The Royal Oak pub in gorgeous Swanage is a little known location that came to my attention via a team member; Aaron Hardy, but later became a place which helped me to consider a little more than the regular. It’s a location which is packed full of stories of ghosts, some of which appear to be directly related to the history of the location itself. What’s equally interesting is that an odd number of sensitives seem drawn to the pub. Perhaps the place holds a strange energy that acts as some kind of beacon!

A Little Ghostly History on the Spirit Filled Pub

The location itself actually dates back beyond 1855 possibly by a few hundred years. Prior to being a pub its believed that the location may have been three or four cottages.

I feel its important to mention that over the last ten years as a pub it has changed landlords thirteen times, with the latest ‘Rachael’ being the thirteenth landlady! Also, in the ten years the pub has experienced two fires. One of which was very serious, which investigation concluded started at both ends of the pub! There was also a possible natural death at the location which has yet to be confirmed.

The Royal Oak has experienced various types of paranormal activity over the years. From knocks, taps and voices to sightings of ghosts all over the pub. However over the years I think the instances of mediumship and trance mediumship are possibly some of the most interesting I’ve encountered.

During my own research into the Royal Oaks past I also found out that these reports were not restricted to the current visitors and landlady of the pub. When I interviewed the previous landlady she told me how her pets had often acted oddly, even refused to enter certain rooms.

On one occasion whilst some work was being done in the garden a human vertebra bone was found. The bone was later dated at 300 plus years old. Sinister as it may seem, its likely the bone could be Roman as there are some burial sites in the area.

My Visits To The Royal Oak Pub in Search of Spirits

This is one location that I have had the pleasure of visiting many times now and have conducted standard structured investigations, interviews with locals and also attempted various seance type approaches. In fact one such seance was based on the Singapore Theory and we tried to conduct an authentic Victorian Seance in order to drum up additional activity. Click here for details…

Over the years I’ve experienced many odd things at the Royal Oak, all of which fit into various categories of the paranormal. I will attempt to touch on the highlights of these experiences in this article.

For me one of the first experiences which began to change my very perspective of the paranormal occurred in what was an attic space, but is now the current landladys bedroom. On my first investigation at the Royal Oak I sat in the attic space with a local called Pete. I placed my Grandfather’s pocket watch (working, but not wound) between us, then called out asking spirits to move the watch. The watch never moved from where I placed it, but remarkably Pete and I soon realised the unwound watch was ticking and the hand was moving. The watch continued to work for at least twenty minutes. As an investigator I’m not one to jump to conclusions and this particular event was no different. So, in order to understand how this may have occurred I literally spent the next three months trying to debunk this! I never successfully managed to debunk it though. However what’s important here to note is that as investigators we often ask spirits to move objects, but that’s not to say that how that request is perceived is what we are looking for. I asked spirit to move the watch in that attic and they did just not physically across the floor, but internally so the hands moved for twenty unexplainable minutes. When we say things are not always what they seem we couldn’t be more right!

During my investigations of the Royal Oak, my team and I experienced various phenomena. These ranged from the usual raps and taps, cold spots, apparitions or at least some kind of movement out the corner of a team members eye. There was always something going on and things always appeared more active once I began to embrace the Mediumship and local circle into the mix.

In fact when we started to involve more Mediums and embrace their approach into the investigations, even I had to admit a change in the ‘energy’. This new approach for me brought about experiences that I had to question, couldn’t explain, but ultimately had to accept. This included feeling or even seeing a large presence of an entity of some kind, which I have no explanation for, but equally no fear of! It’s also important to mention that on occasion when I’ve experienced the presence of this entity I’ve kept it to myself, but others have also reported it to.

On once occasion whilst conducting a seance one member of the group slipped into trance and conveyed messages from a spirit to the rest of the group. At this point in my relationship with those at the Royal Oak it wasn’t uncommon for at least a local called Mo to attempt Trance Mediumship with the support of another talented Medium called Terri. Both are members of the local circle that meets regularly at the Royal Oak. It was during Trance Mediumship that I also witnessed a pale white arm in the same area as Mo, but not attached to anyone. What was amazing was that this was also seen by the person sat to my left.

There is so very much more I could say about the Royal Oak and those that frequent it; both spirit and the living, but alas I would be here all night! This is why the Royal Oak is one of my top ten most haunted locations in the UK that I have investigated.

Spirits a Plenty in this Most Haunted Pub

Many of the team and I have experienced strange things whilst visiting the Royal Oak, many of which remain unexplained. It’s for this very reason that The Royal Oak Pub remains one of my top ten most haunted locations in the UK that I have had the pleasure of investigating.

If you would like to read about the investigation in a little more detail the report can be found here …

If you would like to read more about The Singapore Theory Victorian Seance Experiment that we conducted at the Royal Oak Pub, please click here…

Also, if you’ve ever visited or investigated The Royal Oak, then I would like to hear about it too? Have you ever experienced similar activity as I did with my team?

Have You Ever Been To One Of My Top Ten Most Haunted Locations In The UK? Would love to hear your comments below.

I will be posting the ghost stories, and how our investigations went in future articles on this site. So, make sure you follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook Page to hear the latest. Better still, so you don’t miss out on any spooky haunting stories, you can sign up for me free newsletter here:

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I’m always on the lookout for new locations, if you have one that you feel may make it on to next years list of my favourite most haunted locations in the UK, please let me know.

Also, if you run paranormal events I am interested in checking out the experience and event that you deliver to your customers. Invite me along and perhaps your event will make my top five paranormal events for 2016.