The Cumberland Spaceman - Solway Firth, Cumbria

"As an amateur photographer on a day-trip with my family, I took the photograph on Burgh Marsh on May 23, 1964. I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose - and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background." - James Templeton

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Photographer Comments On Cumberland Spaceman Picture

by James Templeton
Daily Mail, London / England - Dec 13.02

As an amateur photographer on a day-trip with my family, I took the photograph on Burgh Marsh on May 23, 1964, using an SLR camera loaded with the new Kodacolor film which was processed by Kodak.

I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose - and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background.

I took the picture to the police in Carlisle who, after many doubts, examined it and stated there was nothing suspicious about it.

The local newspaper, the Cumberland News, picked up the story and within hours it was all over the world.

The picture is certainly not a fake, and I am as bemused as anyone else as to how this image appeared in the background.

Over the four decades the photo has been in the public domain, I have had many thousands of letters from all over the world with various ideas or possibilities - most of which make little sense to me.

It should also be noted that I have received no payment for taking this picture.

The only suggestion that struck a chord with me was a letter from Woomera in Australia which came a month after the picture was shown around the world.

The people there were keen to see a good colour copy of the photo, as they had stopped a countdown of the Blue Streak rocket within hours of my photo being taken.

Apparently, two similar looking 'spacemen' had been seen close to the rocket.

Only later did I find out that part of the Blue Streak rocket was made and tested within sight of Burgh Marsh. - Daily Mail - London, England - December 13, 2002

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The Cumberland Spaceman

Source: BBC TV program "Secrets of the Paranormal" presented by Jenny Randles

Summary: Mr Jim Templeton, who was at the time with the Cumbrian Fire Brigade, took his daughter onto the marshes nearby to have her photograph taken in her new frock.

Cumbria, May 1964 - At the time, Blue Streak missiles were being assembled in Cumbria and then being shipped to Woomera for test launches.

Mr Jim Templeton, who was at the time with the Cumbrian Fire Brigade, took his daughter onto the marshes nearby to have her photograph taken in her new frock. There was nobody else on the marshes apart from a couple of old ladies, and even the normally plentiful cows and sheep had huddled at the far end of the marsh as if they had been frightened.

After the photograph was published in a local Cumbrian newspaper Jim Templeton received calls from the Government telling him "not to persure the matter and to drop it". In the meantime Jim had two visitors who called at the fire station where he worked. They were dressed like typical bowler hatted Civil Servants who when asked would not show their identification. "Can I ask where you are from?" asked Jim, "No you can't, we are Her Majesties Government" was the reply. They asked Jim to show them the site where he took the photograph and drove him to the site in their car, a Jaguar. On arriving they asked Jim where he had seen the figure in the photo to which Jim replied that he hadn't. At this they walked away and left him.

This strange story may have ended there but for the fact that the photo had been sent over to Australia by the Cumbrian News where strange things were also happening on the Woomera Test Range. Unbeknown to anyone at the time a Blue Streak launch had been aborted due to two large men seen on the firing range. Technicians at the time did not know about Jim's sighting until it appeared on the front page of an Australian Newspaper and they said that the figure in Cumbria was the same as the ones they had seen on the monitor at Woomera.

Jenny Randles visited the Kew Records Office (where new files from around the same time had been made available) to search for references. Her first discovery relating to the incident was an MOD letter dated 29/12/64 which referred to the "Cumberland Spaceman", then references to the aborted launch and finally a report sent in by someone (at Woomera) asking what the large object was hovering which was impossible to miss. Jenny Randles also found a reference to film held by COI and invitations for people to view it. There was however no film in the archive, not even stills, even though film existed of other launches. The aborted launch was missing. What is strange, is the Governments reaction to such a strange picture. A picture that could have easily been dismissed as a prank.

From the BBC TV program "Secrets of the Paranormal" presented by Jenny Randles who is well known in the field of UFO's and is an active member of BUFORA.

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So...what was it?

The figure behind Elizabeth looked like a tall guy in a spacesuit. What the hell? What was this spaceman doing jutting out of his daughter's head? Alright, so maybe that's not exactly what Jim was thinking. Jim and his family never saw another person on their walk, and this mysterious spaceman wasn't in any of the other photographs John had taken. He had taken three pictures in succession with his Kodak SLR of Elizabeth posing in her new dress. Only the middle one of the three had that spaceman in it.

The picture was exhaustively examined by Kodak for any tampering or signs of a hoax. They found none. They then offered a reward of free film for a year to any person that could solve the mystery as to how this spaceman got into Jim's picture. No one could figure it out, and the picture went worldwide.

As if the picture alone wasn't enough of a mystery, the area where the photograph was taken also adds to the mystique. The Burgh Marsh had been a hotbed of UFO activity, and people believed it had something to do with the atomic plant nearby. In fact, if you look closely, you can see the plant in the far right on the horizon.

Enter the Men in Black...As the photograph hit the newspapers all over the globe, Jim was visited by two strangers wearing dark suits. They pulled up to his house in a dark Jaguar and identified themselves as memebers of Her Majisty's Government. They requested Jim to take them to the site where the picture was taken. They asked Jim specific questions about the weather, any local animal activity, etc. on the day he had snapped the picture. They then tried to get Jim to admit that it was all a hoax. Jim refused to admit such a thing, so they left him there. It was a five mile hike back to the firehouse where Jim worked.

The plot thickens in Australia...Jim's weird photograph was in the newspapers in Australia soon thereafter. The newspapers in Australia requested a copy of the negative of the picture, as they had their own strange sighting that happened to coincide with the spaceman in Jim's photo.

Woomera, Australia was the launch site of a big space project called Blue Streak. When the reporters started digging, they found that on May 23, 1964 - a rocket launch countdown was aborted when security cameras caught two "men" in white spacesuits walking around the launch pad. This freaky incident happened within hours of Jim snapping his photograph on the otherside of the world on that same day.

Later, Jim learned that rockets used for the Blue Streak project were being manufactured in Spadeadam, England...which is only just a few miles from the Burgh Marsh.

Australian reporters wanted to view the film taken on May 23rd, but it seems out of all the canisters of film taken during the entire Blue Streak project, the one canister holding that footage is "missing."

Who or what is that spaceman behind little Elizabeth? You would think that Jim or his wife would notice a dude walking around back there in such a huge expanse of green hills. Jim was an avid photographer, and he wouldn't take such a great picture while such a figure was in the picture. What did the technicians in Australia see just minutes before launching an experimental rocket? Did they see the SAME spaceguys? It seems the Blue Streak project is the common denominator in both sightings. What does it all mean? - blazingtalons.com

NOTE: here are links to a few interesting videos: Jenny Randles - UFO investigation and Debunking the Cumberland "Spaceman" with Google SketchUp

Bownessie Rears It's Ugly Humps Again

The image of 'Bownessie' taken by IT worker Tom Pickles on Lake Windermere

dailymail - The legend of 'Bownessie' is echoing across the waters of Lake Windermere once again after what is being called the best ever sighting of the mythical sea creature.

Emerging from the mist with oily black skin and three eerie humps, this picture reveals a mystical looking beast gliding through the lake.

The snap was taken on a camera-phone by terrified IT graduate Tom Pickles, 24, who said an animal the size of three cars sped across the lake in front him last Friday.

'It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away,' he said.

'At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast.'

This is believed to be the eighth sighting of a long hump-backed creature - affectionately known by locals as Bownessie - in the past last five years.

Mr Pickles, who said he watched the creature for 20 seconds, added: 'I could tell it was much bigger underneath from the huge shadow around it.

'Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal - it's not like any animal I've ever seen before.'

Mr Pickles's companion Sarah Harrington, 23, said: 'It was like an enormous snake.

'It freaked us all out but it wasn't until we saw the picture that we thought we'd seen something out of this world.

'I only saw it for a few seconds but all I could think about was that I had to get off the lake.'

The pair - who both work for Shrewsbery based IT company CapGemini - were on the last day of a team building residential training course at Fallbarrow Hall, Bowness, Cumbria.

They had kayaked 300m out into the lake near Belle Isle when they spotted the monster to the south.

Mr Pickles's picture perfectly matches the description of an earlier sighting from the shores of Wray Castle in 2006 by journalism lecturer Steve Burnip.

He said: 'I'm really pleased that someone has finally got a really good picture of it.

'I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it's uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.'

Monster hunter Thomas Noblett and TV psychic Dean Maynard said this new sighting has fired up their enthusiasm for another search.

The pair have twice scoured the lake with sonar equipment looking for Bownessie, but to no avail.

'We're convinced there's something down there and were going to get straight back out on the water,' said Mr Maynard.

Photo expert David Farnell of Farnell's photographic laboratory in Lancaster, said he couldn't rule out a hoax but this is the best quality image of Bownessie he'd seen.

He said: 'It does look like a real photo but because its been taken on a phone the file size is too small to really tell whether it has been altered on Photoshop or not.'

Sceptics remain unconvinced that something that size could exist in the 11 mile long lake.

Nigel Wilkinson, director of Windermere Lake Cruises, said his boat crew had over 100 years experience out on the water in all conditions and hadn't spotted anything unusual.

He said: 'We carry 1.3 million passengers - that's is 2.6 million eyeballs - and none of them have ever brought Bownessie to our attention.

Dr Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, said it was highly unlikely that an animal as large as three car lengths could survive in Windermere.

'It's possible that it's a catfish from Eastern Europe and people are misjudging the size but there is no known fish as large as the descriptions were hearing that could be living in Windermere.'

'We run echo sounding surveys every month and have never found anything.'

The mysterious aquatic beast is starting to draw parallels with the infamous Loch Ness monster for drawing even more tourists to the Lake District hot-spot.

Ellis Butcher from Cumbria Tourism said: 'The truth is Windermere and Bowness are incredibly popular destinations and don’t need gimmicks to get people to visit.

'Nonetheless at the start of the tourism year, it doesn’t do the industry any harm to have this kind of profile across the media.'

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The Bownessie Search Continues....

Sky - Monster hunters have used sonar equipment for the first time to search for a mysterious creature reportedly living in England's largest lake.

Sky News filmed out on Windermere with the team looking for proof that the beast exists.

In the last four years there have been seven reported sightings of a long humpbacked animal, now nicknamed Bow-Nessie.

Windermere hotel owner, Thomas Noblett, described his strange encounter in the water, saying: "All of a sudden I felt something brush past my legs like a giant fish.

"And then I was lifted up by a 3ft wave. I've no idea what it was."

During the sweep of the lake, the team spotted a strange 14 metre long disturbance in the water but were unable to detect anything on sonar.

Searching Windermere is a huge task as the lake is 220ft deep in parts and over ten miles long.

Hunt organiser, Dean Maynard, said: "We've had more creature sightings here than at Loch Ness in recent years so we think it's time that Bow-Nessie received more attention."

Last year, a local film crew spotted a 20 metre long object below the surface of the lake but sceptics believe the footage shows a wave from an unseen boat.

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thewestmorlandgazette - A team of monster hunters will set sail on Windermere in a fresh search for ‘Bownessie’.

Lakeland hotelier Thomas ‘The Gladiator’ Noblett and celebrity psychic Dean ‘Midas’ Maynard will embark on their second journey into the depths of Windermere in search of the fabled monster.

The two men led a team of investigators to the lake to look for evidence last year but returned empty handed.

“Since last year, a lot of local people have told me they have felt something in the lake but have been too scared to say anything,” said Mr Noblett, owner of the Langdale Chase Hotel.

“There is obviously something large in there. You just have to look at the depth, width and length of it to know that.”

Bownessie was first spotted by tourist Steve Burnip in 2006. Mr Burnip described a serpent like creature, around 15-feet in length, at the north end of the lake.

Mr Noblett was prompted to prove the existence of the creature when he was hit by a three-foot wave whilst swimming on Windermere last year.

“A lot of people boo-hoo it but they are mainly people who have never set foot in the Lakes,” said Mr Noblett.

“Those who have seen it describe it as a very long and eel-like. One sailor told me he saw what looked like a big slab of meat roll past his boat and disappear underneath the boat.

“It could be a very large catfish that has just grown to be really big. Some of those fish do live for a very long time.”

Mr Noblett and his crew of three will set out on a £300,000 yacht using sonar equipment to try and track Bownessie.

They will explore the deepest part of the lake and sail to a spot near Gummers Howe, where the creature was snapped by Winderemere photographer Linden Adams in 2007.

“Whenever I swim across the lake I always get the heebys jeebies at that part. There is a real eerie feeling around there.”

Mr Maynard said: "The last Bownessie investigation was very memorable and we are hoping to have the same if not better results this time around.

"Since last year I have been contacted by many members of the public who have told me that they have also witnessed seeing something large in the lake over the past few years and we hope to get more evidence to back up these claims."

The Bownessie hunters will set sail on September 11.


Click for video

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Originally posted 9/6/2009

In Search Of Bownessie


thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk - A team of investigators will scour Windermere in a hunt for a legendary monster that is claimed to lurk in its deep waters.

The search follows years of reported sightings of a big creature in the lake, the most recent being in July when Lake District hotelier Thomas Noblett was hit by a three-foot wave as he was swimming.

A chartered boat will take to England’s longest lake on September 19 with celebrity and sports psychic Dean Maynard at the helm. He will be joined by Windermere photographer Linden Adams who claims to have seen ‘Bownessie’ – the nickname for the monster – from a viewpoint on Gummers How in 2007.

There will also be people with cameras dotted around the shoreline to capture any unusual activity.

“Linden Adams and I are really geared up and ready for the challenge ahead and we hope to find some concrete evidence something big does exist in the lake," said Mr Maynard.

In 2006 The Westmorland Gazette reported how Huddersfield University journalism lecturer Steve Burnip, of Hebden Bridge, saw a serpent-like creature emerge from the waters as he stood at Watbarrow Point across from Waterhead.

He described it as being 15 to 20 feet long with a little head and two small humps following in its wake. He said it looked like a giant eel.

“I am absolutely convinced that there is a big creature in the lake,” said Mr Burnip. “I am really pleased that there is a renewed interest in it because I know what I saw.

“I can see it in my head now, this grey lump and the humps breaking the water like you see in the classic Loch Ness pictures. There is something in there, something quite big and elusive.”

Mr Adams, whose picture of the creature was studied by photographic experts after appearing on the front page of the Gazette, said: “I looked at it through binoculars and the naked eye and what I saw was huge.

"A lot of photographic experts have had the opportunity to look at the pictures and they are still baffled.”

Ecology experts have told the Gazette that catfish are sometimes introduced to lakes by anglers. They believe that what could be being seen is the Welsh catfish that originates from mainland Europe.

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Originally posted 7/23/2009

'Windermere Monster' Wake Pummels Swimmer

A bizarre swimming incident on Windermere coincided with the announcement that a team of paranormal investigators will plumb the lake’s depths in search of a giant creature.

Thomas Noblett, 46, was swimming the lake this week when he was suddenly swamped by a three-foot wave of unknown origin.

A spate of eyewitness sightings reported by The Gazette during 2006-2007 described a 50-foot long serpent-like animal surfacing on Windermere.

Psychic Dean ‘Midas’ Maynard, who came to prominence by accurately predicting sports score lines and X factor winners, will join The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ), in the hunt for the beast in September.

Mr Noblett trains on the lake for four hours every day in preparation for a channel swim.

Never having had to deal with anything more than the odd passing trout, the 46-year-old said he had since reconsidered the legend of the Windemere monster.

“I didn’t entertain it before. Now when I’m in the lake it has my full attention,” he said.

Mr Noblett, managing director of The Langdale Chase Hotel, was swimming close to Wray Castle at 7am on Wednesday morning when the 3ft swell hit.

He and swimming trainer Andrew Tighe – paddling in a boat beside him – were the only people on the lake.

“We had gotten up early and Windermere was crystal clear. The lake was totally empty apart from us and all I could hear was the slapping of my arm against the water,” explained Mr Noblett.

“All of a sudden this wave just hit us. Andrew said ‘where the hell did that come from?’ and it made the boat rock from side to side,” he continued.

Treading water, alone, in the centre of the lake, Mr Noblett watched as two large waves sped towards either shore.

“It was like a big bow wave; a three-foot swell at least. There was two, as if a speed boat had sped past, but there were no boats on the lake,” he said.

Previously an escape from the jellyfish he dodges while training at sea, Mr Noblett said the lake’s depths were not so inviting anymore.

“I always look forward to swimming in Windermere, now I’m starting to get the fear. Twice I have looked down and seen fish, but only small trout. The reeds sometimes scare you, because they suddenly appear like triffids.”

Devon-based CFZ are the world’s only full time cryptozoology organisation for the study of unknown animals.

Dean ‘Midas’ Maynard will join CFZ in September to search the lake for the monster.

Mr Maynard, with a background in ghost hunting, is currently searching for a sonar-equipped boat to use in the search.

“It’s a fascinating subject. I’m not saying there is or isn’t something down there. Most eyewitness accounts describe some sore of eel, which if living in open water can grow very big,” said Mr Maynard.

Mr Noblett is swimming across the English Channel in mid October. He hopes to raise £10,000 for Richard Rose Central Academy in Carlisle and the Cyctic Fibrosis Trust.

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Monday, February 26, 2007

Suspected Monster Spotted in Lake

Windermere, UK - Sightings of a suspected monster in Windermere have prompted claims that it could be the English equivalent of Nessie.

The 50ft long "creature" was snapped by photographer Linden Adams, 35, who was out walking with his wife near the lake recently.

They were at a secluded spot more than 1,000ft up a mountain when they spotted a dark shape moving in the water.

"It just came out of the blue," said Mr Adams. "The water was incredibly peaceful and then this huge thing appeared, diving and thrashing around."

He thought it was 50 ft long when compared to boats nearby.

He said it had a head like a labrador, only "much, much bigger".

'Serpent-like'

Mr Adams, from Bowness-on-Windermere, said he knew the lake well and what he saw was not a freak wave or boat. His sighting comes just months after scientists visited Windermere to examine claims by a tourist that they saw a 20 ft "serpent-like" creature.

A team of scientists visited the site last October to interview eye-witnesses and sent divers to Coniston Water to investigate reports of similar sightings there.

Mr Adams has christened his find the Bowness monster. "When I looked at my pictures on my computer I realised I had something," he added.

He sent his picture to a forensic photographer who confirmed it had not been digitally enhanced.

Richard Freeman, of the centre for Fortean Zoology which researches mystery animals, said the sightings could be giant sterile eels which, unlike normal eels, stay in fresh water and "get bigger and bigger".

NOTE: Once again I am posting an update to the Bownessie saga. I've been watching this tale develop and continue for about 3 years. Frankly, I think this 'cryptid' is a tourist grab for the Langdale Chase Hotel. Why? Well, in 2008 I was asked by a LakesTV representative to publish the screen captures from the original video (above) on my blog. The video was located on the LakesTV website at the time. I asked if I could use the video and was denied...I was told that they wanted to 'market the video and it would be copyrighted'. I declined to publish the screen captures and decided to wait until something else popped up on this 'creature'. Then in July 2009, the owner of the hotel, Thomas Noblett, conveniently experienced a 'rogue wave' while swimming in the lake. It could very well be a large eel or fish...but using the 'Nessie' moniker as part of a name is somewhat disingenuous. Anyway, you make your own determination on this 'cryptid'. I would really like opinions on this, especially from those who have investigated the sightings...Lon

A Peculiar Encounter

I received the following anecdote from a British reader:

One day, in the the eighties, I boarded a bus in Freshbrook with the intention of going to Swindon town centre. It was early evening and the bus was a single-decker. Sitting in the seat opposite the driver was a very odd looking person with his head down. He was dressed in dark, untidy clothing, disheveled in appearance. He did not look at me at all but there was something of a vibe emanating from him that made the hairs on my neck and arms stand up. I sat on the same side of the bus as him at least ten seats behind him. There were several other people between us and others also to the right hand side.

As I sat down in my seat I noticed a new pound note on the floor, I had placed my shoe inadvertently on it. Looking around I could tell that the other passengers nearby were ignoring me and not about to lay claim to it. I placed it in my pocket. No sooner had I done so than the strange looking man at the front of the bus sat upright and then stood up. He turned and made his way slowly up the bus, focusing on me. The other passengers ignored him as if he was not there. Stopping alongside me, he held out his hand..."I will have my pound note back now", he said. My hairs stood on end once more as I looked at him. He seemed dark in complexion and almost sub normal. How could he know I just found a pound note...he wasn't anywhere near...he was at the front of the bus and curled up...his head down...it didn't add up and felt eerie. Was he testing me in some way?

"What pound note is that, mate?" I found myself replying. He laughed to himself and returned to his seat at the front of the bus where he sat down again and lowered his head as if had all been a draining effort for him. He got off the bus in town and vanished, leaving me perplexed and confused at the silliness of it all.

The next day I was in the town centre once again and decided to go into the Paperback Parade bookshop, near the townhall to find an interesting book to read. As I worked around the shelves, taking my time (Thatcher's Britain...we were all unemployed). I was drawn to look out the window facing toward the College. There crossing the road and coming down toward the precinct was the same dark stranger dressed as he was the night before. Looking as if he was bypassing the bookshop, he made a sudden right turn and entered the Paperback Parade. My hairs stood on end once more as I watched him from the corner of my eye. He copied my movements around the shop until he was stood close to me on my left hand side. I pretended to ignore him,difficult as I felt cold and all my hairs on end. He leaned forward and spoke into my ear...telling me what was in my thoughts and in my mind. He laughed again and left the shop.

I never saw him again or told a soul what he spoke into my ear that moment. Certainly I was left in no doubt that this was an otherworldy encounter of the strangest kind. Later I was to come across stories of Men in Black and Trickster spirits who confuse their victims in this manner. Certainly the strangest of bus rides ever. - K


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Fallen Soldiers Fight On At Culloden

NOTE: As I sit here struggling with a kidney stone, I decided to post a previous article from November 2007...Lon

Scottish Paranormal say they have unearthed unexplained phenomena at the site where staff say visitors have reported hearing battle cries and marching, some 261 years after the bloody battle where Government forces defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite army.

And now the team, whose poltergeist probes are in greater demand at Hallowe'en, is already planning follow-up visits to the scene of the bloody battle because "spirits are not performing seals" and they want to build up more evidence of any ghostly goings-on.

It would lend weight to the numbers of people, both local and visitors, who have told of strange noises or apparitions at creepy Culloden moor.

Culloden Battlefield visitor centre manager Deirdre Smyth said residents have reported seeing a large ghostly bird that apparently inhabits the area and was first sighted on the eve of the battle on April 15, 1746, by Lord George Murray who was the Jacobite commander. Described as a huge black bird, it is called the Great Scree of Culloden Moor and legend has it that anyone who sees the Great Scree will have bad luck.

Deirdre told the Highland News: "We have had stories of people seeing or hearing strange things. Whether they really have or not I don't know, but it is a very atmospheric place, especially when it's misty.

"Local people have also reported seeing a giant bird rising from the field – it's called the Great Scree of Culloden. Others have also said that when they were kids they wouldn't walk in the field at night."

Scottish Paranormal, which carries out its ghoul hunting on a voluntary basis, recently descended on Culloden to see if the ground of the final clash between the Jacobites and the Hanoverians in the 1745 Jacobite rising, left a supernatural presence in their wake.

Although it was just a preliminary visit, the team was satisfied that there was enough unexplained activity to warrant further investigations after the New Year.

Andrea Byrne, Scottish Paranormal's administration and PR manager, told the Highland News: "All of us are Scottish and we have a passion about being Scottish and have an interest in its history.

"So as well as monitoring private houses and other places such as Mary King's Close in Edinburgh, we like to carry out projects at historical sites, and that's why we went to Culloden.

"The majority of hauntings are classed as what's called residual energy. This is where a traumatic experience or battle happened in a particular area and that trauma or that experience is embedded on that area and like a record, it repeats itself again and again.

"In Culloden, there was a seriously traumatic event which saw a lot of deaths.

"While there, we spoke to the staff and they told us that sometimes visitors had heard the battle cries and the marching of the soldiers. It is as if the march and the battle is getting played over and over again. This happens more towards the anniversary of the battle which lends credence to it being residual energy."

The team, the majority of whom are based in Fife, measured activity at Culloden with a selection of monitoring equipment. This included digital voice recorders that look for any audible phenomena such as white noise or electronic voice phenomena; temperature data loggers looking for any unusual fluctuations in temperature; temperature probes to locate and confirm cold spots; electro-magentic field detectors used due to the belief that paranormal entities emit an electromagnetic field; and digital camcorders to record any incidents.

During the investigation, the team noticed signs they normally connect with a paranormal activity Andrea Byrne said: "One of the anomalies we found was the temperature and humidity. When we were walking along the main path to locations, we were getting a regular temperature, and the humidity was staying the same. But the moment we got to where the English or Scottish soldiers were buried the temperature changed dramatically, and was not consistent with the weather. It was fluctuating up and down.

"We could not come up with a logical explanation for a change in the temperature. So there could have possibly been paranormal reason behind it."

She went on to add they used dowsing rods to see if there were any "energy lines", also known as ley lines, which are of interest to paranormal investigators.

One was found to exist at a 56-degree angle at the Well of the Dead, which Andrea described as "extremely interesting" because if the line is drawn on a map and extended in a line at 56 degrees, it would meet the Cumberland's Stone 1.5 miles away. This stone was from where the Duke of Cumberland, nicknamed the Butcher of Culloden, commanded the battle.

However, Andrea said that the dowsing rods may have moved at this location because there may be water underneath the well.

The group then went on to nearby Clava Cairns to carry out more investigations, but they did not find much there of an untoward nature. They had also not heard any paranormal stories relating to the location. The investigation team is now due to return to Culloden Battlefield in the New Year.

She added: "We find a single visit to a location does not build up enough evidence to say there is paranormal activity going on or not. Spirits are not performing seals, they don't just appear when you want them to or when you happen to be there. We have go back to locations to build up the evidence."

As well as checking out historic sites, the investigators who include a medium and describe themselves as being "highly skilled" in the field, are called in to probe private homes whose residents believe are haunted.

And when they can't find a logical explanation for the ghoulish activity, they set out to prove it is the supernatural making things go bump in the night. They have even discovered a poltergeist or two in their time.

Andrea explained: "In general, we carry out these investigations because we have got a belief in life after death and in proving that or otherwise.

"Because we have got knowledge in the field, we go out to private houses and help the public to understand what's going on. We always look for the logical explanation first, and if we can't find one then we look for proof of anything paranormal."

She claims they recently stumbled upon a poltergeist in a private house in Craigmillar, Edinburgh.

"The majority of poltergeists we find are in private houses", she explained. So far, we have not carried out any investigations in private houses in the North. However, we hope that will change as we now have a new investigator based outside Elgin and she is contacting housing associations and other organisations in the area to let them know we are here if people are experiencing anything unusual in their homes."