Everyone was accounted for and the noises were
clearly coming from within the room. I passed
the headphones around to Dale and to the other
guests, allowing them to listen to the recording too.
What I didn’t expect, what none of us expected, was
what was about to happen next.
From above our heads, moving diagonally across
the ceiling, across what was formerly Philip
Pritchard’s bedroom upstairs, the loudest,
stomping footsteps we had ever heard. Not
walking. In fact, not footsteps. Stamping. My mind
was racing. I quickly looked around the kitchen.
Everyone was there. We were all looking up. A
light in the kitchen diner area, directly below the
bedroom, was swinging. It was swinging due to the
energy and force of the stamping.
I looked at Dale and he looked back at me. We were
laughing, grinning, swearing. What the hell just
happened?!
I had spent years dismissing 30 East Drive. I was
secure and comfortable in my opinion that there
was nothing there. That it was a money-making
scheme with a huge reputation but little or no
evidence of the paranormal. In that moment, right
there, probably before the light had even stopped
swinging, I knew that I was spectacularly wrong.
30 East Drive was most definitely haunted. And I
couldn’t have been happier to admit it.Since that extraordinary evening, both myself and
Dale have been back to 30 East Drive (how could we
not!), for a five-night investigation accompanied
by numerous guests including fellow investigators
and parapsychologist, Dr. Ciarán O’Keeffe. Yet
again, we were able to record unusual activity,
most notably whilst the property was locked and
empty. Unsurprisingly, there was no repeat of the
monstrous sound of footsteps this time round, but I
don’t think either myself or Dale truly expected this
to happen. What we were left with however, is the
unshakable feeling that we witnessed something
that was paranormal that night and that despite
our scepticism on countless previous visits, we
were wrong to dismiss the claims of this property.
Perhaps that should be a lesson for us all. Just
because a property doesn’t provide any evidence
of paranormal activity on repeated visits, we should
be very wary of dismissing their claims out of hand.
We need to at least remain open to the possibility
that paranormal activity could conceivably still
occur and although we should always remain
sceptical and look for alternative, natural
explanations at all times, we must undoubtedly
still be open-minded enough to visit a property
numerous times in order to try to substantiate
other’s claims. It took a combined total of over 20
previous visits to East Drive before myself and Dale
witnessed the paranormal that night in August. In
short, it took it’s time. But boy, was it worth it!
Justin Cowell