HAMPSHIRE: Chanting monks, a ghostly pale horse, a piano playing in an empty room and strange lights shining where a painting had once been hung - it's all been seen in haunted Hampshire ONLY the trees were watching us. Silent except for the rustling of leaves in the zephyr of a dark breeze.

Our guide led us along a gravel path crunching under our feet.

I stopped. I focused on the hazy outline of a figure in the distance. It remained still as death.

Then it slowly began to disappear into the foliage behind us. This was. Mottisfont Abbey, north of Romsey. the most haunted location in Hampshire . . .so we were told.

Two dozen of us thrill seekers had descended here on this dark, October evening for a torch lit ghost tour of the building.

We assumed the spook was an actor laid on by the National Trust and the background sound effects of howling wolves, blood curling screams and howls of torment were in perfect harmony with the eery setting.

Mottisfont Abbey dates back more than 800 years and was originally built on the site of an Augustinian Priory, the remains of which can still be seen today in the oldest part of the building, the cellarium.

In the 13th century, it was used as a cool room for food, drink and fuel for the Priory and its estates.

The cellarium has a very low ceiling and is supported by circular columns and had a strange, hushed, church like atmosphere. Our guide led us into this ancient space letting our imaginations ran wild in pitch darkness.

They say in this very room two men lost their lives hundreds of years ago.

Legend has it that you can still see scratch marks from their fingernails on the ceiling as they tried to escape a ghastly death.

That fateful day the cellarium flooded after continuous rainfall lasting several days.

Water began seeping through the stonework of the walls as the two men went in to do the accounts and a stock take.

The stones gave way and the water poured into the room with such a force that the only exit doors slammed shut. The water level rose rapidly until finally it broke the outer windows. But it was too late for the two men. They were drowned.

The other monks were in the chapel saying Mass. The cries of the two men went unheeded. When they were finally missed, a search revealed their bodies amongst the ruins of the store.

Volunteers from the National Trust have often asked a colleague to work with them in the abbey as they have felt strangely uneasy being alone in certain parts of the house and grounds at certain times of day.

There was the story of the gardener who heard a low chanting coming from inside the locked cellarium. But as she approached the door to listen there was only silence.

Intrigued by this mystery, she ran to get the key from the House Steward's office and returned where she heard the chanting from behind the thick wooden door again.

This time the chanting was accompanied by the sound of a voice, laughing in a cruel and sadistic manner. The large iron key dropped from her shaking hand as she ran terrified across the garden that morning.

The cellarium has other credentials for being so spooky. When the first central heating system was installed on the ground floor the excavations uncovered numerous bodies of some of the Priory's former inhabitants.

Shocked workmen discovered the graves as they dug the pipe work for the modern central heating.

There was certainly a tale or two of ghostly goings on to scare even the supernatural sceptic during the tour but perhaps the best way to decide if the abbey is indeed haunted is to take a walk around the grounds yourself.

Just make sure you don't venture down to the cellarium on your own at night.

For more information on Mottisfont Abbey visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk.