The ghost of Tantallon Castle. Photo by Chris Aitchison (PA Wire)
The paranormal world got a jolt when British media outlets released a startling photo of a ghost staring from the barred windows high in Tantallon Castle in North Berwick on the East Lothian Coast of Scotland. The photo, taken at 3pm on May 26, 2008, by Christopher Aitchison, was submitted as part of a project for the Edinburgh International Science Festival, examining alleged ghostly images.
“It is certainly very curious,” Hertfordshire University professor and confirmed skeptic Richard Wiseman told Metro, a London newspaper.
Richard Wiseman
“We ran it by three photographic experts and they said it hadn’t been ‘Photoshopped’ at all. The figure appears to be in period costume, but we know 100% that Tantallon Castle is not the sort of place that has dummies or costumed guides; they just don’t go in for that sort of thing. I suppose it could be a visitor looking a little bit strange. Perhaps someone will come forward. The explanation is not obvious.”
This painting of King James V of Scotland is thought to resemble the ghost in the window. (Wikipedia)
The ghost is wearing courtly clothing known as a ruff, the dress of the Tudor era. The castle itself is a ruined fortress dating back to the 14th century. It was badly damaged in an attack by Oliver Cromwell’s forces in 1651, which accounts for its crumbling appearance.
Some have suggested it may be King James V of Scotland who once lived there. The ghost does bear a resemblance to a painting of the king. Tantallon was retained as a royal fortress until James V’s death in 1542. James had besieged the castle in 1528, regained control of it the following year, and extensively rebuilt it. It had been his childhood home, and he had returned to it. Perhaps he never really left.
“The image doesn’t show any signs of being altered at all,” said Steve Sayers, Art Editor of BBC Focus. “I’ve checked the RGB channels which is usually a give away, and also the level of noise, grain and focus. However, after enhancing the shadows it looks like it could be somebody coming down the spiral staircase.”
The Lamb family photo, taken in 1976
After the first photo was published, Mrs. Grace Lamb of Edinburgh came forward with her own photo of the same location, taken 32 years prior. It shows her late husband Hugh and her two children, Paul and Kelly. Behind them is what looks like a person in historical dress staring out of an opening above the window in the Aitchison photo.
“We saw the other photo in all the papers, and it was my daughter who remembered the one we had taken,” Lamb told The Scotsman, a newspaper in Edinburgh. “We went to Tantallon a few times when the children were younger. As soon as we got it home we all spotted this weird image in the background, and it has been quite a talking point for us.”
“The (Lamb) photo is in my opinion a pretty good one,” said Brian Daily of the Spokane Paranormal Society. “Although I do see where matrixing could be there – look at (the location of) the eyes and nose.” They are set along the edges of the wire screen. “There’s still more there than can be accounted for by the extreme digital zoom needed to expand [the] face.
“I wish the person had used a high definition camera. [The figure's] face seems really close to the mesh and parts of [the] collar line up with the wire mesh.” All of these are red flags in photographic analysis. Matrixing is the misidentification of something ordinary as something unusual.
Comparison of the original Aitchison photo with one of Wiseman in the location of the ghost. Photo by Chris Aitchison
“How do you explain the jaw line and cheek bone, not to mention the color,” Daily said. It makes him skeptical. “I am happy to see another photo rise from this place. I remind myself that I need to get my passport and take a holiday to Europe because they’ve got crazy haunted places there.”
Neither Aitchison nor Lamb recalled seeing a face when they took their respective pictures. The figures were only noticed when the photographs were developed.
“I am skeptical about ghosts, but this is a great find,” Wiseman said. “There has been a huge number of people visiting the project website and I have received hundreds of images, but this is one of the most curious,” he said of the second photo.
Ghost POV - how the opening in the castle wall looks from the staircase inside. Photo by Richard Wiseman
“It was fascinating to be sent this, as even though it is a higher part of the castle it is very similar to the original.”
Subsequently, Aitchison, Wiseman, and his colleagues went to Tantallon and conducted their own investigation.
“Chris brought along the same camera that he had used to take the original picture,” Wiseman said. “After much experimentation, we managed to find exactly where he had been standing. By chance, the lighting conditions were almost identical to those in May 2008, when the ‘ghost’ pic was snapped.”
Their conclusion, as shown by their photographic comparison from that day, was that a person – or ghost – could actually have been seen from that window, just as the original Aitchison photo suggests.
This is a complete rewrite of an article by Brian Daily and appears re-bylined with permission of the original author.
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