SPIRITFINDERS SCOTLAND
AWARD WINNING PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION TEAM
inveraray jail
HISTORY
Inveraray, the seat of the Duke of Argyll, was for many centuries the principal county town of Argyll. From the mid 18th century the courts met in the Town House on Front Street, and the ground floor below the courtroom served as the county prison. There the prisoners:
"walked in a grated piazza in front of their Cells, just in line of the principal street, and exposing the miserable appearance of their apartments and furniture to shock the feelings of every passer bye"
There were so many escapes from this building that at times the townspeople had to take turns in guarding it. Judges threatened to move the courts from Inveraray unless new premises were found and the old prison abandoned
A site for the new Courthouse and Prison was found and plans were drawn up in 1807 by the well known Edinburgh architect Robert Reid. These plans, which included separate prison blocks for men, women and debtors, had to be shelved owing to lack of funds.
Reid’s proposals were, however, later adapted by the architect James Gillespie Graham. He simplified the design of the courthouse and reduced the prison accommodation to one eight cell block. Work started on the new buildings in 1816 and was completed in 1820.
The Jail and Courthouse opened in 1820 and remained unchanged until 1843 when the Airing Yards were built. These were to provide a secure place where prisoners could be exercised in the open air.
In 1848 the New Prison, or Men's Prison, was completed. This was a model prison for its day with 12 individual cells, a water closet on every floor, accommodation for warders, a store room and indoor exercise gallery. It was also well heated and lit by gas, a far cry from the dark and damp original prison building.
The Jail finally closed on the 30th of August 1889. By this time, in comparison to the larger city prisons, the smaller county jails tended to be expensive and inefficient to run.
As a town Inveraray gradually declined in importance. It was difficult to reach and with the disappearance of the herring, it was no longer a significant fishing port. The Circuit Court met only twice in Inveraray after 1900, and moved to Oban in 1953. Despite local protests, the Sheriff Court was removed to Dunoon in 1954.
The rarely used courthouse and empty prisons gradually fell into disrepair. Fortunately their significance as the finest 19th century county courthouse and prison in Scotland was recognised. An extensive restoration was undertaken by the Scottish Office and in May 1989, almost a hundred years exactly after the last prisoners departed, Inveraray Jail opened to the public.
the team the made their way to the new prison at 21.15 , we entered a bathing area david was sensing that former prisoner was being beaten up while he was in the bath having his head hit against the wall there were some objects from different parts of the jail in this area but we were told that these were original the temp in the bathing area was reading 14.6c ,david sensed that the prisoner that was hit while in the bath died there he also said he could smell carbolic soap in the wash room .
as we passed the stair well on the right hand side of the corridor david could sense a spirit person at the top of the stair ,we then entered the first cell david and two other team members started to have pains in their head at the same time ,david also indicated that there were allot of activity in this area and that there were a presence of a spirit pacing up and down ,we took some temperature readings in the cell these were 14.4c david also indicated that there is a tunnel under neath the corridor floor and to our amazement our guide for the night said this was correct ,built in 1849 as we entered cell 3 david could sense a prisoner being pushed to the ground by his shoulders ,we carried on to the fourth cell were the temperature was now reading 14,6c we then made our-way along to the last cell on this floor that was used as a whipping room for prisoners over the age of 12years ,temperature readings were still 14.6c in this cell ,david was getting a strange fragrance but could not figure out what it as but James said he could smell coal in the corridor ,the team then made their way up stairs at 9.30 at the top of the stairs we entered the first cell on the second floor were prisoners were kept handcuffed as well as young child prisoners ,david felt there was a link between the hand cuffs and the court yard out side we took some more temperature readings ,we carried on to cell two were prisoners were made to use the crank machine for punishment turning it 14 hundred times a day ,James indicated he could here banging coming from up stairs at 9.40 we entered cell 3 in this cell would have prisoners that were being stored before being transported to Australia .
The team then proceeded to cell 4 that was used for young offenders of petty theft ,david then began complaining of a sore eye ,david said there was a sense of depression in the corridor and he said the spirit in the old jail went from one building to another . as there was not alto of room in the water closet david stood in by him self and said there were a peacefulness in there and prisoners felt safer in thereby them self, we continued to the top floor of the jail and entered the warders room were they stayed when on duty,david said the spirit man he picked up on at the top of the stairs was a former warder of the jail and came in visitation and could sense he was standing in the corner of the warders room by the chair,we then took temperature readings of the warders room reading 14.6c we continued to cell 9 were prisoners would be made to work making rope but would often become very tearful and depressed. as david entered cell 10 he said he could sense the banging we could here early was coming from cell 10 or just out side of it we entered cell 11 this was were prisoners made heron nets but as we came out the cell david said a spirit man sits a times near the window at end of the corridor. on the second floor.
the team continued to the top floor to the gallery there is another section just on the other side of the gallery that is usded for exorcising prisoners when the weather was bad ,david picked up on a group of people standing along the wall below the slanted roof ,and also feelings of a prisoner being punished up , this area was also used for prison visits often when other areas of the jail was to bizzy ,prisoners were given a poorer uniform if they were caught damaging their own uniform,when we returned to the warders room david complained of a sore back..
we then went to the base for a short break and to discus what we would do next and look at some of our pictures we had taken one of the team noticed tony had a small fresh scratch on his left side of his face.
the team returned to cell 10 and set up trigger objects ,we also left a voice recorder to see if we could pick up some evp recordings ,after about 1 hour we returned to check the voice recorder and the trigger object but there no movement with trigger object or ant evp on the voice recorder.,some time later we went to another cell and set up a night vision camcorder and avoice recorder to see if we could get any activity ,we also went across the court yard to the other jail to set more camcorders and trigger objects while set up our equipment we could here more banging coming from the floor below .
we decided to back over to the court house were we began taking more digital pictures ,david and two of the team reported seeing a dark figure in the door way behind the judges area ,david also sensed spirit movement in the front seating area of the court house.at 12.30 we decided to split up into three teams of two ,two members remained in the court house another two whent to the old jail and the other two david and david the team leader went to the new jail but as they entered the stair case david the team leader reported what he thought was a hand at the corner of the wall just at the stair well as they sat in the cell on the second floor they set up a camcorder and picked up some light anomalies and david the medium said he could see a dark figure standing at the door of the cell we called the rest of the team on the raidios to see if they were getting any activity as we were getting some light anomalies we decided all the rest of the group should come over to the new jail to join us four team members sat out side the cell on the second floor for a seons and two of the group sat in the cell after a short time we decided to stop the seons as we were getting nothing from it so decided to leave and go back to the court house for another hour by this time it was 3.50 after taking more pictures and calling out for spirit people to contact us around 4.40 we decided to go to the base for a final vigil as a spirit lady is often seen by visiters in the information room were we were based but after ashort time david and the team leader decided to go back to the two jails to take some more pictures before leaving when they entered the new jail and were half way up the stairs they could here the banging again but could not figure out were it was coming from so after taking acouple of pictures then went back to the base till 5am when it was decided to call it a night.
...report end
