Weird Nations At Craig Y Nos Castle

This page was originally on the forum at Weird Nations.com - but, as the site is closing down, I wanted to keep the gallery alive. All the information below is from the original page.

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You may have spotted a few stories here about a big event at Craig Y Nos Castle in the Brecon Beacons. There's more info on the 40 Days And Nights paranormal investigation event here.

Looking for a great video project we could work on around something to do with Weird Nations, myself and forum mod chrisnurse are working together on making a documentary around this event. We're hoping to make a hour long film looking at the Castle's history and the passion of the events organiser towards paranormal investigation. The organiser Steve Graham had been kind enough to invite us along to see what he does and give us the permission and help to make this little feature. We were instantly impressed with his take on the paranormal and his candid nature.

We'd been up to meet Steve a few weeks earlier to discuss what was possible and to see the place. We were awed by the castle. You can read a history of the castle here - but it's a really strange mix of posh hotel and derelict hospital. At times the derelict areas are but a thin fire door away from the heart of the hotel.

So, yesterday we got to the hotel to begin filming - Steve gave us his tour once more and we begun filming. As Chris has the camera (I need to get one myself one day soon), I did some stills of the place for my own gratification and to share here. So if you're comfy, pull up a chair and I'll walk you through our first day.

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And here's our guide for the tour - Steve Graham of the Paranormal World. He's about to take us into the basement of the hotel, a place where many strange events have taken place. We won't go into them here, but needless to say, it's one heck of an atmosphere down there.

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The tiny salt cellar - school trips get history lessons down in this place - but more spooky stuff has been known to happen.

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Steve tells us about the weird experiences he's had down in the cellar. Seriously, the place just feels wrong. Lot's of the hotel staff have heard things and had things happen to them down there.

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From the cellar we went on to the theatre, or more to the point, the basement under the theatre - groups of Paranormal Worlds visitors do investigations and stuff down there.

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The theatre itself, from the stage - I didn't take the stage itself, it's a beautiful place. The whole floor of the seating area is able to be raised and lowered. The decoration and layout is based on the famous Drury Lane theatre in London. The room a fascinating history, it's not only a place where royalty has been entertained but touchingly, where sick children put on Christmas plays whilst staying at the hospital.

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From there we moved on to the decaying upper floors of the hotel, which are where the wards of the hospital are still evident. The fabric of the building is in poor repair. This is one of Steve's cameras, covering the staircase where the figure of a grey lady has been seen - and views of the landing as Steve tells us about the building's history as a place where sick children came, and often didn't leave.

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Of the first floor is Madame Patti's boudoir. A place where visitors do investigations and seances. Steve show's us some of the stuff they try out there and how people often react to what are often parlour tricks and simple natural tendencies to let our subconscious take over.

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The decaying splendour of the building, for a bit of atmosphere.

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Steve takes us through the range of monitoring equipment he has at his disposal. This is his nerve centre, if anything happens in the areas of the castle he's got covered, then he can see it.

We were lucky to be taken on the roof, to see some of the outside turret details and the amazing landscape in the heart of the Brecon Beacons.

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The clock tower at Craig Y Nos Castle.

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Steve takes time out to tell us about some of his theories about what's happening at the castle as we finish up the tour in one of the decaying rooms on the third floor.

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There are quite a few rooms I didn't take pictures in. I missed snapping the actual ward where Steve is based, that's an amazing room. The castle has a lonely feel to it in these decaying wards, grey windows look out onto sweeping mountain slopes of firs. The mountain climate rattles windows and is often grey. It's both beautiful and sad - It must have been a strange hospital to be mortally ill in.

We got some good footage, but we'll be shooting a lot more before the event is finished. If you'd like to take part there are still nights available - and for the stupid price of £25 per person to stay in the ward and get a slap-up breakfast - these places are not going to stay free for long.

Oh yes, and you can also keep an eye on things with the web camera.

I'll keep you updated and post anything related to this film in this thread.

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