US Ghost Hunter Terrified by Ireland's Haunted Locations
Ghost/Paranormal
Tuesday 30th, July 2024
Nicole Beauchamp, a paranormal investigator from the US with over 20 years of experience, experienced some of her most frightening encounters during a trip to several haunted locations in Ireland. Beauchamp, who has authored numerous books on the supernatural, found her visit to Cairndhu House near Larne, Co Antrim, particularly unsettling.
Cairndhu House, built in the 1880s, was once one of Northern Ireland's most prestigious addresses, hosting high society events. During World War II, the property was repurposed as a hospital and later handed over to the government for permanent use as a medical facility. The hospital closed in the mid 1980s, and the building has since fallen into disrepair. Recent years have seen numerous ghostly sightings at the site, including reports of a woman in a nurse’s uniform staring out from a window and dogs barking uncontrollably at an unseen presence.
Beauchamp, keen to explore the location, visited Cairndhu House one night with a fellow paranormal investigator. "We walked up kind of like a gravel road to the house and walked around it", she recounted. "It sounded like we could hear someone at the front of the house but we couldn’t find anyone. We walked up a cement staircase that led up to the stables, shrouded by shrubs, thorn bushes and trees. It was a gruelling process to get up there but once we did, we started doing a spirit box session".
Spirit boxes, or ghost boxes, are devices used by paranormal investigators to try and communicate with spirits, believed to allow the dead to speak using their own voices. "We asked if anybody was there and what their name was", Beauchamp said. "We got the name George and we got the name Colin. It was just clear as day. We were making our way back to the main house and the entity apparently knew we were leaving because it said things like ‘walking away’ or ‘goodbye’. It was all really terrifying because the sounds we heard on the property and around the house were so abnormal. It sounded in a lot of respects like a person walking around or making strange noises, but at the same time it didn’t sound like a person and it also didn’t sound like an animal. It was really creepy. I would say Cairndhu House and estate was by far one of the scariest places I’ve ever been".
In addition to Cairndhu House, Beauchamp visited the former Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast and the disused Mount Masonic Hall in the east of the city. Crumlin Road Jail, operational from 1845 until 1996, housed thousands of prisoners, 17 of whom were executed. "In the jail, I was just looking around, reading the signs when one of the cell doors started to shut on its own", said Beauchamp. "I opened it back up and said ‘do it again’ but nothing happened. However, then the door closed itself again and I actually was able to record it on my phone".
Mount Masonic Hall, once a base for the secretive Freemasons Society, is now derelict. Friends had told Beauchamp of their experiences there, prompting her visit. "I was up in the attic and I could hear in the crawl space above what sounded like a dog barking. I had inspected the crawl space and there was no dog. Then I went outside and walked around the building to see if I could hear any dog barking, but I couldn’t. So whatever that sound that I heard was coming straight from the crawl space. We were using some equipment and there were figures appearing on the camera where you could see a figure standing on the doorway or sitting down. In addition to that, we were using these cat toys that light up when there’s movement or motion, and basically they were moving on their own and going off randomly throughout the night".
During her stay in Belfast, Beauchamp lodged at the Titanic Hotel, where she had previously experienced what she believes was a supernatural encounter in 2022. "I saw what looked like a dark figure in a suit walking in the chairman’s office near the fireplace. I was in the hallway by the bar bathrooms and saw that it had walked towards the fireplace. I thought this person looked a little odd like something wasn’t quite right, so I walked straight into the chairman’s office to check and see if it was a hotel employee and the figure walked clean through the wall and out of sight. I saw the same figure that same trip on the third floor walking in the darkened corridors of the hotel nearby our hotel room. It was really eerie. I didn’t see it again this trip sadly but I did experience intense cold spots in the same office where I saw the apparition".
Nicole Beauchamp, who has written extensively about haunted locations in her home town of Bay City and Detroit in Michigan, USA, expressed a desire to author a book about haunted locations in Ireland and Britain. "I have been a paranormal investigator for almost 20 years now", she said. "I got into the paranormal as a child. It was just something I was always really interested in. I loved horror movies and I used to watch Most Haunted all the time when I was a kid".
Her passion has continued into adulthood, driven by a mix of thrill seeking and a personal quest to understand the possibility of an existence beyond death. "I think a lot has to do with the fact I’m kind of a thrill seeker in a lot of respects. I’m very fascinated with this whole idea that there could be something more than just us and it is kind of a personal journey for me. I want to kind of figure out if there really is some sort of a continuation after we pass, maybe another stage of existing. I’m also into architecture so having the chance to explore buildings like these in Northern Ireland was a dream experience for me".
Cairndhu House, built in the 1880s, was once one of Northern Ireland's most prestigious addresses, hosting high society events. During World War II, the property was repurposed as a hospital and later handed over to the government for permanent use as a medical facility. The hospital closed in the mid 1980s, and the building has since fallen into disrepair. Recent years have seen numerous ghostly sightings at the site, including reports of a woman in a nurse’s uniform staring out from a window and dogs barking uncontrollably at an unseen presence.
Beauchamp, keen to explore the location, visited Cairndhu House one night with a fellow paranormal investigator. "We walked up kind of like a gravel road to the house and walked around it", she recounted. "It sounded like we could hear someone at the front of the house but we couldn’t find anyone. We walked up a cement staircase that led up to the stables, shrouded by shrubs, thorn bushes and trees. It was a gruelling process to get up there but once we did, we started doing a spirit box session".
Spirit boxes, or ghost boxes, are devices used by paranormal investigators to try and communicate with spirits, believed to allow the dead to speak using their own voices. "We asked if anybody was there and what their name was", Beauchamp said. "We got the name George and we got the name Colin. It was just clear as day. We were making our way back to the main house and the entity apparently knew we were leaving because it said things like ‘walking away’ or ‘goodbye’. It was all really terrifying because the sounds we heard on the property and around the house were so abnormal. It sounded in a lot of respects like a person walking around or making strange noises, but at the same time it didn’t sound like a person and it also didn’t sound like an animal. It was really creepy. I would say Cairndhu House and estate was by far one of the scariest places I’ve ever been".
In addition to Cairndhu House, Beauchamp visited the former Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast and the disused Mount Masonic Hall in the east of the city. Crumlin Road Jail, operational from 1845 until 1996, housed thousands of prisoners, 17 of whom were executed. "In the jail, I was just looking around, reading the signs when one of the cell doors started to shut on its own", said Beauchamp. "I opened it back up and said ‘do it again’ but nothing happened. However, then the door closed itself again and I actually was able to record it on my phone".
Mount Masonic Hall, once a base for the secretive Freemasons Society, is now derelict. Friends had told Beauchamp of their experiences there, prompting her visit. "I was up in the attic and I could hear in the crawl space above what sounded like a dog barking. I had inspected the crawl space and there was no dog. Then I went outside and walked around the building to see if I could hear any dog barking, but I couldn’t. So whatever that sound that I heard was coming straight from the crawl space. We were using some equipment and there were figures appearing on the camera where you could see a figure standing on the doorway or sitting down. In addition to that, we were using these cat toys that light up when there’s movement or motion, and basically they were moving on their own and going off randomly throughout the night".
During her stay in Belfast, Beauchamp lodged at the Titanic Hotel, where she had previously experienced what she believes was a supernatural encounter in 2022. "I saw what looked like a dark figure in a suit walking in the chairman’s office near the fireplace. I was in the hallway by the bar bathrooms and saw that it had walked towards the fireplace. I thought this person looked a little odd like something wasn’t quite right, so I walked straight into the chairman’s office to check and see if it was a hotel employee and the figure walked clean through the wall and out of sight. I saw the same figure that same trip on the third floor walking in the darkened corridors of the hotel nearby our hotel room. It was really eerie. I didn’t see it again this trip sadly but I did experience intense cold spots in the same office where I saw the apparition".
Nicole Beauchamp, who has written extensively about haunted locations in her home town of Bay City and Detroit in Michigan, USA, expressed a desire to author a book about haunted locations in Ireland and Britain. "I have been a paranormal investigator for almost 20 years now", she said. "I got into the paranormal as a child. It was just something I was always really interested in. I loved horror movies and I used to watch Most Haunted all the time when I was a kid".
Her passion has continued into adulthood, driven by a mix of thrill seeking and a personal quest to understand the possibility of an existence beyond death. "I think a lot has to do with the fact I’m kind of a thrill seeker in a lot of respects. I’m very fascinated with this whole idea that there could be something more than just us and it is kind of a personal journey for me. I want to kind of figure out if there really is some sort of a continuation after we pass, maybe another stage of existing. I’m also into architecture so having the chance to explore buildings like these in Northern Ireland was a dream experience for me".
