Do you believe in ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night?
One picture taken by a visitor to Cork's Spike Island this weekend may have even the most skeptical amongst us reconsider their beliefs.
Louise Bunyan is the woman behind the spooky snap taken on Sunday 28t October in the ‘abandoned jail’ section of the prison, a block which has held prisoners in the 1840s, 1920s and the 1990s.
A zoomed in version of the mysterious figure. Credit Louise Buynan.
Louise was enjoying an after-hours tour of the former island prison and fortress and as she went to snap an image of the empty cell block she was surprised to see her cameras facial recognition feature activate.
Further brightening of the image reveals the distinguishable shape of man seemingly carrying something across the hall.
Spike Island commented that their after dark tours focus on the real history of the inmates who inhabited the prison but visitors sighting are not uncommon.
The shape of a man walking the halls is claimed to be seen in the picture. Credit Louise Buynan.
Other photographs taken since the prison reopened as a visitor attraction in 2016 seem to show inexplicable shapes, unusual fogs and other unnatural phenomena, on an island where 1300 lie buried in mass graves, victims of an overcrowded famine era prison that held 2300 inmates.
Research undertaken by UCC and the islands heritage team have uncovered several stories of ghostly reports including soldiers firing at seeming phantom intruders.
Irish naval cadets stationed on the island in the 1980’s reported strange occurrences disturbing their accommodation.
Prison guards from the 1980’s reported prisoners used to complain of a ‘black entitiy’ visiting their cells by night, something seemingly captured in a 2016 image by photographer Shea Wolfe in an empty cell in the same block as the recent image was captured.
Credit - Shea Wolfe.
The island can be visited for weekends until the end of November.
