Jamaica Inn – my visit Aug 2002

On August 16th 2002, while on holiday at my mum’s in Cornwall, John my fiancé, me, Mum and my little brother Thomas (aged 8) decided to go to Jamaica Inn for two reasons – lunch and a bit of paranormal investigation!
I had heard that Jamaica Inn is haunted, and that there was a bit of a murky past with all the smuggling connotations and tales, so I thought it was a great idea.
I didn’t know anything about the inn and had never seen any TV shows on it (still haven’t!!).
On arrival we parked in the customer car park, not too many cars so nice and quiet for a bit of a poke around the place!
There was an entrance there for customer to enter the restaurant area, but I felt drawn to the front cobbled courtyard area and so we walked around the perimeter to the front of Jamaica Inn.
As we walked around the side to the front of the Inn, I felt a pain in my stomach and was drawn to the courtyard cobbles and walled stretch by the roadside. I felt the spirit of a man who had been stabbed and left to die out there, and that he had been lured outside under false pretences by someone he knew – then was stabbed and left to stagger about in the big courtyard until he came to rest on that wall and died.
I was also being bombarded with energy imprints from the 1700s – many bodies of both men and women were carried out of the Inn (possibly murdered on the premises or dumped out of coaches) in the dead of night when the Inn finally became quiet over the moor opposite the Inn. If the moor was ever excavated I’m sure there would be tens of skeletons found under it! Mum and John were a bit gob smacked because they couldn’t feel a thing (except cold) so we went inside via the Smugglers Bar entrance for some grub!
As soon as I passed under the door lintel I was bombarded again and had to write names and events down as they came through thick and fast! John picked up on some names too – he has the gift but chooses not to develop it, but nonetheless gets flashes every so often too!
The first and most authoritative spirit was a big built bruiser of a man named Thomas “like your brother” he said to me – he had a very deep gruff voice, he spoke in a old Cornish accent (which slipped into dialect I couldn’t understand at times) and he walked with a limp. I could hear his footsteps near me going plonk-thud, plonk- thud! I didn’t like to ask him how he got the limp! He told me about how he comes back to the Inn all the time and doesn’t like the tourists! I told him I was a tourist too –but he said he didn’t mind me, I was talking to him see? He also spoke about how he liked to go upstairs as this is where he went in his time. I know he was attached to the inn and was possibly even the landlord at some point in the 17 to 1800s – he felt like he had a say in how the place was run and kept anyway, and it was in the way he spoke too –like, “let me guide you round my pub!”
I approached the two young male bar staff (who studiously ignored me for 2 minutes while finishing their conversation) and ordered a drink, and asked if they knew anything about the ghosts there. I told them I was a medium and I got a smirk from both – they “really couldn’t help me” they said, and “perhaps there’s a book in the gift shop”. Nice! I had intended asking to see the rest of the place with the manager’s permission but as they weren’t taking me seriously I left it and decided to do a surreptitious mooch around with the video camera and take notes instead…I kept seeing little flashes of light in the big fireplace nook – there was no fire lit with it being August and all –so an ornamental flower arrangement was the only thing in the grate.
I got my drink, and sat at a table between the bar and the huge central fireplace and made notes as I spoke with spirit, while I was doing that John and Mum went to the bar to order the food. I got an overwhelming sense that there had been a serious fire in this area around the bar at some point in the past too.
I received images of a girl named Rose – her full name was Rosanna or Rose Anne – she stoked the fire and served the drinks to the men at tables. I saw her by the fire place- she liked stoking the fire as she was left alone there and not pulled about like when she served the drinks to the unruly mob!
There was a gruff old lady too named “Old Jenny” (her name was Genevieve) who was “from upstairs”. I felt her energy go up into the rooms above, I think Tom had dragged her down to introduce herself!
I got the name Jan too but I don’t know who she was connected to or anymore info than just her name.
There weren’t many customers so we set up the video camera on the table and left it running pointing at the fireplace. No one would be able to walk through the shot so we were hopeful of picking up something as although it was daylight the bar was very dark because of the tiny old windows.
We ate lunch, Tom was still chipping his comments in here and there as I ate, introducing me to various spirit who were either grounded there or came back in visitation from time to time. Had to stop eating often to make notes! Mum said she felt like her hair was on end at the back of her head – just at the same point someone gently tugged my hair at the back too….
I had a bit of a rest for a minute and was drawn to see what was around the back of the fireplace, as it was a central column and the bar was open around it.
I walked around the fireplace to see what was there – it was an oak panelled snug with an alcove and bench on the right and bench facing the fireplace which was open on that other side with a smaller grate, and more seating on the left by the window. This space was only approx 12 feet across from fireplace to wall.
There were no customers in here at all so I thought it was an ideal opportunity to linger a while and see what I could pick up on.
I leaned on the stone mantel of the fireplace and felt more vibration come through and more names and emotion. John followed me around with the video camera. I felt a bit daft but it was ok!
It was in this area that I felt another 3 men sat in this area in the alcove, John, a shady man with trading and smuggling links to Africa, and Jim a naive ensign running with the “wrong uns”(Tom’s terminology) on ships that sailed from Plymouth. A fisherman named “Greene” also sat there, he was a quiet type but I think he was a bit on the dodgy side!
Tom also made reference to what sounded like “Mouw -zle” – which I found out by repeating it to my mum is actually a place in Cornwall called Mousehole – pronounced “Mouw-zle” by the locals. I couldn’t have made that up if I tried! That whole bit was in strong dialect so I could be wrong but maybe he was trying to tell me that’s where he was from. It is a fishing village so maybe someone else was about to be introduced…but someone in spirit decided to pull my hair again so I stopped!
John got the names Frederick, Betty and the surname Spence –but didn’t connect any more than that.
I thanked Tom for his input and we moved through the inn past the restaurant and towards the toilets – there was a definite presence in this area which made me feel quite sick (no, someone hadn’t had an accident in the loo!) .
Whoever it was – no introductions were being made so I closed down at that point and went to sit outside on a bench while I waited for the others to come out. While we were in the gift shop later on, I felt a presence and a cold spot around two points, one of which was a door marked Private which I felt connected with the main inn area I had been in earlier but no-one there could answer my enquiry when I asked where the door led to.
The video footage didn’t produce any orbs – but the conditions weren’t really ideal – and I was more than happy with the direct communication I got from Tom and the other spirits there at Jamaica inn.
Lets just say I wasn’t disappointed with the day!

© Rachel Keene 2004