A few weeks ago we decided to take a road trip to a location myself and Simon have been wanting to see and do for a while – Yester Castle. Yester Castle is One of Scotland’s Most Haunted sites.
History
Yester Castle was founded in the year 1267 by a local baron and guardian of King Alexander III, Sir Hugo de Gifford and is situated in woodland to the north of the Lammermuir Hills.
Sadly now, Yester Castle is in ruins which truly show its tainted and previous troubled times.
Below the castle is something which is quite different to the rest of the building – An impressive gothic-style chamber reputedly constructed by demonic forces which locals claim is haunted; the Goblin Ha’. The Goblin Ha is sometimes also referred to as the Hobgoblin Hall.
Leading off from the Goblin Ha’ there is a staircase which descends further down into the hill. This is thought to have led to a well at one time, but has long since been blocked off by locals who believed it to be a gateway to hell. The legends linking Yester Castle with evil forces date back to the keep’s creation almost 800 years ago.
Yester Castle founder Sir Hugo de Gifford and also nicknamed the ‘Wizard of Yester’, is said to have been an educated man who enjoyed science and dabbling in alchemy. As a result, rumours spread that the laird was a powerful warlock and necromancer who practised the black arts. Legend says Sir Hugo entered into a sinister pact with the Devil. This act allowed him to summon an army of goblins, who helped their master construct the underground hall.
Our Investigation
After trampling fields and electrical fences because Simon wanted to venture what he thought was the easier route – we found the woods in which Yester Castle sits within, along with, a public path that led straight into it.
We walked up a hill to the entrance and just through the entrance was the main building to the back – Yester Castle.
The Goblin Ha was gated and we had tried several attempts at finding the tiny entrance that is apparently located to the northern side of the castle but Simon had slipped down a very steep cliff face already into the stream so we decided to retreat and conduct a vigil at the gated entrance.
Advice if your thinking of going, go in the day and don’t take risks to get in it. Climbing back up the hill did prove a little difficult.
No equipment was triggered but I did pick up a few things while here.
I felt there was 2 children present – a boy and a girl. The boy would not show me his face at first and all I could see was his dark hair but when he did, his jaw was dislocated and a black mass was going from his mouth, you could also see only the whites of his eyes – this resembled something from a horror film and people reading this may take me seriously and believe what I am saying or some of you may read this and just think I have a over active imagination, either is fine, I just have to state what I felt while there. I cant say I have ever picked up on anything quite like this before. I felt that even though something was appearing to me as a child – I did feel it most certainly wasn’t.
The girl present was blonde and she never shown me her face but the boy was wearing a royal blue tunic and the girl was wearing a red.
Pictured below is a picture which resembles the facial features I seen on this little boy.
I felt safe in the environment and so did Aimee but I did fear something may happen to Simon.
This entity did not like Simon and Simon stated he was hearing things approach him and surround him just as I was voicing what I felt. I do wonder if what ever is here tends to make themselves more known to men than women as it feels some what threatened by a man.
At one point, Simon became quite unwell and moved from the area in which he was stood in and for the first time ever (and I cant believe I’m writing this) I wondered if Simon was going to be taken over. The way he approached us, I actually felt quite threatened. Simon stated he had approached us like that as he just did not feel well and wanted to relocate.
We decided to head away from the Goblin Ha and as soon as we did Simon stated he instantly felt better.
The time seem to passed so quick – we had been exploring and venturing around but it felt we had actually spent not much time there at all but had actually been there over 3 hours.
Sadly, we could not get live for our investigation even though signal checkers stated the area was good for signal.
We made our way back to the car via the golf course.
My Thoughts and I am going to be quite brief, I do believe it is quite dark there. I am not sure if you would get interaction from what may be there but it is potentially strong enough to show itself and may even do things to you when and if it wants too. This is my opinion and only mine, I think the children I picked up on either was not children or maybe had been children who had been used for the dark arts that took place here.
I think if your visiting for a investigation, your more likely to have a personal experience than anything else. Some locations are like that and I have found personal experiences do tend to occur more often where dark arts and more darker entities are believed to be present. Why is this? well id say it was a true reflection of a darker entity – it wants to be clever and it wants to confront you when you least expect it. It thrives of fear! So the element of surprise is so much more thrilling for the entity why would it mess about with your gadgets when it has a vessel to play with!
I don’t personally believe in demons but I do believe there is darker entities in this world that could rare their ugly heads occasionally….but it is only occasionally they will and it will be by their own accord and not from us demanding them to come fourth.
I know that a lot of people see and have experienced strange things while visiting here – One being a good friend of mine, Hulls Historian Mike Covell. He claims that while on a camping trip he stated to me that:
‘I was sat looking into a load of candles, and everything went black. I could see fields, open fields full of crops, and a woman stood in the field watching me. When I came to I had tears streaming down my face. It’s the only time anything like that has happened to me.’
He also stated that ‘On the castle grounds we heard horses running through where we set up the tents, but there was no horses and it wasn’t big enough for horses to run around.’
Others who seen my post on the paranormal Haunting fan page also proceeded to inform me how strange the place was to them and even one man saying how he felt somewhat threatened by being there.
Is Yester Castle and Goblin Ha worth a visit – In my opinion it most definitely is.
DO YOU HAVE ANY STORIES FROM HERE? LET US KNOW.
Charlene Lowe Kemp
On a visit to the Goblins ha with a girlfriend of mine. We arrived at the car parking area and made our way over the edge of a golf course eventually finding a path leading down to the ruins and a low arch way cut into a high wall. It was still fairly light outside. We ventured further past the old keep which is now in ruin. My friend had been here before.We entered into the hall via a small low opening. I was amazed at the gothic hall almost intact.It reminded me of Roslyn chapel but not any signs of Christianity or paganism.We said a kind of prayer just pointing out that we respected the place and wished no harm. We ventured down the staircase that leads below the main hall. I found it frightening. With an heir of sinister presence. We sat at the bottom for a while and discussed the building and it’s history.Then something grappled my upper leg just behind the thigh. I looked at my girlfriend who wasn’t able to have done that. I then felt something tugging at my shirt.She jumped up because something had stroked her hair. We decided to go back up to the hall. By now it was pitch black outside but a lighted glow came from outside.we have photographs of this strange light. What felt like 1 hour had actually been 3 hours and I worried we may slip and fall down the burn embankment and be injured. We eventually made it up to the front again and heard winged flight loudly and the sky above us was filled with the silloette of a large winged creature which at the time we passed of as an owl. It wasn’t an Owl being that size.We also heard horses hoofed and a trembling in the ground as though horses were about to bear down on us. There were no horses.As we looked into the Forrest behind us I could see a large number of large crouching shapes almost like human form but not quite and very large. They gave of a greenish light.I’m a paranormal sceptic. So to have seen all we saw was an education to say the least. I never felt fear but did feel highly charged and alert.My advice.Don’t go near there.