Our 13 week picnic marathon started on Friday 13 April, we’ll be visiting a haunted location every Friday until Friday 13 July…

We started off with a thirteenfridays road trip armed with sound recording equipment, digital cameras and an original Polaroid camera – to take an unfakeable and unique Polaroid image at each location. We followed Pembrokeshire Beyond’s haunted map of Pembrokeshire with seven locations to visit.

Our first stop was St Thomas‘ church in Haverfordwest, which is now out of use, (an apparent 40% chance of a paranormal encounter…) where we unpacked the first part of our 13 themed picnic in the graveyard.

Located in the centre of town, there are reported sightings of hooded figures making their way to the old priory situated by the river below the hill and the notorious Owl Man who leaps from trees to assail unsuspecting walkers!We had the first part of our picnic feast of 13 in the churchyard, with 13  cucumber and cheese sandwiches; 13 samosa, 13 cherry tomatoes on the vine, a selection of 13 teas and 13 peanut butter cookies..

With the sun shining and the wildflowers in bloom all around us it was hard to imagine our supernatural fellows at this location, but with the strange growth patterns of the trees – one looking like a giant man-sized nest – it would be quite another prospect after dark.

Our next location, Clay Lanes (a whopping 80% chance of an encounter…), is described as ‘..may be the most metaphysically active road in the county’

Most of the reported activity is on the road itself so we didn’t stop for any 13 picnic snacks – it is a very atmospheric area though. We stopped for a wander around the ruins at Haroldston seeking a glimpse of the white/grey lady and made a sound recording there which we will take a little time to process and draw out any EVP in the recording.

Our next stop was at one of two locations on the A4076 (70% probability…), another road which ‘..was home to an epidemic of sightings earlier this year. 44 sightings in two weeks.’

The image below shows the church at Steynton where ‘Legend says if you see the shadowy figure waiting by the church in Steynton and you don’t pick it up it will appear in your back seat and you will be involved in an accident not long after!”

We weren’t aware of any shadowy hitchhikers hopping aboard…

The next location on our route was the Waterston Road (80%…),  ‘For decades an old woman in a ragged dress and emitting an eerie blue glow is said to be seen on this road. There is also said to be a lady seen holding a bundle of rags.’.  Perhaps we were a little early for the weekend (when most reported sightings occur), but we did find a mysterious bundle of rags in the hedge! This location really was quite spooky and certainly sent a little tingle up the spine…

In Broadhaven (only 30%…),  ‘…the epicenter of a UFO and alien activity epidemic from 1977 to 1982.’ we keenly watched the skies for signs of activity and sat at a picnic table near the beach for our second picnic break.

With a bottle of Hop House 13 lager to drink we served 13 veggie sausage rolls, a tortilla made with 13 ingredients (potato, sweet potato, squash, beetroot, parsnip, celery, fennel, onion, cheese, eggs, butter, black olives and oregano), and a 13 ingredient lentil pate (red lentils, water, garlic, ginger, tomato puree, oats, cumin, coriander, bay leaf, tumeric, chili, sumac and salt) served with 13 mini oatcakes.

Our next stop was at Newgale (50%…), where ‘A man is said to run across the road into the path of unsuspecting motorists. he has been described as young with fair hair while others have described him as wearing a red jacket’. 

It was a misty evening and there were certainly a few young men criss crossing the road with pints from the pub to sit on the beach in the evening light – probably all corporeal we imagine…

So on to our final destination on a small road from Llys y Fran to Clarbeston (just 10%…but wow…) where ‘A flaming coffin is said to travel through the road and over the hedgerow. The object was said to have knocked a man off his bicycle and gave him a terrible scare while another man walking thought the object was on collision to kill him.’. 

No flaming coffins encountered we’re disappointed to report.Stopping at the reservoir to enjoy the last part of our picnic – 13 chocolate chip cookies and a warming cup of one of our 13 tea selection.

Looking at the Polaroids and processing the photos and audio clips from the day we found a couple of unusual results…one polaroid might show an interesting anomaly and something happened to the metadata on photos taken around Broadhaven and Newgale…IMG_7226 from Newgale is out of place and the ‘date modified’ suggests it was modified before it was taken!

We’ll be exhibiting the original Polaroids, sound works and other outcomes from our 13 weeks of supernatural picnicking later in the year.

Quote of the week: “I’m 80% delighted with this road trip!”