Things that go bump at Nothe Fort

The team of around 30 novice investigators gathered in the fort’s grounds after dark to take part in the investigation led by Steven Brown of ghost hunting company Paranormal Tours and psychic investigator Marc Richardson.

Bringing his own healthy dose of open-minded scepticism, Dorset Echo reporter Dan Goater joined the tour to experience the darker side of the fort for himself . . .

I MUST confess that I had a real sense of ‘no going back’ as the gates of the Nothe Fort slammed shut behind me.

Everyone taking part in the tour gathered in the fort’s grounds as the sun sank over Weymouth Bay, leaving us to speculate excitedly among ourselves as to what the evening would bring.

After a quick meet and greet with the tour leaders, the amateur hunters and I were introduced to the surprisingly wide array of electronic equipment we would be using during our investigation.

This included an electromagnetic field meter that registers apparent changes in electric frequencies in the atmosphere caused by the presence of spirits, an electronic voice phenomena recorder that can pick up chatter from ghosts and a ‘canum’ which registers sounds beyond the human range of hearing.

Among the ghost hunters, were a group of women from Hampshire on a hen party.

Tee-total bride-to-be Kate Higgins said: “It was my sister Sarah’s idea to come here for the ghost hunt.

“Because I’m a non-drinker, she said she wanted us to do something a bit different.”

The tour began with the whole group walking through the fort’s dingy tunnels led by Marc, who explained that a ‘psychic guide’ he knows as Tommy helps him hear the voices of the dead around him.

Marc stopped at points and relayed what he was hearing and identified areas we would return to later in smaller groups for more in-depth investigation.

As we went around, several members of the party claimed to hear unexplained banging noises coming from elsewhere in the fort.

Most of the bangs were almost instantly identified as the heavy, pressure-sealed doors we were walking through closing behind us.

However, about halfway through the walk, in the tunnel supposedly haunted by the fort’s Whistling Gunner, I heard a loud bang come from behind me.

I turned straight away to see it was only a door closing behind me, but, within minutes, I heard a second, equally loud bang come from the same place.

As I turned again I saw a shift in the light reflected in the glass of the door and for the life of me I cannot explain what caused this.

Suitably unsettled, the group returned to our base of operations for a refreshing brew (and for others a nervous smoke) before splitting up into small groups for more investigation. I joined a party that went to a deep room in the fort filled with military plaques.

Our group was set up with paper and a pen mounted in a special device for automatic writing and a glass to be used as a kind of ouija board.

We asked any spirits in the room to make themselves known and within minutes the group using the glass felt movement. Apparently delivering a series of ‘yes/no’ answers, the spirit identified itself as male and appeared to be answering questions with movements of the glass. At least that was the case until something a little more dramatic happened.

We asked the spirit to let us know that he could hear us when the speaker system in the room (apparently turned off at the time) crackled noisily into life.

My jaw almost hit the floor and I looked around to see similar reactions from the rest of the group.

For the next few minutes, the speakers popped and crackled loudly, seemingly in response to questions, and the group using the pen also felt movement.

Others in the room claimed to feel a fall in temperature and, at this point, the full battery in my video camera ran out.

After twenty minutes in the company of the spirit, the time again came to return to our base of operations.

The reporter in me had to ask if this apparent activity had been staged, so I asked the fort’s administration manager Steven Booth, who was the only living soul there besides us.

Mr Booth assured me that the speaker system was turned off when it crackled into life and that the room the system is controlled from was locked and empty.

Chatting with other investigators, they all said they heard the speaker system come on seemingly of its own volition while others claimed to have seen balls of light hovering in parts of the fort.

Whether it was the atmosphere of the fort playing tricks on our minds or a genuine paranormal presence, many of us were spooked by what we experienced.

For me, I found the whole experience unsettling rather than frightening although I will admit that my scepticism took a hit.

My rational mind tells me there will always be strange noises in any building as old as the fort but I still cannot explain why that speaker came on.