Self-shifting paintings, footsteps in empty rooms and resisting doors are just some of the spooky things that The Royal Gazette team witnessed during a recent visit to Bermuda National Trust (BNT) Museum Verdmont on Collector's Hill in Smith's parish.

Granted, there's always a rational explanation so they say. Maybe the footsteps we heard in an empty room downstairs were echoes from the real people walking around upstairs maybe. And maybe we just forgot to pull the lock mechanism across before we tried to open the southern door. (Okay, that was just stupidity on our part). But in terms of the swinging picture on the wall upstairs next to the rocking chair and baby doll, uh...

This Halloween, The Royal Gazette took a look at Verdmont, one of Bermuda's favourite haunted houses, and came away a little spooked ourselves.

People who deal with Verdmont remain mixed in their opinion of whether it is haunted. Some people hang out for years at Verdmont, and feel nothing, while some tourists have walked around upstairs for a few minutes and insisted they've seen people dressed in period costume.

"Real encounters with the supernatural have been recorded by visitors who have felt the presence of a teenage girl in the main bedroom," said Carolyn Conway of the BNT. "It was reported to John Cox that the young girl was unhappily walking about aimlessly across the room. It was believed to have been the ghost of John Trott's daughter who had sadly died from typhoid fever in that very room in 1844."

Rosemary Robbins worked at Verdmont Museum for about three years. She said she definitely experienced strange things.

"Things were moved around," she said. "Things would be taken from one room and put in another room. At night, I would go home and the baby doll would be in the crib. When I came in the next day it would be in the rocking chair."

She said before working at Verdmont she never thought much about the existence of ghosts.

"I did after that," she said.

Cold chills, and sudden tugs on her shirt sleeve were all part of a day's work at Verdmont, for her.

"That was freaky, and I have never experienced that since," she said. "A lot of the tourists would say they saw things upstairs."

But she said it didn't particularly bother her very much.

"I don't know why but it didn't bother me," she said. "If there is a spirit there, it is a happy spirit."

Michael Fox, of Smith's, spent his teenage years living next door. His mother, Lillian Fox, was the caretaker for 28 years.

"As a kid, my job was to lock up every night," said Mr. Fox. "You often felt something in the house."

And he said they would often wake up and find piles of broken glass outside the front door.

"We'd sweep it up and it would be back the next morning," he said. "We couldn't explain it. There was nothing around that was broken."

As a child, he knew a few secrets about the house. The knobs at the bottom of the stairs came off, for example.

"And inside the fireplace there is a ledge," he said. "That is where they kept their tins of gunpowder and firearms, in the old days."

Although he said as a bored teenager he wasn't particularly interested in history, today he often enjoys using a metal detector and has found many interesting objects around the Island.

The house was purchased from the Joell family in 1951 for £8,000 by the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust, forerunner of the Bermuda National Trust. In a recent interview with The Royal Gazette, Alaine Joell Saunders said that she never felt anything in the house.

As a child growing up in the 1940s, her aunt lived at Verdmont and she and her family lived nearby. There was no electricity or plumbing at Verdmont.

"My aunt would have five or six camp stoves lined up in the kitchen," said Mrs. Saunders. "That's what she cooked with. It's a wonder she didn't set the place on fire.

"There was a space in the staircase to put a candle. You took the candle when you went upstairs because it was dark."

Visitors can learn more about the history of the house and its residents, by checking out a new informative exhibit in the attic created by Linda Weinrub of Fluent, a museum exhibit production company.

Verdmont was originally built by John Dickinson and his wife Elizabeth who were married in 1693. It is unknown when it was built, other than sometime between 1693 and Mr. Dickinson's death in 1714.

Looking out the southern door (once we got it open) we could easily see why Mr. Dickinson may have chosen the spot for his house. It has a panoramic view of the South Shore. The view may also have had a practical application. Mr. Dickinson was a ship owner and merchant, and he would have been able to keep track of nautical traffic on the South Shore just by looking out his front door. Perhaps he still looks out, from time to time.

The house now often echoes with the sound of real children's laughter. School children frequently visit as part of the Axis education programme.

The BNT partnered with Axis three years ago to develop educational programmes linked to the new Cambridge curriculum. Through the generosity of Axis the Trust has been able to develop teacher resources and deliver workshops using historic houses and open spaces locally.

November through April, Verdmont is open Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets for adults are $5 and children are $2. A Combination ticket to all three Trust museums is $10. For our visitors: Verdmont is a stop and short walk on the Number One bus route. Appointments can also be made for admission, telephone 236-6483.

l Tomorrow: get tips on how to carve a pumpkin.