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I am writing to tell you about some ghostly experiences I had at Acton Burnell Castle in February this year. Although I was very sceptical of the paranormal I decided to take up the offer of filming some night time location shots for a friend's university documentary project.

Stuart Edmonds

I went with two other people, one who would do the filming and one other to hold the mic boom. As I had no particular role other than keeping the others company, I took my digital camera, just in case anything untoward was seen.

After an atmospheric walk through the woods to the castle in darkness, we arrived at the outside walls of the castle and did one recce trip around the outside to make sure there were no other people around who might find it amusing to jump out and scare us (the castle is about 100 metres from Acton Burnell College).

Once it was ascertained that we did have the building to ourselves, we walked into the dark inner wall of the ruin to begin filming.

For the first half hour, while the others were taking artistic shots, I walked around the ruins alone and, because of my cynicism, even spent 15 minutes in one of the covered rooms in pitch darkness to see if there was any sign of ghostly activity.

I hoped to see anything at all paranormal to prove to myself that it existed.

There was nothing happening so I took a few still photos with my camera to see if anything showed up.

On the first photo, there was nothing, but when I clicked for the next one I heard scraping on the walls in front of me so immediately shot again.

This time my camera picked up two strange glowing balls of light which were visible as the flash went off and for about 3 seconds after.

In the meantime, the two film makers had gone into the castle keep and left me alone in the darkness with no torch and for the first time I felt that someone was standing with me.

Although it wasn't cold that night, I came prepared with layers of clothes and as I peered into the darkness, a chill seemed to appear within me and the feeling of dread.

I tried to stay calm and slowly walked around the inside wall. Looking up at the tallest tower of the castle, the first mysterious sign was a glowing light moving slowly around the outer wall which was too high to photograph.

But then as I looked up around where there once would have been another floor, another light appeared on the top of the entrance arch, hovering in front of a large tree.

'Orb' above the castle

As I took a photo of the light, it seemed to dance across the wall before disappearing as my first photo shows.

I suddenly felt as if there were people all around me and small flashes of light appeared all over the place (my two companions also saw the orbs).

Although I felt that something wanted me to leave the area, I was compelled to see if I could catch anything more solid on camera so continued my walkabout for a half hour until my most terrifying experience.

The 'orb' as it appears in full size

As I walked towards a doorway in the darkness, there appeared to be the silhouette of a figure in the doorway.

As I stood frozen on the spot my immediate explanation was that someone had seen our torch light and come to throw us off the grounds.

But as I stood alone in silence, I heard a breath above the sound of my own breathing. To hear more clearly, I held my breath and to my astonishment the dark shadow moved towards me.

Without thinking I took a photo in the direction of the figure and saw in the flash light the misty face of a young woman and a portion of her her white lace dress floating upwards.

The mist and 'distorted face'

I managed to get this photo which shows a mist towards the wall and a distorted face.

Immediately after taking this, I shouted to the others who ran straight over with their torches.

Assuming that it must have been steam from my breath, we tried breathing out and taking photos but the breeze was blowing across us so there is no way that the mist was caused by my breathing.

We had to leave Acton Burnell shortly after taking this photo and as we walked away, there were still orbs flashing in and around the castle and there was the distinct feeling of being watched.

I was left so astounded by what I had seen that night that I had no choice to return the day after.

Once again, the place was lit up by orbs of all sizes and I even saw four orbs flash up in one place at the same time.

I have no explanation to what these lights are other than the spiritualist notion that these lights are the beginning of a paranormal manifestation.

The highlight of my second trip was seeing a mist floating across in front of me apparently with its own light source.

Everything else was dark and the cloudy sky blocked out the moonlight but the mist was clearly visible, moving from my left to right.

Another face in the mist?

I took a photo and was amazed to see a face in the mist, as this photo shows. When darkened slightly, eyes, cheeks, mouth and nose are visible in the strange mist:

Once again, I tested possible explanations of breathing mist or damp mist but the breeze was blowing towards me afterwards, whereas before taking the photo, all was completely flat and still.

Make what you will of the photos. Although they aren't as clear as what I saw in reality, I was delighted to catch something on camera.

I have tested my camera since and know that there are no faults. I am now a firm believer in the paranormal and plan to take part in more investigations in the future.