The Haunted Hunts: Cemeteries Of The Dead - 'Norton Priory' - Season 5, Episode 2 Review

Danny Moss and 'The Haunted Hunts' team continue their exploration at Norton Priory, another haunted location with mysterious connections to on-site burials in their fifth season, entitled 'Cemeteries Of The Dead'.

The second episode of the season sees Danny head to Cheshire with the rest of his team, consisting of Rebecca Salisbury-Moss, Emma Dawe, Alice Grindley and Nick Anderson. Unfortunately, Charlie Rutter and Roxanne Rutter had to sit this one out after testing positive for COVID.

The Grade I listed remains of the priory in Runcorn are the perfect location for this season. The site has over 900 years of history and over 140 graves have been found on the site. It's the most excavated monastic site in Europe, with over 130 human remains and other artefacts found there, many of these are kept in the museum, including three human skeletons.

Most of the structure was demolished following the dissolution in 1536. All that remains today is the excavated ruins of the church, cloister, chapter house and dormitory and latrines. These areas are said to be haunted by dark shadowy figures seen wandering the grounds. Loud disembodied screams and female cries have been heard coming from the upper gallery, and a pale skull-like face has been witnessed in the undercroft.

With four locked off cameras around the building, the team started their investigation. Becki and Emma got the ball rolling in the museum area, which proved to be relatively quiet.

The team then tried a hi-tech experiment in an attempt to capture EVPs, or Electronic Voice Phenomenon. These are spirit communications captured in electronic audio recordings. The team have set up an ultra sensitive microphone that they can monitor in real time remotely.

Danny is aware of the fact that the language used at the point in history when the priory was active might be very different to modern English. Being aware that this language barrier could be a problem, Danny keeps things simple and isn't expecting mind-blowing results.

The experiment failed to capture voices, perhaps for this reason, but the team did capture  clear disembodied footsteps on an upper walkway, Danny thinks this might be evidence of residual energy.

Later, Danny and Becki went to the undercroft and split up. While playing choral monastery music to try to drum up a reaction, Danny heard something. He excitedly shouted "oh my god, I just heard a woman's voice". Danny explained that the voice had travelled through the undercroft, but nobody else had heard it. After this the area fell silent and the team finished their investigation in the long gallery.

The team's mission to uncover the mysteries of haunted burial sites continues at four more terrifying locations. We'll be bringing you an episode guide for the third instalment of 'Cemeteries Of The Dead' next week.