Something of the Night

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Something of the Night

by Nick Smalleywith contributions by members and

friends of Ayrshire & Arran Branch ofthe Multiple Sclerosis Society


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AcknowledgementsAyrshire & Arran Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland, wouldlike to thank those members and friends of the branch whose efforts made

this e-book project possible.___________________________

My personal thanks go to branch members Walter Blackley, Jim Cameronand Carolyn MacIsaac for contributing their articles. Carolyn also took on thearduous task of proof-reading the e-book so a special note of thanks to her.

Local historian Mae McEwan allowed me to use a newspaper article she hadpreviously written about folklore in Irvine, and travel writer Norrie Hunter gave

a first-hand account of a spooky experience hed had in the Caribbean seas.

The accounts which arent credited to someone else were written by myself.

Finally a branch member supplied the excellent drawings that are featuredthroughout this e-book. This person wishes to remain anonymous and I dulyrespect their wishes; however my thanks to them.

Without the help of the people named above, this e-book, which is intendedas a fundraising tool for Ayrshire & Arran Branch of the Multiple SclerosisSociety Scotland, would have been much harder to put together.

If you enjoy reading Something of the Night please consider making adonation to MS Ayrshire and Arran Branch. Details of our work appear on thefacing page of this e-book. If you have any comments or suggestions aboutthis publication, please contact me using the details below.

Please make any donations payable to MS Ayrshire & Arran Branch.

Nick Smalley FMA

SOTN3 Five RoadsKilwinningKA13 7JXe-mail: [email protected]


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HHeellppiinngg ppeeooppllee aaff ffeecctteedd bbyy MMSS

Ayrshire and Arran Branch of the UK Society provides emotional andfinancial support for people affected by Multiple Sclerosis; Scotlands mostcommon disabling neurological condition.

The Branch offers a confidential service which supplements the mainstreamwork of the NHS and Social Services of the local authority.

Although there is no known cure, many of the symptoms of MS, such aspain, fatigue and lack of mobility can be alleviated by rehabilitation therapies(physiotherapy and occupational therapy etc.) and modified by superviseddrug regimes. These are available at the Douglas Grant Unit at AyrshireCentral Hospital in Irvine.

The local Branch services are open to those affected by MS, their familiesand carers whilst the national UK Society funds research into establishing

both the cause and hopefully finding a cure for the condition.

Ayrshire and Arran Branch is run entirely by volunteers with no paid staff andwith no government grants. It relies on the help of the people in the Ayrshireand Arran to continue its work. In almost 40 years the branch has existed,the community has not let us down.

If you think you could assist us, or indeed think we can help you, pleasephone, in confidence, our local office in Kilwinning on 01294 558866,email us at [email protected] visit our website atwww.msayrshire.com

Donald McNeill OBE

ChairmanMS SocietyAyrshire and Arran Branch

Registered Charity Number SCO16433

Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland

AYRSHIRE & ARRAN BRANCH

Multiple SclerosisSociety Scotland


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IntroductionThis book takes into account that there are many curious happenings whichcan be explained scientifically... it also takes into account that there are many

which cant.My own personal experience of what may be called a haunting came in the1980s when work commitments led me to move to the seaside town ofMablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast. It was the busy part of the holidayseason when I relocated, so accommodation was hard to find, but eventuallyI was lucky enough to find a beautiful cottage to rent on a short-term basis.The lady who owned it explained that it had been the home of her motherwho had died the previous year.

I settled into the cottage, but very soon, strange things began to happen.Packets of cigarettes I had bought went missing... then re-appeared a fewdays later in obscure places such as the bottom of the bathtub or in thegarden shed. Often, when I returned home after work, the door to thecupboard which contained the electricity meters, and was stiff to move,was wide open although it had been closed tight when I had left the cottageearlier. Similarly, the door of the wardrobe in the bedroom - again securelyclosed and fastened when I left home - was often wide open on my return.

When my short-term tenancy came to an end I mentioned these things in

passing to the owner and she laughed and said, Oh, dont worry, that willjust be my mum, then went on to explain that her mother had despisedsmoking and had often hidden her husbands cigarettes to try and make himkick the habit.

She also told me that, in the months before she died, the old lady developeda form of dementia that had made her become obsessively worried aboutvarious things. Her main obsessions were that someone was tampering withher clothes and fiddling with her electricity meter, so she checked the meter

cupboard and the wardrobe several times each day... often forgetting to closethe doors afterwards.

Whether this was a ghost that couldnt - or wouldnt - leave its home, ormerely the effects of subsidence, I dont know. What I doknow is that withinthe pages of this book youll find tales to make you wonder and a few that willmake you shudder; but hopefully not too many that will disturb your sleep.

Pleasant dreams.

Nick Smalley FMA

Editor


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Something of the Night


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Mary Kings CloseAn account by Carolyn MacIsaac

Do you believe in ghosts? Let me take you on a tour of Mary Kings Close andask you again.

Mary Kings Close is a notoriously haunted place below The City Chambers inEdinburgh. Imagine streets of tightly packed tenements, up to seven storieshigh, with narrow closes and poor sanitation. It is a dark, dank, confined spacewhich housed many of the people of Edinburgh. People like Mary King whomthe close was named after. Mary was born towards the end of the 16th century.She married a local merchant burgess, Thomas Nemo or Nimmo in 1616 and hadfour children Alexander, Euphame, Jonet and William. Mary was left alone withher young family when Thomas died in 1629 after only thirteen years together.

It was a very hard life which became even harder when the plague struck atChristmas in 1645. It was probably brought by ship into the port of Leith, fromEurope. The plague was carried by the fleas on black rats.

In 18 months the disease spread north and west from Edinburgh, killing asubstantial part of the Scottish population. Can you feel the fear as the plaguespread through those narrow, claustrophobic streets? There was no escape.

Those infected by the plague enclosed themselves in their houses and displayeda small white flag to indicate their desperate plight. Bread, ale and coal weredelivered to them each day. The plague doctor would visit to drain the pus-filledlymph nodes which if they ruptured would kill the patient through septicaemia.There was little help for anyone.

A century after the illness broke out, the city partly sealed the abandoned homesand alleyways. Chilling stories about ghostly sightings of previous inhabitantswere told.

Young Annie, who had not yet reached her teens, is said to haunt Mary KingsClose. As you walk into Annies room, deep below the Edinburgh streets, thetemperature drops, many feel hunger, sickness and sadness. It is believed Annie

was left to die by her family.Some visitors feel a cold little hand tugging their leg as they try to leave. Is it aghostly plea for help? Who could leave a young child to die a horrible deathalone? No food, no warmth, surrounded by a miasma of sickness. It tugs at theheart stings of the many visitors to Mary Kings Close. Some leave gifts for thelittle girl out of affection. Some sense her spirit in that deep, dark, lonely roombelow the city of Edinburgh.

Some of the guides report noises and the sounds of rustling clothes as theyleave the empty room at the end of a tour. They know there is no one there, allthe visitors have left. Perhaps it is the ghost of young Annie begging for food.

Visit Mary Kings Close, then tell me you dont believe in ghosts, if you dare.


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Above: Mary Kings Close,deep below Edinburghs

City Chambers, is reputedto be haunted by severalghosts.

Left: One of these ghostsis that of a young girlcalled Annie who lived,and died, in the close.After hearing her story,

some visitors leave giftsfor her restless spirit.


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The Screaming Skull of Burton Agnes HallThe road that winds its way to the village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshirenarrows as it approaches the village, then dips and turns as it meanders itsway through to the coast. In the dip is the village pond. A Wesleyan Chapel

stands high on a grass bank. There is also a Post Office, village shop and theBlue Bell pub. However, the most famous local feature is Burton Agnes Hall;a beautiful Elizabethan mansion, the walls of which house a curious story.

Ann Griffith, a young lady who at the time lived at the hall, was walking homeafter visiting friends. Halfway home she came across a pair of men lurkingunder some trees at the side of the lane. Feeling uneasy, she clasped herhands to hide a diamond ring she was wearing, but the men had alreadyseen it and asked for the ring in exchange for her safe passage. Ann refused,and was beaten with a club before the men tore the ring from her finger andfled, leaving her in a battered and bruised state. Ann managed to struggleback to Burton Agnes Hall where she died soon afterwards.

On her deathbed, Ann said that once she was dead her head was to beremoved from her body and that it should remain within the house or terriblethings would happen. Believing her to be delerious, and not wanting to carryout her request, her family had her buried intact in the nearby churchyard.

On the night of Anns funeral, when everyone had retired, screaming, wailingand doors banging upset the household. These disturbed evenings carried onfor several days until the family decided to exhume Anns body.

When the coffin was opened they were faced with the ghastly sight of Annsfleshless skull on her otherwise normal body. The skull was removed, to fulfilher deathbed wish, and placed within thehouse. Thereafter the tormenting eveningsstopped.

A few years later, a new family moved intothe house a box containing Anns skull was

found by a maid. Having shown this to thenew owner, the maid was told to throw it intoa cart containing rubbish. The horse pullingthe cart would not move until the skull wasremoved from the cart.

On various occasions since then, the skullhas been removed from the hall, and theghostly noises have resumed, so much so

that one owner decided that it would bebest to have the skull encased in a wallwithin the house so that it could neveragain be removed.


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Tea-Anna Falls.An account by Walter Blackley

If I was asked to name the favourite time of my life, Id have to say it was thatspent in the company of my paternal grandmother who was a prolific story

teller, mainly of spooky stories... which as a child I couldnt get enough of.On many a cold winters night I sat by the fire enthralled as she told mestories, including many a spooky story about strange local characters.

I often visited, in the company of my grandmother, the place near Kilbirnie inAyrshire, called Tea-Anna Falls. It was always green and peaceful there,despite being surrounded by the noise of traffic on the surrounding roads.As a child, and often since, the place reminded me of a vaulted cathedral,serene and peaceful.

Sitting alongside my grandmother one winter's night, she finally gave in tomy constant questions and told me the legend of the falls; lending to it, ofcourse, her usual brand of childish terror.

In this area, many, many years ago travelled an old gypsy woman calledAnna, the tea part of her name was added because she sold loose teadoor-to-door as well as the familiar clothes pegs and trinkets, possibly alsobringing relief to sufferers of various maladies with her herbal remedies.

Gypsies - I've been told - lived by their own code and laws, preferring to beleft alone, which may have made people become suspicious of them.

One lonely night Tea-Anna was camped at the top of the falls, when the areawas subject to a flash flood, not commonly known in the area, and sincegypsies always parked their caravans safely, one becomes suspicious ofwhat, according to legend, actually happened next.

When the flood had abated, all that was found of Tea-Anna's belongings washer dog and the horse which was always tethered on a patch of grass awayfrom her caravan; the remains of which were found smashed to pieces on therocks below the falls. Tea-Anna was never sighted again in the area.

Did my grandmother tell me the spooky story as a tale to keep an inquisitivechild quiet of a winter night? Maybe there was more to it. Having visited thesite numerous times since my childhood I have always been struck by thefeeling of serenity and calm.

Did the legend of Tea-Anna really happen? I like to think that her presencestill inhabits the falls, keeping the area as it once was, or perhaps gypsieswere looked on then as they are now, with suspicion and derision?

Could some people have helped Tea-Anna tumble over the falls, in effect,

dashing her to her death?I have heard numerous versions of the story... perhaps the presence of calmand serenity means Tea-Anna's spirit remains at the site of her demise?


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The Haunted Lighting ShopStaff and customers at a lighting shop in Humberside turned up the dimmerswitch after a spate of ghostly goings-on.

Lights mysteriously dropped from the ceiling, shades were thrown, doorsopened then slammed shut and footsteps echoed throughout the shop inGrimsby. Paranormal investigators, who were called in by the shop owner,declared that the shop was haunted.

Staff first noticed something was odd about the shop when light bulbs wereunscrewed from lamps and the shop door would unexplainedly open to set offan alarm. In the store room, boxes were thrown about at night.

They finally decided to get help after a customer watched a collection of

candle shades being thrown across the shop floor by some invisible force.Paranormal investigators have carried out research into the activities; andmediums and a shamanic pathwalker have also visited the shop to determinewhat is haunting it.

The owner said: "We have been told there are two men and an elderlywoman. One of the men is aggressive and comes into the shop after visitingthe pub across the road. He then makes his way upstairs. It's thought that hekilled his wife in a drunken frenzy."

Mediums believe that one of the men could be called John and the otherTom. They also believe the surname Harrison is linked to the restless spirits.

An investigator said: There is no doubt there are large amounts of activitythat can be classed as paranormal and unexplained on these premises.However, the shops staff say they would like to know more.

Steve Page, from the Lincolnshire and East Riding Paranormal InvestigationTeam said the first thing they do is to look at a building's past.

We examine previous human activity at the site, such as whether someone

has lived, been born or died there. This shop used to be two houses and inthe roof you can still see the original brickwork and walls, but we can't findout anything from before 1870.

Our objective is to look at rational reasons for the perceived activity, suchas road vibrations, anomalies in the electrics or other rational explanations.We are all sceptical but there is no doubt there are large amounts of activitythat can be classed as paranormal and unexplained.

The shop owners opinion was: The sooner we can get this calmed down

the better. The presence of these entities isnt frightening as they are notnasty towards us, but they are too mischievous for us and are interruptingthe running of our shop.


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The Ghost-Room at BelvoirWhen Lady Marion Alford went to Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire to attend aball in the mid 1800s, she was invited to stay for the night. She was tired andwent to bed early but was a little surprised whilst entering her room, when

another guest said, Oh, I see youve been put in the ghost-room.

Lady Marion said she was quite happy as she didnt believe in ghosts, but theother guest retorted, I can only say Miss Drummond slept there last nightand she received letters of importance this morning and left before breakfast.

Lady Marion went into her room, lit the candles and made up the fire, butvery soon she gave a great jump, for she heard the most dreadful groaningnoise close by. Thinking it was a practical joke she began to examine everycorner of the room in case someone was hidden there. Finding no one, sherang a bell to summon her maid. When the maid came Lady Marion said,Don't be frightened, but there is someone hidden in this room somewhere,and you must help me to find him.

Soon the noise came again. Lady Marions friend, Lady Caroline Cust, whohad accompanied her to the ball arrived at the room. She also heard it andsummoned her own maid. The noise occurred about every five minutes.They examined everything each corner of the room. The noise then seemedclose to each of them. At last Lady Caroline said, I can stand this no longer,

I must go, and she and her maid shut themselves into the next room.Lady Marion told her maid, If you are frightened you may go, but the girlprotested that she would rather stay where she was... after what she had justheard, anything would be better than facing the long lonely passages alone.

However, just at that moment 'Oh-o-oo-oo!' went off again close to her ear,and with one spring the maid darted out of the room and ran off as fast asshe could. Lady Marion courageously went to bed determined to brave it out.But the thing that groaned went to bed too, and went off at intervals on the

pillow close to her face. Finally, she could bear it no longer and dragged hermattress into Lady Caroline's room and slept there till dawn.

Funnily enough, the next day she also received letters of importance and leftbefore breakfast, but before she left, she sent for the housekeeper, and said,You should not put people into that room, and told her what had happened.

The housekeeper was much distressed, but said that there really was noother room in the house then, but confessed it had often happened before.

Some months later, when Lady Marion went to Belvoir with some friends whowanted to see the castle, the housekeeper told her in hushed tones that thesame thing had happened again and that the room was now permanentlyshut up and sealed.


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The Phantom Soldiers of Souter FellIt was late evening on Midsummer Eve in 1735 when a farmhand, working inthe fields in Cumbria suddenly stopped and looked across to the Fells. Hisunbelieving eyes concentrated on the top of Souter (or Soutra) Fell where he

saw, with terror, what looked like part of a huge army crossing from east towest, which after long minutes disappeared into a cleft in the mountainside.

The farmhand knew that Souter Fell was around 900 feet high and that thenorth and west sides were sheer precipices, therefore it was impossible fora number of people to move on the summit, let alone an army. As it began togrow darker he moved back towards the farm where he worked, half a mileaway. His story was ridiculed by the farmer and villagers.

Two years later, again on Midsummer Eve, the farmer, and members of his

family, witnessed what they had disbelieved and mocked.At first he saw only a number of men leading their horses and for a momentthought they might be huntsmen, except that he knew only too well no huntcould possibly take place at that height. Soon, they were followed by whatseemed to be a cavalry regiment riding five abreast under the leadership ofofficers who rode up and down the ranks of cavalry, and the following armyof marching soldiers. The whole procession passed towards the cleft in themountainside and vanished.

As twilight came on and clouds gathered above the Fells, they had only timeto see some stragglers trying to catch up with the army before darkness fell,and the family headed home. It was now their turn to be insulted by villagersto whom they told their story, none of the listeners believed them even thoughthe Fells were renowned for legends handed down through the centuries.

Every year, the farmers family went out on Midsummer Eve to look for theghost army, but nothing happened until the tenth year after the first sightingby the farmhand. That was 1745, the year of the Jacobite Rebellion inScotland. This time the farmer had summoned twenty-six other people to

witness his story and what they saw amazed them, as a vast army stretchingfor half a mile or more, passed over the summit of Souter Fell.

The very next day, still disbelieving what they themselves had now seen,some of the party climbed up Souter Fell to try and find hoof marks of thecavalry and the wheel tracks of the carriages, but there was nothing to beseen anywhere that would serve as evidence that such a vast army hadpassed there only a few hours before.

So convinced were they all by now that each one of them swore on oath

before a magistrate that what he or she had witnessed was the truth. Morestrangely still, they were now supported by others, who had previously beenafraid to tell that they had seen the spectral soldiers for fear of being insulted,as the farmer and farmhand had been.


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The Undead PriestHigh in the remote mountains outside Dublin lived a widow whose only sondecided to go into the priesthood. He left the family home and was away formany, many years - first training for, and then following his calling - during

which time, not once did he return home to see his mother.

One day, he arrived home unannounced. He had aged considerably by thenand it was clear that he had some sort of sickness. People assumed that hehad come home to stay for a while with his old mother to recover his health.She was of course delighted to see him and made him very welcome.

Her neighbours were delighted to hear the old widows news and also calledin to welcome him home. However, he had been away for such a long timethat he was no longer - nor did he make any attempt to be - part of the

community; he was clever and aloof and considered himself much betterthan the local people.

Locals consulted him on matters of faith but they did not socialise with him,nor he with them. He simply shut himself away in his mother's cottage in themountains with his books and his own thoughts. Then, just before his fiftiethbirthday, he suddenly died.

His body was laid out in his mother's house and everybody in the immediatelocality called to pay their respects,

On the day of the funeral, they carried his coffin from the lonely mountaincottage to the rocky graveyard on the side of a hill a few miles away. As wastraditional, all the people in the locality went to the funeral, but the motherwas not feeling up to the long and difficult journey and so remained at home.

It took a long time for the funeral party to reach the graveyard, and the tripback over the uneven road was equally slow. Night was beginning to fallbefore they came within sight of their own homes.

As they came over the last hill, the mourners saw a man approaching them,

walking very quickly. They looked at each other confused. Every man in thedistrict has been at the funeral, said one. Who could that man be and whyis he coming from that direction?

The leaders signalled for the procession to stop and they stood by theroadside and waited as the walker drew level with them. As he neared, theyall saw very clearly the face of the man that they had just buried!

He passed them on the other side of the road, still striding along swiftly at analmost inhuman speed, his head slightly turned away from them.

Even so, they were all sure of his identity and each of them saw the palenessof his skin, the steel-hard, wide-open eyes and the lips drawn back across hisshrivelled gums as though caught in the rictus of death.


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He was not wearing the winding sheet in which he had been buried; insteadhe was clothed in the decent, black frock-coat of a regular priest. He passedthem by and disappeared round a bend in the road which led towards thegraveyard.

Once the figure had passed, the people in the procession began to talk

fearfully amongst themselves, casting long glances along the road that hehad taken.

There was much discussion as to whether they should go to the mother'shouse, which lay about a mile away, and tell her what they had seen. It wasfinally agreed that a couple of the party should visit the grieving woman andcheck that she was well and settled for the night, but that nothing should besaid about the apparition.

So agreed, two of the pallbearers went to the cottage and knocked loudly on

the door. There was no answer.One of the mourners peered through the kitchen window to see the oldwoman Iying on the floor apparently unconscious. Using their shoulders, themen broke down the door and lifted her, reviving her with a little whiskeywhich they had about them. Hesitantly, she told them what had happened.

About half-an-hour earlier there had been a knock on her door. She could notimagine who it might be since all her neighbours were at the funeral and shewas rather afraid to answer it. The knock came again, this time more loudly

and insistently.

Getting up on a kitchen stool, the woman peered out of the small, highwindow. To her horror, she saw her dead son standing there in broad daylight,much as she had remembered him when he was alive.

Although he was not looking directly at her, she was still able to see theghastly pallor of his skin and the awful wolfishness of his whole bearing.He seemed to be half-crouchingas though preparing to spring

upon her when she answered thedoor. Fear swept over her and shefelt the stool give way beneath herfeet as her legs buckled and shefainted. There she had lain untilher neighbours had found her.

The undead priest was neverseen in the neighbourhood again,

but people in that remote parishstill pass his grave in the lonelymountain cemetery with a quickand fearful step.


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Nottinghams got Spirit(s)The Galleries of Justice can be found in Nottinghams Lace Market area in aGrade II listed building. There has been a court on this site from 1375 and aprison since 1449. Should you ever visit, you will see that many years ago, when

carving the institutions title above the door a stonemason accidentally carvedCounty Goal - hastily changing it to County Gaol (the old spelling of jail).

The prison was a vast array of cells, corridors and yards that extended aroundthe building. It was the only place in the country where you could be judged,sentenced, imprisoned and even executed all in the same place. The VictorianCourtroom which dates from 1887 was used up until 1986.

Nowadays, it is an award winning museum with the largest collection of policememorabilia in the country. It was also recently discovered that underneath thebuilding there is a warren of medieval tunnels - hardly surprising as the now

bustling city was originally known as Tig Guocobauc or the city of caves.With the history and all the punishments that have taken place in the buildingsover the centuries, it is understandable that there are said to be many tormentedsouls here.

The reported activity includes a lady and a soldier in the entrance hall, voices,knocks and bangs in the courtroom whilst it is also said that shadowy figures canbe seen the the overlooking balconies, whilst there are unexplained smells in thelaundry room.

Bodies are still buried beneath the yard and people have experienced strangesensations. Sometimes, visitors feel sick and tell of being touched by unseenhands, whilst more alarmingly, people have had stones thrown at them in someof the darker areas.

Just a short walk away from the Galleries of Justice lies what is reputed to be theoldest inn in England - Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem - so called because it was afavourite watering-hole of Crusaders on their way to support Richard theLionheart in the Holy Land in the 12th Century, tryppe or trip being an ancientword for a halt or stop-off on a journey.

This curious, but extremely popular, inn is cut into the sandstone rock whichsupports Nottingham Castle 213 feet above it and to quote one visitor thepublic bars are little more than caves with beer-pumps seats and tables .

The pub is on two levels, with two bars at ground level and upstairs, a bar that isknown as the Rock Lounge. The pub houses many unusual artefacts, includingseveral model ships - gifts from visiting sailors - which hang from the ceiling of theRock Lounge. Amongst these, is The Cursed Galleon, which is covered with dustand cobwebs accumulated over the last 50 years. Nobody will clean it becauseits said to be cursed and the last three people who decided to dust it off metunexplained deaths within a year of doing so. It is now encased in a glass box.

The Rock Lounge seems to be the focal point for strange happenings. Glassesand bottles fly off shelves when no one is about. The sound of breaking glass isheard but none can be found when staff go to clear it up.


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Above: Englandsoldest inn Ye OldeTrip to Jerusalem islocated 200 feetbelow the walls ofNottingham Castleand has had many

ghostly happenings.

Left: A mistake by astonemason canclearly be seen onthe word gaol inthe former CountyCourt; now home tothe Galleries of

Justice... no wonderthe carved facelooks unhappy!


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Often the old-fashioned scent of lavender wafts past as if someone wearing theperfume has passed close by. Keys disappear and turn up in odd places.

One day a medium visited and told the then landlady that a clock hanging in thebar was possessed by two evil spirits; which might explain why her two guarddogs seemed to hate the clock and and would stand barking at it for no reason.

Carved from soft rock, passages below Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem date backthousands of years and have probably been in use since the time of the NormanConquest in the 11th Century. Below the inn is part of a cave network that hasseen murder, intrigue and scandal over the centuries, so its hardly surprising thatthere is an oppressive atmosphere. The cellars incorporate a cock-fighting pit anda rusty gate leads to the castles condemned cell where prisoners sentenced todeath were shackled to the wall and simply left until they starved or died of thirst.

When two of the pubs regular customers spend a night in the condemned cell towin a bet, they lasted just 20 minutes before hurrying out and being violently sick.They later told of feeling a presence and seeing a figure moving about in theshadows, whilst a member of staff working down there on her own also sawsomething that she described as a grey mass come out of the cells doorwayand move across the cellar floor. She said I went icy cold, there was a totally evilfeeling in the room, absolutely horrible. I wouldnt go down there again for weeks,I was really frightened.

In the sandstone of the castle rock high above The Trip - as the inn is referred tolocally - is a tunnel known as Mortimers Hole. Roger Mortimer, the Earl of March,

was the lover of Queen Isobel and an accomplice in the murder of her husband,Edward II.

At midnight on 19th October 1330, whilst the illicit couple were staying at thecastle, his son Edward III, accompanied by a band of soldiers,entered the secretnetwork of caves and made their way up a tunnel to a bedchamber in the castle,where they siezed Mortimer, who was taken back down the tunnel to be tried.

Mortimer was denounced asa traitor and was hung, drawnand quartered and his remainsskewered on spikes.

His ghost is said to haunt thetunnel - known as MortimersHole - and other parts of thecastle.

Right: Amongst these caveslies one of the entrances toMortimers Hole.


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The Story of Harry EvansOn a winters day in January 1967, Cynthia Aspinall of Dulwich in London sawher friend, Harry Evans, standing in his garden without a coat. This surprised heras Harry was in his mid-seventies, and it was a very, very cold day.

Harry Evans lived with his sister, Kitty; they had been living together in the samehouse since their parents died half a century before.

Mrs Aspinall was pleased to see her friend as she had been away for severalweeks, but she was also sad to see that he looked very pale and drawn.

Harry was just a few feet away when Mrs Aspinall shouted hello to him, but hedidnt respond; he stared straight through her. However, Mrs Aspinall warnedHarry not to be out in cold weather without an overcoat or he might catch a chill.

At home later Mrs Aspinall told her husband that she had seen Harry but was

wondering what she had done to offend her friend because he had not answeredher. She was worried that he might be ill.

A few days later, Mrs Aspinall was having coffee with friends, including Harryssister, Kitty. Mrs Aspinall mentioned to Kitty that she knew of a place in Scotlandthat would suit both Harry and Kitty very much for a holiday; suddenly Kitty burstinto tears. A friend broke the news to Mrs Aspinall that Harry had died a fewweeks before.

Of course Mrs Aspinall was terribly shocked and told her friends that she hadbeen speaking to him just days ago and had been near enough to reach out and

touch him.

Kitty was in such distress that Mrs Aspinall tried to retract her statement, sayingshe had probably got the dates wrong; although she knew she had not.

Mr Aspinail confirmed that his wife had mentioned seeing and speaking toMr Evans but not receiving a response.

One of the other women at the coffee meeting confirmed that something similar toMrs Aspinalls recollection had taken place. She recalled Kitty saying how muchshe missed her brother and that they had been close.

She confirmed that Cynthia had then arrived and started questioning Kitty aboutHarry, commenting that she had spoken to him the day before. The womanrecalled Kitty being extremely upset by Cynthias inquiries.

Harry Evans had in fact died of leukaemia at the age of 75 at Duiwich Hospital inmid-December 1966, over a month before Mrs Aspinall saw him in his garden.

Mrs Aspinall offered an interesting theory to explain the apparition; perhaps itwas not inspired by Harry Evans but rather by his sister who may have beeninside the house, thinking of her brother, and possibly projected the image which

Mrs Aspinall saw.

She was no stranger to the paranormal, as she came from a family of psychicsand had previously reported other cases of precognition.


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The Eglinton PhotographWhen she heard we were writing this book, a friend told us of an old photographshe had seen depicting a seemingly tranquil riverside scene that had been takenmany years before at Eglinton Country Park near Kilwinning in North Ayrshire.

The photo, she said, when viewed from different angles, showed some peculiarimages including the face of a threatening-looking man, a totem pole of facesand other ghostly images; including that of Eglinton Castle which used to standon that particular spot in the park grounds and which is reflected in the river...although it had been demolished many years before.

By good fortune, she managed to procure a copy of this photo and we havereproduced it on the opposite page.

Although it is old and dark, it still manages to convey the spooky images and

many people see different faces in the photo.

The most obvious images - and how to see them - are identified below, but somepeople pick out faces that they can see, but others cant.

Be aware though, that before you start looking for the faces and images, althoughour friend managed to get a copy of this photo for use in this book, the image ofthe threatening-looking man upsets her so much that she refuses to have acopy of the photo in her house.

Opposite, youll see the photo of this river scene as it was when it was taken.Note the trees, river bank, reeds and general tranquility of the scene.

Look at the photo at different angles. Can you see any faces? The face of thethreatening-looking man is quite clearly visible.... are there horns coming out ofthe head? You decide.

Immediately below this is the totem pole of faces, a vertical line of what appearto be skeletal faces. The white blob near the bottom seems to be another entity...is it my imagination, or can you also see the outline of a young girl?

The next step is to turn the photo upside down. Although it was dismantled manyyears before, Eglinton Castle - in all its glory - seems to be reflected in the watersof the River Garnock... despite not appearing in the photograph when it is theright way up.

At another angle, what appeared in the original photo to be a row of treesbecomes a lighted window with the silhouette of a woman - possibly holding ababy in her arms - standing at the bottom corner.

Is it possible that these images are merely a trick of the light, a photographicanomaly or an active imagination... or is there something more sinister?


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The castle appears when the original image (top)upside down. Insets show the woman at the windowand the threatening-looking man.


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Folklore of Irvineby Mae McEwan

The Ayrshire town of Irvine has never been a fanciful town. The folk of theOld Royal Burgh were hard working, reasonably sober in their habits and not

given to letting their imagination run away with them. But in the days beforetelevision when families gathered together more in Grandparents' homes ona Sunday night, the conversation did occasionally veer round to "things thatgo bump in the night".

Not that the statue of Robert Burns which stands on Irvine Moor ever didgo "bump" in the night. No, it is said he went walking in the night. In thedays when mother and father went their traditional Sunday walk after themid-day dinner and the children had no option but to accompany them, theIrvine Moor was a favourite place to go.

In the 1930s, Robert Burns, cast in bronze, was an imposing figure as hestood, majestically, overlooking the town. The statue had been placed therein 1896, a gift to the Royal Burgh from one of her sons, Mr. John Spiers.The unveiling took place to commemorate the centenary of the birth ofthe poet. The statue is still imposing but in those pre-war days, beautifulwrought-iron ornamental railings enclosed a very fine rose garden. In thecentre of this - our national bard, surrounded by four benches placed wherevisitors could sit and admire him.

Children were not allowed to wander in there indiscriminately. Mum or Dadwould open the gate take your hand and lead you up to look at this man.You gazed in awe because it had been whispered at school that this statueleft his plinth on an evening as dusk fell and went down the banking to theRiver Irvine where he drank his fill of water. Bread was said to be concealedunder his plaid. The fact that no one ever saw him take a drink - or eat - wasnothing. Children just knew this story was true and felt they were never outthe moor late enough in the evening to see this remarkable feat. Are children

still so incredulous today?There was a little boy who lived in the towns Fullarton Street in the latter partof the nineteenth century. Paralysed from the waist down, young Tom wouldbe carried out from his home in Fullarton Street. At that time, the gardens ofthe houses where blocks of high rise flats now stand, stretched down to theriver. Fruit trees abounded in the area. The boy had a basket chair shapedlike a chaise-longue and day after day, he would be propped up on hiscushions and watch the other children play.

The Fullarton children were fond of Tom and never neglected him. Boys andgirls alike always took time to talk to Tom. As they climbed up and down thegnarled branches of the old apple trees he would look longingly at them.At twelve years of age and never ever being able to walk, Tom was long


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resigned to his lot; but as if to compensate for his inability to use his legs hehad the most beautiful features. He had blonde curls and a placid nature.Always beautifully dressed he could never tear or even crease his clothes.

Early one summer morning one small girl was out just that little bit earlierthan the rest. Passing what they called Tom's place, empty always at that

time, she stopped when she heard a chuckle. There was Tom, astride oneof the topmost branches, beaming radiantly with happiness. The little girlcouldn't believe her eyes and just stared, too astonished even to speak.Slowly the other children congregated and were also amazed. Excitementtook over as Tom continued to chuckle down at them and with one accord,the group dashed off to ask Tom's mother when this miracle had occurred.How could Tom be at the top of the tree?

A closed door met them. Their frantic knocking brought Tom's grandmother,

whose face was tear-stained and ravaged with grief, to the door. By thefireside sat Tom's mother, her pinafore pulled up over her eyes as she rockedherself silently, also grief stricken. The children just stared. Slowly thegrandmother said, "Children, Tom won't ever lie under the apple tree again.He died .... just about half an hour ago."

"No, no", the children cried excitedly. "Tom isn't dead - he's nearly on top ofthe tree, quickly come and look!"

The grandmother looked

strangely at them, then said,"It was Tom's dearest wish toclimb that tree. You childrenmust have seen his wraith."

Tom's mother then looked upand said "It gladdens my heartthat my Tom got his wish."

What or who did the children

see? It pleases the people whoremember hearing this tale, tothink that truly Tom was grantedhis wish and in those days peoplereally did believe in wraithes.Indeed, some of them still do.

Right: Rabbie Burns statueon Irvine Moor.


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Britains Most Haunted HouseThe tiny parish of Borley is located in a desolate, sparsely populated areanear the east coast of England, close to the Suffolk border. It is a lonely placeand would be largely forgotten if not for the fact that it is the location of what

came to be known as The Most Haunted House in Britain.Harry Price was a well-respected psychic researcher in the 1930s and 1940sand no newspaper article about unusual or supernatural activity was completewithout a comment from him.

Price got involved in the case of the Borley Rectory after a newspaper carrieda story about a phantom nun at the house, in June 1929. He was asked bythe paper to investigate and he was told about various types of phenomenathat had been reported there, such as phantom footsteps. strange lights,

ghostly whispers, a headless man, a girl in white, the sounds of a phantomcoach outside, the apparition of Henry Bull who built the house, and ofcourse, the spirit of the nun whose spectral figure was said to drift throughthe garden with her head bent in sorrow.

Legend had it that a monastery had once been located on the site and that a13th century monk and a beautiful young novice were killed while trying toelope. The monk was hanged and his would-be bride was bricked up alivewithin the walls of her convent. Price scoffed at the idea of such a romantictale but was intrigued by the phenomena associated with the house.

It would be during his investigations of Borley Rectory that he would becomethe best-known and most accomplished of the early ghost hunters, setting thestandard for those who would follow.

Price coined the idea of the ghost hunters kit. He used tape measures tocheck the thickness of walls and to search for hidden chambers, he perfectedthe use of still cameras for indoor and outdoor photography; brought in aremote-control motion picture camera; put to use a finger-printing kit; andeven used portable telephones for contact between investigators.

Many of Prices accounts from Borleywould be first-hand, as he claimedto see and hear much of the reportedphenomena like hearing bells ring,rapping noises and seeing objectsthat moved from one place to another.

He also collected accounts fromscores of witnesses and previoustenants of the house, even talking toneighbours and local people who hadtheir own experiences of the rectory.


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Even the original tenants of the house, Reverend Henry Bull, his family andservants had encountered the spirits. Reverend Bull had become pastor ofBorley Church in 1862 and despite local warnings, had built the rectory on asite believed by locals to be haunted. Over the years, Bulls servants and hisdaughters were repeatedly unnerved by phantom rappings, unexplained foot-

steps and the appearance of ghosts.Reverend Bull seemed to regard these events as splendid entertainment andhe and his son, Harry, even constructed a summer house on the propertywhere they could enjoy after-dinner cigars and watch for the appearance ofthe phantom nun who walked nearby.

Harry Bull inherited the rectory and the job as parson when his father died in1892 and stayed on until his death in 1927. However, Bulls successor,Rev. Guy Smith, quit the rectory just one year after moving in, plagued by

both the ghosts and the houses deteriorating state.Until that point, the ghosts at the rectory had been relatively peaceful, but allthat would change in October 1930 when Smith was replaced by theReverend Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne. Their time in the housewould see a marked increase in the paranormal activity. People were lockedout of rooms, household items vanished, windows were broken, furniture wasmoved, odd sounds were heard and much more.

However, the worst of the incidents seemed to involve Mrs. Foyster, as

she was thrown from her bed at night, slapped by invisible hands, forced tododge heavy objects which flew at her day and night, and was once almostsuffocated with a mattress.

Soon afterwards, a series ofscrawled messages began toappear on the walls of the house,written by an unknown hand.

They seemed to be pleading with

Mrs. Foyster, using phrases likeMarianne, please help get andMarianne light mass prayers.

Nearly all of the poltergeist-likeactivity occurred at times whenMrs. Foyster was present, so Pricewas inclined to attribute it to herunknowing manipulations; but he

did believe in the possibility of theghostly nun and some of the otherreported phenomena.

Above: Some of the scrawled messagesOpposite: Borley Rectory in the 1920s.


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Despite the implications of the phenomena centering around Marianne,Price maintained that at least one of the spirits in the house had found therectors wife to be sympathetic to its plight. This was the only explanation hecould find for the mysterious messages.

He believed the writings on the wall had come from another young woman,

one who seemed to be, from her references, a Catholic. These clues wouldlater fit well into Prices theory that the Borley mystery was a terrible tale ofmurder and betrayal in which the central character was a young nun,although not the one of legend.

The Foysters moved out of the house in 1935 and with the place nowempty, Price leased the house for an extended, round-the-clock, one yearinvestigation. He ran an advertisement in the personal column of the Timeson May 25, 1937 looking for open-minded researchers to literally camp out

at the rectory and record any phenomena which took place in their presence.The advertisement read:

HAUNTED HOUSE: Responsible persons of leisure and intelligence,intrepid, critical, and unbiased, are invited to join rota of observers in ayears night and day investigation of alleged haunted house in Homecounties. Printed Instructions supplied. Scientific training or ability tooperate simple instruments an advantage. House situated in lonely hamlet,so own car is essential. Write Box H.989, The Times, E.C.4

Price was deluged with potential applicants, most of whom were unsuitable.After choosing more than 40 people, he then printed the first-ever handbookon how to conduct a paranormal investigation. A copy was given to eachinvestigator and it explained what to do when investigating the house, alongwith what equipment they would need.

The researchers were allowed a wide latitude when it came to searching forfacts. Some of them employed their own equipment, others kept precisejournals and others turned to sances, which would prove interesting, asduring the year that Price leased the rectory, breakthroughs were made inthe communications with the spirits. One sance would later give Price thematerial that he believed he needed to solve the mystery of the haunting.

During a sitting with a planchette, an alleged spirit named Marie Lairre relatedthat she had been a nun in France but had left her convent to marry HenryWaldegrave, a member of a wealthy family whose manor home once stoodon the site of Borley Rectory. There, her husband had strangled her and hadburied her remains in the cellar.

The story went well with the most interesting of the Borley phenomena,namely the reported phantom nun and the written messages. Price theorizedthat the former nun had been buried in unconsecrated ground and was nowdoomed to haunt the property seeking rest.


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In March of 1938, five months after Maries first appearance, another spiritpromised that the rectory would burn down that night and that the proof of thenuns murder would be found in the ruins.

Borley Rectory did not burn down that night, but exactly eleven months later,when Captain W H Gregson, who had recently bought the house, was

unpacking books in the library, an oil lamp overturned and started a fire.The blaze quickly spread and the rectory was gutted.

Price took this opportunity to excavate part of the cellar of the house and in1943 discovered a few fragile bones including a jawbone which turned outto be that of a young woman. Evidence, Price concluding that there wassomething to the story of the murdered nun.

A Christian burial for the bones was carried out and it seemed this act hadprovided the ghost with the rest she had long sought.

The rectory was finally demolished in 1944. However, the remaining ghostlyresidents of the house had one last trick up their spiritual sleeves. During thedemolition work a brick was seen to hang suspended in a doorway, with novisible means of support. This event can be seen in a photo that was muchpublicised at the time, and which weve reproduced below.Sceptics say its simply a brick thrown by one of the demolition crew, butgiven the history of the house... who knows!

The demolition of BorleyRectory begins. In both the

photo and the enlargement,a brick is clearly visiblefloating in mid-air.


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The Cargo VesselAn account by Norrie Hunter

The Caribbean. our adventures, island hopping was peaceful, tranquil andwithout incident until that night.

After spending a year sailing around the Windward and Leeward islands of theCaribbean, the sun was setting on our voyage up through the Bahamas toFlorida. Out of the twilight there it was, the silhouette of a large cargo ship,closing on us, and fast.

As this towering hulk began to bear down on our, by comparison, tiny 43 ft. yacht,Freelance, the possibility of a collision seemed too real and almost inevitable.

All attempts to raise the ship now within 200 yards off our stern on our VHFradio failed. An eerie silence fell, now even the motion of our own vessel through

the water could be heard. We threw the rudder hard to starboard, altering coursesharply in an attempt to steer clear, as the ship was almost upon us.

I looked through my binoculars towards its bridge but there was no sign of life,no crew, no one on watch, just an eerie white mist swirling inside. Then, with lessthan 50 yards between us, its huge hull, towering above us, the vessel simplydissolved and vanished into the thin night air. Only the wash from its bow wavewas visible, rocking our ketch, but the sea was empty!

This wasnt the infamous Bermuda Triangle but a popular sailing ground used by

countless pleasure craft enjoying the warm Caribbean waters.

My wife and I looked at each other, completely stunned and shaken by our nearmiss or was it a close encounter?

Right:The Freelance... stillship-shape after itsclose encounter.


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The Red Lionby Jim B Cameron

The Wiltshire town of Avesbury is home to some of Englands most ancient andmysterious sites. Evidence of human activity dates back thousands of years inthe area and it houses Europe's largest stone circle. In fact, it contains many suchsites, dating from as far back as 4,000 BC, some two millennia before Britainsmost famous stone circle, Stonehenge. Avesbury is also home to one of the mosthaunted pubs in England, namely The Red Lion', which is situated within one ofthe aforementioned stone circles.

Originally a farmhouse built in the early 1600's, it became a coaching inn at thestart of the 19th Century. It has been voted one of the Top Ten most hauntedpubs in the world, and has been the origin of many strange reports over theyears, with a number of different ghosts reported to haunt the site.The mostfamous of these is the ghost of 'Florrie', who lived in the pub in the 17th Century.While her husband was away fighting in the Civil War, Florrie took a lover.Unfortunately for Florrie her husband returned home unexpectedly to find her inthe arms of the other man. In a fit of rage the husband shot the man dead andbrutally stabbed Florrie to death before throwing her body down a well andcovering it over with a large boulder. The well, now glassed over, forms a centre-piece in the bar area. Florrie's ghost has been seen emerging from it, and alsospotted on many occassions in the ladies toilets. Florrie has also been blamedfor poltergiest activity; with objects being hurled across the bar and chandeliersspinning. Patrons with beards apparently have a better chance of seeing Florrie,

leading to the belief that either her husband, or lover, sported one.

Another murder is believed to have taken place within the pubs walls during the17th Century when a farmer agreed to harbour some outlaws in his cellar, butwas double-crossed and murdered by them.The figure of a man carrying a blade has beenreported by a number of psychics, but whetherthis is the murdered farmer or possibly thespirit of Florrie's husband whose rage has yetto abate, is not known. An investigator,unaware of the buildings history, reported theapparition of a man thrusting a knife furiously inhis direction.

Other ghosts often sighted include a pair ofchildren that have been seen cowering in thecorner of a room whilst a woman looks onunconcernedly and a ghostly horse-drawncarriage arrives in the courtyard and members

of staff have heard the clattering of hoovesbeyond the buildings doors.... though mostchoosing not to investigate what is believedto be an omen of impending ill fortune.


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The Clencher, Large Purple Fingers anda Naked Man... Welcome to Aberdeen!

The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen the popular folk song goes, but judging

by the number of ghost sightings in the granite city, maybe this song should bere-titled the Northern Frights of Old Aberdeen!

Following reports of unexplained disturbances in Aberdeen Central Library, ateam of paranormal investigators heard footsteps, whispering and the soundof a bell being tolled, although nobody else was in the building and when thenow-demolished Amatola Hotel still stood in the citys Great Western Road, itboasted an apparition of a lady wearing 19th Century clothing who was frequentlyseen on a landing in the oldest part of the establishment.

In another now-demolished hostelry, the White Dove Hotel, a nurse attending aguest who was dying of fever in the late 1800s saw the figure of a young Asiangirl appear alongside her patient. The girl had such dreadful injuries to her neckthat the nurse fainted at the apparition. When she recovered consciousness, herpatient had died.

In the 1970s, the semi-transparent hooded figure of a monk was seen severaltimes near a bus stop on the citys Kincorthland Estate. A woman who waswalking her dog in the early hours saw the figure and felt an overwhelming needto approach it... as she did so, it dissolved into a mist and faded away.

In the early 1900s, staff at the Palace Hotel were amazed when a naked manhammered on the hotels windows each night for a week. When they eventuallygot outside quickly enough to challenge him, the man floated away leaving nofootprints in the freshly fallen snow... he was never seen again.

At St. Machar Cathedral, a group of passers-by were horrified to see large purplefingers with unnaturally long black nails curling around the cathedrals door...understandably enough, they ran away.

A former resident of the Old Fire Station - now student accommodation - recalledhow a silhouetted figure came out of the wall towards him whilst he was in theshower. He jumped out of the shower injuring his head in the process. He laterlearned the apparition had been seen many times before.

In Union Street, people going about their business have reported being grabbedby an invisible force that squeezes their arms, legs - or far more alarmingly - theirthroat for a few seconds before letting go. Locals refer to this manifestation asThe Clencher and is thought to be the ghost of a child that died a violent deathin the street during the Victorian era.

At Craigievar Castle, the ghost of a man haunts the Blue Room, from the windowof which he fell to his death, whilst the ghost of a fiddle-player who drowned in thecastle grounds only manifests to people named Forbes.


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The Baleful GirlA Welsh familys home has been the scene of many disturbing happenings.The house is home to a couple in their early 50s, their teenage daughter and herfiance. The owners parents had previously lived - and died - in the house.

All four people who live in the semi-detatched house in the North Wales town ofWrexham, told how, when they walk along the hallway to the kitchen, they feelsomeone is following just inches from their back. This feeling often follows themwhen they go up the stairs or leave through the front door. The family keep quietabout their experiences for fear of ridicule or sightseers flocking to their home,however a friend told them that she feels something brushing by her whenevershe enters the house, as if someone was passing her in the doorway.

On the ground floor they have a large room which has been converted into a

granny flat. This room has had a strange feeling to it since the owners parentsdied in the room. Family members have seen shadows flitting along walls, hearda voice calling their names and have felt someone stroking their forehead orcheek particularly when they are upset.

The daughters fiance, when he first visited, wasnt told about the happeningsand used that room as a guest room. The next morning at breakfast, he told thefamily he could feel someone standing in the room staring at him and that it hadfreaked him out. Another family friend refuses to go into the room on her own.

One night, the face of a baleful little girl appeared floating in the darkess of the

parents bedroom, terrifying them before fading away. When the father recoveredenough to reach towards the area where the face had been, it was icy cold.

A couple of winters ago the mother passed byan upstairs window to see the face of a middleaged woman looking back at her from the otherside of the glass. At first she thought shedglimpsed her own reflection, but soon realisedthat a stranger, whom she had never seenbefore, was hovering twenty feet above theground outside her bedroom window.

When everyone is downstairs, including theirpets, the family can sometimes hear a childrunning around in one of the bedrooms. Oneevening, their neighbour, whose house adjoinstheir own, came to the door to complain aboutthe noise being caused by the child that wasrunning about in the bedroom. Although the

neighbour was shown that the room was emptyand no child was in the house, when shereturned home, could still hear the phantomfootsteps around the bedroom next door.


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The Ancient Ram InnA family home in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire is reputedly one of themost haunted houses in Britain. The house which dates back 900 years andwas formerly The Ram Inn is built on an ancient pagan burial site.

The house that used to be, and is still known as, The Ram Inn stands ona ley line running between Ley Farm and a stone-age burial mound knownas Hetty Peglar's Tump, which is thought to be the underlying reason for theamazing paranormal activity that has been witnessed there.

The inns first recorded use was as housing for masons who worked on theconstruction of the nearby St Marys Church. The property then fell into thehands of the Church and housed the local Bishop hence the 'Bishops Room'where at least nine different entities have been seen.

Accessed from the bar area are the remains of a tunnel system, which isbelieved to link the pub with St Marys Church and Lacock Abbey. The tunnelsmay have been used by highwayman to escape the local judiciary.

The property became an inn during the late 1800s, but John Humphries, thepresent owner bought it in 1968 and turned it into a private residence.

John's bedroom is a converted loft located directly above the kitchen which,until recently, was the focus of poltergeist activity. John would be kept awakeby tapping and banging on the window. Possessions would disappear and

later be found in other rooms of the inn. The paranormal activity came to astop when a cross was placed on the wall.

Next to the kitchen is a former stable which John uses as a living area. In thisroom, he has seen lights dancing around near to the door. A teenager whoattended a paranormal tour at the property was thrown to the floor in thisroom in front of several witnesses. A large and heavy curtain that was used toseparate the room during the winter months was torn apart and clawingsounds, like those of a large dog, have been heard behind a wall where

centuries ago a door used to be.John has furnished The Ram Inn with period furniture in a style befitting itsage and history. He once bought a painting of Rev. John Wesley, founder ofthe Methodist movement, to hang on the staircase, but as soon as he got itthrough the front door he described all hell breaking loose. Doors that hadbeen secured and locked slammed shut at night and there were knocks on allthe windows of the inn. John found puddles of water in several of the innsrooms and some visitors complained of strange smells.

In 1997, John allowed a paranormal group from Swindon to excavate nearthe stairwell to try and find a rumoured cellar dating back to earlier times,but they found nothing. However, that night a babys cries were heard issuingfrom the hole theyd excavated.


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The Bishops Room is considered to be the main focus of the haunting, withseveral different ghosts being sighted in this room, including that of a cavalierwhich appears in the corner of the room and a figure of a young lady hasbeen seen hanging from the ceiling. When a chimney in the room wasopened up during repair work, black magic and satanic artefacts were found

behind the brickwork.In the kitchen many people have felt the presence of a malevolent force ina well, used for drawing water until about 1700. This room especially affectswomen, with lady visitors often reporting cold spots and feeling dizzy.

There is anecdotal evidence of devil worship having taken place at thepremises and the ritual sacrifice of children. In the kitchen area a grave wasexcavated and the remains of a woman and child were found. Along withthese bodies, knives were found and experts at Bristol Museum, who studied

the bodies and artefacts, believed that they had been killed in ritual sacrifice.A family who visited the Ram Inn ran from this room screaming. After theyhad calmed down they reported seeing the ghostly apparition of a woman riseup out of the floor.

The former Bishop of Gloucester the Right Reverend John Yates, is reportedto have tried and failed to exorcise it and was quoted in the local press assaying it was the most evil place I have ever had the misfortune to visit.

Right:In spite ofits homely,olde worlde,appearance,the formerRam Inn hasa disturbing

history ofpsychicdisturbances.


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The Gresford SuicideA Mr Williams of Gresford, near Wrexham, had a terrifying experience backin the 19th century, whilst he was enjoying an evening stroll with his friend,Mr Jones, a builder who lived in nearby Marford.

They were walking down the hill that linked the two villages when suddenlythey saw approaching them through the gathering gloom an unearthly whitefigure. The men stopped in their tracks and watched with growing unease asit came closer.

The figure looked like everyone's classic idea of a ghost. It was dressed in awhite robe with its hair billowing about its head although there was no windthat evening. As their anxiety grew, they hoped that someone was playing aprank on them. Suddenly, Mr Jones laughed; he had recognised the figure.

It was Mr Williams' wife!Now you're for it, he joked to his friend. He assumed they had stayed outtoo long and Mrs Williams was coming to find them. However, Mr Williamswas not amused at all. His wifes face was drawn and desperate. What onearth was wrong? Why had she come outdoors in her nightgown? He movedtoward her to comfort her... and she turned away and vanished!

The friends were dumbfounded. Mr Williams lost no time. He sensed thatsomething was terribly wrong and hurried down the hill towards his home,

with Mr Jones close on his heels.At last they reached Mr Williamshome in Gresford. All was dark andcold. There was no supper on thetable, ready for his return, whichwas unusual.

Heart thumping, Mr Williams calledout his wifes name but received

no response. He lit a candle andstarted a frantic search of the thehouse for her.

He found her hanging from a ropeattached to the sitting room ceilinghaving committed suicide.

Both he and Mr Jones later realisedthat the figure they had seen on theroad must have been that of his

wife at the moment of her death,when her desperate spirit had comein search of her husband.


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The Kennedys of Culzean CastleAn account by Jim B Cameron

It is believed that a structure of some form has stood on the site since theearly 12th century, but our interest begins in the year 1243 when present day

Ayrshire was know as Carrick. Gillescop MacKenedi is believed to havebecome Steward (although the earliest official mention of the clan was in1358 with the granting of land to John Kennedy of Dunure, later recorded asSteward of Carrick in 1367).

The Kennedys were powerful; the name appears in various forms such asMacKenedy and MacKenede giving an indication of their growing size andinfluence in the region. The castle is said to be haunted by many ghosts,including one believed to be an actual Kennedy ancestor, Sir ThomasKennedy, who was known as the 'Tutor of Cassillis'. He bought the ruinedtower house in the late 1500's, rebuilt the tower and renamed it 'Cullean' aftera former abode (the name 'Culzean' did not appear until the late 1700's).

It was Sir Thomas and the Earl who were responsible for the infamous'Roasting of the Abbot of Crossraguel' within Dunure Castle ... they roastedthe Abbott alive on a hot spit until he relinquished the ownership of theAbbey lands to them, something he was able to later recant.

A number of visitors have reported sightings of a strange, misty apparition inthe grounds as recently as 1976. This is believed to be the ghost of a

princess who was killed in the Green Room, and it has been said that newmembers of staff are warned not to be surprised if they come across a ghostdown near the dungeons. Similarly, the spirit of a young, but unknown,woman dressed in a ball gown is said to roam Culzean, but no-one can saywhat events link her appearances to the castle... it's a mystery.

It is also reported that throughout the thunderous waves and howling windson many a rain soaked, stormy night, a ghostly piper can be heard within thecastle grounds. The sound of the pipes is said to celebrate the marriage of

Clan family members.There is also a castle legend that tells of the kidnap of a young heiress by a'supernatural' knight, who imprisons her within the castle and threatens herwith death. The heiress however had other plans, and after lulling the knightto sleep, snatched up his dirk and brutally stabbed him to death with his ownweapon.

Real life was to mirror the legend when May Kennedy was abducted bySir John Cathcart. Cathcart had murdered his first wife and he seems to

have had similar plans for May. Fortunately, May seems to have got wiseto Sir Johns less than honourable intentions and pushed him from the cliffsnear his residence at Carelton Castle, where he is said to stalk the ruinsto this day.


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WindhouseShetland's most haunted house is a Category C listed building located on ahillside in Mid Yell. First built in the 1600's higher up the hill, Windhouse wasmoved in 1707 and was rebuilt in 1880. The house has been derelict since

the 1920's; but Windhouse has many stories of haunting. It was rebuilt in1880 on an old Celtic burial ground... not an ideal site for a happy home!

For years people have told many tales of experiences in Windhouse - weirdnoises, people appearing and disappearing, seemingly just walking throughwalls. A local man recalls watching his father put out his hand to stroke astrange dog which vanished as soon as he touched it!

Many a tale has been told of the guests that came to visit and decided not tostay the night, packing their belongings and leaving, whatever the time or the

weather conditions. The whole house was subject to haunting, and althoughthe winds in these remote parts can be chilling there was no explanation forthe cold spots that people would encounter.

Laughter and disembodied voices of people could be heard in empty rooms,especially the bedrooms. There was one bedroom in particular that peoplerefused to go into. According to a resident of Mid-Yell, there was an incidentwhere the maid was trying to make the bed and ran out of the room becauseevery time she tried to make it someone started laughing.

One family who lived in the house had workmen in to do some job or anotherthat involved lifting the floor boards, under which a skeleton was found, withits skull broken, possibly by a blow to the head.

When the house was inhabited, an old sea chest used to stand in the hall andone day, a householder tried to get into it to have a look at what was insidebut it was locked. As he examined the chest, looking for a way to open it, astrange mist appeared from one of its corners and proceeded to rise abovethe chest. The mist then formed the apparition of a man. Seconds after theformation took place, it disappeared back into the chest.

One evening in the early 1900s, the residents had all had gone out for a walkand by the time they returned it was dark. On their way up the road leading tothe house, the family stood there in disbelief as one by one, each window ofthe house became a bright blaze of light.

In only a few seconds the entire house was lit up like a beacon, and itremained so for half a minute. Then, just as quickly as it had happened, thelights went out one by one until the house was again in total darkness.Windhouse had no electricity, either by mains or generator.

In 2003 a couple from Cheshire dismissed the spooky history and boughtWindhouse (pictured opposite) with a view to renovating it, but, according tolocal sources, this has not yet taken place.


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Frightful FiendsLike one, that on a lonesome road,

Doth walk in fear and dread,And having once turnd round walks on,

And turns no more his head;Because he knows, a frightful fiend

Doth close behind him tread.The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

For those readers unfamiliar with the poem from which the above verse istaken, here is a brief synopsis:

An old man forcibly stops a guest who is on his way to a wedding and relates

a story, telling how he was on board a sailing ship which encountered badweather and was blown southwards across the equator until the vesselbecame trapped in Antarctic ice.

Following the appearance of an albatross, a bird that is believed to be a goodomen for sailors, the weather improved and the ship was blown towardswarmer waters and its crew were saved.

The crew befriended the albatross, which followed the ship day by day, untilthe mariner, who is the subject of the poem, killed it with a shot from his bow.

Immediately afterwards, the ship was beset by misfortune, with the vesselsoon becoming becalmed in a windless sea whilst all on board suffered fromdehydration and heatstroke. Those on board blamed the mariners actionsfor their misfortune and condemned him to wear the slain albatross aroundhis neck as an emblem of his guilt.

The mariner, however, saw a ship appearing over the horizon and alertedhis shipmates to their possible salvation... but, when it drew alongside theyrealised to their dismay that the vessel was a ghost ship; with a crew of

only two...namely Death and Life-in-Death, who threw dice to win the soulsof the unfortunate crew of the ship.

Death won the souls of the crew, who immediately died en-masse. WhilstLife-in-Death won that of the mariner, condemning him, as punishment forkilling the albatross, to wander the earth telling his story.

In his poem, the fiend that Coleridge had in mind when he wrote the abovestanza may have been something like the one which frequently crops up infolklore all over the world - the phantom dog.

In Wales, this spectre is called Gwyllgi, or Dog of Darkness; a terrifyingapparition in the form of a huge hound with a shaggy pelt and great glowingred eyes. The favourite haunt of Gwyllgi were lonely roads at night.


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A lane in the parish of Marchwiel in North Wales, is called Lon Bwbach Ddu(Lane of the Black Spectre) probably recalling such a haunting.

An encounter near Ruthin with one of these hell hounds was recorded by theauthor T.Gwynn Jones in 1930.

My grandmother declared that as she and my grandfather were riding on

horseback from Ruthin one evening, in passing a roadside house, the nagsuddenly shied and pressed to the hedge. At the moment an extremely tallmastiff-type dog was passing on the other side.

My grandfather who rode directly behind saw nothing at all and his horsehad not been startled. They had just come to live in the district and only gotto know afterwards that the house was said to be haunted by a Gwyllgi.

A more alarming adventure was had by Edward Jones as he was returninghome late one night from a fair at Cynwyd, near Corwen when an enormous

black hound followed him across the moor, literally dogging his footsteps,keeping just behind as he hurried along. He said it was a beast of fearsomevisage and blood-shot eye.

At any moment he expected to feel its jaws clamp upon him and he sufferedterrible anxiety and a cold sweat. The dreaded climax never came however,and when nervous and exhausted, he eventually reached his farm gate, hefound the beast had vanished.

Stories of phantom black dogs abound in Britain, almost every county hasits own variant, from the Black Shuck of East Anglia to the Bogey Beast ofYorkshire. Phantom black dogs have been witnessed too frequently in moderntimes to label the phenomena as simply folklore and legend, but then folkloreand legend often has origins in real events.

There are various theories to explain the phenomena and they seem to havemany common traits from sighting to sighting. There are so many myths,tales, legends and sightings of this fearsome apparition that it is hard to knowwhere to begin.

Black Shuck is said to be one of the oldest phantoms of Great Britain, withthe name possibly deriving from the Anglo-Saxon word 'scucca' meaningdemon or devil.

Other historians say that the hound has its origins in Norse mythology basedon the name of 'Shukir', the huge dog of war of Odin and Thor who cameover to Britain thousands of years ago along with the Viking long-ships.

Black shuck is the name given to the large black dog which is said to roam

the Norfolk and Suffolk coastline and the Waveney river valley.For centuries, the inhabitants of East Anglia have told tales of a large blackhellhound, the size of a calf, with flaming eyes.


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Even as recently as the 1970s, the huge snarling dog was reportedly seenon the beach at the holiday resort of Great Yarmouth, but one of the mostvivid reports comes from the parish record of its appearance at Holy TrinityChurch in Blythburgh, near the Suffolk border on August 4, 1577.

Written in the language of the day, it tells how a tremendous thunderstorm

was raging outside during the morning service when ...this black dog, or thedivel in such a likenesse (God hee knoweth al who worketh all,) runing allalong down the body of the church with great swiftnesse, and incrediblehaste, among the people, in a visible fourm and shape, passed between twopersons, as they were kneeling uppon their knees, and occupied in prayeras it seemed, wrung the necks of them bothe at one instant clene backward,in so much that even at a moment where they kneeled, they strangely dyed.

The spectral hound is said to have burst in through the large wooden church

doors, run up the nave passing the large congregation, before killing a manand boy. As black shuck left, the church spire collapsed through the roof.Black scorch marks, which parishioners believed to be the devils fingerprints,appeared on the north door and can be seen at the church to this day.

A pack of fiendish dogs known as the Whist Hounds is said to roam Dartmoorin Devon and was the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write theSherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The author is saidto have been inspired by the legend of Squire Richard Cabell, a keen hunterfrom Brook Manor, Buckfastleigh.

The squire was rumoured to have sold his soul to the Devil and after he diedon July 5, 1677, a phantom pack of black hunting dogs with glowing red eyesis said to have raced across Dartmoor onthe night of his interment, breathing fireand howling at his tomb. According to locallegend, the demonic hounds have roamedthe moor ever since and can often beseen around the anniversary of his death

prowling around the grave trying to getthe promised soul for the Devil.

Still on Dartmoor, at the aptly namedHound Tor, a four-legged fiend withglowing eyes and a blood-curdling howlstalks the spot, which makes this photoof a mystery creature taken at Hound Tormore intriguing than ever. Seen only yardsaway from a party of schoolchildren, the

animal has a thick, shaggy coat, roundedears and large front limbs which would bepowerful enough to tear human flesh.


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The Ghost of the LegendmakerBeddgelert village lies at the foot of Mount Snowdon, the highest mountainin Wales. The village is a significant tourist attraction, its picturesque bridgecrossing the river Colwyn just upstream of its confluence with the river

Glaslyn. It is the nearest village to the scenic Glaslyn gorge, an area oftumultuous river running between steep wooded hills. Rhododendronsprovide a covering of pink blossom in May and June. Beddgelert is linkedto the famous Rupert the Bear stories, as Alfred Bestall wrote and illustratedsome of these whilst he lived here.

There is a local legend which has drawn tourists to the village for 200 years.The legend tells that Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd, who ruledWales for four decades in the 12th and 13th Centuries, was fond of hunting

and spent each summer in a hunting lodge in Snowdonia. Although he hadmany dogs, his favourite was Gelert, because not only was Gelert fearlessin the hunt he was also a loyal friend and companion at home.

One day Llywelyn and his wife went out hunting, leaving their baby son witha nurse and a servant to look after him. However, the irresponsible staff wentfor a walk in the mountains leaving the baby alone and unprotected.

Llywelyn was absorbed in his hunting, but after a while he noticed thatGelert wasnt with the pack of hounds. The Prince knew something waswrong as Gelert was always at the front of the pack. He reasoned that theonly place the dog would go was back to the lodge, so he called off the huntand headed back home.

As the party dismounted, Gelert came running out of the lodge towards hismaster, covered in blood and wagging his tail. The Princess, calling herchild's name, fainted. Llywelyn rushed into the baby's room to find the cradleoverturned, the bloodstained bedclothes thrown all over the floor - and nosign of his son.

Filled with anger and grief, he drew his sword and ran Gelert through. But as

the dogs dying whimpers were answered by the sound of a baby crying frombehind the overturned cradle. When Llywelyn pulled aside the cradle hefound his son unharmed and the body of a huge wolf next to him. Gelert hadin fact killed the wolf as it tried to attack Llywelyn's son.

Filled with remorse, Llywelyn buried Gelert in a meadow nearby and markedhis grave with a cairn of stones. The village of Beddgelert (Gelert's grave)owes its name to this site.

It is believed that in the 1700s a group of villagers got together and created

the story recounted above, to attract visitors to the village. Their ringleaderwas a David Pritchard, landlord of the Goat Inn. The village prospered and hemade his fortune. However, for all his wealth, in 1821 he had a heart attack,and died without leaving a will.


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Some weeks after Davids burial, the Goat Inn was the scene of some verypeculiar goings-on.

Footsteps were heard on the stairs, strange noises in the bedrooms, whilstin the bar there were sounds of the coal fire being raked. However, nothingwas seen, and it was decided the best course of action was to ignore it.

This course of action didnt work.... instead of the noises dying away, theygrew louder and more frequent and soon, bar staff and local people startedseeing the ghost of David Pritchard himself.

At one point he was seen walking around the village itself. Understandably,the villagers were petrified. Doors and windows were bolted, charms andcrucifixes were carried to bed at night.

An old farmer called Huw, a long-standing friend of the landlord, decided tosee if he could find out why the spirit was wandering the village, so stayedout one night without carrying a charm of any kind.

Sure enough, as he was crossing the bridge the ghost of David Pritchardappeared in front of him.

Huw shivered but was brave enough to call out to his long time friend. With atrembling voice Huw asked why his spirit was so disturbed.

The apparition answered: My dear Huw, there can be no rest until a certaintask is carried out. You are to go to the Inn and look under the hearthstone inthe bar. There you will find a pouch containing one hundred gold guineaswhich you are to give to my wife.

Huw said he understood and that he would undertake the task of reunitingMrs Pritchard with the money. Hearing that promise, the ghost faded away.The coins were found, and the ghost was not seen again.

The Goat Inn still stands in the village of Beddgelert, and perhaps - if yourepassing you might call in to buy a drink - if you listen carefully as you partwith your money, you mighthear the ghostly chuckle ofthe late David Pritchard.

For the record, the villagename is actually derivedfrom that of a Christianmissionary called Celert(or Cilert) who settled inthe area in the 8th Century.

Right:A tranquil view ofBeddgelert.


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Man Without A FaceTwenty five year old Janine Munro who had lived all her life in a house closeto Loch Lomond in Dumbartonshire had a good friend, Chloe, with whomshe spent a lot of time with in the 1990s. Theyd been friends for ten years.

The pair of them loved anything to do with the outdoors; riding, quad-biking,going for walks and canoeing were all on their list of things to do.

One summers day the girls decided to spend time at the loch side. They putup a tent in the woods. They hadnt seen a soul since theyd arrived, so aftera couple of hours they became bored with their own company and decidedthey should head for home to see what their boyfriends were doing.

As they prepared to leave, they heard a noise and looked round to see aman dressed in an orange boiler suit standing a few feet away. He was

facing away from them and seemed to be looking out across the loch.They were a little taken aback by the mans presence as they hadnt heardhim approaching, but they supposed he was one of the forestry workers thatworked in the area and went back to packing their belongings away.

However, a few moments later, they sensed someone close behind themand looked round to see who it was. It was then that they screamed.... theman was only three feet away...and he had no face! Instead, where his faceshould have been, was a moving grey mass.

Janine said: We started running away; we ran and ran, until we reached myhouse. We were shocked and couldnt believe what wed seen. There was agrey cloud-like shape where his face should have bee

Something of the Night

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