The Ragged Cot Investigation
The Ragged Cot - 13th May 2012
Our small team of three investigators arrived at approximately 22:30 at this scenic building and were met by the barman who was in the process of tidying up after the night’s business. He was interested in what we do although informed us that he personally had had little in the way of experiences in this building and that there were very few stories other than those which are well known and already documented about the location. While he finished tidying up the team took the opportunity to take photographs and plan the evening’s investigation while Damien swept for EMF and its sources. It has to be noted that there was a large amount of EMF coming from around the bar itself, due to all the fridges and wiring that were behind it, and this EMF probably could potentially be the cause of any feelings of unease detected around these areas during the night.
At around 23:45 the Inn was closed and we were waiting for the lights to go out. This proved to be the strangest of experiences as up to that point in the night everyone was feeling confident and happy, but as soon as the lights were switched off, the whole team, who at that moment were all in separate rooms around the ground floor instantly felt uneasy and all said that a very oppressive feeling had taken over the building.
As an experienced team who have investigated many locations, this was out of the norm and at all other locations the first 45 minutes to an hour are usually quite quiet and very little is experienced. Matt then went into the restaurant area to get an item of kit from his bag and while in this area he saw two orbs, both of which could not be explained as there were no light sources and they appeared after Matt had switched off his torch. Upon returning to the bar area and informing the other two team members of his experience Matt stayed in the bar area while Damien and Jo took it in turns to go into the restaurant to see if the same experience happened to them. Although no orbs were seen by either Damien or Jo, both felt extremely uneasy alone in this room and quickly left.
It was now only about 00:30, and after a very unusual start to the investigation the entire team gathered in the main bar area and began calling out. The oppressive feeling felt by all only a few minutes before seemed to have lifted, although this continued to come and go quite regularly during the night and it has to be remembered that around the bar were large amounts of EMF. Damien called out first while stood at one end of the bar room with Matt and Jo at the other. Matt and Jo both reported hearing a female voice on several occasions of the next half an hour all of which were rationalised as probably coming from a TV upstairs which could be heard faintly by Damien from his end of the bar. However on reviewing the evidence from this time of the night over the next few days all team members captured the voice on their equipment and Damien confirmed it was not the sound from the TV he had heard and couldn’t explain what it was. By this point the feelings of unease and oppressiveness had again returned.
Jo then went into the restaurant area with Damien while Matt stayed in the bar area and continued to call out alone. Matt says he felt comfortable at the time and the feelings of unease seemed to evaporate very quickly. During calling out he heard no responses or anything out of the ordinary although again on reviewing the evidence both Matt and Damien had what sounded like voices on the recorders while Matt was alone calling out. Meanwhile both Damien and Jo were in the restaurant and although feeling uneasy had nothing out of the ordinary happen. They then returned to Matt and both said when walking back into the bar how the atmosphere had changed and it now felt calm and relaxed. Damien called out some more and when he asked “what is your name” a team member said they had at that point a female’s name pop into their head. We have tried to find out the name of the female associated with the story from The Ragged Cot but have so far been unsuccessful.
We all then decided to move around to the reception area where we stayed for approximately 45 minutes although this area was very quiet and nothing out of the ordinary happened so we all moved to the outside of the building to take photographs and to do a little calling out in the out building adjacent to the main building. This small outbuilding was very cold inside and Jo especially said she felt particularly uncomfortable in here but other than that nothing happened and after about 45 minutes we all returned to the main building where we stopped for a quick break.
Since we had been given access to one of the hotel rooms, after our break we decided to head to it and investigate that part of the building for a while. While walking down the corridor to the room both Matt and Jo heard a dog barking. They mentioned it but everyone assumed a guest had their pet with them and that we had disturbed it. It was only after when we spoke to the manager of the Inn and the barman who stayed overnight upstairs while we were investigating, that we found out there were no dogs in the building on the night. This itself was strange and was made even more so on reviewing the evidence when the sound of a dog barking can be heard on several occasions throughout the night. We spent a small amount of time in the hotel room but it felt very relaxed with no activity so after only a short time we began to move back down towards the bar since that was where we were getting our best results. While heading back along the corridor Jo reported seeing a figure out of the corner of her eye as she turned a corner. Thinking it was a member of staff she turned to face them to say hello only to find that nobody was there. We could not find any explanation for this as this particular section of corridor had no doors coming off of it and anyone coming or going would have easily have been seen.
We were all now back in the bar area where it was again feeling very uneasy. Both Matt and Jo again heard a dog bark and all the team at some point said they had heard a female voice which again was caught on the recording equipment. As it was now starting to get late the team began calling out while attempting glass divination in the bar area. The atmosphere again lifted to a relaxed feeling and no results were obtained while using the glass, so the team moved around the bar to a small alcove and tried again. In this location everyone again felt uneasy and at a couple of points the glass did move in response to questions, although with no real definite movement so Damien suggested the team try table tipping instead. This quickly began to get results and the table was indeed at one point moving quite forcefully and a very cold area began to develop around Jo’s hands and arms that both Damien and Matt could feel from where they were sat. All the team began to feel very uneasy and surprisingly our resident sceptic felt it most of all and got up and left the table. At this point, since it was late anyway, the team stopped and decided to call it a night.
The Ragged Cot was one of our best investigations to date, both on the night and on reviewing the evidence many things were heard by the team and best of all captured by the equipment. Proving the large amount of EMF’s coming from the bar itself probably goes a long way to explain any feelings in the area although it doesn’t explain the noises that accompanied those feelings.
The team are extremely grateful to the Manager for allowing us to investigate this location and granting us a huge amount of access and we would also like to especially thank the barman who had to let us out and lock up after us at 4am.
All in all a great investigation.