a great very interesting when they both pick up on the same details.

Vigil Sessions: were carried out in the Ballingal Suite Hallway, Room 304, Room 307, Room 308

Reported Activity

Room 308: After finishing a late shift one night, a hotel receptionist stayed over in room 308. She was woken in the middle of the night by a presence in the room. There were no feelings of any emotions such as fear, joy etc so she fell back to sleep.

Room 301: The aroma of burnt toast has been smelt in this room and the surrounding rooms and corridor.

Room 103: The image of a short, grey haired man has been seen here.

Room 307: Various members of staff have seen a shadowy image. A cloaked gentleman has also been seen in the stairwell leading to the 3rd floor.

Ballingal Suite and Hallway: An uneasy feeling is picked up by staff in this area. The Night porter saw an old man who acknowledged him then walked through the wall. Footsteps are often heard when there is nothing else in the area and the Night Porter has heard voices but not audible enough to make out what is being said.

Game Keepers Inn: staff member has felt herself being pushed. She claims that poltergeist activity has pushed her into the cooker on which she burnt her hand even though the cooker has not been switched on for years. Another staff member has felt that he was punched while being this room.

Room 205: A hotel guest reported that she saw a woman walking through the bed.

Gallery: The Night Porter cushions are often moved and a young Scottish girl’s voice has been heard in the corridor leading to the Game Keepers Inn.

Back Stairs: The Hotel Housekeepers have reported being pushed on the stairs. There is a story that the staff has heard that a Servant/Chambermaid was murdered in the courtyard

Balfour suite 202: This was once known as the “Witches room”

Room 309: one of the hotel receptionists was due to spend the night in this room some time ago but had to get up and leave during the night due to experiencing a very uncomfortable feeling.

Post Investigation: “Things that go bump in the night”

Once the last of the vigils was completed, the team called an end to the investigation at 5:00am and retired to our beds. We had each chosen to spend the remainder of the night in separate rooms on the 3rd floor to see if there would be any further activity during the night. Team members in rooms 306, 307 and 310 all had disturbances through the night and only discussed the events the next morning. Each of these rooms oucpants had very similar stories, they all heard movement in the corridor and had someone try to open the door, 1 member even heard people talking in a foreign language. However each member opened their door to the corridor and were met with an empty corridor. The attempts at opening the room doors all happened about an hour apart, Room 306 was tried at roughly 6:30, Room 307 was tried at 5:30 and Room 310 at 7:30

Conclusion

We are in no doubt that this building is one of the most interesting sites that SPI have visited. We were astounded at the response to the Glass Moving experiment and to have this and the moving sparks of light from room 304 on video is very exciting. The amount of detail picked up by the team through mediumship, which has been corroborated by the Historical records of the building is also very exciting. There are so many areas of interest in the House that warrant further investigation in order to validate our initial findings that we are in discussions with the management to find a suitable date for a return visit.

An interesting result has been the foreign voices during the night, which we now think were Polish. Although it is not documented in the copy of House’s History that we have seen, it is a fact that Balbirnie House was used as a hospital for the Polish troops based in Fife during the 2nd World War. An exhibition in St. Andrews’ Museum of the “Poles in Scotland” , held details of this part of Balbirnie’s History and included a Balbirnie House Christmas pantomime programme, containing the names of the Polish soldiers who participated in the event.

The hotel itself is stunning and well deserving of it’s numerous accolades and prestigious reputation. Any of the unexplained happenings that have occurred in the premises and during our visit in no way detract from the service and standards set by the management and their team to ensure that Balbirnie continues to be a excellent place to stay when visiting Scotland.