- Joined
- May 26, 2006
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- 2,476
Last night and early this morning I was fortunate enough to spend sometime walking around a five star hotel near Erskine outside Glasgow, taking pictures as I went. The hotel, as far as I know, does not advertise as it’s that exclusive, recent guests have included Brad Pitt and Take That. The owners of the hotel are very, very reluctant to inform any staying guests or would-be guests that the hotel is not only adapted from a military hospital but also the land it sits on was owned by Mar, a Pictish chieftain by all accounts. (Need to check that-m)
Before I reveal to you Forteans the two things that have made me go “Ooooooooh!” I’ll give you some of the “stories”. Bear in mind these are all FOAF tales.
This is the main entry hall leading off from reception.
On Sunday night they have a pianist sit and tinkle the ivories in the grand half way into the room. The pianist regularly complains of losing power to her amplifiers, power just dropping out then immediately returning.
This couch…
…apparently had a woman in a red dress sitting on it around four in the morning. It was witnessed by a member of staff who briefly saw her, thought hang on, looked back and she was gone.
Room 40…
…has had guests complain that during the night all the heaters in the room have been switched to full heat. Others have complained about the cold in the same room. The staff call it “The Ghost Room”. The room was used to house terminal patients in it when the hotel was a military hospital, the location of the room, very close to the morgue, was why it was used and no doubt had a few poor folks die in that room. Maybe in the bed which has also had Brad sleep in it.
Might just be a trick of the light but this window had something in the lower bottom right hand corner.
I spent most of the night shooting into mirrors and windows as it seemed to me there was more chance of catching something than out right shooting the room. I fire off about 15 shots very fast without a flash in the hope anomalies will pop up in one frame but won’t appear in any others.
This photo taken in Room 15 is a close up of a mirror, as far as I can tell on the right hand side of the mirror I’m shooting, and it may just be simulacra, it looks like the shoulder of someone standing a few feet to my right. I ensured my niece was behind me every time I shot. Also she was wearing a black.
It was a fun filled couple of hours sneaking about without management knowing I was there and it is a beautiful hotel.
And the staff have one or two tales to tell. A woman working late at night in one of the bars claims she looked up to see a small boy standing in the door way of the room.
A “grey lady” – the mother of the child – has been seen by another staff ,member in the grounds where she apparently perished. She's still looking for her little boy.
The receptionist I was talking to told me of the night a strong, cold breeze had blown down the hall toward reception and rattled the front doors. No open windows or doors were found and the night was not that particularly windy.
One of the security guards in the place claims one night he left his office, which is by the main gate, to head down to the main building. As he left the office he noticed an older man standing by the fence separating the hotel from the nearby working hospital. The older man asked if he knew the way to the Erskine Bridge, the security guard started explaining to the guy how to get back to the main road. As he was doing this, the older gentleman suddenly interrupted him and said he knew a better way to get there turned and walked away. At that point the security guard realized the older gentleman, as he walked away, had no legs from the thigh down. The receptionist clearly recalls him saying over and over “He had no legs” when he was sitting white faced, shaking, having just ran all the way from the security office. He phoned a close personal friend to come and sit with him for the rest of that night rather than return to the security office alone.
Now for me. As I said, I kept my niece behind me at all time when I was shooting. She doesn’t like walking through one of dining areas by her self at night.
Here’s a wide of the dining area.
And this is a close up of the window at the back. I have no idea who’s silhouette that is but it appears in every photo. I'm pretty sure my niece was to my left and behind me.
The second event was an audio event. We went outside to where the morgue used to be. One or two of the buildings are still standing and are used to house the industrial size grass cutting equipment. It’s enclosed on three sides this area, one of the sides, the left is the corridor leading to room 40, “The Ghost Room”. The rest of the place was very dark, very damp and very spooky.
My niece stayed in the fire exit doorway while I stepped out into the court yard area. I was turning the camera on and fiddling with the settings when I heard…and I’ll try and describe it as best I can…the metallic clang and screech of a large metal door closing, followed by footsteps. It sounded like boots walking on concrete, occasionally a crack of a small stone underneath and coming closer. I turned to J and asked her what she heard, she replied “Sounds like footsteps”. We listened for a few seconds more and the stopped. When the started the sounded like they were inside one of the buildings by the end they sounded close by. None of the pictures I took show anything weird alas. J started getting freaked so we went indoors again and headed to room 40.
As we discussed what we’d heard with the receptionist she was very kind enough to phone the only other three possible people walking about that night. The owner had retired to bed and had not been walking his dog, two workers were laying new tiles in the swimming pool area, quite a distance from where we were and the security guard was in his office and had not left. So we’re at a loss to fathom whos footsteps we heard. The metal door and the heavy boots lend me to think we heard the walk of someone who had just taken a corpse to the morgue…I don’t know…maybe not.
Anyways, there’s the report. It wasn’t an in depth vigil due to the fact the management of the hotel do not want it to have a reputation or to attract the Acorah’s of this world. I’m happy to provide, via PM, the name of the place to anyone who wants it for their own research or indeed to stay a night in the place. I warn you though, it’s used by the Hollywood A list so it may be quite pricey.
Before I reveal to you Forteans the two things that have made me go “Ooooooooh!” I’ll give you some of the “stories”. Bear in mind these are all FOAF tales.
This is the main entry hall leading off from reception.
On Sunday night they have a pianist sit and tinkle the ivories in the grand half way into the room. The pianist regularly complains of losing power to her amplifiers, power just dropping out then immediately returning.
This couch…
…apparently had a woman in a red dress sitting on it around four in the morning. It was witnessed by a member of staff who briefly saw her, thought hang on, looked back and she was gone.
Room 40…
…has had guests complain that during the night all the heaters in the room have been switched to full heat. Others have complained about the cold in the same room. The staff call it “The Ghost Room”. The room was used to house terminal patients in it when the hotel was a military hospital, the location of the room, very close to the morgue, was why it was used and no doubt had a few poor folks die in that room. Maybe in the bed which has also had Brad sleep in it.
Might just be a trick of the light but this window had something in the lower bottom right hand corner.
I spent most of the night shooting into mirrors and windows as it seemed to me there was more chance of catching something than out right shooting the room. I fire off about 15 shots very fast without a flash in the hope anomalies will pop up in one frame but won’t appear in any others.
This photo taken in Room 15 is a close up of a mirror, as far as I can tell on the right hand side of the mirror I’m shooting, and it may just be simulacra, it looks like the shoulder of someone standing a few feet to my right. I ensured my niece was behind me every time I shot. Also she was wearing a black.
It was a fun filled couple of hours sneaking about without management knowing I was there and it is a beautiful hotel.
And the staff have one or two tales to tell. A woman working late at night in one of the bars claims she looked up to see a small boy standing in the door way of the room.
A “grey lady” – the mother of the child – has been seen by another staff ,member in the grounds where she apparently perished. She's still looking for her little boy.
The receptionist I was talking to told me of the night a strong, cold breeze had blown down the hall toward reception and rattled the front doors. No open windows or doors were found and the night was not that particularly windy.
One of the security guards in the place claims one night he left his office, which is by the main gate, to head down to the main building. As he left the office he noticed an older man standing by the fence separating the hotel from the nearby working hospital. The older man asked if he knew the way to the Erskine Bridge, the security guard started explaining to the guy how to get back to the main road. As he was doing this, the older gentleman suddenly interrupted him and said he knew a better way to get there turned and walked away. At that point the security guard realized the older gentleman, as he walked away, had no legs from the thigh down. The receptionist clearly recalls him saying over and over “He had no legs” when he was sitting white faced, shaking, having just ran all the way from the security office. He phoned a close personal friend to come and sit with him for the rest of that night rather than return to the security office alone.
Now for me. As I said, I kept my niece behind me at all time when I was shooting. She doesn’t like walking through one of dining areas by her self at night.
Here’s a wide of the dining area.
And this is a close up of the window at the back. I have no idea who’s silhouette that is but it appears in every photo. I'm pretty sure my niece was to my left and behind me.
The second event was an audio event. We went outside to where the morgue used to be. One or two of the buildings are still standing and are used to house the industrial size grass cutting equipment. It’s enclosed on three sides this area, one of the sides, the left is the corridor leading to room 40, “The Ghost Room”. The rest of the place was very dark, very damp and very spooky.
My niece stayed in the fire exit doorway while I stepped out into the court yard area. I was turning the camera on and fiddling with the settings when I heard…and I’ll try and describe it as best I can…the metallic clang and screech of a large metal door closing, followed by footsteps. It sounded like boots walking on concrete, occasionally a crack of a small stone underneath and coming closer. I turned to J and asked her what she heard, she replied “Sounds like footsteps”. We listened for a few seconds more and the stopped. When the started the sounded like they were inside one of the buildings by the end they sounded close by. None of the pictures I took show anything weird alas. J started getting freaked so we went indoors again and headed to room 40.
As we discussed what we’d heard with the receptionist she was very kind enough to phone the only other three possible people walking about that night. The owner had retired to bed and had not been walking his dog, two workers were laying new tiles in the swimming pool area, quite a distance from where we were and the security guard was in his office and had not left. So we’re at a loss to fathom whos footsteps we heard. The metal door and the heavy boots lend me to think we heard the walk of someone who had just taken a corpse to the morgue…I don’t know…maybe not.
Anyways, there’s the report. It wasn’t an in depth vigil due to the fact the management of the hotel do not want it to have a reputation or to attract the Acorah’s of this world. I’m happy to provide, via PM, the name of the place to anyone who wants it for their own research or indeed to stay a night in the place. I warn you though, it’s used by the Hollywood A list so it may be quite pricey.
