Tales of Black Rock House - The Dining Room

5th August 2018. Reading Time: 4 minutes General, Tales of Black Rock House, Paranormal Investigation, Paranormal Locations. 1445 page views. 0 comments.

In this installment we head into the Dining Room and ask the question, 'what is up with that mirror?'

One of the most aesthetically beautiful rooms in Black Rock House is the immaculately decorated Dining Room. From day one we felt this was one of the most active rooms in the house. In hindsight, it is not true, but people are drawn to this room. There have been many experiences within this room. The main question everyone asks is “What is up with that mirror?”

We always say save the best for last. The Dining room is usually one of the last rooms we end up in. While we generally save this room to do ITC work there are many different experiences had in this room. One of them happened years before we even started investigating the place. We are told by many of the volunteers that one day there was a council worker sitting at the dining table finishing off some paperwork. He looked up and saw in the doorway a woman standing there in period clothing. He initially thought it was a staff member as they often dress up in costume to host historical tours. When he glanced up again she was gone. It wasn’t until he later spoke to someone to ask why a lady was standing in the doorway and disappeared that he found out that no one else had been there and they most definitely were not dressed in period clothing.

The beautiful table setting and red velvet tablecloth (which itself is over 100 years old), would make the perfect setting for some sort of séance. That is exactly what happened back in the early 2000s, again well before we started doing tours at Black Rock House. A group of mediums was hired to do a reading on the house to help build a script for Ghost Tours they were planning to run. They felt that there were 13 spirits in Black Rock House and apparently during this séance used the large mirror over the fireplace as a portal which they did not close. Does this explain all the weird things that happen with the mirror? Is this why people get 'creeped out' by it? It is also interesting to point out that in this room, we seem to get a lot of people coming through that are not from Black Rock House. Did they come from the mirror or are they just responding because we are putting the call out? I don’t know how much truth there is to this story and if the mirror is a portal or not, but I cannot deny how freaked out people get over this mirror. Some will not sit with their backs to it. Some are mesmerized by it and just stare into it. One of our regulars tells me that to her it shimmers, and she can’t quite figure out why it draws her in. Of course, the mirror would be perfect for Scrying exercises which is something we haven’t done on tours, but Ragnarr and I have done them ourselves. There was one particular occasion where Ragnarr started scrying and not long after she began he became startled and jumped backwards. He said suddenly he wasn’t looking at himself anymore but at someone else (who was not there).

People often feel they see shadows in the corner and on many occasions we have heard knocks. If you look out into the hallway while in the dining room, people report seeing shadow figures cross between rooms. We will often hear footsteps in the hall. One of my most memorable experiences in the dining room actually left me quite scared and rattled which doesn’t happen to me often. We were conducting a private investigation and already it seemed to be quite an intense and emotional night for a lot of people that were there. I was about to sit at the dining table to do a spirit box experiment where I would wear noise-canceling to listen to the spirit box sweep and I would call out what I was hearing. I won't’ be able to hear the questions the other investigators were asking so the hope is that what I am saying would match up to their questions and I wouldn’t be subjectively influenced to ‘hear’ the answer they are looking for. Well this particular night, I didn’t even get to start. The energy in the room felt heavy and thick.  I felt on edge which I very rarely feel at Black Rock House. I went to sit down on the chair and I don’t know what happened, but I jumped up and screamed. I wasn’t touched. I didn’t see anything. I just had this sudden feeling of extreme fear. I started crying and had to leave the room. Everyone was asking me what was wrong. I couldn’t tell them because I didn’t even know why I behaved that way. All I knew was that I felt scared and upset and I did not want to go into the house. That was the first (and last) time that I haven’t locked up. I was too scared to go into the house to lock it up, I gave that job to someone else for the night. Whether there was something going on in that room or I was just having a bad day, the fear I felt was genuine. 

One of the favourite rooms of the house almost never disappoints. If something paranormal isn’t happening, you can at least get some amazing photos of this beautiful room!  What do you pick up from this picture?

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