I’m Fiona Broome. Here’s more about my work and interests…
As an author, I write about many topics, including ghost hunting and haunted places.
If you want to know about ghosts, ghost hunting, or haunted places, I probably have answers.
They’re answers you can trust.
I always investigate as a skeptic. When I can’t find a reasonable, science-based explanation for ghost-like phenomena… That’s when I become a believer, at least at that location. (However, I’m still open to normal – if weird – explanations.)
So, when I talk about ghost hunting, my advice isn’t hype.
My history with haunted places
My first ghost-related articles were published in Fate magazine in the 1970s. So, yes, I’m an “old-timer” with a lot of research experience.
I began my first ghost-related website in the mid-1990s, and launched HollowHill.com in 1999. That’s where many of today’s ghost hunting TV stars first developed their skills.
That site is still among the oldest and largest how-to websites for people interested in ghosts, spirits, and haunted places.
Since that early start, I’ve witnessed dramatic changes in paranormal research.
Currently, I’m updating my older books to reflect new discoveries.
I’m also developing a line of shorter, topic-focused books for modern audiences. They will be free in Kindle for at least three months, and portions released as audiobooks, free to listen to.
As a researcher…
I assemble small, selectively chosen teams to investigate intriguing, paranormal sites.
Usually, we explore locations with obscure ghost stories… places that the public rarely hear about. My favorites are those with rich, historical connections.
Sometimes I write about them at HollowHill.com.
Often, I don’t.
When I mention a haunted site, it soon becomes popular, and then – with too many visitors – it’s not as useful for serious research.
As a media consultant…
I use history, genealogy, and geography to confirm (or – more often – debunk) site owners’ concerns, and find unexplored haunts in the U.K. and U.S.A.
When I research well-known haunted places, I go far beyond the popular legends. For me, it’s a personal challenge to discover the truth.
I consider myself more of a historian than ghost hunter. After all, each person will interpret – or explain – what they experience, differently.
In addition to on-site research, I enjoy exploring records in dusty old libraries and church archives, and interviewing local historians.
As a location scout…
I’ve found haunted-looking sites for filming TV shows and movies. They may or may not be haunted. I’m just looking for cool, eerie sites for each producer’s projects.
For reality shows, I focus on haunted sites that most people didn’t know about, yet.
Also, I identify locations where TV producers are likely to find multiple haunts for several shows. (It’s easier to film several shows in one area, even if they’re aired weeks or months apart.)
Why I’ve been on TV just once
Since around 2003, I’ve turned down so many TV shows, I’ve lost count. (I did appear on a History Channel show once. That was enough, thank you very much.)
I choose not to be in front of the camera. I like my privacy. I’m not quite a recluse, but some might use that term.
As I see it, this means that I can stop for a dozen donuts at Dunkin’s, and nobody asks for my autograph. I can go to the grocery store wearing my comfy shirt and jeans, and nobody notices me; I look like everyone else. And my kids aren’t upstaged at school and church events.
For me, the trade-offs are worth it.
I’ve been featured at…
… and a lot more, as you’d probably expect, after so many years in this field. At least once every two weeks, Google Alerts tells me about another time I’ve been mentioned – by name – in national media.
(In 2023, when I was the subject of a conversation on The Today Show, I was astonished… and then couldn’t stop laughing at the absurdity of it.)
How I became interested in ghosts
As a child, I stumbled onto ghost hunting, almost literally.
My mother was a bohemian artist, and my father was a photographer, calligrapher, and political activist. So, our dinner guests regularly included artists, diplomats, professors, and inventors.
My childhood was set in a Town & Country world of travel and museums. Winters included rural ski lodges. Summers were spent at seaside cottages and luxury hotels.
Many – perhaps most – of them were lovely, very haunted old sites.
Then and now, what drives me is the pursuit of wonder. Discovering amazing, delightful things.
Often, they reveal a new, fascinating side of history.
So, I’m not interested in anything lurid or deeply tragic, though – in ghost investigations – tragedy may be part of the ghosts’ histories.
My first ghostly encounter was at one of those grand old hotels, Wentworth-by-the-Sea (New Castle, NH).
That’s where my brother and I once followed a woman in an old-fashioned maid’s uniform. As a joke, we tiptoed behind her, up to a dusty upper floor… where she vanished into thin air. (I described that experience in the book, Weird Encounters.)
At that moment, everything changed for me. I knew, without a doubt, that ghostly spirits must be real.
After that, my interest in fantastic topics leaped forward when I read A Wrinkle in Time. It was probably my favorite childhood book, along with The Borrowers series and anything by Edward Eager.
My ghost hunting career began as a journalist
As an adult, travelling around the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland has increased my fascination with eerie sites. That’s why I started writing articles published in magazines such as Fate.
In the mid-1990s, I started a paranormal research website, first at GeoCities (an early blog community) and then – starting in 1999 – at HollowHill.com.
In that era, mine was one of the few free ghost hunting websites sharing useful how-to insights. So, I received many invitations to investigate haunted sites.
Over the decades that followed, I wrote many more articles about ghost hunting. My reputation great as an expert in this field. Many of today’s ghost hunting TV stars developed their understanding of ghosts and spirits by reading my articles at Hollow Hill.
Currently, I’m revising and updating several of my ghost-related books. I’m also working on a series of shorter books about topics related to paranormal research. And, oh yes, I have a YouTube channel.
And, of course, I continue my scientific and historical research.
BIO
Fiona Broome is an author, researcher, location scout, historian, and media consultant. She specializes in paranormal research in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, and Canada.
She’s the founder of one of the Internet’s original ghost-related websites, HollowHill.com. She’s written more than 1,000 ghost-related articles for magazines and websites.
Fiona is the author of several books. She’s also contributed to the “Weird U.S.” book series and “Armchair Reader” books.
Fiona has been a speaker and panelist at international events including the New England Ghost Conference, GhoStock, Central Texas Paranormal Conference, and Canada’s annual G.H.O.S.T.S. conferences. She’s also been a celebrity Guest and panelist at Dragon Con.
Fiona’s websites include: HollowHill.com and this site, FionaBroome.com. Her other projects have included Ghosts101.com and MandelaEffect.com, as well as a few smaller projects she’s put to one side, for now. On YouTube, she’s at Ghost Hunting with Fiona Broome.
Fiona’s unique research
- Ley line patterns in ghost research. Using geographical lines (ley lines) and patterns, Fiona was the first to publicly identify sites with unreported (and under-reported) paranormal activity. She’s predicted anomalies from New Orleans’ French Quarter to Salem, Massachusetts, and from Atlanta, Georgia, to Maritime Canada.
- Historical patterns in general paranormal research. For Fiona, this started with her discovery of the connection between Abner Cook, Shoal Creek, and Austin, Texas’ many haunted buildings. Since then, Fiona has been a leading researcher in historical and geographical patterns. Those might explain why some sites seem haunted but others don’t. (And yes, many of those hauntings might related to infrasound, but why spoil the intrigue?)
- Genealogy as a paranormal research tool. Fiona has pioneered paragenealogy, to document (and sometimes discredit) popular ghost stories, from the Lalaurie Mansion in New Orleans, to the enduring “curses” that followed the Salem Witch Trials.
- Trivia: Fiona is descended from Oliver Cromwell’s first cousin, Thomas Cromwell. He fled the controversy stirred up by Oliver’s “Godly Reformation” and the English Civil War. Thomas and his family sought a devout, Christian community with a simpler focus, and less religious hyperbole. Alas, Salem was not a wise choice.
Fiona’s notes for those who speculate about her name: The Broome (also Broom, Brome, Brougham) surname may come from the broom plant, of the Genisteae family.
However, SurnamesDb.com says, “This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is either a locational or a topographical surname. If the former, it derives from any one of the various places called Broom (in Bedfordshire, Durham and Worcestershire), Broome (in Norfolk, Shropshire and Warwickshire), and Brome, in Suffolk.”
I’m pleased that the Broome (with an E) spelling is connected to an ancestral pilgrimage to the Holy Land and the Crusades. I rather love the romance and spirituality of that. While I’m fascinated by eerie places and ghost-like phenomena, I have my own, faith-based (and very private) views of actual ghosts and spirits.
( Fiona – which, since 1999, has been among the United States’ top 500 most popular baby names – comes from fionn, which is Irish/Gaeilge for light, white, or fair.)
- The Mandela Effect is a phrase Fiona popularized in 2009 to describe quirky, synchronous historical memories that differ from what’s widely accepted. There may be multiple explanations. Any or all of them could be correct, depending on the memory. For Fiona, this has nothing to do with conspiracies. (Are we all space-time travelers, and these alternate memories are markers that tell us which reality we’re visiting at that moment…? Well, maybe. Let’s not go all Fringe with this. Parallel realities is a fun idea for speculation… let’s just lean into the “fun” aspects, okay?)
- “Sparkles,” a specific camera effect. In the late 1990s, Fiona coined the term “sparkles” to describe camera phenomena that can indicate the likelihood of photographic anomalies. The term has since been adopted throughout the field, and used as a predictor in paranormal investigations.
Additional info
Fiona’s research, and her contributions to over 15 books, are always based in documented facts, history and science.
Online, she’s respected as the founder of Hollow Hill, one of the earliest, largest, and most-trusted websites about ghosts and haunted places. Today, Fiona makes sure the site is useful to all researchers, from beginners to pros.
Also, Fiona Broome was the inspiration for the “Fiona” character in Trickery Treat, the final novel in the first Charmed TV series books.
Conferences, Conventions, and Symposia
Fiona has been a regular, invited guest at many local events and international conferences. Here are some of the earliest:
- In 2003, Fiona was the opening speaker for the New England Ghost Conference. (John Zaffis was the closing speaker.)
- During 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, Fiona was an invited Guest and speaker at Dragon Con, talking about paranormal, sci-fi, and speculative topics. By 2011, she felt the crowds were a bit much, and the popularity of the Mandela Effect made public appearances less attractive.
- She was also among the speakers, panelists and investigators at GhoStock 7 (2009).
- In October 2008 and 2009, Fiona was a celebrity Guest of Honor at Salem, Massachusetts’ then-premiere social event, the Official Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball. (Fiona was never there as a “witch,” though she respects those who identify as witches.)
- Fiona was a guest speaker and panelist in Ontario, Canada at the 1st and 2nd Annual G.H.O.S.T.S. Conference.
- In October 2011, Fiona was among the guest speakers and panelists at the Central Texas Paranormal Conference, in Austin, Texas. After that, she decided she’d rather avoid the exhaustion of public appearances, and rarely speaks at events.
TV and Radio
Fiona has been a location scout and consultant for producers, cast, and crew of TV shows on SyFy, Travel Channel, and History Channel, etc.
She’s also appeared on a few shows.
- TV: Hollywood New England, Chronicle (various throughout New England), and the History Channel (History II).
- Radio: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (June 2018), Para-X Radio shows (several) , Blog Talk Radio (several, including Haunted 911), Darkness Radio with Dave Schrader, Psychic Sundays with Gavin Cromwell, The Spiritual View with Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, and Just Energy Radio with Dr. Rita Louise.
- YouTube: Ghost Hunting with Fiona Broome.
Fiona has never appeared in movies. She’s been represented by actors pretending to be her, but no one ever asked her permission.
She avoids seeing how she’s been portrayed. It’s rarely flattering.
YouTube, Podcasts, and Other Recordings
Fiona hasn’t agreed to recorded interviews in over a decade. (She’s been too busy.)
If you hear an odd-sounding recording of “Fiona,” ignore it. Or if it’s very worrisome, report it.
The only real recordings of her are on this website, HollowHill.com, Ghosts101.com, and on her YouTube channel.
Magazines and Newspapers
Fiona and her research projects have been featured in hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including:
- Haunted Times magazine: Fear the Darkness of Falstaff’s Experience (Fall 2008).
- Phylllis Hoffman Celebrate Magazine, Haunted Happenings in Salem (Halloween 2010).
- NH Magazine: Nine Bone-Chilling Questions with a Granite State Ghost Hunter (Oct 2002), Unearthly Encounters (Oct 2010), Haunted Cemeteries (Oct 2012).
- Boston Globe newspaper, Boston, MA: Inside the T’s Tunnel of Doom (Halloween “City View,” Oct 2002).
- Nashua Telegraph newspaper, Nashua, NH. Encore cover story, Do you believe in GHOSTS? (27 Oct 2000), The Haunting of Tyng Mansion (31 Oct 2002), NH Ghost Hunter Reports Ghoulish Prank (12 May 2003), Spirits & Hauntings & Pukwudgies, Oh My (10 Oct 2010).
- You’ll also find Fiona mentioned in: Medical News Today, Healthline, Kenbridge Victoria Dispatch, ZME Science, The Jerusalem Post, Upworthy, Parade magazine, Times Live, Good Housekeeping, The Hollywood Reporter, Art & Object, Press and Journal, Reader’s Digest, Snopes, The Mirror (UK), Independent Australia, artnet News, Mental Floss, Daily Mail, The Independent, and… well, you get the idea.