Cannock Chase - 27th to 28th August

Just wanted to throw this picture out there. It is NOT one we took (obviously) but gives you an idea of the ancient Castle Ring layout. This is actually an old image, with more bracken and fern growing in both the centre section and around the banked walkway. The old moat running around the perimeter is also now filled with a lot more vegetation. The Ring area seen is within an area measuring approximately 260m x 260m.

The car park can be seen on the bottom-left side of the image. At the centre(ish) of the image, there was the area of the grassed bank that we sat on and had the Rempod and Ovilus activity.


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We arrived at Castle Ring around 11:21 on Friday 27th and proceeded to secure the vehicle and make our way to our proposed camp area. Initial observation of the area was that it was mainly Pine plantations, with a mix of other foliage throughout the area. Fern and brambles make up a lot of the lower coverage, with areas of open fields, grassed. The terrain was quite hilly in some areas.

After changing our camp area for something more accessible, and setting our shelter up, we started to walk the site at 14:39 with the intention of locating Beaudesert Hall ruins; an area of interest where an unusually large 'footprint' had been noted by a previous team; the Castle Ring site, and an intersection of the leyline noted close to the Watchtower.

We found the area of the 'footprint', but unfortunately, since the report was made of this, forestry works had been conducted in the area and heavy machinery had churned up the ground. Due to this reason, we deemed the immediate area unsafe to be investigating during the night phase and turned our attention to locating the Hall ruins.

After getting lost momentarily (we found that the woods could be very confusing at times, even following detailed map data), we found a locked gateway that borders the Old Beaudesert Park, with which the Hall ruins were located. As there were notices of Private Property, we did not attempt to gain access at this point but travelled further S-S-E to try and find alternative access to the ruins. The navigation was tough going - heavy foliage and undulating terrain was experienced, and with no sight of the Hall in view after some time trying to locate it, we took the decision to leave the search for this site and move back towards camp. En route, we located the Watchtower and identified the intersection of the leyline running through the area, noting it as a point of interest for the night phase.

We arrived back at the central camp area at 19:32 where we cooked an evening meal and rested for a few hours prior to moving onto the night phase of our visit.

We commenced our night phase at 22:30. Prior to this, at 20:39, from our camp location, we noticed an intermittent, static white light, well within a densely wooded area to the S-E-E of our location. We estimated the distance to be approximately 400m from ourselves. However, as the Chase was still officially 'open' (the car park was gated at 21:00), we presumed that there were still walkers in the area and did not conclude this was anything paranormal. Shortly after, we heard two distinct wood knocks coming from some distance to the East of us. It was not viable at this time to investigate this further and again, potentially there were explainable reasons behind them.

At 21:42, we started hearing night calls of wildlife within close proximity to us. Not paranormal in itself, however, it was interesting to note that one call, which we believe was a species of bird, sounded remarkably like a young, male child calling out for his 'mum'. There were variations in tone during the number of 'mum' calls made. This has been a reported occurrence by some visitors - children apparently calling out, often for assistance, and people heading deep into the woods, trying to locate the calls, due to concerns for a lost child. I cannot help but wonder if some of these accounts are due to similar wildlife calls we heard. At one point, extremely close to our position, something startled us with a loud, screaming call. By the time we had located our digital recorders to record the sound, it had ceased (it only lasted a few seconds) and we never heard it again that night.

From our location, we headed North on a track towards the Horsepasture Pools, and then Westerly following the main track down towards the Castle Ring area. During this time, we noted a set of green glowing eyes (caught by the torchlight) watching us, which we suspected to be a fox or similar, on a woodline West of where we were walking down. We reached an area on the track alongside Castle Ring when we noticed three yellow lights off to our left, moving through the wooded area towards us along a track that intersected with the one we were walking on. It was around 23:12 at this time.

From the speed at which the lights moved, and the illuminance projected by them, we concluded that it was a cyclist, possibly two, out on a late-night expedition. We continued on our path and lost sight of the lights as they appeared to head off in the direction that we had come from moments earlier.

We finally got to Castle Ring and set up for some EVP sessions, and other equipment use, on the Northern bank, overlooking Rugeley in the distance to the North. The night sky had cleared at this point, with a bright illuminance from the moon lighting up the whole area. We conducted a number of burst EVP sessions but received no responses. We set up the Rempod a small distance away behind us as we started recording with the IR camcorder and using the Ovilus. During this period, we received two responses on the ITC device, which was 'Battle' and 'Relevant'. Castle Ring is thought to have first been occupied around 50 CE, by an Ancient British tribe named the Cornovii. It is fair to presume that there may have been battles within the area, between tribes, but I have not found any documented evidence of this at present. The 'Battle' response was relevant in regards to the questions we were asking at the time. At the time, we took the 'Relevant' as a random word, but what would happen later on that evening would make us question its relevance to a much 'bigger picture'.

With the lack of any activity on the Castle Ring, we started to pack away our equipment. It was at this point that the Rempod behind us activated momentarily. It was not enough to light the LEDs, but there was a distinct 'chirp' emitted on three occasions. My sceptical companion seemed to be taken back slightly by this and it was something we could not disprove due to where we had located the device. There was also a noted EM spike, just prior to this occurring, on the EMF Meter. It never repeated this action again beyond this, despite attempting to gain further interaction. With no more activity being noted, we spent a bit of time observing the sky for any noted strange lights, or other oddities, but with nothing 'non-explainable' noted, we left the area and started to head back towards the camp area.

Unfortunately, due to the toll on my knees and hips (which I have medical issues with and was making walking more and more difficult) and the lack of any substantial activity, we decided to call it a night and head back to our shelter.

That's when things really turned a bit weird.

When we left camp earlier that evening, we had folded our sleeping bags over (to prevent bugs entering and getting cosy........) before we packed the backpack with the equipment to take with us. After we had done this, we checked the ground blanket with torches to make sure we had not missed anything. The blanket was clear and we left on our investigation. When we returned and opened up the front of our shelter, we were both surprised to find three glass marbles laid out on my side of the ground blanket:

View attachment 34619

Now, we both witnessed the fact that they were not there when we left. Callum did not bring any marbles with him, and I certainly did not. We had also been together all the time from departing the camp to our return and neither of us would have had the opportunity to place them down should we have brought any along.

To us, there are only two possible explanations. Someone wondering about the woods, and we believe that there was at least one person doing so, found our camp and were just messing with us by leaving them. The second - well, we have to consider something paranormal as there are no other explanations for how they got there, nor where they came from.

For those who are not aware, I did a posting a few months ago on PFN, where I reported having three marbles roll out, with force, from under our hallway flooring as I was ripping up our bathroom floor as part of renovations to our property. This had an eerily familiar vibe to it - it was similar to the one I reported on a while back, as far as it is an experience involving the unexplainable appearance of marbles. Three of them. Again.

Incidentally, 'relevant' was one of the words we got on the Ovilus at Castle Ring. Is there a relationship between this response and the marbles showing up?

I could easily put two and two together and get eight, but I have always gone into investigations with a sense of scepticism - all investigators should. There is the potential that this was just someone messing with us, but we can neither prove nor disprove this. In hindsight, I wish I had set up a trail cam covering the camp whilst we were away, but we didn't. At this time, we can only chalk it up as an unexplainable experience.
Thank you for taking the time to share that,Titch,
 
In relation to the 'marble incident', Callum took a picture of the shelter we set up. With the scrim, currently hanging across the front of the basha, hanging down, it was pretty difficult to see this in the day, let alone at night.

If it was someone messing with us, they may have seen us going to and from the area, although again, we had chosen the site as it was not straightforward to get to, nor could it be viewed from the main track that ran alongside the wood boundary which was approximately 12m to the front (the basha was actually within a small indent in the ground, as well as within dense fern as can be seen).

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To be honest Lynne, we did not take too many pictures on the visit. This was on the account that I left my DSLR in the boot of the car when we left to set up camp - doh :tearsofjoy:

I know Callum took a few snaps on his phone, as did I - but not that many with carrying and operating the other equipment. As we are still sifting through the video and audio recordings (running them through analysis software - just in case), I will potentially be adding additional stuff to this topic - including a few pics.
When you say Callum , wouldn’t be The Callum Kelleher?
 
Thanks for the picks. It gives me a much better idea of the lay out. Is there any knowledge of what this spot was used for historically ?
 
Castle Ring was an Iron Age hill fort, believed to be used by an early British tribe known as the Cornovii, back in 50 AD.

From the evidence gathered from Archeological digs at similar sites, we believe it would have look something like this:

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The Cornovii themselves were a Celtic people of Iron Age and Roman Britain, who lived principally in the modern English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, North Staffordshire, North Herefordshire and eastern parts of the Welsh counties of Flintshire, Powys and Wrexham.
 
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Castle Ring was an Iron Age hill fort, believed to be used by an early British tribe known as the Cornovii, back in 50 AD.

From the evidence gathered from Archeological digs at similar sites, we believe it would have look something like this:

View attachment 34691

The Cornovii themselves were a Celtic people of Iron Age and Roman Britain, who lived principally in the modern English counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, North Staffordshire, North Herefordshire and eastern parts of the Welsh counties of Flintshire, Powys and Wrexham.
Thanks foe this. It really gives more meaning to the history of the land you are investigating.
 
Cannock Chase must be one of the strangest spots in the UK. It's almost Britain's equivalent to Skinwalker Ranch as the range of activity noted here is incredible. Despite only being a relatively small area, approx 8x7 miles the 'Chase' is host to it all... UFO, Bigfoot, Big Cat, Ghosts and more have sighted here. A genuinely fascinating place.