Most Haunted Live! At Dover Castle
This article is more than ten years old and was last updated in July 2018.
Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted team are back for their second live show, this time from the mighty Dover Castle in Kent for Christmas 2002. As with the previous live show, David Bull was overseeing proceeding as the live presenter based in the hub, which was set up in front of a live audience in the castle's Presence Room.
After a quick introduction from Yvette and David, as well as a run down of the haunted history of the castle, Yvette and the team got stuck into the live investigation.
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Is Dover Castle Haunted?
Records show that a settlement has existed on the site of Dover Castle since Saxon times, it has a history of involvement in pirates, Napoleonic battles, and even housed a secret underground command centre in the Second World War.
The battlements are said to be haunted by a the ghost of a headless drummer boy who's believed to have been decapitated when he was attacked for the riches he was carrying while on an errand for his master. The castle is also said to be the home of a woman in red who has been spotted around the castle, as well as a cavalier.
Meanwhile below ground in the three-miles of WWII tunnels, the ghost of many soldiers have been seen and their presence felt. Visitors have reported hearing disembodied voices, loud screams, and doors slamming, as well as experiencing sudden drops in temperature.
Most Haunted's resident historian, Richard Felix said, "this place is the gateway to England because it's only 20 miles from Europe and it had to be defended."
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St. John's Tower
Yvette starts her investigation in St. John's Tower, which she describes as "one of the most paranormally active places in Dover Castle, it is a very very overwhelming place. It may not look that bad, but when you're actually here with the very long tunnels behind you, it's quite a frightening place to be."
In this part of the castle, two staff once witnessed what they described as a human torso swinging from the high, vaulted ceiling, but upon investigation, there was nothing there. The staff members now refuse to go back into the tower. The area also plays host to strange noises, moans, taps and groans.
With the lights out, Yvette called for the show's spiritualist medium to come and join her. Derek Acorah, who has only just flown back into Britain for the event, joined Yvette after a brief chat David in the Presence Room, he said, "it's so exciting, exciting both residually, also actively, spiritually and psychically. It's just absolutely slewing, I feel, with energy that wants to say 'hey, hello, everyone'."
Derek immediately stated picking up on some of the spirits of the tower, including a doctor and his assistant, Milly. As well as the collective force of a group of souls, who in life came to the area together.
The King's Chamber
Yvette and Derek then move on to their second location of the evening, the King's Chamber. The room is surrounded by 6.5 metre thick walls on the second floor of the castle's keep. It's in this room that the apparition of the bottom half of a male body has been seen walking through the room.
In this room Derek picked up on the essence of a man's energy, who he identified as the spirit who's lower half has been seen here. Derek named the man as a servant called Michael. As Derek talked about the spirit they heard a rumbling sound from a small tunnel behind the bed and went to investigate, only to find nothing.
Moments later Yvette was scared to the point of tears when she heard a breath in her ear, she freaked out and asked for five minutes, calling an end to the vigil in the King's Chamber.
After the incident she said, "I'm sorry, I know lots of people at home will be going 'oh god, she's so pathetic', but that was really really scary, to hear a really sort of deep breath."
Trigger Object Experiment
With Yvette now a little calmer, she goes to check on the result of a trigger object experiment, which had been set up before the live broadcast began by one the show's investigators, Phil Whyman. He's place a large metal key on a piece of paper and drawn around it, the idea being that if a spirit moves the key they'll be able to tell.
The key has been locked in the Guardroom in the keep, a room with is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a pikeman. Yvette tells us that this is a controlled experiment, no one has been into the room since the object was placed there, there's been a security guard outside all day. However, when Yvette and Phil enter the room they find that the key has moved quite significantly.
The small stone room had a webcam in it, so hopefully the movement will be visible on the camera. Yvette asked the crew in the gallery to check this, the results might come in later in the show.
Derek then came to join the pair in the room and straight away started telling them about the spirit of a tall man that he was aware of, who was holding a large wooden stave, this could also be called a pike, which means Derek could have been picking up on the spirit of the pikeman.
Back in the studio after, David Bull was talking to Tony Schaffer, a local historian and paranormal investigator. Tony said that you wouldn't normally find a pikeman in a guardroom, unless he's overpowered the guard in order to get his keys, which is interesting, because Derek said that this spirit was who was responsible for moving the key.
The Battlements
Yvette and Derek then moved on to the castle's battlement, the place where the headless drummer boy is said to haunt. He's been witnessed on a full moon, heard banging a beat on his faithful drum. No one know the identity of the boy, but Derek soon found out.
Just seconds after arriving in the grounds, Derek started channeling the spirit of a 14-year-old Irish boy, who he called Sean O'Flynn. Then Derek said he could feel the "energy of small legs" and started marching. he said, "I know I look a bloody fool," but it seemed Derek was marching as the drummer boy once would have.
Derek then retold the story of the boy how the boy was killed by five raiders who wanted the riches that the boy was carrying through the castle grounds. Derek said that the boy's life was taken when the raiders beheaded him.
Derek then picked up on the drumming and started parading up and down again banging an imaginary drum.
According to Derek, all the boy wants is to be with the people he knew in life but he can't be, Derek said he could help him move on later in the evening.
After Derek mentioned a well, the crew were able to reposition the cameras and go there for the next part of the investigation. Derek says that wherever the feed or the ending of the well is, is where the drummer boy was attacked. It's not clear what source of water would have fed this well.
Richard Felix speculated that the killers might have thrown the body down the well or buried him near the well. Historian, Tony says this is possible as the well wouldn't have been the primary source of water for the castle at the time he was killed.
Back In The King's Chamber
The last live vigil of the evening was held in the King's Chamber, the room where Yvette had had her scare earlier in the investigation. On this occasion the team were joined by the show's resident skeptic Matthew Smith and this time he also heard a breath at the exact same moment as Yvette did. Matthew said, "it just sounded like a man breathing or panting." He definitely handled it much better than Yvette did the first time around.
Although Matthew witnessed the sound himself, he was unwilling to say for certain that it was the result of the paranormal, suggesting instead that it could have been nothing more than the sound of a camera man breathing and bouncing around the small passageway off of the bedroom due to its odd acoustic properties.
Speaking to David in the hub after the investigation, Derek said "I love it, and the spirit people... yeah, they were up for it." Yvette added, "I think one thing to remember that's really important is the fact that we've got a live audience here who actually experienced and felt something themselves and they were really involved."
David wrapped up by letting us know that during the broadcast, they'd received over 5,000 calls from viewers who had reported seeing something odd on one of the webcams.
Unfortunately, we never did get a replay of the webcam that may have caught the trigger object moving but the whole live show was very well put together, very slick, very entertaining and the information Derek uncovered with the help of his spirit guide, Sam, was spot on.
For reviews of all of the new episodes, plus highlights and evidence from the shows, and to find out when Most Haunted is on next, visit the Most Haunted episode guide.
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