Man claims spotting strange ghostly figure in medieval castle

A father and son taking photographs of a medieval castle claim to have spotted extremely mysterious figure when they looked back at the images.

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Jon Wickes, 50, was helping his 12-year-old son, Harry with his homework, and had visited Eynsford Castle in Kent to find out about its history.

While taking pictures of the grounds of the castle, Jon managed to capture an unexplained figure , shrouded in a black cloak, standing in the background.

Jon hired a paranormal investigator as he had not noticed anyone around when taking the photograph and the expert claims there is ‘no explanation’ for the monk’s appearance.

According to local legend, Jon claims a black monk has been spotted in the area before.  In 1130, William de Eynsford, who held the castle for the Archbishop of Canterbury, reportedly retired to become a monk.

“I was quite surprised when I first saw the picture. The strange thing was my little boy had history homework so that’s why we went there. We only went to take a few pictures because he wanted to know how a castle was built,” said Jon.

“I saw the image with the figure in it and looked on the web. That’s when I read about a monk being seen in area. I’m not really sure about that sort of the stuff.

“I asked a paranormal investigator what he thought and he went down there to check it out. When I showed my son he looked at it and just laughed, but because I was certain that figure hadn’t been there when we took the picture, it was worth investigating.”

Jon said that he posted the image online on a paranormal group, and received suggestions that it was just a hole in the wall, but someone actually went here to take pictures and confirmed otherwise.

Jon claims that he has had supernatural, unexplained experiences before, including being brought back to life in 1995, but was unsure if the black figure is a ghost.

“I’m not sure if it’s a ghost or not. I’m never really freaked out by that sort of stuff. At first, I wondered if it was just a trick of the light. Everyone who’s seen it is interested in it because many think it is a ghost,” he said.

“I’ve had a few supernatural experiences in the past. I had a motorcycle accident in 1995 and died and was brought back to life. When I died, a strange thing happened.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve experienced a lot of ghostly goings-on but when I lay there and died, I saw my grandfather telling me to go back to the other side. You never know.

“It might have been because I was on a lot of morphine.”

Paranormal investigator  Alan Tigwell visited Eynsford Castle twice to look at the layout of the castle and consider if the photos taken by Jon were likely to show a ghost.

He believes there is no explanation for the figure in the picture after spending time in the castle’s grounds but said it is a ‘fantastic’ image.

“I went to the site twice last Thursday – in the morning when it first opened and later on.The purpose of my visit was to ascertain whether there was anything within those walls to explain the picture,” said Alan.

“I’ve been investigating the paranormal for over 20 years. The difficulty with looking at things retrospectively is that it’s impossible to say exactly what something is.

“All I can say is that there wasn’t anything in the castle itself that could explain that picture. Eynsford Castle is a medieval site and from what Jon’s said, there is a legend about a monk being there.

“In terms of the history of the castle, there was nothing specifically about a monk living there that I could find but I do believe one of the families who owned it had a son who left to become a monk.”