Kilminorth woodlands

Kilminorth Woodlands, Looe, Cornwall

Location: Kilminorth Woodlands, West Looe, Cornwall
Date: 25th July 2010
Time: 09:00pm – 01:30am
Duration of investigation: 4.5 hours
Team:
Ian Wilce Co-founder & Lead investigator
Steve Meads Lead investigator
Robb Leech Tech Manager /Investigator
Matt Curruthers Tech analyst /Trainee investigator
Mark Rablin Medium (Bodmin Jail)
Dave Guest

Brief history

In the following report there is no disrespect of the Woodlands intended, the investigation was carried out cautiously and with the respect to the natural beauty of the surroundings.
The Kilminorth Woods, located between Looe and Watergate, the site is thought to have been inhabited since 1000BC, it has been recorded as a woodland since 1600AD, making it one of the oldest woodlands in the country, and is a site of great natural beauty , with its bridle paths and walk ways this makes it very popular for woodland walks .
We were drawn to the area after hearing reports of strange things happening in the woodland, such as strange screams, people being chased by unknown things which were described as smelling of rotten flesh.
We decided to go and investigate the area, we arrived at around 07:00pm so that we could conduct a walk around of the woodland in daylight, which was very interesting we soon realised why the woodland is considered a place of natural beauty within minutes you are alone and undisturbed .
The first area that we wanted to have a look at was at the end of the bottom path which led to two beaches where we found remains of camp fires which led me to believe that this is a popular area for people to have barbecues or youngsters to have a few drinks around the camp fire , this was an area where incidents have been reported in the past , there have been reports of people hearing screams an being touched near the bench , this would be one of the areas that we would return to during the course of the investigation , we then saw that there were steps leading up towards the top of the woodlands , this was also an area that we would explore later into the evening .
We proceeded to walk back to the car and wait until darkness falls before starting the investigation.
The first vigil was going to be on the bottom path heading towards the beach, half way along the path we were stopped by Mark, he was picking up on something around the tree which we think may have been some kind of residual energy, We conducted an EVP session, we had the feeling that is was quite difficult to walk, almost like walking in deep snow, we then moved on to the bench at the end of the path where there had been reports of people being touched.
To be honest we didn’t get any strange feelings at all there , we did conduct a couple of EVP sessions there , one thing that we did notice was a foul smell , which we were able to connect with the low tide , it was the smell of seaweed and mud from the mud flats , when you are not familiar with that kind of smell it could be mistaken for the foul odour , maybe the same one that was smelt at the time of the incident that had been reported previously, on the beach itself it was quite windy and we were hearing alot of sounds that were being carried up river , it’s amazing how far sound can travel when the wind is in your direction which could account for some of the noises that were heard on previous occasions .
We then decided to head up the steps to the upper levels of the forest ,with a video camera in one hand and a oversized torch in the other I soon discovered that this was quite a climb especially when the steps seemed to come up to the top of my shins now I know how hobbits feel, it was more like something from a Royal marine training ground it seemed to go up forever after getting to the top and nearly having had a heart attack we made our way along the path in search of a single tree that had been described to us as maybe having a spiritual meaning , it didn’t take long and we had found the tree that we were looking for which turned out to be single sycamore tree ,using Robb’s talent as a tree surgeon he estimated the tree to be about 300 years old, there were ropes hanging from the tree which told us that the tree is still used by children for rope swings , but there were also signs of rope lacerations that seemed to be quite old , maybe the tree had been used for different reasons.
After Conducting EVP sessions at the base of the tree which lasted for about 45 minutes we came to the conclusion that it was a very peaceful area of the forest, the noises that we did hear in this area were mainly Birds nesting in the trees above us and small animals foraging in the undergrowth for food, Dave mentioned that it was so peaceful that he could have fallen asleep.
We then decided to move up to the very top of the woodlands where we then conducted more EVP’s, one thing that I noticed was that it was very easy for you to have the feeling of being watched which I would put down to a combination of the moonlight and swaying branches which in turn gave you the impression that something was moving out of the corner of your eye.

On the second vigil we split into two groups, group 1 was myself, Matt and Mark and group 2 was Steve, Robb and Dave, Group 1 headed back down towards the beach area and Group 2 headed back up to the sycamore tree.

Group 1
Ian
Matt C
Mark Rablin
We made our way down to the beach to see if we could get any further along the path only to confronted by sections of beach and path that had been exposed by the outgoing tide, which were very slippery and dangerous so we decided to double back on ourselves and explore the section behind the beach, the only thing that we found was a path that hadn’t been used for a while judging by the state of the undergrowth I did conduct an EVP and after analysing the evidence found nothing.
We then decided to investigate the area around the bench where there had been reports of people being touched so we placed a K2 on the ground about 4 meters from the bench , we also positioned a K2 at one end of the bench and conducted an EVP session , we were also unable to get any sort of reaction or obtain any audio proof, so we then moved up towards the tree ,where mark had previously picked up on what seemed to be some residual energy , we spent the next 15 minutes asking for any presence to step forward and show itself , but we also had no success in that area , at this point we could hear the other group making its way down the track towards us , so we then regrouped and made our way back to the car.

Group 2
Steve Meads
Robb Leech
Dave
Steve’s report
Evidence
After reviewing the evidence the only thing that we were able to come up with that cannot be explained was an audio recording that was caught on the way back to the car during the initial daylight walk around it is very difficult to decide whether this is a noise that had been carried up river or is it something residual that we picked on??.
During our visit to the woodlands we came across nothing and experienced nothing that gave us cause for concern, and for me the Kilminorth woodlands remains a place of natural beauty until anyone else can prove otherwise