Light marks on prints

[Muggins]

I've just spent some time in the darkroom, and found an unexpected problem. Several prints had odd white marks that looked for all the world like light leaks on the negative do when printed. There's an example below - this has two of them, while another two prints produced similar single marks but in a slightly different place on each print. I couldn't spot them on the neg with a loupe and have brought them home and scanned the offenders to check - and they are definitely not on the neg!

I'm fairly sure something is casting a shadow onto the paper, as it's light, but I can't work out where to look at the mo (now being several miles from the enlarger). For what it's worth - I think the problem is something in the enlarger, rather than the enlarger itself - it's a De Vere 504 with an Ilford Multigrade head.

Any bright ideas would be welcomed!

Thanks,

Adrian

 

[sepiareverb]

It would appear you have two ghosts in the darkroom.

Is your enlarger & lens OK? A cracked element or cracked condenser might do something like this? I've not seen anything like this to say for sure.

 

[Muggins]

I'll have to check. A friend and fellow use has suggested I check whether I had the black plate of the negative holder at the bottom (it's been so long since I've used one of those holders I'd quite forgotten)- I'd expect dark spots from reflections, but I'll try anything that might help!

Adrian