As a huge fan of horror movies, I am used to the idea of haunted places. But I’ve never had a drink in a haunted pub before – at least not knowingly.
Ma Cameron’s on Aberdeen’s Little Belmont Street has a reputation for haunted happenings, with all sorts of rumours circling the pub.
I wanted to find out what the staff, who work in the “haunted” building day in, day out, think of the rumours.
And if they have experienced any hauntings themselves.
Meet Craig, manager of ‘haunted’ Aberdeen pub, Ma Cameron’s
I headed to the pub on a Friday lunchtime to meet the manager, Craig Mitchell.
I’m expecting to hear some more of these rumours from him.
What I hadn’t expected is for him to have experienced some ghostly encounters himself.
Manager Craig says the rumours didn’t put him off when he started working there 13 years ago
“I always knew, because Ma’s is such an old building,” he says.
“I’d heard all the rumours.
“There is a tap that was found still running in the Snug Bar, after nobody had been working on it.
“Quite peculiar and strange.”
The 33-year-old has heard “knocks and bangs” at the pub, which he knows can be explained away by Ma Cameron’s busy city centre location.
But other eerie experiences have altered the non-believer’s opinion on the supernatural.
Craig says: “I never used to believe [in ghosts], but then working here… well, it makes you suspicious about it all.
“You do kind of feel it, around you.”
Spooky things happen ‘at least once a month’
One particular event sticks in Craig’s mind more than the others.
“My friends and I were sat around that table there,” he recalls.
“And one of our drinks just knocked off the table.”
He tells me this wasn’t their doing, and glasses often knock themselves over at the pub – or, are pushed by some invisible entity.
If there is a presence in Ma Cameron’s, it is fond of causing mayhem, it seems.
“A few weeks ago, we were locking up on a Saturday night,” he continues.
“Everyone was out of the building.
“And a dog bowl, round the far side of the pub, fell over onto the floor on its own.
“We all said ‘let’s just get out of here, quickly’.”
These sort of things happen at least once a month, Craig tells me.
‘It feels like you’re being watched’ in Ma Cameron’s, Aberdeen
And Craig isn’t the only one.
His colleague at Ma Cameron’s, 23-year-old Connor Moir, has parts of the pub he dreads visiting on his own.
“Sometimes when I’m in the cellar getting stock first thing in the morning, or at night, and nobody’s around, I feel watched,” he tells me.
“I don’t want to say in danger, but it’s that feeling where it feels like there’s someone right behind you.”
Connor adds: “I’m not a believer in this stuff, but it is weird.
“I do find myself turning around to look behind me more often than not.
“If there’s a ghost, there’s a ghost…”
And pubgoer Mike Goonan has been visiting Ma Cameron’s since the 1970s.
He says he’s experienced some strange sensations too.
Mike, 70, tells me: “It’s usually when you’re by yourself.
“And you can feel like someone is behind you. You look round, and nobody’s there.”
He also heard of a staff member coming into the pub first thing in the morning, and all of the windows were open, with no explanation.
Even the windows which had been painted shut…
I ask Mike if these creepy encounters make him want to stop coming to the pub.
He says: “It makes me want to come all the mare!”
Was I spooked at Ma Cameron’s?
I did feel something at Ma Cameron’s.
Whether it was a ghostly presence, I can’t say – you’d need to ask some experts.
But the eerie tales definitely made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I was looking over my shoulder a bit more often than normal in the pub too.
I didn’t hear any unexplained knocks, bangs or ghostly moans, or witness any flickering lights.
And, disappointingly, my glass of water didn’t knock itself off the table either.
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