Ghostbuster at Muncaster Castle

Four long nights "ghostbuster" Jason Braithwaite prowled the 800-year-old building, said to be Britain's most haunted house, with more recorded spook activity than the Tower of London.

But Dr Braithwaite and his team of dedicated researchers came away empty handed.

It was what the sceptic scientist expected. The PhD Cognative Psychology Fellow of Birmingham University heard doors banging, weird dragging noises in the chimney, and movements against windows.

The culprit, according to Jason, who has spent ten years studying paranormal experiences at the castle, was wind.

This is the longest, most serious and systematic investigation of its kind anywhere in the world and, after a decade, has shed little light on the subject. The research is backed by the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena.

"It's probably going to take a lifetime," admits Jason, a committed disbeliever in spooks, ghouls and things that don't naturally go bump in the night

He has no doubt people experience very strange happenings. His question is why?

And while researchers around him have reported apparitions, footsteps and doors opening, Jason remains immune.

He turns to science for rational theories. Jason thinks there is a magnetic component to "supernatural" happenings. Magnetism, he says, can stimulate the brain, inducing all sorts of strange experiences.

"Buildings said to be haunted have possibly got magnetic properties too. We are looking into it," he explains. "Perhaps apparitions are just magnetic fields that stimulate the brain."

Jason is quick to point out he takes "hauntings" very seriously, explaining people genuinely believed they had witnessed weird activities. He said he initially resisted the temptation of investigating Muncaster, before being tantalised by "many interesting stories".

The castle, home to the Pennington family for 800 years, even has a spook book, where recordings are meticulously kept.

Tom Fool, the macabre character who was Muncaster's jester up until his death in about 1600, still provokes fear. He is said to have murdered the local carpenter, as well as sending hapless travellers across the quicksands.

The corridor, where his massive portrait stands, is riddled with inexplicable footsteps, strange presences, noises and door handles turning without human involvement.

Leading from it is the Tapestry Room, another prime target for restless spectres. Here phantom babies are said to cry, figures seen, rustlings of old fashioned skirts heard and a cold, foreboding atmosphere felt.

Mary Bragg, who died in suspicious circumstances in 1805, is said to be another regular spirit caller. Luckless Henry VI, who sought refuge at the castle while fleeing north and was eventually killed, is another.

Jason grew up in nearby Bootle, his family having close links with Muncaster. When his grandfather retired after spending his entire working life as the estate's stonemason, the Pennington family bought him a motorbike so he could return.

"He never said anything about ghosts, but I heard all the stories," said Jason.

"I'm fascinated by the human brain and when I got into studying how the brain is involved with human visual experiences including strange experiences people kept suggesting I investigate Muncaster."

He resisted for a time, then fell hook, line and sinker for the constant source of compelling material coming from a castle.

"Nine to five I work as a serious brain psychologist and scientist; after that I go ghost hunting. An amateur interest, with a scientific intend," he explains.

He says he has questioned whether ghosts do exist, or if they are purely in the mind.

"For the people who see, hear or sense them, they are real enough. A curator here at the castle saw a woman dressed in black as he was locking up. She disappeared in front of his eyes.

"A motorist collided with a young girl on the road outside. She came towards the bonnet and then vanished into thin air. It was said to be the White Lady, alias Mary Bragg.

"Things seem solid enough in people's minds at the time, only afterwards they don't add up.

"The problem is, people scare themselves with their own shadows at Muncaster. They stand in certain areas, feed off the legends, and wait for things to happen."

Jason explained he and his team have kept some sitings to themselves, not wanting to fuel imaginations, but, remarkably, a pattern is being repeated with some of them.

Twenty-five "major incidences" have been examined - more, he says, than the Tower of London.

Tape recordings are taken, state of the art equipment used to check magnetic fields.

Twice spectres are said to have appeared on April Fool's night, in two different years, but not in 2003 when Jason was ready, and waiting.

"Anyway," he shrugs after a string of sleepless nights, "my work is above all that. What we have recorded and studied over four nights will take months to evaluate."

He has his own theories into Muncaster's extraordinary activities.

The castle is built on fault lines, a granite structure, built on granite.

"The geological fault line places rock under pressure and two sets of plates move in opposite directions. Because of the quartz in the rocks it gives off a magnetic charge."

Just how the brain picks up these magnetic components and turns them into spook experiences is something Jason is working on.

In the meantime, Muncaster happily trades on its ghosts and gouls and if you fancy one of its speciality "fright nights" don't expect to find Jason Braithwaite lurking in the wings.

"I guess I'm just too busy on the serious side of things to experience anything myself," he grins.

April 22, 2003 10:30