Alone In The Dark Entertainment, Ghost Hunting Events and Ghost Walking Tours in Newcastle, Sunderland, North East, North West England

Situated on the Coast Road in Whitburn, Sunderland, Souter Lighthouse commands impressive views over the North Sea. The sea looks rather empty these days, but in the late nineteenth century, the waters would be busy with ships taking goods for export, and an increasing local fishing fleet. The combination of a lot of sea traffic and the stretch of rocks between Whitburn and Marsden meant there were 20 shipwrecks in 1860 alone, and in response, the lighthouse was opened in 1871. Souter was the first to use alternating electrical current, and its 800,000 candle power light was generated using carbon arcs. The light could be seen for up to 26 miles. Its most famous lighthouse keeper was Robert Darling, the nephew to local heroine Grace Darling, who was keeper for 24 years.

The lighthouse actually stands on Lizard Point, with Souter Point situated a mile further south, but the visibility was believed to be better at Lizard Point, and the site location was changed. There was already a Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall, so Souter kept the name of its intended location. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1988, and was opened by its current owners, the National Trust, in 1990. Younger visitors are catered for with indoor activities and an outdoor play area, while adults can explore the engine room, light tower and keeper's living quarters. If you climb the 76 steps to the top on a clear day, you can see as far as Coquet Island to the north, and Whitby to the south. Nowadays, the lighthouse sees around 27,000 visitors a year.

Naturally, for a 140-year-old building that once played host to so much hard work, and now sees so many visitors, it would be pretty unbelievable to imagine that the building could be devoid of spiritual activity. TV’s Most Haunted visited several years ago, believing to have made contact with Isobella Darling, while staff have reported various phenomena within the lighthouse. Cold spots are felt around the building, footsteps are heard in empty corridors, and things disappear from the kitchen area. According to National Trust Visitor Experience Manager, Simon Colvine, “a number of visitors have commented that they’ve had things happen, that somebody’s touched their arm, or pinched their bum on the way up to the lighthouse in the tower, and they’ve looked around and there’s nobody there.” It’s not just visitors who feel the effects of Souter’s spooky inhabitants, as Simon says that “workmen have had their tools moved, and they’ve only found them the next day.”

With all this in mind, would Souter live up to its reputation? Would we be too scared to spend time there alone in the dark?

While there is plenty to see at Souter, we broke the building into four sections. One of the highlights is the Keeper’s Cottages, restored to give visitors a taste of their Victorian decor. Lone vigils in the children’s bedroom upstairs yielded a strange atmosphere and a candle apparently moving of its own accord, while the EMF meter recorded a disturbance near the dollhouse. However, the main activity occurred in the living area on the ground floor. During a session with the ouija board, we encountered a woman named Faith, who told us she’d been married to a man named Edward – a man who, it transpired, was categorised as “bad”. We found out she’d lived in the area before the lighthouse was built, she’d died in a fire in 1780, and she practiced witchcraft. As yet we’ve been unable to uncover exactly what occupied the site prior to the construction of the lighthouse, but we are working to verify these details.

Faith’s testimony would have been interesting enough on its own, but we asked her what happened to Edward. Her reply was that “Death came”, and further probing to discover how he died simply revealed that “Death took him.” We were clearly none the wiser, until another ouija board session, this time downstairs in the engine room, made contact with Edward. He admitted setting fire to his house with his wife inside, although we’re not sure what prompted his actions – the fact he believed her to be a witch, or the fact he thought she was having an affair with a pirate. The caves further up the coast at Marsden were associated with smugglers, and Edward himself was a sailor, so the piracy link is entirely plausible. A pirate later killed him in 1784 – was it Faith’s lover, or someone who just took a dislike to Edward? During the séance, we could sense a man standing in the corner, and we were told by those in the hub that a shadowy figure could be seen on the TV feed from the camera in the engine room. We also experienced other phenomena, such as moving shadows that weren’t cast by any of the team, as well as cold spots and an extremely active table-tipping session in the hub room, next door to the engine room.

Souter Lighthouse is a great place to take kids, and both the exhibition room downstairs and the activity room upstairs offer plenty of things for them to learn about and do. The exhibition room would have once been a busy place of hard work, and we did experience some interesting activity. The temperature dropped from 32°C to 26°C, while one EMF meter went off entirely by itself (something they supposedly can’t do). The spirits seemed unwilling to communicate using the ouija board, but they were much more comfortable making their presence felt during a human pendulum experiment. Different members of the team reported being pushed, or swayed.

Of course, you can’t really visit Souter Lighthouse without mentioning the tower. 76 steps take you to the top, and while being at the top of a lighthouse in the dark feels somewhat eerie, the tower itself feels remarkably calm. There is a peculiar atmosphere in the corridor, particularly outside the battery room, and we heard a loud bang from inside the battery room itself after lead investigator, Steve Taylor, shone his light through the windows of the room’s door. It must be noted that not only was the door locked, the room was also empty, but the bang sounded distinctly as if someone had kicked the door from the inside.

The tower is still used as a radio beacon, and a signal is sent every thirty seconds which prevents the use of EMF or K2 meters within the radio room at the base of the tower. We did try calling out, and on the EVP recording we did hear a bang as a response to a request for interaction, although the bang was not audible during the actual investigation. During a lone vigil in the radio room, one investigator reported seeing what appeared to be a person passing a window at the base of the tower, but when he checked, the shadow had passed a blank wall. The investigator also reported having his attention inexplicably drawn to that corner. Perhaps a former radio operator was still going about his business?

So is Souter Lighthouse haunted? Based on our evidence, it would appear that it is. Old rumours suggest that lighthouse keepers were driven mad by the fumes of the one and a half tonnes of mercury beneath the light that helps it move, but it would seem fair to discount this as a possibility. Too much activity is reported in other parts of the complex, while little is reported in the vicinity of the light. If you’re still not convinced, then why not visit Souter and see for yourself? You can find more information about the lighthouse on the National Trust website for daytime visits, or contact Alone in the Dark Entertainment for information about future investigations at Souter Lighthouse. If you’re willing to spend the night alone in the dark at the Lighthouse, then why not book a place at our next investigation there? Check the dates on our website.

Icy Sedgwick