Exploring Duddo Stone Circle

The day after my birthday Mr H and I were lucky enough to get out on another walk while dropping my parents back off at home after their visit. I already shared Baker's most recent photo set that we took the day before my birthday at the beach (click here to see those > Baker's 2021 Photo Set) so now I'm publishing the photos we took on the 13th of October at Duddo Stone Circle.

This is yet another local site that I only became aware of in the past few years, considering being pretty darn familiar with the surrounding area of Ford and Etal. It is also a magical place (just like Twizel Castle that I blogged about earlier this month) and this will be about my 4th visit in about 4 years. Baker stayed with my parents while we ventured out, but it ended up being completely deserted meaning he could have come after all! Never mind, he was rather tired out from his car journeys and playing at the beach.

All in all, it ended up being not only a lovely visit to the Stone Circle but a wonderful wildlife walk too. Enjoy these photos!

Look at that weather! Look at all that wildlife! We got so lucky!
Although once at the top of the hill where the stones stand it was pretty windy we still were blessed with blue skies and multiple flyovers from groups of  Geese who all congregated together at a giant puddle in the lower field - it was absolutely insane to witness especially when stood in the middle of the stones while they passed over so low. 

The Stones themselves are known as Duddo Five Stones, originally four stones pre-1903, the fifth was then re-erected to 'improve the skyline'. In the 1890s during an excavation, it was found that there were actually seven stones altogether. You can see the gap to the west where the other two should be.
They date back some 4000 years to the Early Bronze Age so laying your hand on something that has been there for an unimaginable amount of time, highly weathered by the elements, feels surreal. So, so cool. It goes without saying that the views are incredible too. In the photos above you can see the Cheviot Hills in the image before the feather, to the other side you can see the Lammermuir Hills.

As well as the Stones and Geese we were lucky to have a Stoat cross our path on the way back down the path! It was by an absolute miracle that I got the photo of them, as it was such a quick passing moment and we were still quite far back so I'm very happy with that. Before going through the gates we ventured into a small wooded area in the hopes of catching another glimpse of the Stoat, or a bird or some other wildlife which proved fruitful! Around 5 deer must have been resting in an area to the left of our route and at our footsteps, they bounded off. I may have not gotten any photos but it's always a complete pleasure to see wild deer and we assume someone local was feeding them as there were a couple of small hay bales as well as a water bucket. Nearby those were areas on the floor where it was evident they had been laying, with disturbed earth in the direction they ran off. Not far from there we finally came across what we take to have been a badger sett, how fantastic!

It has been great to look back at these photos again even if I only took them a couple of weeks ago. I hope you have enjoyed them too.

Until next time...

My Paranormal Life - The Teen Years

Oooh, apparently it's been since a full four months since I published the first part of this series of stories! I didn't mean to leave it this long between posts, but I suppose it's quite fitting to be talking about these next parts of my paranormal experiences as we approach Halloween.
To read about where it all started, pop on over to this post > My Paranormal Life - The Beginning / Childhood Experiences.

As the title suggests, this next part follows on to my pre-teen and teenage years when there were a few more different occurrences throughout the years. However, as I approached my late teens and early adulthood things seemed to slow down. At that time the people in my life were disbelieving of me when I'd talk about any odd experiences and so I assume I repressed it and actively avoided any situations where anything could happen.

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So this could have been not long before I officially became a teenager, but it was a while after the experiences I shared in my previous post so thought I'd talk about it in this one.

I grew up in Berwick Upon Tweed but my Dad's family mostly lived in Newcastle. My parents have never driven so it was always a train journey to come down, then a bus out to their house and so it often involved an overnight stay rather than a quick rush visit to return home the same day. At my Grandparents, there were 3 rooms, one a guest room and my grandparents had a room each and as a child, I'd stay with my Grandma. I guess this visit in particular I'd decided I was too old to share a room so was allowed to sleep downstairs on the sofa as long as I turned the TV and lights off before I fell asleep, as Granda had said.

While laying on the sofa watching TV I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye! I looked up and saw what most people would describe as 'orbs' moving in a weird spiral type motion from the top of the curtains and it looked like they were accending up through the ceiling into what was my Grandma's Room. Because I got a shock, I turned the TV off and pulled my head under the covers. Remembering the light, I reached back to the lamp (one of those touch lights) and touched it to turn it off...then the 'big light' came on! Again, I got such a shock I jumped up, ran to the light switch and clicked it off when I was replied to by the radio blasting a static noise at me from the other side of the room.

I wasn't putting up with funny goings-on any longer so bolted up the stairs and slept laying on the floor of the guest room with my Mam and Dad haha!

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Moving on some years, to me being about 14/15 and I was on a day out up in Edinburgh with my friend. We weren't the biggest shoppers and I prefer to do experiences, so this ended up being my first ever visit to the famous Mary Kings Close. Having grown up interested in the paranormal and watching Most Haunted, I definitely knew the basic history of Mary Kings Close, though wasn't exactly expecting anything (being a believer who looks at most things sceptically to try and explain them first) to happen, especially not as much as what did.

The first thing happened before we were even fully down on the Close! While descending the stairs, my friend and I were first in line behind the guide, I burst out crying. Yes, I do cry a lot but I swear I had no idea how or why, it just came over me and blurted out. The guide asked if I was okay and said that there was an apparent spirit lady 'who liked to do that'...

We went through a big chunk of the tour without any more interruptions until we were in the room where the cattle and livestock used to live. Stood in a semi-circle facing the guide I was at the far right side of the group as she told us the story of the room. I was on some part of uneven floor and snapped my head around to the right when I felt a firm hand resting on my right shoulder just as the guide was pointing out the drain for animal blood below my feet. Obviously, there was no one there and I whispered to my friend to ask if was her...however, her hand was resting against my left the whole time and no one else within the group was in reach of me. I always took that as a resident spirit comforting me sensing my discomfort with animal slaughter etc.

As the tour neared its end our group was split in two to visit a smaller area. If you have heard of Mary Kings Close, you will probably know about the child spirit Annie and her room with all the toys people leave as gifts for her. Without previously knowing anything about this room, my friend and I entered and turned to each other to discuss in whispers how very cold it was in there considering it being a much smaller space than everywhere else we had been and so you would assume it would be if anything, warmer. It was uncomfortably cold though not too many other people seemed bothered. At the end of the guides talk, he explained that one of the things that people had experienced in there was a sharp drop in temperature.

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Those were my main stand out experiences from my teenage years. There were many other odd things that happened over those years from hearing bumps and bangs to seeing shadows and lights though none were more than that in each moment. 
My next post about my paranormal life gets a little more interesting as the activity gets more intense.

Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear what you have paranormally seen, heard and felt before. 
Until next time...

Exploring the Abandoned Twizel Castle part 2

 

Following on from Wednesday's post, here I have the second half of the photos I took back in August while my Mam and I explored Twizel Castle. If you haven't seen that post and are interested in more photos as well as a bit of a background to Twizel Castle and how it came to be please do pop over by clicking here > Exploring the Abandoned Twizel Castle.

I've probably mentioned it many a time by now, but my camera is well due an upgrate so I wasn't expecting much from these photos on a whole. Funnily enough it's the 'indoor' darker photos that I most worried about even being usable but I actually like those more than those that had plenty of light. I've never been interested in them before (I'm still not to be fair), but I would love to have had a drone purely out of curiosity about what can be seen from above. 

The amount of little details, colours, materials and gorgous architactural structures here really are beautiful and I wish it had a different story. To see it in better condition or to at least know it had been loved and lived in properly - I would love to have called such a magical place home.
I hope you enjoy these photos. I may pop back in winter to see the difference without the greenery of nature taking over. 

To see an image of the Castle at the height of it's glory, click here, it's SO worth it!!

Until next time...