[SPEAKER_00]: Not all of our mini-sodes need to be from listeners.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, places or lesser-known cases can sometimes take us to dark realms.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone and welcome to our penultimate Dark Realms for Season 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, from Season 23, with our still-to-be confirmed changes, well, I know what they are and you're shortly about to find out, we're going to cut Dark Realms down to 2 episodes in month so we don't over saturate you and lose your interest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know a lot of you may think, well, we enjoy those shows.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't lose our interest at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: But believe me, it's been proven, we've done surveys, and those results show that oversaturation can very quickly kill a podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the last thing I want to do...

[SPEAKER_00]: is killed what you guys have created.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes because this show and our fan base and you guys enjoy important how we've evolved the show, how well that came together over a series of seasons, we can forget just how far the show has come.

[SPEAKER_00]: and I took a step back through the day, I listened to one of the shows that I really like, and I realized how much it was the same from when I first listened, which I really enjoy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it did make me realize that I'm really happy with the amount of say and control you guys have in our show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's kind of unique out there in podcast land.

[SPEAKER_00]: There aren't many shows that are truly produced by the audience, but I am proud beyond belief to say this is our own niche, our own corner of podcasting, and these changes will do it justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your feedbacks anything to go by, but we are here of course for dark rounds.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now today's dark rounds is rather unique from what we've covered.

[SPEAKER_00]: not necessarily in what it is because it's an old abandoned asylum, and we've covered many of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, this particular dark realm does not look to monetize on what it formally was.

[SPEAKER_00]: It reminds me, from our human-to-building form, if you forgive that bad analogy, of Roland Doe, the real boy from the ecstest, choosing not to ever reveal himself in cash in, on such a horrifying experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we all know, in today's society, that is a very, very rare thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today's dark realm is Rockward-a-Sile.

[SPEAKER_00]: on the quiet shores of Lake Ontario, Canada, because sat on the banks of one of Canada's most famous lakes stands the decaying structure known as Rockwood asylum, wants a progressive institution for the criminally insane.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, whispered about as one of Canada's most disturbing haunted locations.

[SPEAKER_00]: Its origins stretch back to 1859 when inmate from Kingston penitentiary were forced to construct the building themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the time the first patients arrived in 1862, the asylum was still unfinished.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, instead of putting the men elsewhere, the men were housed in partially [SPEAKER_00]: From the very beginning, rockwood's promise of humane treatment was undermined by cruelty, incompetence, and secrecy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It first superintendent, Dr.

John Lichfield, was later exposed as an imposter.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had no legitimate medical qualifications, and under his watch, patients were subjected to brutal practices.

[SPEAKER_00]: bloodletting, blistering, forced sedation, not as treatment, but as control.

[SPEAKER_00]: Screams would echo through the stone corridors that were designed to heal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though later doctors would [SPEAKER_00]: In 1885, Superintendent Dr.

William MacKarf was violently murdered by a psychotic patient who had fused two table knives into a single weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: The shock rippled far beyond the asylum's walls.

[SPEAKER_00]: Death, it seemed, had claimed one of rockwood's few hopeful figures.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe, bound him there, forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: renamed Penrose Hospital in the 20th century the institution eventually closed in 2000.

[SPEAKER_00]: It now stands abandoned, it's windows black, it's all silent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Except, some say, they are not silent at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to legend, Rockwood Harbour's multiple restless spirits.

[SPEAKER_00]: And on today's episode, we will meet three of the most terrifying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Each modisterbing than the last.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we begin our look at this trio of macarps' vectors with the ghost of the mad doctor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wispers lingered in the halls of Rockwood's administration wing late into the 1990s.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ghost of the doctor, by most accounts, is the revenant of Dr.

William MacKath.

[SPEAKER_00]: The very medical superintendent who tried to reform rockwood in the 1880s, a metavailant end at the hands of an inmate.

[SPEAKER_00]: One late autumn evening in 1885, MacKath made his rounds.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unaware that a paranoid patient lay in weight with a shank, fashioned out of two kitchen knives.

[SPEAKER_00]: The attack was serious, sudden and ferocious, and Dr.

Mekhovs tacked out, mortally wounded, so coming to his injuries three days later, the murder shocked the Victorian [SPEAKER_00]: and with it, it imprinted rockwood stones with tragedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some say it also bound the good doctor's soul to this dark place forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both visitors and night guards have reported seeing a solitary man in 19th century attire wandering the corridors.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tall, thin, carrying what looks like a medical bag.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dolls found locked the night before, will be discovered stood open by morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Footsteps are heard echoing in the empty wings.

[SPEAKER_00]: One witness described seeing a figure stood at the other end of a hallway, illuminated briefly by moonlight, before vanishing entirely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others claim a figure appears in the top dorm window late at night, pacing, stopping, turning, pacing, stopping, turning, as though in deep thoughts about something no one will ever know.

[SPEAKER_00]: One former guard said, you get the sense he's still working, still checking, still trying [SPEAKER_00]: Those who do encounter him often report a deep, crushing sadness, a feeling of unfinished duty, one neck clings long after the figure fades.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as usual on dark realms we now step it up a gear because this second spirit is far less forgiving.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the phantom nurse of the women's wing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Known, simply as the nurse, said to her the former woman's ward, she had a life that was believed to be a devoted caretaker during Rockwood's earliest and most overcrowded years, tending to dozens of patients in deplorable conditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was rumored to be kind, but harried.

[SPEAKER_00]: serving during the asylum's brimist years.

[SPEAKER_00]: With female patients housed in overcrowded converted stables until 1868, Nurse Carrier had the impossible task of caring for dozens of disturbed women in wofel conditions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Legends differ on her fate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some say she succumbed to an illness born of stress and overwork.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others whisper, she took her own life on desperate winter night, unable to bear the screams echoing of the stone walls, any longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirits of nurse carry a pierce in traditional nurse's uniform, stiff apron, posture rigid, eyes cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike the doctor, she does not wander.

[SPEAKER_00]: She guards.

[SPEAKER_00]: People who enter the women's wing report an immediate change in the atmosphere, a sudden drop in temperature, the scent of antiseptic, the unmistakable feeling of being watched, several have described seeing her, stood in always silently observing.

[SPEAKER_00]: those who meet her gaze often flee.

[SPEAKER_00]: One investigator recalled, it wasn't fear exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was authority.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like being told, you don't belong here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others claim to have heard a woman's voice sharply command, out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, more than one trespasser has fled in terror after peeking into a dark room and finding a matronly figure glaring straight back.

[SPEAKER_00]: In what account, a pair of local historians sneaked into the women's wing with torches.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reported that a disembodied female voice hissed out from the shadows.

[SPEAKER_00]: a moment later an old metal gurney down the hall rolled a few inches on its own, as if angrily pushed by unseen hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those two intruders didn't wait for a second warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: They ran.

[SPEAKER_00]: Convinced old nurse Harry was expelling them from her domain, yet others have described her as a gentle soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: one who has tucked in lone visitors who dared nap inside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even whispering lullabies that echo faintly in the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just as often, the stories turned dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unexpected cold touches on the shoulder, phantom footsteps pacing angrily towards you at midnight, and the feeling of intense scrutiny.

[SPEAKER_00]: as though a pair of unseen eyes are following your every move.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our final and most harrowing legend is saved for last, the tale of the tormented inmate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes simply called the screaming man of rockwood, unlike the doctor in the nurse, this [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps a composite of the many-retured souls who perished here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some say he was one of Rockwood's original convicts, a murderer driven mad by guilt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Others say he was a young patient subjected to crude experimental surgery, a failed lobotomy.

[SPEAKER_00]: One who died in pure agony, but all the stories agree on one point, [SPEAKER_00]: The rage, the pain, surrounding this ghost are palpable, and encounters with it are truly bone-chilling.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit is associated with violent disturbances.

[SPEAKER_00]: Footsteps chase visitors through empty corridors sell door slam objects move without warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of a night, blood-cardling screams have been heard echoing through the structure, raw, inhuman cries of agony.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some claim to hear piano music drifting from abandoned rooms, despite no instrument remaining.

[SPEAKER_00]: But indeed Rockwood once had a music room.

[SPEAKER_00]: The asylum boasted a 14 piece orchestra in the 19th century.

[SPEAKER_00]: and locals swear they've heard faint discord and piano notes plinking from those abandoned halls on winter nights.

[SPEAKER_00]: A chilling account held of two explorers who attempted to stay overnight in a former high security ward.

[SPEAKER_00]: A 3 a.m., they hear a soft male voice sing a lullaby.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they spoke out loud, the singing stopped.

[SPEAKER_00]: replaced by a furious shout.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get out!

[SPEAKER_00]: Light flickered the temperature plummeted and they ran.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later, audio recordings reveal something far worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: A whisper beneath the shout, repeating over and over, [SPEAKER_00]: Whether one believes this is the count or not, the tale of the tormented inmate on the school's rockwoods and jarring reputation.

[SPEAKER_00]: A place where suffering lingers tangibly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every unexplained gust every thld in an empty room may well be the sign of that wrathful soul still howling against fate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you ever find yourself near Rockwood asylum on a lonely night, do listen closely.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may catch the faint echo of footsteps behind you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the distant anguish cry carrying on the wind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remind her that some spirits broken in life, return in death with a terrifying strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Its limestone walls soaked in over a century of desperation, death and despair.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the grieving doctor pacing the halls to the vigilant nurse guarding her charges, to the raging inmate who cannot let go.

[SPEAKER_00]: The legends of Rockwood's ghosts continue to captivate and terrify.

[SPEAKER_00]: The stories blend history and folklore, teaching us about the very real horrors of early mental health treatment even as they send shivers down our spines.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unlike many dark realms we featured Rockwood Shies away from publicity.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're after a fun haunted experience, [SPEAKER_00]: After all, in the hush of twilight, especially at Rockwood, it's history and the supernatural that will hand in hand in this truly dark realm.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all for taking the time to join me today and I cannot wait to speak to you for our dark realms finale next week until then stay safe.

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.