So far, we've survived!

With the second tour now tucked firmly beneath our belts, the first ghost tour season is now well under way.

Our first tour was less "lively" than anticipated - partly due to a small group of participants who were under the impression that they were on the Ghost Train at Barry Island, and kept up a background cacophony of "OooooHooo!"s and hysterical laughter throughout, so that atmosphere was somewhat lacking! Anything subtler that a full blown Poltergeist-style furniture whirlwind would probably have gone unremarked.

Our dowsing experiment continues in the attics unabated, however. (See pic above). For four years we've been setting the public loose in the attic with dowsing rods, and recording what they find on a chart in the Architect's Office (see pic with Orbs). I give them a brief demonstration of how to use them in the pursuit of "spirit traces", or "place memories", or "psychic recordings", or "ghosts" however they choose to think of it, and the results are very intriguing. There are about 12 key points in the attic that are found every time, and are connected with spirits that have been identified by people with mediumistic abilities that have attended the tour.

The cast list of the "differently alive" that can be found in the attic include:

• A young man, slightly the worse for drink.
• A middle-aged lady with breathing trouble.
• Two male presences in the Architect's Office (possibly the footmen's sitting room - see Load of Orbs 2).
• A depressed female presence in the bathroom (with accompanying cold spot)
• A middle-aged Victorian gentleman, (with a curly moustache) who resents us being there.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a load of bunkum if it weren't for the fact that people, many of whom have never dowsed in their lives before, keep finding them! True to form, they were all present last Friday (though the previous Friday, the "spot" in the bathroom was tracked leaving the room, and heading down the corridor!).

We let people keep the dowsing rods with them when we carry on through the house, but we've not recorded the results (so far), and there are many occasions when you spot the rods crossing out of the corner of the eye.

New Sam (a new guide also called Samantha) reported a seeing a young girl in the Master's bedroom, holding the rods out in front of her with some alarm as they lashed around like a Dalek's arms!

"Quick! Take them! Take them!" she cried to her mother.

"I'm not having them!", her mother replied, taking a hasty step backwards.

Needless to say, she was standing directly beneath the portrait of John Morgan - well done, that man!