Spooked Ireland

This is Ireland.

My home.

I'm Vogue Williams,

and since I was a kid,

I've been obsessed by the supernatural.

I have spent my childhood terrified of banshees.

'Now something incredible is happening here.'

Look at that. Something is sitting there.

Do you hear that? I heard that.

'With incidents of paranormal activity

'being reported across the country.'

He's here. I'm scared!

'So I've invited spiritual medium Chris Fleming to investigate.'

Argh.

Back off, back off.

In a lifetime of investigating, I've never been to Ireland.

But when I heard what's happening here,

I had to check it out.

Puca! My God!

'We've discovered ordinary people'

'who have had extraordinary encounters.'

It hit me so strong that I actually had tears coming out of my eyes.

Local investigators are overwhelmed.

I literally have a pain in my heart, I feel so scared.

So Vogue and I

have assembled a world class team of supernatural experts.

Tech guru Ryan O'Neill

is in charge of deploying cutting-edge equipment,

that sheds new light on the spirit world.

And consultant parapsychologist Dr Evelyn Hollow...

How does that happen?

...will scrutinise all claims

with the most up to date science.

The shadow should cast on the outside of the stones,

but it's only casting inside of the stones.

Led by the people of Ireland...

Straight through me, I heard an... exhale of breath...

...we'll expose the unknown forces

plaguing the country right now.

Get your hands off me. Don't touch me.

This is Spooked Ireland.

20 miles north of Dublin...

...is Ardgillan Castle.

Built in the 18th century

on land taken from the Irish during Cromwell's colonisation,

and then obtained by the wealthy Taylor family from England.

Since 1992, it's been open to the public.

But recently has become overrun with unwanted visitors.

Like, I've been here for last four years,

and nothing's ever happened up until the last, literally few months.

I know this place really well.

And the 200-acre estate

has many stories to tell.

So this is Ardgillan Castle.

I grew up around here

and I spent all my summers here,

and this place,

even looking at it now,

it just, it still terrifies me.

And there's one more thing. What's that?

My dad died nearly 12 years ago. OK.

His final resting place is honestly about five minutes from here.

No. So I wonder who might show up.

So you must have a lot of mixed feelings for this place, then.

You've got your memories, and you have your father.

Recently, there's been even more paranormal activity up here.

So I'm like... this is a hotspot.

Ever since I was a kid,

I've been told stories about Ardgillan.

'And today, I hope we can unravel some of its mysteries.'

The most activity happens in the servants' quarters.

I was thinking you guys...

...go check that out. OK.

'Cause I don't wanna be the first to do that.

And we can go and speak to Tom,

who knows everything about this place.

OK.

'The castle manager and local historian Tom Reilly

'has unrivalled knowledge of the castle,

'and will help us identify potential hotspots.'

How old is this place?

1738, it was built.

The Taylor family are the family who used to live here,

an old Anglo-Irish family, but they had mishaps and tragedies,

and there was a guy called Edward Richard Taylor.

Who died in that corner over there.

Then there was, wasn't there a maid who died during childbirth?

And somebody has heard babies crying?

There was, yeah.

Like, the walls kinda reek of ghosts.

I tread these boards all day.

90% of my wake, work weekends as well,

and I do hear and see stuff

that I can't tell you

I'd give you an explanation for. I can't do that.

I do have high hopes for here, though.

Because I know that there is a lot of activity around here.

The deaths, they seem to all be really, you know, sudden,

collapsing in here,

and... potentially the traumatic death of, sure, baby in childbirth.

They're not even like regular deaths.

Very diverse, yeah.

Yeah, really traumatic. We have a lot of them.

Lots of things happen around this place, I have to say.

We've got the servants' quarters upstairs.

This time of year, when the half light comes in

and dusk is early, and they're here...

...the girls just will not go down to the kitchen,

because it's scary down there.

'The fact that the staff

'avoid the kitchen

'make it the perfect place

'to start our sweep.'

'Almost immediately, I see something.'

Just saw a shadow move right over here.

Right in this tile.

I just saw a...

...shadow, er, come right through here.

It manifested, and then it disappeared.

I just see this form of a woman, and feel it.

Yeah.

This voice just told me objects have moved.

Those are pretty heavy, too.

So if we get one of those moving... Yeah.

...it's gonna be pretty substantial, isn't it?

We're going to wanna keep an eye

when we're investigating to see... Yeah.

'Cause now that we've put out there,

they could do it later. They could do it later, yeah.

I've seen this kind of activity before.

For the Taylor family,

this dining room was reserved for entertaining.

But it's also where Edward Taylor died from a sudden heart attack.

Um, according to the story that we've been handed down,

he was reading his Bible,

and the Bible just dropped, and he just died.

We actually have a picture...

This is the dinning room

that we're currently in. Yeah.

If you look down at the very bottom right-hand corner,

you'll see the shape of a man.

Yeah. So it's the head and shoulders.

It is so transparent as well. Yeah.

So it would be reflected back to there, next to the door.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

And people do get a feeling.

You know, that the hairs have been raised on many a person's arm.

It's, um, it's unusual.

It does look like a figure, though.

But it almost looks like

they're wearing clothes as well.

Do you think it might be Taylor, 'cause that's what's connected?

Yeah. Because exactly, his death is connected with this room, yeah.

'After seeing an unknown woman in the kitchen,

'we're now in the other servants' quarters,

'in the attic.'

Well, that's OK, then.

Ryan, this is my SLS camera.

Not only does it pick up temperature changes,

but it picks up any depth of field difference.

So you're measuring right now,

how many inches all the way down...

Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. So you've got 291.6 inches...

OK. ...all the way down there.

So it's telling us that that over the 200 inches in between here,

anything that is going to move and create a depth change...

Yeah. ...it's gonna start focussing us.

So we could actually map anything moving in front of this.

And temperature. Right.

So we could see the difference between body heat

and the heat of any energy that could be there.

Hey, Ryan. Come over here.

Did you just feel the pressure change from that?

I just felt him come out of the wall over here.

OK.

OK. I'm gonna film you.

Right, OK.

So it's mapping you now. OK, good.

Spirit, I saw you retreat back through this wall.

Don't be afraid.

Will you come forward,

stand next to me,

touch my hand?

Did you hear that? There's two knocks.

Two means "yes". OK.

Had that since I was a child, two for yes, one for no.

Alright, you've got two knocks there.

It's mapping on the table.

Right here. OK.

Form is right here.

I've got a static tingling in my fingers.

Spirit.

Lean more towards me.

We're being watched.

I sense you, you're a male spirit.

So it's...

Did it come right by my foot?

Did it come right by my leg? Did you feel...

I felt something shift... OK, OK.

Um...