Bacon’s Castle is the oldest brick dwelling in North America. Dating back from 1665, the castle has seen everything from the birth of our country through modern day. With its long history, there are many claims of paranormal activity in the building so we packed up our gear and spent a cold winter night searching for ghosts.
Date: February 1, 2025
Location: Surrey, VA
Investigators: Chris, Matt S, Matt K, Brian, Jody, Zoe, Nick
Location History
Bacon’s Castle was originally a home built for a rich merchant and Justice of the Peace, Arthur Allen. The site picked up its nickname in 1676 when a number of followers of the rebel frontiersman, Nathaniel Bacon, seized the home and turned it into a fort as they fought against the elite for their causes. The rebellion turned into a bit of mayhem and was soon squashed by the government. The followers fled leaving the fort to be reclaimed by the proper owners. While Bacon never even stepped foot in the fort, the name stuck.
Over the years, the dwelling has primarily served as a home and plantation. There is over 200 years of rich history including slavery, free Africans, family hardships, and stress that is said to have led to the home now being haunted by its previous inhabitants.
Our Experience
As we rolled up the driveway, we were pleasantly surprised at the quiet and serene location. The home sat quite far back from the road which is always welcome when trying to isolate out everyday noises while doing a paranormal investigation. We were taken on a tour and learned about the original building, its history, the addition to the building, as well as the many paranormal claims.
We brought out all our gear, setting up 4 static cameras and loading our pockets with REM pods, spirit boxes, recorders, an ovilus, a mel meter, motion detectors, an SLS camera, and a thermal camera among other gadgets, before we started the 7 hour investigation.
Our cameras in the stairwell, chair room, basement, and foyer
The site did not allow us to investigate on our own, so the 2 guides were with us for the entire time and we stayed as a group. We started in one of the larger rooms that was lined with chairs. The guides told us of a recent experience where they were in the basement and heard a chair move, then when they came back upstairs, one of the chairs had been pulled away from the wall. They also warned us that people get nauseous in this room.
Using recorders, the boo buddy, rem pods, cameras, SLS, and all sorts of gadgets to try to detect ghosts
So, of course we had to sit in the chair in question and try to entice the spirits to interact. We did all we could to try to communicate with the dead, but did not hear anything or see anything unusual. There was one small chime we heard, but believe it was from the computer the place had in the front of the home.
We spent time on the top floor, referred to as the garrison, where the guides told us was haunted by children, but we had no experience. We then headed down a floor where we caught a figure on the SLS camera standing next to a spinning wheel that appeared to be playing a violin. Or maybe spinning? The motion was a bit strange.
The “violin figure” would have been standing near that center pole.
While sitting in the main bedroom, I invited the ghosts to go ahead and touch any one of us but that freaked out one guide and she quickly corrected me saying that the ghosts don’t have permission to touch her. She said she really hated this room. We tried all of the usual methods but did not get much. Our Ovilus was spurting out a lot of random words and the guides said that was the most they’d ever heard one go off in this room.
Original drawings can be found on some walls
Our most interesting experience of the night was in the basement. In addition to our gadgets, the guides had brought out an old school bell and a string of lights that are both supposed to be set off by EMF. We had the bell at the top of the stairs, the string of lights running down the stairs, and a cat ball put on the stone floor in front of us in the basement. In perfect sequence, the bell gave out a ding, then the light string went off, then the cat ball lit up. We pointed the SLS camera at the stairs and captured a figure right where the light was lit up. We watched it for a moment, before I went ahead and walked over to that particular step. The figure appeared to sit down, then when I walked through the space it disappeared. I had an EMF detector in my hands and did not get a reading. From that point the light seemed to be stuck on and we had to reboot it. Not quite sure what all that was but it was interesting that it was multiple devices going off in sequence.
The last major space we investigated was the “doll room” which the same scared guide said was her least favorite room. We tried the estes method, where one person listens to the spirit box and the rest ask questions, but did not get any sort of intelligent response. I specifically asked it to say a color or number to see if I could get an accurate answer, but only random words were heard by the listener.
Did we capture Paranormal Evidence?
Maybe. We had multiple devices go off in sequence while in the basement.
