Alan Shaw, the director of Isle of an Ghost Tours gives un an exclusive interview on all things spooky.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00So what is your name and then what is your role?
00:04My name's Alan Shaw and I'm the director of Isle of Man Ghost Tours.
00:08And then what got you into doing these ghost tours?
00:13Started at the age of eight years old on a school trip to Lancaster Castle. We went into
00:17the castle and if you've ever been in there you know that you get taken into the Great
00:20Hall and the guide shows you all the coats of arms around the wall, hundreds of them,
00:26and it seems to take forever and a day. And as an eight year old kid I didn't really want
00:30to know why one plaque had three lions on and the other had four. But then you get taken
00:35into the middle of the castle. Of course the cells, they sit you in the cell and then they
00:40close the door. You are there in pitch dark. The guide inside then starts talking about
00:45all the famous prisoners which have been kept inside there. Once you're released from the
00:49cell you then go downstairs into the oldest part of the castle, the dungeon, and the guide
00:54tells you about the famous prisoners in there, of course, the Pendle Witches. You're then
01:00taken round the back to what they call the drop room where the gallows used to be on
01:05the other side. And they tell a story of a young girl who poisoned her family and by
01:10the time her sentence came round she was too ill to walk to the gallows so they made her
01:16a little chair to sit on, small enough to go through the trap door of the gallow. And
01:22then the guide points to the corner, there there's a glass cabinet and inside a very
01:28small thin stool. The guide then turned round, he looked me straight in the eye and he said
01:34it's her ghost that haunts this part of the castle. As an eight year old boy I was then
01:40hooked on ghost stories.
01:42And then obviously with it being on the Isle of Man so you have one in Douglas, Peel, Ramsey...
01:49What do we do? We do Douglas, Peel, Castletown and Ramsey. We then do all the specials, we
01:53do the Gaiety Theatre, Milne Townhouse, Castle Rushen, everything. You name it, if it's haunted
01:59we're there.
02:00So I'm assuming you yourself do believe in ghosts?
02:03I do believe in ghosts, I have seen ghosts.
02:05You've seen them?
02:06I've seen ghosts, only at the corner of my eye but enough to say yes, that was definitely
02:10a ghost.
02:11And friendly encounters, have you ever felt negatively affected by them?
02:19We've been to one or two places with our investigation team and only once or twice we've come across
02:26a negative entity that we've had to get rid of but the rest of the time they're all fine,
02:30they're all happy and friendly.
02:31And then overall do you think people, do they enjoy the ghosts? Have you ever left anyone
02:36traumatised?
02:38We've left people who've needed clean underwear I must admit.
02:42Well thank you very much.
02:44My pleasure.