Mr_Hermolle
Devoted Cultist
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2007
- Messages
- 131
Does anyone have any tales of, for want of a better phrase, 'minor hauntings'? The kind of thing that you wouldn't notice unless you were fortean minded really - nothing really happens - certainly not anything to really be a 'ghost story' but something about it still lingers somehow...
Anyway, here's mine...
In summer 2005 I went on holiday with my parents to Scotland. We rented out what had once been a farmhouse for two weeks. This was in the North East, in Morayshire - near Elgin. The farmhouse was old - built in the 1700s (maybe 1800s?) and was part of still working farmland. Very rural and remote feeling. When we got there I immediately explored the house - it felt very old inside and didnt feel at all modern. While looking around upstairs the thought of a Red Setter dog kept popping into my head. Joining my parents downstairs my Mum asked if I had called out at any point - which I hadn't. Mum was convinced she had heard someone calling out. There were 3 bedrooms upstairs and I chose the smallest one. Out of the window were fields and a small path leading to a small wood. There was one room I didn't like - larger than mine - there was sonething about it that felt cold and 'lonely'. Throughout my two weeks there I associated this room with the thought of a malevolent old woman. No idea why. The lady who owned the farmhouse came over to introduce herself and she told us of previous tenants who had kept their dog in the house all day which constantly barked - the dog was a red setter, she said.
I loved the house and was also so unnerved by it too - it absolutely felt haunted. Walking along the corridors I became convinced that I would see someone around the next corner - the feeling of a presence, of 'otherness' was quite striking. The whole place felt unearthly.
The oddness crept into the surrounding landscape too. On the evenings I would go for a walk along the path by the woods, following the edges of the fields. It constantly felt like I was going to see someone- an edgy unnerving feeling that wasn't necessarily unpleasant. It was midsummer when we went and that far north it doesnt ever really get fully dark - even in the small hours, the sky doesnt go fully pitch black. One evening as I rounded the corner there was a sudden shock - I thought there was a figure sittibg down - but this turned out to be a sheaf of straw tied to the fence post- for some reason a lot of these fence posts had sheafs of straw to them. As I walked there was just an absolute conviction of something spectral. An air of utter unwordliness.
The feeling was most intense in the house though. I remember waking at 4am in the sun, listening to the sound of the wind through the trees in the wood, half-convinced that I would hear someone walk along the path up to the house.
The air of those two weeks was unnerving and beautiful, and I still think of it often now, and I've never felt a place feel so utterly, utterly haunted... But nothing happened at all even remotely disturbing. I've had other experiences in haunted places- genuinely weird things occurring (maybe) but nothing to ever equal the atmosphere of that farmhouse.
If there are such things as hauntings (and I am still undecided if there are) perhaps it would make sense that some hauntings- in their effects anyway - would be so subtle to be barely noticeable - unless someone is maybe interested in such things.
Anyone else have any tales of such minor hauntings?
Anyway, here's mine...
In summer 2005 I went on holiday with my parents to Scotland. We rented out what had once been a farmhouse for two weeks. This was in the North East, in Morayshire - near Elgin. The farmhouse was old - built in the 1700s (maybe 1800s?) and was part of still working farmland. Very rural and remote feeling. When we got there I immediately explored the house - it felt very old inside and didnt feel at all modern. While looking around upstairs the thought of a Red Setter dog kept popping into my head. Joining my parents downstairs my Mum asked if I had called out at any point - which I hadn't. Mum was convinced she had heard someone calling out. There were 3 bedrooms upstairs and I chose the smallest one. Out of the window were fields and a small path leading to a small wood. There was one room I didn't like - larger than mine - there was sonething about it that felt cold and 'lonely'. Throughout my two weeks there I associated this room with the thought of a malevolent old woman. No idea why. The lady who owned the farmhouse came over to introduce herself and she told us of previous tenants who had kept their dog in the house all day which constantly barked - the dog was a red setter, she said.
I loved the house and was also so unnerved by it too - it absolutely felt haunted. Walking along the corridors I became convinced that I would see someone around the next corner - the feeling of a presence, of 'otherness' was quite striking. The whole place felt unearthly.
The oddness crept into the surrounding landscape too. On the evenings I would go for a walk along the path by the woods, following the edges of the fields. It constantly felt like I was going to see someone- an edgy unnerving feeling that wasn't necessarily unpleasant. It was midsummer when we went and that far north it doesnt ever really get fully dark - even in the small hours, the sky doesnt go fully pitch black. One evening as I rounded the corner there was a sudden shock - I thought there was a figure sittibg down - but this turned out to be a sheaf of straw tied to the fence post- for some reason a lot of these fence posts had sheafs of straw to them. As I walked there was just an absolute conviction of something spectral. An air of utter unwordliness.
The feeling was most intense in the house though. I remember waking at 4am in the sun, listening to the sound of the wind through the trees in the wood, half-convinced that I would hear someone walk along the path up to the house.
The air of those two weeks was unnerving and beautiful, and I still think of it often now, and I've never felt a place feel so utterly, utterly haunted... But nothing happened at all even remotely disturbing. I've had other experiences in haunted places- genuinely weird things occurring (maybe) but nothing to ever equal the atmosphere of that farmhouse.
If there are such things as hauntings (and I am still undecided if there are) perhaps it would make sense that some hauntings- in their effects anyway - would be so subtle to be barely noticeable - unless someone is maybe interested in such things.
Anyone else have any tales of such minor hauntings?