Inside Balgonie Castle’s Witches House: Our First Mini Mission

A new way to investigate Balgonie

During our latest Balgonie Castle paranormal investigation in Fife, five guests tested the first live Mini Mission inside the Witches House. Their structured field report captured possible ITC responses, failed repeat tests, environmental changes and plausible ordinary explanations.

Each mission asks participants to document their starting baseline, chosen methods, impressions, possible responses, unsuccessful attempts and anything that could offer an ordinary explanation. The aim is not to force a paranormal conclusion. It is to turn an experience into a record that can be reviewed, compared and tested again.

Our first complete field return came from a five-person team working in the Witches House. With their permission to use the submitted observations, we are delighted to recognise their contribution.

Before the targets were revealed

The group combined ITC and spirit-box techniques with intuitive or mediumistic impressions, environmental monitoring and visual observation.

They described the area as comfortable at the beginning. As the session continued, they recorded impressions of age, uneasiness, anxiety and being in close quarters. They also described a cold area that seemed to move around their circle rather than remain in one fixed position.

At approximately 3:15am, the investigators logged what they interpreted as sarcastic responses through an ITC app. Their notes also described a trigger teddy apparently activating alongside changes on a K2 meter.

Words and names recorded during the session included “Peter”, “William” and “Death”, together with laughter-like sounds in different tones. One investigator also reported seeing shadow-like movement looking from the front of the area towards the back.

These are participant observations and interpretations, not confirmed identities, messages or proof of paranormal activity. Recording them at the time, however, gives future teams specific details to compare.

What happened after the reveal

Once the Witches House target questions were opened, the team explored the area’s existing stories and earlier investigation leads.

They described the “energy” as shifting during the session, but received no clear Leslie response and no female names that could be linked with the two women traditionally associated with the area. The teddy and K2 effect could not be repeated consistently.

Those non-matches matter. Mini Missions are not designed to make every experience fit a story already attached to a location. A missing expected name, an unanswered question and an effect that cannot be repeated belong in the record just as much as an unusual response.

Looking for ordinary explanations

The team also tried to challenge what they were observing. They moved items around the teddy and K2, checked nearby phones and smartwatches and reported checking that phones were in flight mode. They still acknowledged that a device setting might have been missed.

Movement elsewhere in the castle and doors being opened were recorded as possible explanations for the changing cold air.

That willingness to question an experience is exactly what responsible field investigation needs. It does not make an unusual moment less interesting; it helps us decide how much weight it deserves.

What can we conclude?

This was a group investigation rather than a controlled blind trial. The participants recorded that they were already familiar with the area and had discussed some impressions before completing the report, so their observations cannot be treated as five fully independent accounts.

Several methods and devices were also being used at the same time, making it difficult to isolate the cause of any single response. The submission refers to activity involving a VOX or Spirit Talker, teddy and K2 at around 3:15am, but no accompanying media file reached the evidence-review collection. We therefore present this as a structured participant field report, not independently verified audio, visual or instrumental evidence.

Even with those limitations, the Mini Mission succeeded in its main purpose. It kept the group focused, captured experiences while they were fresh and preserved intriguing moments, unsuccessful responses, attempted controls and reasons for caution in the same report.

The night also reinforced a practical lesson: castle signal can be unreliable. Strengthening the offline protection and recovery options for future digital missions is now firmly on our improvement list.

A valuable first contribution

Our thanks go to the five investigators who approached the Witches House mission thoughtfully and recorded the quiet moments, failed responses and possible ordinary causes alongside the more unusual experiences.

That is precisely what Mini Missions were created to achieve.

Their report has given future teams clear questions to test. Can the moving cold area recur with doors and nearby movement controlled? Can the equipment response be reproduced with phones and watches isolated? Will investigators who know nothing about this report independently record any of the same words or impressions?

The Witches House has not given us a final answer and that is not the point. It has given us a useful first record and a set of questions worth exploring again.

Take part in the next investigation

Mini Missions are being developed for selected free-roam and subscriber sessions. If you would like to help test the next location, explore our upcoming paranormal investigations in Scotland, or join Scottish Paranormal membership for subscriber-only investigation opportunities.