Paranormal Lockdown UK: Margam Castle

Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman visit Margam Castle in South Wales. The sprawling castle and the land it is built on has a grim history that spans over 4,000 years, with tales of death, despair and a family curse.

The land has been considered to be sacred for thousands of years and ancient tribes buried their dead in the surrounding hills. After the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in the area, the site became an early Christian settlement up until 1147, when Margam Abbey was founded and became home to hundreds of cistercian monks. With the end of English monasteries in the 16th century, the Mansel family purchased the land and in 1840 Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot built Margam Castle as an elaborate home using stone and lead taken from the abbey.

Reports of hauntings go back centuries, with claims of dark ancient spirits on the property. Until this day, visitors report cloaked figures on the ground, apparitions on the staircase, shadow figures on the upper floor and feel a negative presence throughout the property.

As well as its hauntings, the castle is also said to be cursed, supposedly because Christopher Mansel Talbot used parts of the dismantled abbey to build his home. Local legend says that this curse has brought tragedy onto the the family and ruined the Talbot line, who all died out, their wealth was squandered and eventually the castle was put up for auction in 1941. During World War II, the castle was given a new lease of life as lodgings for allied troops and they too experienced the strange ghostly phenomenon while based here.

Katrina described the castle as the "quintessential haunted house," she adds "it kind of has this dark beauty to it and you can just feel the energy as you're approaching."

On the final night, Nick and Katrina conducted an experiment on the main stairs, with a digital camera that is set up to take photos every five seconds. They're hoping any spirits might break the lasers they've set up across the stairs to indicate their presence in the photos. They also had a 3D mapping camera, which Nick hopes might show up any shadow figures, the output from the camera was projected on to a wall behind them.

Nick started by calling out, "can you see me?" A voice through the Geoport seemed to say "yes". Katrina asked, "is this Emily?" The echoey voices replied with "yes". Despite the elaborate set up, Katrina soon abandoned the experiment after going to investigate movement she heard coming from an adjoining room.

Nick followed her out onto the landing and got the fright of his life when suddenly something fell to the floor with a bang near them. They then went to the bottom of the stairs in the hopes that they'd have better luck making contact here.

When the duo reviewed their evidence from the night, they saw a small dark shadows blocking out the light from the lasers in one of their photos. Whatever this shadow was could have been what made the sound Katrina heard. When Katrina reviewed the audio from the investigation, she noted that on several occasions the phrase "can't get enough" came through the Geoport. Based on some advice from the house's historian, Katrina believes that this phrase might be to do with Emily's upset over the value of the castle when it was sold on, it should have been worth much more.