The North Belfast Paranormal Research Group made local news when they approached Newtownabbey Borough Council seeking permission to begin a ghost hunt. In particular, NBPRG needed permission to have night-time access to the buildings and the grounds.
The site of Mossley Mill has had large industrial buildings on it since the 1700s due to the textile industry. That presence grew in size due to the Grimshaw family who introduced flax spinning of cotton and ordered the 1834 construction of the mill dam and chimney. The mill was purchased by the Campbell family in 1859, then sold to the Hanson Trust in 1978, to Herdmans in 1993 and then to Newtonabbey Council in 1996. The council stepped in to prevent the destruction of the historic buildings and began a major conversation and restoration project.
The first part of that project finished in 2000 and was opened by Prince Charles. The second part of the project, which was valued at around £15m, included the production of a theatre.
The theatre has been home for performances of Henrik Ibsen‘s Ghosts play. This is certainly responsible some of the causal mentions of ghosts at Mossley Mill. The council has also used Mossley Mill as alternative parking during Halloween celebrations, providing a shuttle bus between the mill and Ballyearl.
NBPRG’s co-founder, Carl Wetton, who emailed the council seems to be being a sensible as he can about investigating the hill for the paranormal. He told local press;
We expect this to be a dry run for future coordination of professional research and will also establish base readings so that we may more ably gauge when future readings are anomalous.
Hauntings
The renovated Mill has housed the emotionally charged Anne Frank (+ you) exhibition. The exhibition included photographs of Anne Frank, famous for the powerful and compelling diary she penned while hiding for her life from the Nazis in World War II, chilling film footage and graphic recreations. Although the exhibit only used relics it was been suggested by some researchers than exhibits and the like which spark off large amounts of emotional energy from visitors can seed the energy required for paranormal occurrences to begin.
In one Facebook wall post a local, Lynne, describes being alone in one part Mossley Mill after the first phase of the renovation. The temperature dropped suddenly and she could hear a scratching sound coming from in front of her, towards the ground, but no matter how far she walked forward the scratching sound seemed ahead of her.
Another poster reports simply seeing strange lights one night over the Mill building, near the chimney.
The Times Steps Living History group has run ghost tours in the Mill in previous years.
In Pure Spirit
Do you have any first hand accounts of the paranormal in or near Mossley Mill? Is the lack of
Picture credit: MJordan.
