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Haunted Swimming Pool?

Dick Turpin

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Mar 28, 2018
Messages
1,025
I’d been meaning to post this on here after recently reading a post, (which I now annoyingly can’t find) about the feeling of human hands on one fortean member, whilst they were swimming in an empty local pool.

I had a near identical experience to this whilst I was holidaying in Corfu in 1995.

One evening whilst most of the Hotels guests were either napping or getting ready to go out for the evening, I noticed that the pool / sun lounge area was almost deserted, feeling a little tired but under pressure to go out that night, I decided to take an arduous swim in the hope it would liven me up a bit.

The pool wasn’t huge but large enough to get some decent lengths of swimming in, and I was halfway through my 3rd or forth length, when I felt a pair of human hands grab my ankle, and tug downwards, then let go. Thinking one of my mates had gotten into the pool without me noticing and playing a prank on me, I spun round expecting to see them, but nope, the pool was completely empty bar me.

A few days later quite early in the morning, I was lying on a sun lounger reading an English newspaper. The pool was empty apart from a young girl taking an early morning dip, when suddenly she let out a scream, I looked up from my paper to see her scrambling to get out of the water, before shouting to her boyfriend (who was sitting at a nearby table ) that someone had tried to drag her under the water.

I listened with interest in what she next said to her BF, in that she felt a pair of hands grab her ankle and pull her down, she was a little upset by the experience and said that she would not be going back into that pool for the duration of the holiday.
 
I’d been meaning to post this on here after recently reading a post, (which I now annoyingly can’t find) about the feeling of human hands on one fortean member, whilst they were swimming in an empty local pool.

I had a near identical experience to this whilst I was holidaying in Corfu in 1995.

One evening whilst most of the Hotels guests were either napping or getting ready to go out for the evening, I noticed that the pool / sun lounge area was almost deserted, feeling a little tired but under pressure to go out that night, I decided to take an arduous swim in the hope it would liven me up a bit.

The pool wasn’t huge but large enough to get some decent lengths of swimming in, and I was halfway through my 3rd or forth length, when I felt a pair of human hands grab my ankle, and tug downwards, then let go. Thinking one of my mates had gotten into the pool without me noticing and playing a prank on me, I spun round expecting to see them, but nope, the pool was completely empty bar me.

A few days later quite early in the morning, I was lying on a sun lounger reading an English newspaper. The pool was empty apart from a young girl taking an early morning dip, when suddenly she let out a scream, I looked up from my paper to see her scrambling to get out of the water, before shouting to her boyfriend (who was sitting at a nearby table ) that someone had tried to drag her under the water.

I listened with interest in what she next said to her BF, in that she felt a pair of hands grab her ankle and pull her down, she was a little upset by the experience and said that she would not be going back into that pool for the duration of the holiday.

Creepy!
Just a thought - were you in close proximity to a pump inlet?
They can have surprisingly strong suction and there have been fatalities with people getting trapped.
 
Creepy!
Just a thought - were you in close proximity to a pump inlet?
They can have surprisingly strong suction and there have been fatalities with people getting trapped.

Hi Bless.

The hotels pump did cross my mind, but I was swimming in the centre of the pool, not near the sides, and the sensation was definitely like a pair of hands, as I felt fingers curl round my ankle.

Blimey, thinking back that is creepy isn’t it :oops:
 
yes and esp. if water of a different temperature ie warmer were involved, i reckon that would have a startling effect
 
Just did a quick Google for swimming pool drain suction accidents - and it's horrific reading.

Modern pools tend to have a twin-drain system, usually with domed heads, located around the perimeter. Some older pools had just one drain, in the middle, with suction of up to 300 psi. Just read two accounts of people partly disembowled by such systems. Last fatality was a Russian girl, who was trapped by her arm in a pool in Turkey and drowned in August this year.
Sounds like you may have had a lucky escape!
 
I’d been meaning to post this on here after recently reading a post, (which I now annoyingly can’t find) about the feeling of human hands on one fortean member, whilst they were swimming in an empty local pool.

I had a near identical experience to this whilst I was holidaying in Corfu in 1995.

One evening whilst most of the Hotels guests were either napping or getting ready to go out for the evening, I noticed that the pool / sun lounge area was almost deserted, feeling a little tired but under pressure to go out that night, I decided to take an arduous swim in the hope it would liven me up a bit.

The pool wasn’t huge but large enough to get some decent lengths of swimming in, and I was halfway through my 3rd or forth length, when I felt a pair of human hands grab my ankle, and tug downwards, then let go. Thinking one of my mates had gotten into the pool without me noticing and playing a prank on me, I spun round expecting to see them, but nope, the pool was completely empty bar me.

A few days later quite early in the morning, I was lying on a sun lounger reading an English newspaper. The pool was empty apart from a young girl taking an early morning dip, when suddenly she let out a scream, I looked up from my paper to see her scrambling to get out of the water, before shouting to her boyfriend (who was sitting at a nearby table ) that someone had tried to drag her under the water.

I listened with interest in what she next said to her BF, in that she felt a pair of hands grab her ankle and pull her down, she was a little upset by the experience and said that she would not be going back into that pool for the duration of the holiday.
That’s very frightening. Whilst some kind of pump sounds reasonable, if you felt fingers curling around that discredits that theory in my mind. I tried to do a bit of research to see if there was similar cases but couldn’t really find much. I don’t want to jump to this too quickly but perhaps some sort of spirit?
 
if you felt fingers curling around that discredits that theory in my mind.
think about driving in a car at speed with your hand out of the window, cupping the air, it almost feels like you are holding something made of flesh, because the air is more viscous the faster you travel through it ... now apply that to the even more viscous water, and individual jets of warm water pumped into the pool, i can imagine that giving the impression of something living wrapping around your limb
 
think about driving in a car at speed with your hand out of the window, cupping the air, it almost feels like you are holding something made of flesh, because the air is more viscous the faster you travel through it ... now apply that to the even more viscous water, and individual jets of warm water pumped into the pool, i can imagine that giving the impression of something living wrapping around your limb
That’s reasonable actually. Just more fun to imagine it was a watery ghost xD I can’t really imagine any other explanation apart from the water jets or suction thing.
 
Just did a quick Google for swimming pool drain suction accidents - and it's horrific reading.

Modern pools tend to have a twin-drain system, usually with domed heads, located around the perimeter. Some older pools had just one drain, in the middle, with suction of up to 300 psi. Just read two accounts of people partly disembowled by such systems. Last fatality was a Russian girl, who was trapped by her arm in a pool in Turkey and drowned in August this year.
Sounds like you may have had a lucky escape!

This reminded me of - and I didn't want to be reminded of it - of an early gross out short story by Chuck Palanhuick (he of `Fight Club` fame). In it a young man derives pleasure from sitting atop a pools sunction pump in a pool...and, well...with somewhat disturbing and graphically described results!

According to legend (probably instigated by the author) the tale is so harrowing that it caused members of audiences to faint when he read it out loud at Meet the Author type events.

I survived reading it, but it's pretty nauseating - and its disturbing to see that it has some basis in truth after all!
 
This reminded me of - and I didn't want to be reminded of it - of an early gross out short story by Chuck Palanhuick (he of `Fight Club` fame). In it a young man derives pleasure from sitting atop a pools sunction pump in a pool...and, well...with somewhat disturbing and graphically described results!

According to legend (probably instigated by the author) the tale is so harrowing that it caused members of audiences to faint when he read it out loud at Meet the Author type events.

I survived reading it, but it's pretty nauseating - and its disturbing to see that it has some basis in truth after all!
That doesn’t surprise me, I read Palanhuick’s “Damned” and that had some pretty gross and vividly described scenes.
 
This reminded me of - and I didn't want to be reminded of it - of an early gross out short story by Chuck Palanhuick (he of `Fight Club` fame). In it a young man derives pleasure from sitting atop a pools sunction pump in a pool...and, well...with somewhat disturbing and graphically described results!

According to legend (probably instigated by the author) the tale is so harrowing that it caused members of audiences to faint when he read it out loud at Meet the Author type events.

I survived reading it, but it's pretty nauseating - and its disturbing to see that it has some basis in truth after all!
Ive read that book and all of the tales from the assembled cast are pretty nausiating, damn good author though
 
Thankyou for you reply, very enlightning:D

I think it's The Queen Mary that has probably the most famous haunted swimming pool with an old lady in swimming attire being spotted from time to time and I think the sound of children being heard.

It's the ol' "body of water" being linked with magic or the afterlife again.
 
I think it's The Queen Mary that has probably the most famous haunted swimming pool with an old lady in swimming attire being spotted from time to time and I think the sound of children being heard. ...

There were two swimming pools on the Queen Mary - one for 1st class and another for 2nd class.

The ghost of a little girl known as Jackie is allegedly associated with a child's drowning in the 2nd class pool. The Jackie ghost has been reported at the 2nd class pool and sometimes at the 1st class pool. Some claim there's a second little girl ghost / spirit known as Sarah who frequents the 2nd class pool area.

There are no official records of any child (or any adult, for that matter ... ) having drowned in either pool on board while the Queen Mary was in service.

The reports from the 1st class pool are more vague. Some have reported seeing one female ghost, while others have reported multiple female (adult) ghosts.

See, for example:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-queenmary/
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/N...mber-2017/​Legendary-Ghosts-of-the-Queen-Mary
https://premierpoolsandspas.com/worlds-top-scary-pools-just-time-halloween/
 
Some of us are not quite human . . . :reyes:
 
A few years ago I was working in another country and the company put me up in a small hotel. There was a swimming pool in the basement so on the first night there I went down to check it out. I was the only one there, but the area itself felt fine and I didn't feel nervous or scared about being there alone. Actually the opposite as the pool was really quite tiny - only about 25 metres long, and any more than two people would have been crowded.

The room, whilst in the basement, did have windows high up on one side = the building was on a hill and the land at the front of the building was higher than the back, if that makes sense. It was still light out and the daylight was coming through the windows, although there were lights on as well. The effect, with the sunlight, was that the area of the room I was standing in, at the shallow end, was lighter than the deep end which was a little darker and had a few shadows. I started swimming, but as I got to the middle of the pool for some reason I started feeling worried, and almost as though I didn't want to swim any closer. I did swim the whole length, and then swam back again immediately. I got out and had a look, and the only thing I could see was there was a long shadow which cut across the corner of the pool. It was very obviously a shadow - this wasn't a case where it looked like something else out of the corner of my eye, but still, when I tried again to swim a length, it seemed to just emit something that made me not want to swim over it. I'm a confident swimmer, and the pool wasn't very deep, even in the deep end, and I've not had a reaction like that before in a pool.

To this day I don't know what it was, but I honestly felt like I didn't want to swim over the shadow - like it would come and get me. I tried swimming around it, but it just still seemed to be there. In the end I gave up and went back to my room. I couldn't bring myself to go back there.
 
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