Is Oxford one of the most haunted cities in the UK? That is what a 10-day-long 'ghost festival' is hoping to find out.

During the festival, at the Oxford Castle complex, in New Road, which begins on Friday, November 30, there will be ghost walks, ghost hunts, a spooky Christmas fair, mediumship demonstrations, psychic workshops - and even a chance for those who believe in reincarnation to find out what they may have got up to in previous lives.

The event is organised by Fright Nights, which believes Oxford Castle is the perfect location - with its own resident spook.

Director Martin Jeffrey said: "We started doing events at Oxford earlier in the year and since we have been here it has been one of our most popular locations.

"People are experiencing paranormal activities. They are going down into the crypt and having weird experiences with a guy called Joseph, who was a monk who once lived there.

"What we're now trying to do is try and work out why it is so haunted and also doing a twist on Dickensian Christmas with things like tarot readers at our Christmas fairs.

He added: "It's an unusual event and we're very proud to be involved. Oxford is famous for its university but people have not recognised how historic Oxford is from a haunting perspective. We have been literally amazed.

"We're finding that Oxford is a real centre for hauntings and you can go down literally any street in Oxford and get lots of stories."

During the festival, there will be a week-long exper- iment investigating paranormal phenomena at the castle, led by Dr Rebecca Knibb.

Sulu Lang is part of the team which will be investigating, using equipment including cameras, dictaphones, camcorders and laptops to record any occur- rences.

Miss Lang said: "It's not what people will probably expect. It's a lot more scientific.

"I've done a recce of the site and I think it has very, very high spooky potential.

"The history of the building is fantastic and I think it does have a high probability of something happening."

People will be taken into the castle mound during events at the ghost festival, where they will see the oubliette - French for 'forgotten', and a place where people were left to die.

Mr Jeffrey added: "You can understand why Oxford has such a haunting history."

A huge range of events are planned, some family-orientated, and others aimed at the over 18s, such as converting the crypt into a bar.

More information about the festival is available at www.frightnights.co.uk