WE are not responsible for breakages, thefts or poltergeist activity.”

I guess even ghost hunt organisers need disclaimers - and this one came via email ahead of my night in a haunted house.

I arrived at Bolling Hall - said to be Bradford’s most haunted building - on a suitably spooky stormy evening, with wind howling and rain hammering down. It was about 8pm. By 5am my divining rods were drooping, I was so tired I could’ve slept standing up...and I would’ve given anything to see a ghost, or even hear a bump in the night.

I don’t think I have any psychic ability - certainly nothing like the mediums taking our ghost hunt very seriously, who claimed to witness various apparitions that night, from a piano playing itself to an old woman “with arthritic hands” shouting at us in the kitchen.

The ghost night took place several years ago. It was a bit spooky to start with, as we huddled in for a demo on how to use the ghost-hunting equipment. “These are energy-finding divining rods,” said our guide. “You can make them from wire coat hangers. I use mine to find my car keys.”

I wandered around with my electro-magnetic field zapper, feeling like I was in Ghostbusters. Bolling Hall, with its 900-year history, is one of Yorkshire’s most haunted buildings and ghost nights are popular - we were told that “some nights plates are thrown through the air, doors are slammed and people are scared to death, screaming.”

Hauntings range from the famous “Pity poor Bradford” Civil War Siege spirit to to crying babies, laughing children and sudden shadows and perfume scents.

As the wind raged outside, it felt warm for a haunted house. Turns out it’s kept at a specific temperature to preserve the historic furniture. “If it suddenly goes cold it’s nothing to do with the heating...” whispered the guide.

Try as I might, I didn’t see any paranormal activity. Not even in the much-haunted Red Room, where someone in our group suddenly started shaking and struggling to breathe. All I saw was a pile of dead flies by the window, which seemed a bit odd for late November. A medium sensed a spirit “standing over a woman’s lifeless body”. We stood in a circle, awkwardly holding hands. “Spirit make a noise, move something or tap someone’s shoulder,” said the medium. What seemed like hours later we were still standing awkwardly, no shoulders tapped.

In the dining-room, after an uneventful seance, I noticed my EMF meter light had turned from green to red. Could it be picking up spirit energies? Er, no.

I didn’t see any ghosts that night in Bolling Hall, nor anywhere else. Even though I live in an old house I’ve sensed nothing more spooky than the dripping shower. I like the idea of ghosts though, as a blueprint of the past. We tend to assume they’ll be Victorian. But why not a ghost from the 1970s? Our homes have had many inhabitants over the years. I have a friend who lives in a post-war semi he says is home to a friendly ghost. His kids used to play with it.

“People think they’ll see a floating figure with fangs coming at them but it’s more subtle,” one of the ghost hunt psychics told me. “Spirits are an existing energy. Because of our busy lives we don’t read energies like ancient civilisations did. We turn to logic rather than the unknown.”

I like the unknown. Life would be very dull without it.

l Have you seen a ghost or lived in a haunted house? Email emma.clayton@nqyne.co.uk