The Stables, Larnach Castle

April 2022

Quantums Case Manager had been planning this investigation since October of 2021 so Easter weekend saw it finally come to fruition! The Quantum Foundation invited the members of Haunted New Zealand to join us in Dunedin to investigate Larnach Castle and our base for 2 nights, The Stables.

The Stables is a building constructed in 1874 and has been converted into backpacking style accommodation.  On it's upper floor it houses 6 double or twin rooms, a shared toilet facilities block (one for fillies and one for stallions!) and 2 showers with a communial space in the middle with bench seats.  The lower floor consists of a large open space with cobblestone floors which acts as a breakfast room for the guests residing in The Stables, The Lodge and the Camp Estate.  It also has a small lounge as well as a couple of the original stalls which act as storage rooms, as well as a live sized horse standing in between them.

A previous paranormal group back in the early 2000's, is reported as having hurriedly packed up their things in the wee hours of the morning and left vowing never to return.  There have been other cases of people staying in The Stables and reporting odd occurrences to staff.  One former guest felt so strongly as to write a 2 page letter to management detailing their experiences. The Quantum Foundation is in receipt of a copy of this letter for our case files. The writers name has been blanked out to comply with the Privacy Act.

Two of Quantums investigators, our Case Manager and Lead Investigator, had previously had the privilige of investigating this building back in 2012 and were definitely looking forward to a return visit!

The Investigation

Our 11 man/woman team stayed in The Stables for 2 nights and investigated this location on our 1st night on the Larnach estate.  We had sole access of The Stables from check in time at 2pm through to 7am the following morning.

Before we even had a chance to set up our equipment, things of an odd nature began to occur.  An investigator was in her room getting ready and had put her small toilet bag on her dresser with the drawer open underneath.  She turned around and caught movement out of the corner of her eye.  She watched as her toilet bag slowly slid across the top of the side table and fell into the open drawer underneath.  She returned downstairs where the rest of the investigators were and said "Ummm guys, I think we need to set up now".

That got everyone opening suitcases and setting up equipment pronto!  We had 12 static camera's set up across the 2 floors so maintained fairly comprehensive camera coverage.  Everyone's room doors were also left open and this included the toilet doors.

We split into 3 seperate teams with each team a mixture of both organisations. 1 team began investigating the 2 floors of The Stables with the other 2 teams investigating the grounds outside at either ends of the estate to minimise contamination.  After a certain amount of time investigating our allocated locations, we swapped locations to ensure each team had a chance to investigate all area's.  We also had 2 roaming infra red camera's operated by professional cameramen, from both QF and HNZ with each following a team.  The 3rd team had a roaming full spectrum video camera built from scratch by QF's Technical Manager and still in the 'prototype' stage.  This would be it's first test of outside usage.  Each team carried RT's which had a 10km radius so were in constant contact except when EVP sessions were being run and radio silence was called for.

The grounds on the estate are stunning but take on a very eerie feeling at night in certain places.  There are reports of the grounds also being haunted and on a previous investigation one member attended, a very clear but mischievous audio was picked up on a boom mic on the front steps of the Castle.  This is where an employee had been previously pushed, feeling hands on her back just before she fell.  It was a nasty incident.  My team decided to head straight there and run a couple of EVP sessions.  We kept hearing what sounded like voices.  Even though the other outside team were at the other end of the estate from us by the entrance gates, we can not eliminate the fact that their voices may have been carried on the wind.  Nothing was captured on the audio recordings and a windsock was employed to eliminate wind noise from the recording itself.

EMF's were pretty static at zero throughout the building during the course of the evening however there was one instance where an investigator got a large increase on the MEL Meter towards the corner of the room which stayed static for a time (ie it was not a blip).  A 2nd investigator witnessed this and then attempted to trace wiring in the wall with a secondary Meter but received no further readings.  It was put down to possibly coming from the light fitting.  It then disappeared completely and could not be replicated by nearing the light fitting with the Meter.  All other light fittings were checked throughout the lower floor and readings remained static at zero.  A return to the initial light fitting where the change in reading was first registered, garnered no further results.  There was no power surge at the time that was visually apparent.

Temperature readings taken were consistent throughout the course of the evening and the general cooling of the night air as the evening wore on.  Nothing that could be considered anomalous was detected throughout the nights investigation.

During a team executing an EVP session in the lounge on the lower floor of The Stables, an investigator reported hearing the floor boards upstairs creaking like someone was walking across the upper floor. No one else reported hearing them.  This occurred a 2nd time about 2 minutes later and again, no one else reported hearing them in real time.

The static camera and full spectrum camera employed during the EVP session on the lower floor in the lounge was reviewed.  Neither camera detected any audio of someone walking across the upstairs floor although the investigator who heard it in real time, is captured commenting on the 1st instance and pointing to the ceiling on the 2nd instance of them hearing the sounds with their own ears. 

The audio from the lounge was checked and you can hear the investigator asking if anyone can hear someone walking across the floor above - the other investigators say no.  About 2 minutes later you can clearly hear someone moving across the floor above.  The audio was then checked against the camera footage from the lounge and you can clearly see the investigator pointing to the ceiling at the exact time the voice recorder captures the sound.  The time stamps on both the camera and the audio recorder have been checked and match.  A second audio recorder of a different brand was employed in the lounge and failed to pick up any sound at all.

The static cameras that were situated upstairs were then checked to ensure an investigator had not entered the upstairs floor. These proved the upstairs floor was empty at the time the sound was captured on the voice recorder  situated in the downstairs lounge and again, time stamps were matched.  No other anomalies were captured on the static camera's upstairs at that time.  All other static cameras in the building were then checked to account for the whereabouts of other investigators not involved in the EVP session in the lounge.  They all confirm the remainder of the investigation team were situated at the opposite end of the downstairs floor - furthest away from the lounge area and had not entered the upstairs floor.  The sound was exactly as what had been heard previously in the evening when weight had been applied to the floor above by someone walking across it.  We have no logical explanation for this occurrence at this time.

Personal Experiences

After the investigation had concluded, one of the team retired for the evening making her way to the ladies toilet upstairs. She reappeared about 4 minutes later, visibly pale and shocked and proceeded to explain what she had just experience. Whilst sitting on the toilet, she did not lock the door but held it closed by putting her foot against it. She stated that all of a sudden the door was forcibly 'kicked' open from the other side. Those of us downstairs, heard the loud bang as it hit the wall, followed by an expletive and then her coming down the stairs at break neck speed. This was clearly heard by those of us sitting downstairs at the time.

On the 2nd morning, after a short peaceful nights rest, an investigator exclaimed to her room mate that she felt her fringe being brushed out of her eyes and smoothed across her forehead whilst lying in bed. This happened not once, but 3 times. Her room mate excitedly exclaimed the same thing had happened to her twice while she was awake watching a movie but she just brushed it off thinking she was being silly.

Another investigator swore she heard someone say 'Hello' when she entered the ladies toilet upstairs shortly after we arrived. Unfortunately this was before we had set up any equipment.

Investigation Status: Ongoing

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