Moved to www.robgutro.com /I am an author, paranormal investigator & medium with Inspired Ghost Tracking. I can receive messages from ghosts or spirits (who have crossed over). As a scientist, I explain the paranormal with energy. Known as a Pet Medium; but work with human ghosts and spirits, too. My books teach you how to recognize signs from spirits.* AWARD-WINNING - 2021,2022 and 2023 BookAuthority Best New Grief Ebook for Pets and the Afterlife 3
Rob's Books, Medium Readings, Animal Rescue Fundraisers
BOOKS: Pets and the Afterlife, Pets and the Afterlife 2, Pets and the Afterlife 3, Pets and the Afterlife 4, Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead, Ghosts of England on a Medium's Vacation, Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium's Vacation, Kindred Spirits: How a Medium
Befriended a Spirit, Case Files of Inspired Ghost Tracking and Ghosts and Spirits Explained
BEST SELLERS: All of Rob's books have reached "best-seller" status on AMAZON.com in various paranormal categories. PET SPIRIT READINGS: Now offered via email and done on weekends. Reserve a spot thru Paypal. Email me at Rgutro@gmail.com Send 1 Photo of your pet, their name, and any questions.ANIMAL RESCUE FUNDRAISING LECTURES : Rob is a dog dad, volunteers with Dachshund and Weimaraner rescues and does fundraising lectures for dog and cat rescues.
Located in a copse in Hertfordshire, Minsden Chapel is a ruin that dates back to the 14th century.
It once became a romantic spot where couples got married, although by 1725 the crumbling conditions put an end to that.
But the site has also been linked to some spooky occurrences, pro ghost hunters have claimed. According to essexghosthunters.co.uk some people have “heard faint music from the chapel, glowing figures and shapes on the ruin walls." It adds: “There is even a legend about a nun who was murdered in the chapel, she also haunts the area.”
They claim there are orbs which have been captured on camera.
************************************************* You can read about MY encounters with some of England's ghosts in my book "GHOSTS OF ENGLAND ON A MEDIUM'S VACATION by Rob Gutro:
What happens when a medium goes on vacation? Can a medium simply switch off their ability at will? Well…not exactly. Rob Gutro is a medium/author/paranormal investigator and a scientist who has written 4 books about his encounters with human and animal ghosts and spirits.
In this book, you will read about his experiences on two separate trips to the United Kingdom. England’s rich history and many epic battles have caused an over-abundance of residual emotional energy. Everywhere he traveled, he had a paranormal experience. He explored royal palaces and spent the night in haunted castles. He encountered the ghosts of historical figures including a queen, a prince, and a nobleman; and several ghosts even shared their pain of death experience with him. On one occasion, the doppelganger of a loved one provided directions when he became lost while driving in the countryside due to a malfunctioning GPS.
But not all of his encounters were of the human variety: there was also a very special visit from a canine ghost. This book is intended to be more than just a collection of personal ghost stories. In addition to relating my ghostly encounters, he has also included a short narrative history of the places where the experiences occurred. After all, knowing the history of a place is key to understanding why a ghost has decided to stay behind.
So, join Rob as he relates his encounters with the ghosts of England. Rob has written 4 other books about the paranormal, two about people (Ghosts and Spirits and Lessons Learned From Talking to the Dead) and 2 about pets (Pets and the Afterlife and Pets and the Afterlife 2). The books are available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.com.
It's uncommon for a medium really get know a spirit so well that the living person considers the spirit a best friend. But that's exactly what happened to medium and paranormal investigator Rob Gutro. Gutro, best-selling Amazon.com paranormal author, medium and paranormal investigator recently published his story "Kindred Spirits: When a Medium Befriends a Spirit." In fact, the spirit of Ed helped solve the mystery of his own death.
When Rob met his partner Tom in 2005, Ed's spirit came along for the ride. Tom knew Ed but Rob never met him since Ed died in 1996. Over the last 14 years, Ed has communicated with Rob so much, that he now considers Ed a good friend.
Now, Ed often communicates to Rob and has revealed his sense of humor, his heart, and helped solved the mystery of his passing. Ed's "Spirit Treasure Hunt" showed his family he's with them, too. Ed even sent a look-alike to rescue Rob during a vacation in England. As you read about this special spirit named Ed and his sometimes funny communications, you'll learn signs your loved ones send. This book will teach you how to be more aware of messages from your loved ones in spirit.
"Being a friend with Ed in spirit is like having a friend who lives in another state," Gutro said in describing his relationship with Ed's spirit.
Although Rob has become known as a "Pet Medium" through the success of his books "Pets and the Afterlife" and "Pets and the Afterlife 2," he also connects with human Earthbound ghosts and spirits.
He is the first in the paranormal field to make the distinction between earthbound ghosts and spirits who have crossed over. Rob has three books about his experience with human ghosts and spirits, called "Ghosts and Spirits," "Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead," and "Ghosts of England on a Medium's Vacation," the latter of which was published last year.
Rob Gutro is a member of the Inspired Ghost Tracking Group of Maryland, and has been featured in the Washington Post and nationally syndicated radio programs like "Coast to Coast AM." Rob is a volunteer with Dachshund and Weimaraner rescues and gives fundraising lectures for animal rescues around the U.S., teaching grieving pet parents how pets communicate from the afterlife.
Popular with supernatural investigators, the Ancient Ram Inn is – as the name suggests – pretty old.
Going back as far as 1145, the former pub in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, has become a lightning rod that attracts paranormal researchers. Over the years, hundreds have visited the B&B in hope of seeing the 20 ghosts which are said to haunt the site.
Among the bizarre paranormal activities include blood-curdling screams, visions of a little girl in the hallways and flying furniture.
Despite its haunted reputation, the Ghost Club – considered to be the oldest paranormal research group in the world – has so far not managed to get evidence on camera.
You can read about MY encounters with some of England's ghosts in my book "GHOSTS OF ENGLAND ON A MEDIUM'S VACATION by Rob Gutro:
What happens when a medium goes on vacation? Can a medium simply switch off their ability at will? Well…not exactly. Rob Gutro is a medium/author/paranormal investigator and a scientist who has written 4 books about his encounters with human and animal ghosts and spirits.
In this book, you will read about his experiences on two separate trips to the United Kingdom. England’s rich history and many epic battles have caused an over-abundance of residual emotional energy. Everywhere he traveled, he had a paranormal experience. He explored royal palaces and spent the night in haunted castles. He encountered the ghosts of historical figures including a queen, a prince, and a nobleman; and several ghosts even shared their pain of death experience with him. On one occasion, the doppelganger of a loved one provided directions when he became lost while driving in the countryside due to a malfunctioning GPS.
But not all of his encounters were of the human variety: there was also a very special visit from a canine ghost. This book is intended to be more than just a collection of personal ghost stories. In addition to relating my ghostly encounters, he has also included a short narrative history of the places where the experiences occurred. After all, knowing the history of a place is key to understanding why a ghost has decided to stay behind.
So, join Rob as he relates his encounters with the ghosts of England. Rob has written 4 other books about the paranormal, two about people (Ghosts and Spirits and Lessons Learned From Talking to the Dead) and 2 about pets (Pets and the Afterlife and Pets and the Afterlife 2). The books are available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.com.
The Travel Channel covered haunted trails in the U.S. and here is one of them.
Violet City Lantern Tour and Heritage Walk, Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park offers numerous tours that touch upon its haunted past, including the three-mile Violet City Lantern hike through some of the oldest parts of the cave. Be warned the tour is a challenging one. Those up for it will discover a part of the cave once used as a hospital for tuberculosis patients in the 1800s. Then owner Dr. John Croghan believed in the cave’s healing powers, and built 11 huts for patients. Unfortunately, several patients died in the cave, forcing Dr. Croghan to abandon the experiment. A few huts remain, along with the Corpse Rock, a stone slab where bodies were temporarily placed before being carried out of the caves. Guides and visitors have claimed to hear ghostly coughing in that section. SECOND HAUNTED SPOT ON THE TRAIL -
The Heritage Walk treks to Old Guide Cemetery, now home to the patients who died in the cave, as well as former slaves who served as cave guides in the 1800s, most notably Stephen Bishop. Bishop is considered the best known guide due to his extensive cavern knowledge and for discovering new sections. His ghost is among the ones that are believed to haunt the underground world, and stories of being grabbed or pushed are manifold, as are plentiful accounts of spotting slave guide apparitions.
From the UK Daily Star: Eerie tales of mythical creatures lurking in the UK and where to find them - if you dare
Whether you want to visit the same places Bram Stoker travelled to when he was inspired by Dracula, or are convinced by the chilling tales of werewolves, the UK is home to many mythical creatures and folk tales
Ghosts, strange happenings and vampires - what more could you ask for? (Image: Peter Ealey)
From the famous Loch Ness monster to tales of werewolves and ghosts, the British Isles are no strangers to stories of supernatural creatures.
But what if you wanted to hunt them down yourself and try to come face-to-face with the beasts that haunt fairytales or urban legends?
In that spirit, our sister site 2Chill has rounded up some of the iconic mythical beasts in the UK, and where you can find them.
If you're ready for an adventure and don't mind travelling to all corners of the UK, find out where you can head off first - if you dare...
Water creatures
What lurks beneath the water?(Image: Getty)
Unsurprisingly for an island nation, we have lots of myths about water and its dangers. In the north, the River Tees around Piercebridge is home to Peg Powler, a river hag who preys on children who venture too close to the edge. Bubbles that froth and swirl on the surface of the river are called ‘Peg’s Suds’, and are a warning not to go near lest she lure you to your doom.
See if you can spot her from the safety of the footpath on this circular walk around Piercebridge, which takes in the ruins of the Roman town.
A more charming aquatic creature can be found in Zennor, Cornwall. According to legend, a beautiful woman dressed in an expensive gown started attending service at the church of St Senara. Her sweet singing won over the locals, and soon a young man - the best singer in the parish - fell in love with her. The pair eloped and for years no one had word of them. It later emerged that the lady was a mermaid and that she’d taken the young man to be her husband under the sea. The parishioners carved a chair to commemorate the event, and it can still be seen in the church today.
In Scotland, almost every body of water is rumoured to be inhabited by a kelpie - even the famous Loch Ness Monster is likely to be among their number. These shape-shifting creatures are thought to usually appear in the form of a horse, although some turn into handsome young men in order to woo passing girls. The Celtic beasts are depicted by two 30-metre high steel sculptures of horse heads at The Helix in Falkirk, standing on the Forth and Clyde canal. Designed by Andy Scott, the Kelpies represent the power of transformation across the region. They watch over the nearby M9, which can liven up a dull drive.
Dragons and wyrms
Dewi the dragon at Caerphilly Castle(Image: Richard Szwejkowsk)
You’re spoiled for choice if you want to go dragon-hunting - Wales is chock-full of the scaly beasts. From the site of an epic fight between the red dragon and the white dragon at Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia to the dragon that once lived in Denbigh Castle, these creatures haunt the length and breadth of Wales. Kids will enjoy meeting Cadw’s dragons, Dewi and Dwynwen and their brood, at Caerphilly Castle. There’s even an interactive game to collect baby dragons at selected sites across the country.
Meanwhile, in the North East you can see a falchion (medieval sword) in the treasury of Durham Cathedral that was used to slay a wyrm. A relative of the dragon, this huge, wriggly beast with its ‘monstrous venoms and poisons’ rampaged through the village of Sockburn in the 11th century. A brave knight, John Conyers, fought the hideous creature and defeated it. This legend inspired Lewis Carroll, who lived in the area, to write his poem Jabberwocky .
Giants
The Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, Northern Ireland(Image: Getty)
Some sites are so spectacular, they demand more than one legend. The Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim has several tales that explain its construction. In the most well-known, Irish giant Finn MacCool was challenged by Scottish giant Benandonner to a fight. Unable to reach each other by any other means, they set out to build a stone bridge between their two countries.
In some versions of the myth, Finn defeats Benandoner - but in others, Finn runs and hides when he sees the vast size of his foe. Finn’s wife disguises him as a baby, and when Benandonner lays eyes on him, the Scottish giant thinks, “If this is the size of his baby, how big must the father be?” Not wanting to hang around to find out, Benandonner hightailed it back to Scotland, smashing the bridge as he went.
In another telling of the legend, Finn MacCool falls in love with a Scottish maiden and builds the bridge so he can visit her. But Finn’s grandmother was afraid that she would lose him to this foreign woman, and she used magic to destroy the bridge. Finn rebuilt the bridge every morning, but every night his grandmother would undo all his hard work until at last the day came when Finn, exhausted, lay down and died. His heartbroken grandma turned to stone, and can still be seen along the Stookans headland.
Over in Shropshire, a Welsh giant had a grudge against the people of Shrewsbury and decided to put an end to them. He took a huge shovel of earth and set off for the town, but his sense of direction wasn’t very good and he got lost. By chance he met a cobbler, who was on his way home from Shrewsbury with a sackful of shoes to repair. The giant asked for directions, saying he intended to bury the town in dirt. The quick-thinking cobbler replied that he’d come from Shrewsbury and that it lay many, many miles away - so far away, he said, opening the sack to show the giant the shoes, that he’d worn out all these shoes trying to get home.
Unimpressed with the thought of walking any further distance, the giant gave up on his revenge and dumped the shovel of soil where he stood. It became The Wrekin, which is now an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and offers a number of scenic walks over and around its summit.
Further south we meet the cheeky Cerne Abbas Giant, a hill figure in Dorset who measures 55 x 51 metres cut from the turf and outlined in chalk. The Giant’s impressive naked proportions encouraged locals to believe that he could bestow fertility on them, and courting couples and women who hoped to conceive would spend the night within his outlines.
For years debate raged about the age and meaning of this giant - is he Roman, symbolising the demi-god Hercules? Or is he a 17th-century parody of Oliver Cromwell? Recently the National Trust undertook sediment analysis that revealed the earliest date for the mystery figure is 700 AD. The theory now is that he represents an Anglo-Saxon god who was forgotten as Christianity flourished. The giant’s outline faded, only to be rediscovered and re-cut in the 17th century.
Werewolves
Werewolves have been spotted by numerous witnesses(Image: Getty)
There’s only one place to go if you want to encounter a werewolf, and that’s Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. By day this 30.5-square-mile AONB open heath and parkland is used by walkers, mountain bikers, and birdwatchers, following nature trails, visiting the war cemeteries, adventuring at GoApe or just relaxing at a cafe. But by night, things take a more sinister turn.
Widely regarded as one of the UK’s premier paranormal hotspots, Cannock Chase is host to ghosts, monster cats, UFOs and since the 1970s, a werewolf. The majority of so-called official werewolf sightings - those called in to the police - are based around the Chase. West Midlands Ghost Club investigated the claims after the evidence started to mount up. Numerous witnesses, including a postman and an ex-police officer, reported seeing a large, black wolf-like creature that stood on its hind legs when startled.
Dog-walkers have fled in fear from a yellow-eyed creature growling at them from the forest, and motorcyclists claim to have seen the werewolf around the German Military Cemetery. It’s certainly a very eerie place even in daytime, so who knows? If you visit, be sure to wear something silver...
The undead
St Mary’s Church, Whitby, appeared in Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’(Image: Peter Ealey)
Yorkshire boasts more than its fair share of things that go bump in the night. In 1400 an anonymous monk at Byland Abbey wrote down 12 sensational ‘as told to’ stories of the vengeful undead. The manuscript, which was translated by the celebrated writer of ghost stories MR James among others, relates tales of men who died but rose again as revenants to right the wrongs they’d done or had done to them during life.
One walking corpse was a monk who’d stolen some silver spoons. He confessed his crimes to a startled passer-by, revealing where the spoons were buried. The man dug up the stolen goods and returned them to the monastery. The abbot forgave the monk, who returned to his grave and lay quiet forever.
If it’s vampires you’re searching for, look no further than Whitby. Bram Stoker stayed at this seaside resort in 1890 and set many scenes from his novel Dracula around the town. The atmospheric abbey ruins and the windswept clifftop graveyard of St Mary’s Church both provided Stoker with inspiration, and he researched Vlad Tepes, the original Dracula, in Whitby library.
You’re bound to see plenty of vampires if you visit during the Whitby Goth Weekend, which runs 29-31 October this year. Goth and Steampunk enthusiasts in incredible costumes promenade the town, browsing the shops and market stalls as they head up the 199 steps to the graveyard. There’s live music and other events all weekend; definitely not an experience to be missed.
And if ghosts are more your thing, take a trip to the village of Pluckley in Kent. Awarded the dubious honour of ‘most haunted village in Britain’ in the Guinness Book of Records in 1989, it’s home to more than a dozen spectres. A highwayman haunts a crossroads, endlessly fighting his last battle with the law; a phantom coach and horses drive through the village; and a Tudor lass wanders The Blacksmith’s Arms pub. The local church, St Nicholas’s, is thought to host a number of spirits, including a White Lady who was buried inside seven coffins, and a Red Lady who’s accompanied on her ghostly strolls by a phantom dog.
Experience Pluckley’s ghosts for yourself with this self-guided tour.
Boggarts, imps and green men
A green man in Rosslyn Chapel, outside Edinburgh(Image: osiristhe)
Ugly and mischievous, boggarts are spirits inhabiting old houses or the countryside. When you can’t find your keys or the milk goes sour, it’s (clearly) the fault of a boggart. In legend they like to lure people off paths and into marshes to drown. If this hasn’t put you off seeking them out, boggarts have left their name all over the north of England, from Boggarts Roaring Holes, a series of underground caves that can be explored by speleologists in the Yorkshire Dales, to Boggle Hole near the pretty seaside village of Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire. Stay at the youth hostel named after the boggle-inhabited cave where smugglers used to hide their loot.
Perched high up in Lincoln Cathedral is the sinister figure of the Lincoln Imp. Legend has it that one day, the Devil was encouraging his demons to have fun. They ran riot through Lincoln cathedral, knocking people over and smashing the stained glass, until an angel appeared and told them to be gone. The imps all fled, except for one who shouted insults and threw stones. The angel responded by turning the imp to stone, where he’s been ever since.
Visitors can follow a new trail through the city that features 30 specially commissioned imp statues to find.
A less malicious relative of the imp is the green man, seen carved in churches throughout the country. Though they are pagan representations of the forest and rebirth, green men are welcome in churches as symbolic of the Resurrection. Sometimes they appear as a face covered in leaves, while others have tendrils and leaves emerging from their mouths and ears. The origins of the green man are ancient, with depictions known from the 2nd century AD, and they’re still popular symbols for cathedral masons to carve today.
One of the best places to spot them is at Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh. As well as being famous for its role in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code , this chapel is a true work of art inside. Among the carved foliage and elaborately decorated columns are hidden about 100 green men, both in and outside the building. Can you find them all?
