New Zealand Ghosts & Other Haunts

This is a pic I took at Dover Castle, UK. I had a strong sense about these stairs when I was walking on them so I decided to go up to the parapet looking down on them and take a picture. This is the result. I've studied it & just can't decide if the image I caught is a reflection or shadow or something much more interesting. There was nothing visable to the naked eye at the time. I have a good eye for seeing imagery in natural surroundings so if the figure was actually a shadow or reflection I would have seen it before I took the picture, which I didn't.

I purposely haven't said where in the pic the anomaly is to see if you can pick it up yourself. The image on here has stretched so double click on it to view in another browser. I have a high resolution copy if anyone would like an email copy to have a closer look.

Let me know what you guys think & I welcome you to debunk my theories! Having taken the pic myself I probably aren't looking at it with a critical eye![/url]

I see what you mean, looks like a person in a gown type thing with there arms crossed to me, won't say where either, not to hard to spot though

Yeah, it's fairly easy to spot I've studied the pic up close & the arms seem to be bent beside the body, not actually crossed across it, but it's down to interpretation!!

Well, looks like a spirit of some sort to me! I usually get a lot of information from a photo and when I looked at that I got a shiver! Great photo.

I think its a woman. What is the history of the place?

It's got a pretty cool history! It has the longest recorded history of any major castle in Britain. Indeed Dover Castle began before history itself, its earliest rampart defences date back to the prehistoric Iron Age. Dover Castle is built on the remains of an Iron Age hillfort and contains within its walls a Roman lighthouse from the First Century BC and an Anglo-Saxon church.

The first actual castle was built by Duke William of Normandy in November 1066, shortly after landing at Pevensey, and before the Battle of Hastings, in the autumn of 1066, William the Conqueror spent eight days at Dover strengthening fortifications.

Dover castle was used as a base in WWII, there is a labyrinth of Secret Wartime Tunnels built deep within the cliffs.

I was attracted to this place because it has a huge paranormal history - there are reportedly hundreds of different sightings and unexplained phenomenon. It had a very grisly past - as with most British castles.

Cool, thanks Briah! I was with my boyfriend and a mate on this trip & when we saw this pic we freaked out!! It's was wicked! NB the other 2 didn't know my ulterior motive for visiting Dover Castle!

I had a kind of shiver/feeling in the area around the stairs even though it was the middle of the day in late summer so I really hope I did capture something!

I think you did! What an amazing history! It looks like there are other spirits standing behind her... When I saw it I thought they were carrying out some kind of religious ceremony.

I have taken so many pics over the years and I have managed to capture nothing!

Don't give up!!

It's a reflection in the protective glass shield of a guy standing with his hands in his pockets. Also reflected is a the window and the flash.
Nice shot. Good try.

Is that a possibility Barremel? Were you using a flash at the time?

The glass was less than a foot away from me when taking the picture, there was no-one behind me (it is a small one exit room). The window that I took the pic from was probably about 2-3 feet wide. For it to be a reflection of a person they would have to have been about 10inches high and standing in front of me! The flash & window are reflections – but that put’s the room size in proportion so you can see that no other person could be in the room with me. Also – you can see my heads reflection up by the flash – that also dis-proves your theory! Try again Greyghost!!

Well, hope you do not laugh. As I already told Asylum, usually I do it the other way round: I concentrate on some spot and than pictures arise....

So, what I now write must be perhaps somewhat funny out of no experience in interpreting pictures and lacking ghost-knowledge.

I can see a person. It is no black shadow. As far as the thing a recognize is a grey (light to middle grey) outline which is also filled out grey. The person is male. He is looking like a musketeer in the time of the early 17th century, might be 1580 to 1610 according to the way I see the dress. I can only notice the upper portion of the body, e.g. from his hat to his waist somewhat. His hat is broad and covered with a big feather at the side of the brim. In his hands (both hands) he is wearing a weapon that is long, could be a very long fire gun (a musket perhaps) or a pike somewhat like that.

Could that be the ghost you are looking for? Some kind of a protector or watcher of this castle? A soldier from late 16th/early 17th century? But you have nothing mentioned about this in your brief history?

I think it is a great picture.....and by the way: I spotted this figure/person not on the staircase but somewhere else a little more above in direction to the ceiling.

So, do not laugh, pls.

Wabun Wind

Good try, but your mathematics are all up the wop.
The reflection of the fella is at least 5'6" approx half of his body take up 5 steps. Sorry but your perspective is all wrong. He was probably standing on the floor below you and the reflection is refracted light.

If that is the case and there is a person standing below it would have to be a shadow and not a reflection? Was there anyone downstairs Baremel?

Good point Greyghost & to answer your question Briah, it's possible but unlikely. There were very few people there that day, and no-one around inside where we were at all. If someone was coming up to the stairs they would have continued up through the stairs into the next part of the castle. When I came down back to the stairs in question there was no-one behind me, & no one ahead of me except my 2 friends who were well ahead in another room.

But that is all irrelevent! even if there was someone down on the landing in front of the stairs, it couldn't possibly be a reflection of them because the perspex is several feet up, only 2 feet wide & right in front of me in the parapet! It could only be a reflection in the perspex if someone was in the room with me!

It could be a shadow but I reckon the angle is all wrong - if you look at the shadow of the handrails the light is coming from the right, a person standing in front of the stairs would not leave a shadow in front of them, their shadow would still be to the left.

To put the pic in perspective - I am standing about 1, maybe 2 feet away from the perspex covering the window (you can see it attached to the inside of the window.) Put your arms our in front of you with your hands bent back facing you, this should give you an idea how far away the perspex was and how any reflection in it would be impossible. The window is about 10-12 feet above the bottom landing. The room i'm in is quite small with a long window behind me, no-one else was in the room with me. There is a small light from my camera - this was not a flash as I purposely turned off the flash so it wouldn't reflect in the perspex.

I'm still not convinced tho, in fact now I'm more doubtful! Wish I could go back in the same conditions and get another pic. For anyone who happens to be going to south east England in late summer could you stop in at Dover castle around midday & take another pic for me?

I'm loving the replies tho, it's really interesting what people are picking up from the pic. Funny thing is, I thought the image/spirit was a guard in cermonial attair - bright colours, red, green etc and was wearing a poofy hat, but now when I look at it I don't get that anymore!!!

Hi Wabun Wind - definately wouldn't laugh at your views! How and what you see is completely personal & it's up to everyone to interpret what they see and feel in their own ways.

I don't know individual stories from the castles' history but it is probable there were musketeers (red coats) in the castle during it's long history! There isn't any documented sightings of a musketeer in the castle that I'm aware of but doesn't mean there isn't!!

Good shot and always worth discussion. It's what makes ghost hunting fun. The finding of the unexpected.

Yes thats what I was thinking as well, the perspex would have to be downstairs as well for that to happen.

Thanks for not laughing about it. At last I tried to find something about an investigation there and my pike/gun guy seems to exist. This is from the site: http://www.assap.org/newsite/articles/Dover.html

Citation: "The Underground Tunnels
The main report to come from the underground tunnel area is that of a 17th century pikeman (soldier carrying a small lance-type weapon), who was seen in the guardroom at the furthest end of the tunnels by a male member staff back in 1979. At that time the castle was owned by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. The witness described how a soldier wearing a 'morion' helmet and carrying a pike walked into the guardroom through one wall and out again through another. This incident lasted only a few seconds and took place at about 6pm, while the witness was in the process of locking up at the end of the day. This incident took the witness completely by surprise, and it took him a good five minutes before he could move away from the spot. There have been no other reports of this apparition by any of the present members of the castle staff. The original report was made in June 1979.


On looking into the report of the pikeman walking through the walls of the guardrooms, I decided to look for any doorways around the area where the incident took place. There was no trace of any doorway having existed in either spot. In fact, the brickwork is of late 18th century construction and is completely original. The fact that we have a 17th century soldier walking through 18th century walls interested me somewhat, so I decided to try and find out what had stood on that site prior to the brick guardrooms. Sure enough, I discovered that an earthen spur construction had been on this spot until the late 1790s. This information seemed to tie in nicely with the report of a soldier from a period sometime before the 1630s."

But the apparition I have seen was wearing a head not a helmet. So could have also been this guy:

Citation: "The Keep
The following descriptions, given by the castle staff, are as precise as we can ever hope to get. Historic costume books were shown to the witnesses to try and give us some idea of the time period which the apparitions could belong to.

A male figure dressed in early 17th century costume (cavalier style 1610-1630) was seen by a female member of staff in 1990, around 8:30am while she was cleaning in the basement area of the keep. She described a man wearing a black wide- brimmed hat with a purple cloak which draped to the floor. The witness also reported that the figure had long dark wavy hair and a moustache. The figure stood staring at the witness for about 30 seconds then faded away into nothing."

Sorry, I am myself astonished for what I have seen. Usually I see nothing on pics.

Well, and I have seen him not around the windows or on the staircase. I have seen him more above at the wall I wrote. Now I explain detailed. There is that plattform or door way with the arch and the bar to keep you from falling down. The place where you might have taken your photo. The guy was visible in that arch of that doorway at the wall. In your picture lefthand side between the bar and the beginning of the curve. And I think at that angle cannot be a reflection and when others have seen him as well he must exist somewhere there at the castle....lol....funny thing that !

Wabun Wind

P.S.: Again it was an interesting photo.