OUR INVESTIGATIONS : Where to begin? Having heard so many of the legends regarding the castle, my wife and I were anxious to investigate the location for ourselves. So much unexpected phenomenon turned up on our first visit, that it immediately called for a return trip a day or two later. Our first visit was on October 27, 2004, followed by a return trip four days later on October 31st. This is a collection of images from both visits.
One of the difficulties in photographing Franklin Castle after dark is that there is no light source anywhere close to the property. First of all, the Castle is currently private property and is off-limits to visitors. What investigations can be made must occur outside the locked wrought iron gates that surround the property. As the house is currently being renovated, it is unoccupied at night and there are no lights either on or emanating from the property. Therefore, in taking photographs of what is essentially black space, it is difficult for the camera to find anything to properly focus on, and the flash must be forced to go off, leaving one to just hope for the best. Nevertheless, after taking nearly a hundred shots over two nights, a number of interesting features were caught.
Here are a few of the best “orb” shots taken from the front of the Castle. In one photo up to five or six separate orbs can be seen, in another, two orbs in motion can be seen streaking from right to left. It is unlikely dust in the air can move at that velocity in the absence of a strong wind. In keeping with other investigator's experiences, most of the activity does seem to take place near the basement or ground floor areas, and not the upper levels of the building. Some investigators discount orb photographs as nothing more than dust particles in the air caught by the camera. I would be the first to consider that a possibility, were it not for all the other types of activity also caught at the same time.
In these photographs a form of “ribbon energy” can be seen taking shape near the front walkway of the building. At first a small light appears just before the door, and grows to something streaking just after emerging from the house (you can clearly see the object moving of its own accord in the second photo, as it suddenly does a 180 degree turn and zips across in the opposite direction from its original movement, under its own movement. Dust does not behave it this way, nor does it glow giving off its own light).
Seconds later this “ribbon energy” has grown and is seen floating at shoulder height just above the front walkway to Franklin Castle, throwing off a bright reddish-orange. You can plainly see, even without the enlargement, that this object appears to be three-dimensional, and cannot therefore be just a streak of light caught by the camera. The “ribbon” clearly has width, length, and height, and appears twisted in among itself, with the sides in shadow and the flatter, wider part glowing of its own accord. (The best way to picture it is similar to a belt that has been twisted around backwards). None of this was seen with the naked eye by anyone present, and it was just caught almost out of frame by pure luck.
A lot of activity seems to center around the front entrance. On our second visit to Franklin Castle, a glowing bluish-mist was seen taking shape over the front steps leading to the door. Note how the mist seems to be taking shape descending both sides of the stone staircase, and not over the steps themselves. It is one of my wife’s favorite photos. Again, this phenomenon was invisible to the naked eye.
This is one of the most bizarre images caught by the camera that night, and one for which there is no explanation. The first image shows a view of the front gate, and walkway leading up to the steps and the front entrance of the Castle (the face on the door is simply a sign posted there, see one of the daylight shots for comparison). At first glance it appears unremarkable, and by itself would have gone unnoticed, except when compared with the dozens of other photographs taken that night. The first thing that caught my attention was the stone or cement “planter” or ornament seen sitting on the property just before the steps. It was not physically there during our visit and does not appear in any of the other photographs taken just seconds before or after this image. No one else was present, the property was locked up and inaccessible, and none one could have silently moved and then hidden the object – what must weigh at least fifty pounds - before our very eyes (there were up to four witnesses present) all in the space of five or ten seconds.
It gets more bizarre when the photograph is studied more closely. The next thing you notice is that at the time the stone planter or object appears in this single frame, two orbs are also caught right next to the object, one on either side! Okay, so skeptics might say this could have still been faked in some way or other. The final clincher comes when you study the ground right around the front walkway leading up to the steps when the object appears. The entire ground has changed in appearance! In the image where the object and orbs appear, the ground appears to be broken up, rough and consisting of perhaps stones or gravel, and with weeds or other vegetation poking up through the ground.
However, if you compare that view with others taken that night showing the same area (included for comparison), you can plainly see the walkway is actually a smooth stone or cement surface, with no dirt, gravel, stones, weeds or other wild vegetation anywhere near the path, and not the broken up, dilapidated surface that appears in the image in question. It almost appears as if the image caught the front walkway at a different time, and not the way it appears at present to the naked eye. These differences occur in none of the other photographs taken just before or after this one, literally seconds apart. It’s as if for that single instant, unknown to us, we caught the image of the yard as it had appeared in some other setting, and then vanished in the snap of a shutter. Needless to say, any future visits back to the Castle will surely be reported on this site!
