Investigation of Edinburgh Manor
It's the post you've all been waiting for! No time to wait, let's get started.
On Wednesday, October 12th, myself, my husband, and my friend Jayne made the 4.5-hour journey to Edinburgh Manor in Scotch Grove, Iowa. It's near Anamosa, Iowa, if that helps relate it to an area you might be familiar with or find on a map. There, we met up with my friend Betty to engage in a lockdown at the Manor, which was a poor farm and a home for the insane.
As you know from a few previous posts (like this one) in the past, ghost hunting is a hobby I've dabbled in. I've always wanted to do a lock-down style ghost hunt, however, with my friend Betty, who's also big into ghost hunting. We settled on Edinburgh Manor when I found it on a list of some of the most haunted places in America. I went to their website and was intrigued by the fact that almost everyone who investigates gets some kind of evidence. I've had a paranormal experience, but I'm still a skeptic, so while I believe in some things, I will readily dismiss that which has a logical basis.
We heard a couple of voices during our spirit box sessions, and my camera refused to focus twice, which was odd because that's never happened. Otherwise, we never experienced any strange things while investigating the building. We were never touched, grabbed, or chased. We never felt a sense of foreboding, dread, heaviness, or otherwise felt off while at the Manor. It was a creepy place, nonetheless, and it was an incredible experience having the whole building to ourselves to explore. I was a bit disappointed in not experiencing anything else, that is...until I was home the next afternoon going over evidence.
I never found anything unusual in any of the pictures I took, nor in the two videos I shot with my phone, but I was excited and surprised by the EVP evidence I found. I will elaborate on that in more detail later in this post.
A shot of the outside of the Manor when we arrived. The building was in use until 2010 so is in pretty decent shape on the outside yet. It has a basement, first floor, and a second floor. Out in back are a couple of buildings. One is the safe house that has electricity, running water, bathroom, and a couch.
To the left, inside the main entrance, is a central room with a table and chairs. In this room is a book that has a history of the Manor as well as some photographic "evidence". This page tells about the beginnings of the Manor. The evidence in the book was pretty questionable, for the most part, but there were a couple of interesting pictures.
A warning sign posted at the front entrance.
A shot, looking up, from the back entrance of the Manor.
One of the group bedrooms located on the ends of the floors for families.
One of the many toys spread out throughout the Manor. They've been placed by the staff for the ghosts of the children that are purported to haunt the building.
Secondary staircase from the first to second floors. We're looking down the stairs from the second floor.
A shot of the cook's desk located in the basement. The entire kitchen and cafeteria were located down in the basement.
A clock in the kitchen was dead at 2:00. I thought that was interesting because between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. is when ghosts are supposed to be the most active.
A shot into the kitchen in the basement of the Manor.
A shot from the first floor down the stairway that leads down into the basement.
One of the old recipe cards left behind. I was going to Google whatever this meal is, but I still haven't.
EDIT: So I did look this up, and according to Wikipedia, Vitello Tonnato is an Italian dish made up of sliced, cold veal covered in a creamy mayonnaise sauce flavored with tuna. Sounds gross! haha
This was a sealed up back room in the basement. It looks like it should be a storage room, but from all the dominoes and cards laying around and the tables and chairs, it must have been a room where someone, residents or staff, played games.
A room in the basement where manuals on chemicals were stored. Next to this room was the room that used to be the Manor's padded room. The padding is gone, but the room is still there. The padded room is supposedly where the basement entity "The Joker" died. He's the menacing spirit that lives in the basement and has choked, chased, scratched, and otherwise terrorized visitors to the Manor. We weren't treated to any of this, but the EVPs I got might have been his attempt to get to us.
A shot of the ceiling, including the droopy ceiling fan, of the cafeteria in the basement. The humidity has caused the ceiling fans to droop and the paint to peel down ominously.
A door of investigators/graffiti/former-staff-at-closing's signatures. This door leads into the kitchen from the hallway that connects the cafeteria to the laundry room.
An old table in the cafeteria.
Looking down the hallway, in the basement, from the laundry room down to the cafeteria.
The opposite. Looking down the hallway from the cafeteria to the laundry room.
Howdy Doody time! This guy was sitting on the couch in the rec room located centrally on the second floor.
Betty and I found this lying on a table in the laundry room.
A shot into the laundry room from the doorway.
Okay, so now it's time for the evidence that we did get. Are you ready? It's pretty good.
This was a photo I attempted to take of my husband sitting in a rocking chair down in the cafeteria. My camera refused to focus, which was odd because it has NEVER not been able to focus. When I played back the EVP recording, I got something right when this happened. Listen at this link:
Did you hear it? It only happens within the first 30 seconds, but starts with a voice in the background trying to be ominous by going "aaaahhhhhhh", that turns into a louder one. Then right after I say I'm going to turn the flash off, it says, "IIII neeeeeed flaaaaaash."
This was a picture I took outside of the room at the end of the hallway on the first floor. We were sitting here on the chairs getting ready to do our first spirit box session. This room was where a gentleman hung himself. The only thing clear we got was when it said my name. Listen here:
It happens in the first five seconds, and says, "Heather." My husband says, "Did you say someone's name?" and my friend Betty looks at me and says, "It sounded like it said your name," and I said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it did."
This was a picture I attempted to take of my friend Jayne on the bed in the "Rape Room". According to legend, a woman who lived here was repeatedly raped in this room on this bed or at least a bed in this corner. When I listened to EVP recordings later and noticed that I heard an EVP after my husband's blurry picture, I wondered if the blurry picture was an indicator of voice activity. It was. Listen here:
Did you hear it? Right at the 34-second mark, after we laugh, you can hear a man's faint voice yell, "Ahhh!"
We went down to the basement a second time where we spent a bit more time. Betty and I were walking into the boiler room to check things out, and I noticed the battery on my camera was dying. After I'm done talking, I get a response. Listen here:
Did you hear it? I just mentioned that my camera had taken enough pictures at the moment (since my battery was dying), and at the 8-second mark, a voice says, "No it hasn't." Gee, this basement entity really wants me to take flash photography. lol
We made it back to the cafeteria where we had (unbeknownst to us at the time) gotten an EVP recording. We all sat down for a few minutes while I asked questions. I got some responses. Listen here:
These are tougher to hear and decipher, but they go something like this: When I ask what their name is, I get an answer of, "Seven". When I ask what it was like there, the response is, "It was a simple existence at the house."
EDIT: For another eerie response from our friend "Seven", check out my post about EVP 7. The fact that it's EVP 7 is coincidental.
We wrapped up our investigation by doing one last spirit box session in the boiler room, down in the basement. We didn't get good radio frequencies down there, but I did catch a voice outside of the spirit box. Listen here:
Did you hear it? Right around the 8-second mark, you can hear a woman's voice faintly say, "Jesus Christ." I guess she found the spirit box annoying or frightening, one of the two. ;)
Last, this is a picture my husband took in the attic during our guided tour at the beginning. We got orbs, but they were all dust particles, except for this one. It could be a bug, or it could be something else. I'll leave it for you to decide.
Overall, I'd have to say that Edinburgh Manor is indeed haunted.
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