Factual Supernatural author Jonathan Frank Tate explains how working as a Newborough Forest warden changed his view of the paranormal and inspired a book about 13 unexplained encounters
Jonathan Frank Tate was not looking for ghosts when he became a warden at Newborough Forest in North Wales.
The former British Special Forces serviceman says he barely believed in the paranormal at the time.
That changed while working alone among the woods and dunes of Newborough and Llanddwyn on Anglesey.
Tate has collected his experiences in Factual Supernatural, a new book now available through Amazon.
He moved to Newborough in 1988, having fallen for North Wales during childhood family holidays.
He remembers it as “a rugged land of magic and dragons, ideal for a child’s imagination”.
When a job appeared with Anglesey County Council, becoming a warden seemed an obvious choice.
“I love Newborough Forest and spent most of my time walking my dog there anyway,” he says.
Alone in Newborough Forest
Newborough Forest was much quieter then, with far fewer tourists entering the woods and surrounding countryside.
“The forest was empty and beautifully peaceful,” Tate recalls.
Summer brought visitors to the beaches and occasional trouble, including fights and alcohol-related incidents.
Most of the time, however, Tate worked alone and was perfectly happy with the arrangement.
“I spent a great deal of time alone in the forest, which suited me well.”
That solitude also meant nobody else was present when his strange experiences began.
His first major encounter became a chapter in Factual Supernatural called “Spaceman”.
It happened around four o’clock one morning while Tate walked through the forest before dawn.
He followed a grassy track beside a stream, with densely wooded ground rising alongside him.
Then he noticed somebody standing near the crest of a hill.
At first, Tate assumed another early morning visitor had entered the forest.
But the figure did not look quite right.
Its shape appeared human, yet Tate found its outline strangely difficult to focus upon.
He changed direction and continued along the lower track beside the stream.
Then he saw another figure.
This one stood less than a metre away.
The figure beside the path
The second figure stood beside a bush, apparently staring towards the ground.
Tate could see a human shape, but no clear face or identifiable clothing.
More disturbing was its complete failure to acknowledge him.
Anyone standing that close on a deserted forest path would normally react immediately.
This figure remained completely still, silent and apparently unaware of Tate’s presence.
Tate slowly stepped backwards.
The figure did nothing.
When he looked towards the hill again, the first figure had completely disappeared.
“I think the first experience was ‘Spaceman’ and it did shock me,” Tate says.
“I wasn’t looking for anything along those lines.”
Until that morning, he says he “didn’t really believe in very much at all”.
He tried to find an ordinary explanation but could not satisfy himself with one.
The experience instead made him reconsider what might be happening around him.
Thirteen strange encounters
More unexplained incidents followed during his years working around Newborough and Llanddwyn.
Tate eventually identified three areas where most of his 13 experiences occurred.
He does not claim to understand why those particular locations produced so many strange encounters.
“You do get an odd feeling walking through them,” he says.
Some of those later experiences, he adds, were considerably more worrying than “Spaceman”.
Despite the book’s title, Tate does not claim to have solved the supernatural.
“I will never pretend to know the answer to these things,” he says.
Instead, Factual Supernatural records events as Tate remembers experiencing them.
“These experiences are true,” he says.
“People may believe whatever they wish. I’m just relaying the facts.”
Factual Supernatural by Jonathan Frank Tate is available now through Amazon.
