And who knows more about ghost hunting than Living TV's Most Haunted team?

One picture which captured the imagination was our 'skeletal hand'.
Taken by Newtown Paranormal member Rory Evans in the Panelled Room, it shows a hand reaching around a piece of furniture, and looks for all the world like an x-ray.

Dr Ciarán O'Keeffe, parapsychologist from Most Haunted, said: "Whenever a flash is used in a darkened room there is always the issue of reflection off shiny surfaces. The sector of the photograph with the 'x-ray hand' reveals other flash segments (i.e. streaks of white light as if the flash has reflected).

"Fortunately, in this case, we have a second photograph of the same area which indicates that the 'hand's' not as a result of patterning on the wood (ie it doesn't show up on the second photo). That said, however, a second photograph also has white marks on the same wooden sector of the photograph (ie on the bench leg).

"In my opinion there is a natural explanation for this alleged ghost photo – but as an aside, it does look like an 'x-ray hand'!"

This particular picture has caused great debate on the Most Haunted forum. The full un-cropped picture can be seen by clicking here.

Many people have tried to claim the skeletal hand is the camera's flash bouncing off a china plate at the back of the room – but others have worked hard to discount this theory.

To see the picture cropped, click here

Vlospiress wrote: "Although I agree this could be caused by camera flare, it would be unlikely to look so much like a skeletal hand, just think of the odds against it."

Meanwhile, Lozzie66 wrote: I am not so sure about the picture really, it's hard to see what is real and what isn't sometimes, but it looks like we have a picture and then a skeleton hand put on it."

One thing is for certain – no-one will ever truly know what is on the picture.

Dr O'Keefe was intrigued by the shadow on the chair taken by County Times photographer Rob Davies (click here).

He said: "Interesting photo this one, but only in terms of the two alternative explanations.

"It could be a natural wood discolouring, especially since the 'shadow' does stop abruptly on the photo at the head of the chair, which suggests that it may continue further down the door.

"Secondly, it could be the shadow from the small chandelier type light.
"The support for this explanation comes from a similar shadow to the left of the picture slightly obscuring the top of the framed picture.

"This shadow is from the spotlight on the ceiling so it would make sense that there's a similar shadow for the other light."

Scribble wrote on the Most Haunted forum: "Interesting. The fog does seem to lay flat across the picture, and not follow the contours, which suggests that it's not a mark or shadow on the panelling."

Finally, Dr O'Keefe took a look at the pictures of a mysterious pink light taken by Anna Lingard while she was on her own in one of the "haunted" bedrooms (click here).

The pictures – there are four in total – show a pink light moving across the camera before disappearing. He said: "A note of thanks to the photographer here for taking a series of photographs to compare. This is something all investigators should do.

"The key point here, though, is the comment by the photographer that the second photo is 'virtually' the same. That's the point. It is not exactly the same (but then how could you do that?).

"The second photo is shifted slightly and there's also a brief time delay, even if only for seconds. But this is enough time and movement to capture the movement of dust particles. It is interesting that this photo while sitting on the bed. It is always advisable to wait at least 30 minutes upon entering a room or sitting on furniture to allow dust to settle which you may have disturbed."

Dr O'Keefe added: "A fascinating series of photos which highlight the standard 'ghost photos' captured by groups on a regular basis and also which highlight the difficulty in interpretation. As a caveat, here I'm only offering alternative explanations.

"As I wasn't there and as we can't replicate the exact circumstances I can only do that. The photographer and others may wish to interpret the photos as evidence of ghosts – in my opinion we're seeing evidence of photographic anomalies, albeit anomalies with a viable natural explanation.

* Most Haunted Live: Village of The Damned – seven nights started on October 25, at 8pm on LIVING, culminating on Hallowe'en. A new Most Haunted series, series 11, starts November 4 at 9pm on LIVING.

* What do you think? Add your comments below.