Derby Gaol Paranormal Investigation: May 2026 Case Study

Derby Gaol, sometimes written as Derby Jail, is known for its historic cells and reports of unexplained activity. On Saturday 9 May 2026, KASE Paranormal investigated the surviving Friar Gate gaol and the separate Vernon Gate prison spaces in Derby. Across six hours, the teams logged knocks, step-like sounds, paired K2 responses and a closing sequence involving the name “Emily”.

This case study brings together our investigation report, environmental readings, team activity logs and footage-review notes. Some moments remain intriguing, while others have plausible ordinary explanations. The most memorable experience happened after the camera had been switched off, making the distinction between a witness account and recorded evidence particularly important.

Quick Case Overview

Location: Derby Gaol, beneath 50–51 Friar Gate, Derby, and the separate Vernon Gate prison spaces.

Type of site: Historic prison cells, museum displays, corridors and surviving prison entrance/tower areas.

Investigation date: Saturday 9 May into Sunday 10 May 2026.

Investigation window: 8pm–2am. Environmental baseline readings began before the main investigation, with the first recorded at 7.23pm.

Team approach: Two KASE teams investigated different areas. Lucy coordinated the environmental baseline readings.

Aim: To document reported activity across the cells, corridors and Vernon Gate spaces, then compare those reports with environmental observations and recorded material.

Key findings:

• A sequence at Vernon Gate involved the name “Emily”, apparent cat-ball responses, a reported figure near the ladder and a girl-like voice heard by Laura and Dan.
• Cell-camera review identified repeated step-like sounds, including five steps that the reviewer distinguished from Dan’s attempted replication.
• Team B logged simultaneous K2 activity on two levels, followed by a second paired response.
• External voices, traffic, staff and investigator movement, insects, dust and recording limitations affected the evidence assessment.

About Derby Gaol And Vernon Gate

Derby’s prison history spans several buildings. The surviving Friar Gate cells belong to the gaol established in the mid-1750s on the former Nuns Green site. They form the historic core of the Derby Gaol attraction beneath 50–51 Friar Gate.

Vernon Gate belongs to the later nineteenth-century county prison, whose surviving frontage and entrance spaces form a separate location. This matters when reading accounts of Derby Gaol hauntings: an experience in the Friar Gate cells should not automatically be attributed to the Vernon Gate tower, or vice versa. Peter Higginbotham’s history of Derby’s County Gaol and Bridewell traces the successive prison buildings and reproduces contemporary descriptions of their layout and conditions.

Our report uses modern room labels such as the Murder Room, Shackle Room and Woman-and-Child Mannequin Cell to identify investigation areas. Those labels help locate observations; they do not independently establish the historical purpose of every room. Throughout this case study, events at Friar Gate and Vernon Gate are identified separately.

Why We Investigated

The surviving prison spaces offered a range of environments to examine, from enclosed cells and connecting corridors to paired upper and lower levels at Vernon Gate. Our focus was on what occurred during our own visit, how it was documented and whether it could be checked against the surroundings.

We wanted to compare accounts from both teams, review possible audio and visual anomalies, and identify any patterns worth returning to test. Historical associations and the venue’s reputation provided context, but did not determine how we classified an event.

Conditions On The Night

The weather was recorded as overcast, dry and windy. Pre-investigation ambient temperatures ranged from 17.6°C in the Shackle Room to 20.9°C in the Base Room. Relative humidity ranged from 51% to 58%.

Environmental Baseline

• Base Room, 19:23: air 20.9°C, floor 13.2°C, wall 14.1°C and humidity 51%. Gas/fire and candles were noted.
• Murder Room, 19:44: air 17.9°C, floor and wall 13°C, humidity 53% and EMF 1 mG. Lights were recorded as an electrical source.
• Shackle Room: air 17.6°C, floor 12.9°C, wall 14°C and humidity 54%. Vehicle noise was noted.
• Bench Room / Holding Cell: air 20°C, floor 13.3°C, wall 13.7°C and humidity 58%.
• Woman-and-Child Mannequin Cell: air 19°C, floor 13.8°C, wall 14.7°C and humidity 54%.
• Reception: air 18.6°C, floor 13.3°C, wall 14.7°C and humidity 56%. A staff member remained nearby, with occasional chair movement audible.

No formal hotspot or anomaly entry was completed. Most areas had pre-investigation readings only, with the later comparison fields left blank. We therefore cannot use these sheets to claim a measured temperature or humidity change during an individual reported event. Several K2/EMF entries were recorded as simple values without sufficiently clear units to present as calibrated measurements.

Possible Sources Of Contamination

Traffic, upstairs tenants, staff movement, chairs and voices from adjoining cells or corridors were documented. Footage reviewers also considered insects, dust, uneven floors, equipment battery behaviour and shadows cast by people nearby. These factors remained relevant even when an individual sound initially seemed to follow a question.

How We Ran The Investigation

After baseline checks, the team divided into two groups and worked across the cells, corridors and upper areas. Equipment included static cameras, body-worn cameras, audio monitoring, K2/EMF meters, cat balls, Spirit Talker, an Estes session and a spirit-board session.

We cross-referenced both teams’ activity logs with the footage-review notes. A logged experience tells us what an investigator reported at the time. A recorded sound allows further listening and comparison. A device response records what that device did. Each is useful in a different way, and none automatically identifies a paranormal cause.

Spirit Talker phrases and Estes responses are reported here as outputs from those methods. Apparent relevance is worth documenting, but an isolated word, name or device activation cannot confirm who or what caused an event. For more about our wider process, read how KASE Paranormal investigates reported activity.

Key Activity By Area

Friar Gate Cells And Main Corridor

Between 21:53 and 22:05, Team A logged several short experiences across the cells. Sue reported cigarette smoke in the Woman-and-Child cell. Laura heard two knocks in the Bench/Holding Cell and Jay heard a whistle. Sam heard two knocks near the foot of a mannequin in the Murder Room, Lucy heard possible footsteps, and Sam later reported that his left arm felt very cold.

Dan and Matt repeatedly heard knocks from the Base Room while Lucy was calling out. The static camera was checked and ruled out as the immediate source. The sounds stopped when the team entered the room, leaving the event unresolved rather than establishing its cause.

A cat ball activated at 22:43, followed by two knocks heard by Lucy near the entrance at 22:50. At 22:52, Spirit Talker produced “People have seen us” and “Apparition”. The Estes session produced fragmented material, including “Hanging”, “William”, “Guard” and “8”, but it did not form a reliable narrative. A further footstep was heard in the hallway/main corridor at 23:51 during the spirit-board session.

Vernon Gate: Paired K2 Responses

At 22:58, Team B recorded K2 meters activating upstairs and downstairs at the same time while questions were being asked. The downstairs meter reached red and the upstairs meter green. At 23:12, both flickered again, reaching red downstairs and amber upstairs.

Georgia also reported two touches to the back of her head. Ben heard whistling outside, while Spirit Talker produced several names and “Witchcraft”. Reviewers felt responses appeared more frequent when women spoke, but no controlled response count was available to test that impression.

The paired meter events are worth retesting with electrical sources and device positions logged carefully. Simultaneous activation alone does not establish communication or exclude a shared environmental source. Separately, at 00:33 in the main corridor, Ben observed cat balls activating one after another.

Vernon Gate: The Closing Session

During an upstairs Estes session, the report records Spirit Talker producing “I’m happy here” at the same moment Laura repeated “This is my happy place” through the Estes method. The similarity was notable to the team, although two apparently related phrases remain an interpreted match rather than independent confirmation of a communicator.

At 00:48, the group heard an “oooo” sound. Around 01:00, Lucy and Kimmie heard a high-pitched, alarm-like sound, followed by a second short sound at 01:05. Sam also heard a tap from the bottom of the stairs. The report includes physical and emotional reactions during this period, which are retained as personal experiences rather than evidence of a cause.

The “Emily” Sequence

At approximately 01:30 downstairs at Vernon Gate, Spirit Talker produced the name “Emily” shortly before the team prepared to leave. When the group addressed the possible communicator using that name, cat balls activated in apparent response.

Laura then reported seeing a figure move up the ladder towards the upper level. Activity stopped downstairs and noises began upstairs. This is Laura’s visual account; the report does not identify a camera capture confirming the figure.

The team switched off the devices and camera and said, “Bye Emily.” Laura and Dan both heard a girl-like voice reply. Laura understood a drawn-out “Byeee”. Dan could not identify the word, but confirmed hearing a girl’s voice. Their accounts agree on hearing a voice, while differing in how clearly the response could be understood.

The camera had already been switched off. The final reply is therefore a two-witness experience, not a recorded EVP that readers can listen to or independently assess.

What We Found Afterwards

After the investigation, the team found an account of Vernon Gate by Adelaide’s Haunted Horizons. It describes a reported little girl around the watchtower whom Denise and Richard Felix had named Emily. According to KASE’s report, our team did not know that reported name during the investigation.

That later correspondence adds interest to the sequence. It is also a retrospective match between a name produced during our session and an existing ghost account. It does not verify a historical identity, prove that the same reported presence was involved, or resolve other possible explanations for the sounds and device responses.

What The Footage Review Found

Repeated Step-Like Sounds

The cell camera produced the clearest recurring sound pattern in the review notes. Step-like sounds were flagged at recording positions 00:20:50, 00:26:17, 00:33:42 and 01:37:06. At 00:33:42, five footsteps were heard in the corridor. Dan walked the corridor to attempt a replication, and the reviewer concluded that the particular recorded sounds were not his movement.

This makes the sequence useful material for further testing. It does not exclude every other source, particularly with team members audible in nearby areas. Watch the cell-camera footage below:

Possible Voices, Shadows And Small Lights

Camera 1 review flagged possible singing, a possible voice and a moan or wail. Exterior voices and children were also audible, so an outside source remained possible. Dark marks or shadows were noted later in the recording, with pattern recognition and shadows cast by people in an adjoining room specifically retained as explanations.

Camera 2 contained substantial insect and disturbed-dust activity. A high-pitched scream or chair-like sound and later whisper-like noises were flagged, but contamination from team or app audio could not be excluded. Watch the Camera 2 footage below:

Camera 3 had poor, unsynchronised audio. An S-shaped light and a small white shape were noted, with the latter initially resembling a moth. These were not established as paranormal visual captures. Watch the Camera 3 footage below:

The recording positions in this section are elapsed footage timestamps, not the clock times used in the on-site activity log.

Evidence Highlights After Review

• Vernon Gate closing sequence: a cluster of device responses and witness experiences, culminating in a girl-like voice heard by two people after recording had stopped.
• Cell/corridor footsteps: repeated recorded step-like sounds, including a five-step sequence examined through an attempted replication.
• Paired K2 activity: two logged occasions of meters responding across separate levels, suitable for controlled follow-up.
• Cat-ball sequences: activations reported by both teams, with some appearing responsive but without a complete controlled activation record.
• Unresolved sounds: repeated Base Room knocks and high-pitched sounds upstairs, assessed alongside known contamination sources.

Is Derby Gaol Haunted? Our Conclusion

Our Derby Gaol investigation produced enough interesting material to justify further work, particularly the closing Vernon Gate sequence and repeated cell-camera footsteps. The combination of the “Emily” name, apparent device responses, Laura’s figure report, the shift of sounds upstairs and a voice heard by both Laura and Dan made the closing period especially memorable.

Memorable experiences and testable evidence are not always the same thing. The final voice was not recorded, the later name match was retrospective, and environmental or equipment explanations remained possible elsewhere. Our position is that the night produced credible reports worth investigating and unresolved material worth retesting, without establishing definitive proof of a haunting.

What This Means For Future Investigations

• Log Friar Gate and Vernon Gate as separate locations, with clear room names and team positions.
• Synchronise all camera and audio clocks and keep a movement log for investigators and staff.
• Repeat the Vernon Gate ladder and upper-level setup, keeping recording equipment running through the closing period.
• Record every cat-ball activation alongside the exact question, time, placement and nearby movement, including activations when nobody is asking questions.
• Repeat the corridor walking tests with different routes and footwear, alongside known traffic and building sounds.
• Test the paired K2 responses with electrical sources, device positions and no-question comparison periods documented.
• Complete during- and post-investigation environmental readings so any reported changes can be compared with measured data.

Explore More KASE Case Studies

Compare this investigation with our Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker case study, Fort Burgoyne investigation and March 2026 return to Slough Fort.

If unexplained activity is affecting your home, KASE provides free, confidential private paranormal investigations across Kent and the South East, including travel. Contact KASE Paranormal to discuss what has been happening.

Sources And Supporting Material

Internal Investigation Material

• KASE Paranormal, Derby Gaol Investigation Report, investigation dated 9 May 2026.
• Team A and Team B paranormal activity logs.
• Environmental baseline log coordinated by Lucy.
• Derby Gaol footage-review notes and the recordings linked above.
• KASE’s original photographs from the Derby Gaol investigation folder.

Published Sources

• Peter Higginbotham: County Gaol and Bridewell, Derby, Derbyshire, for historical background.
• Alison Oborn, Adelaide’s Haunted Horizons: Vernon Gate Prison Ghosts, Derby, for the reported “Emily” context found after KASE’s visit.