On the eve of Hallowe'en, Mike Powell took a team of volunteer ghost hunters to the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton.

So what really happened? Mike explains...

... I wasn't really expecting anything much to happen, even though 'The Dolphin' dates back to mediaeval times and lists Jane Austen, Thackery, Nelson and even Shakespeare as its guests.

As soon as they arrived, the mediums were picking up a lot. Both had visions of a royal carriage arriving in the courtyard behind the hotel, although we haven't been able to verify this. They also both sensed a spirit in the room I was staying in - and Kelvin said he could see a figure standing by my wardrobe, which was pretty spooky.

According to Taryn, a barmaid who used to work as a chambermaid there, Room 6, right at the end of the corridor, was the one nobody would go into alone.

We persuaded her to tell us her story, on air, standing in Room 6 in complete darkness. She said she'd been cleaning there, when she saw a shadow in the corner of her eye and when she turned around the door, which had been wedged open, was firmly shut.

There was no other guest or member of staff in the corridor. Colleagues say she ran out of the room, screaming.

An American soldier who later stayed in the room also ran out in the night and refused to sleep anywhere in the hotel, retreating to his car until morning. He said there had been something in the room with him.

Sadly, none of us picked up anything in Room 6.

Earlier, we'd all wandered into an empty, darkened dining room on the first floor. Ali Sparkes made a bee line for the fire place and rested against it, looking very at home. She beckoned us over, telling us that she was feeling very cold and tingly, but quite relaxed.

Kelvin told us she was standing more or less in the spirit image of a portly gentleman, who looked like he lived around the 17th century. Ali said she felt he was looking out to the water where the ships were. Before the modern flats were built on Castle Way, could you, indeed, have looked up West Street, opposite, and seen out across the sea walls?

This was all very interesting, but for me, it didn't really get started until we went down into the cellars, which date back to mediaeval times. We kept all the lights off, using only the glow from the night vision camcorder which Simon was operating.

We edged along a narrow corridor and Kelvin stopped us at a strange alcove in the wall, looking into a very small, low ceilinged chamber. He said the spirit of a small boy was in there.

Then it started getting exciting. Simon caught some strange moving lights on the night vision camera, which we think were orbs - the most basic form of spirit manifestation. Kelvin said it was this boy, and called to him - and the lights really did seem to be moving towards him and around his hands. Way down in that pitch black cellar, we called in to Paul Miller and reported what was happening. It was incredibly exciting.

I genuinely saw a glowing white apparition coming towards us. All of a sudden I felt the most almighty blast of icy cold.

As we felt our way back out of the narrow cellar corridor, we tried to switch the dim lights back on - but the bulbs blew out. We went to another room off the spooky corridor and sat around a strange cardboard cone brought along by Mark.

We couldn't resist going back to the cellars for our final broadcast in to Paul Miller's programme, so we returned to the same spot - and literally while I was chatting on air the temperature dropped so much that we were shivering violently.

It was at that point that the psycics discovered a small hidden doorway low down to the ground of the cellar, which Kelvin felt was the little boy's hiding place or escape route many centuries ago.

We also all saw something glinting in the darkness, which looked very much like eyes. We have it on the camcorder tape, and we'll probably be wondering about it forever.

Was it all real? Did I really, at long last, see a ghost? Whatever you think - I was there - and I couldn't explain it any other way.

SEE ALSO

Mike's home page

Adapted from 'Mike's Mysteries',
BBC Radio Solent Magazine, Winter 2003

Email mike.powell@bbc.co.uk