Disembodied voices, sudden temperature drops, lanterns swinging for no reason — all in a night’s work for the Highland Paranormal group.
The group, formed in Inverness some 13 years ago is currently in high demand, including requests from charities inviting the group in to carry out a public investigation for them as part of their fundraising activities.
Such was the case in Caithness recently at Laidhay Museum, a 250 year old rush-thatched long house just north of Dunbeath.
It was converted into a croft museum almost half a century ago, exhibiting tools and everyday items in use over centuries.
Having lost the roof of their barn in the winter storms, Laidhay Trust needed to raise funds, so invited Highland Paranormal up for two public sessions.
Highland Paranormal headed north and found quite a few things going bump in the night.
A couple of these were firsts for the group and offer good evidence, says group founder Liam Shand.
He’s a self-declared sceptic, always seeking a rational explanation first.
But at Laidhay Liam said the events defied logical explanation.
He said: “Quite often in active paranormal situations there can be a sudden drop in temperature, so we asked the presence we felt there if it could drop the temperature.
“It instantly dropped by three degrees.
“That’s a significant drop, and temperatures don’t normally drop that quickly.”
“We’ve experienced dropping temperatures, but never had it on demand before.”
Another mysterious first came with the compass the group always have with them.
“Normally nothing ever happens with it,” Liam said, “but some energy moved the needle, again on demand.”
A lantern also swung for no apparent reason, no draughts in evidence.
The energy seemed to come from someone who hadn’t lived on the croft, but worked there, Liam claimed.
It’s unusual for spirit, as the group refer to these so-called energies, to be quite so co-operative.
The museum was packed with members of the public on both nights, and more than £700 was raised for the museum.
Initial nerves soon disappeared
The group is now relaxed amid these experiences, after an initial case of nerves on their first outing.
They’ve never experienced fear in any apparently haunted setting, Liam says.
He grew up in Dalneigh, Inverness, in the shadow of the Fairy Hill, so myths, legends, history and spooky stories were a strong part of his culture, both at school and in his family.
“There were stories of a haunting near my mum’s house, for example, and I was just fascinated by the whole thing, although I didn’t experience anything major as a child.
“I just had an urge for answers.”
Liam, an IT manager at Highland Council, has seen Highland Paranormal group swell to about 20 members, each bringing a special skill to the table, from dowsing, to research and mediumship.
It was also invited to become a member of TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society in the US, an organisation which investigates paranormal activity with the same ethos of finding rational explanations first, and keeping an open mind.
Inspired by TV ghost-hunting series, Highland Paranormal now has K-II meters, which measure electromagnetic fields (EMF), Rempods which produce EMFs in order to attract spirit energy, and an SLS camera which produces stick figure representations of unseen presences in the room.
Cat balls are the group’s new favourite tool — cat toys which light up when moved or touched.
Dowsing rods are frequently used, sometimes with startling results.
Contact with the spirit of a young girl?
The group meets in Touchwood House, Inverness, which has a reputation of being haunted, and in one particular spot, the group say they often make contact with the spirit of a small child.
She’s seen as shabbily dressed, about five or six years old and carrying some kind of bear or dog toy.
She loves to spin the dowsing rods round and round just like a mischievous child, until told to calm down.
The house was used as a children’s home around the 1920s.
Hollywood TV ghostbuster, actor and producer Rick McCallum recently spent three nights at Touchwood House.
With ancestors in Argyll & Bute and Lochaber, Rick is a frequent visitor to Scotland, but this was his first longer visit to the Highlands.
Liam said: “On his first evening at Touchwood he was constantly seeing shadows and had the K-II meters and Rempods going off, and the cat balls lit up.
“We took him to Clava Cairns, where he said after a session at the cairns it was the best response on dowsing rods he’d ever seen, and he’s hoping to come back next year.
“He is constantly on TV and radio in the States and will plug the Highlands, so it helps put the Highlands on the paranormal map.”
“Off the chart” activity at Clava Cairns
Mark Wallbank, a paranormal investigator well known in New Zealand, came over last September and also visited Clava Cairns.
Liam said: “The activity was off the chart when he visited.
“The K-II meters went off although there is no electricity near Clava, there were orange lights, a sense of people walking about and Mark heard a gentleman say ‘hello’ close by, although there was no-one there.
“He saw a figure which we couldn’t explain, especially it was autumn and there were leaves on the ground, and the gate is noisy, so if someone had come in we would have heard them.”
The group is often invited to homes by private individuals, something which he can’t talk about in any detail.
On some occasions they find rational explanations for disturbing activity, and can reassure the owners; on others they might find massive electromagnetic fields in the house, something well known to cause hallucinations and psychological distress.
‘Sometimes an entity can spring from a person’s mind’
In one case, they found that the ‘ghost’ was the product of the imagination of someone living in the house, albeit very real to that person.
The group works across Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire.
They’re heading to Pool House, Poolewe to do an investigation this summer, and later on to Durn House in Portsoy, a favourite venue inhabited by a spirit known as Robert Burt, a Jacobite, who seems to particularly enjoy the company of young red-headed women.
Later in the year, they’ll carry out an investigation in Inveraray Jail, one of the most haunted jails in the country.
Liam said: “No-one is an expert in the paranormal, because the paranormal is the unknown.
“We’re scratching around in the dark, trying to get answers and push things forward.
“It’s always exciting when we get a name and our researchers are able to find historical evidence of that person, but I don’t believe in my lifetime we’ll find out what a ghost is or if they exist from a scientific point of view.
“It’s encouraging that some scientists are looking it now much more than previously.”
Conversation