Shadows on the Water E-Book

Allan Scott-Davies

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 236

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

This fascinating volume takes a look at some of the strange and unexplained hauntings reported across Britain's canal and waterways network: echoes in dark tunnels; stone steps stained red with blood spilled long ago; ghostly footsteps accompanying barges beneath a bridge… Mixing long-established ghostly tales with first-hand accounts, Allan Scott-Davies presents a grisly collection of supernatural stories. From the screaming ghost near Market Drayton to the Roman soldier in Chester guarding the canal, the drowning man at Lapworth and the white lady of the Hatton flight, all is revealed with a map of locations and, for some of the more haunted sites, a guided tour map. This illustrated book is sure to delight lovers of the waterways and paranormal alike.

Leseprobe

SHADOWS

ON THE

WATER

SHADOWS

ON THE

WATER

THE HAUNTED CANALSAND WATERWAYSOF BRITAIN

ALLAN SCOTT-DAVIES

Crick Tunnel, Grand Union Canal.

First published 2010

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© Allan Scott-Davies, 2010, 2013

The right of Allan Scott-Davies to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 5277 4

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One

Scotland

Chapter Two

Northern Ireland

Chapter Three

North England

Chapter Four

Middle England

Chapter Five

Wales

Chapter Six

South East England

Chapter Seven

South West England

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Helen, for proof reading the first draft; Laura, for her search for stories; Kerry Dainty; Richard Smith; everyone at British Waterways, including Neal Owen, Bob Gee, James Clifton, Julie Willetts, Mark Hines, Denis Pike, Terry Drake, Melissa Ezuchukwu; and special thanks to Jenny Histead for all her help publicising the book; Bridget Glynn-Jones (The Wey & Arun Canal Trust); Martin Ludgate; Jenny Black (Waterway Recovery Group); Mike Webb; Sarah Palmer of Towpath Talk; John Davies; Colin Hart (BA); Bob Gough (Huddersfield Canal Society); Richard Holland of Paranormal Magazine; Dot Moody, her family and Ann Smith of ITV. There are many others I have met along the way who wish to remain anonymous, so thanks go to them, too, for sharing their stories and experiences.

INTRODUCTION

The inland waterways of the mainland United Kingdom have a wealth of history – overcoming challenges of getting from one place to another via tunnels, over aqueducts and through cuttings where shadows lurk. Rivers, lochs, meres and lakes may look romantic in the bright sunlight, but stay until sunset and the shadows slowly creep out of the dark and cold depths of the waters to seek out living souls to take. Over the years I have compiled numerous stories about ghosts and this is a collection of tales from many sites across the land, from mermaids trapped in pools to the Loch Ness monster, from phantom ships and barges full of bodies to helpful giants rising up to carry people across raging torrents of water. There are stories from rivers and canals that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and others that are simply amusing.

Once I had a list of locations in mind for this book, I set off on my travels to sketch the haunted sites and meet the people who had been in touch with me following a British Waterways press release and articles in Towpath Talk and Paranormal Magazine. It has been an exciting time, as I was filmed with Kerry Dainty by ITV and interviewed on the radio and via the Internet. There have also been some scary moments such as when I thought I had met the ghost at Badger Dingle in Shropshire … it turned out to be a reveller who just fell over rather than vanished as we walked towards each other through the dingle!

The stories behind the hauntings are often macabre and tragic, usually associated with someone whose life ended too quickly, thus leaving their image imprinted on the screen of time to reappear in certain conditions for viewers to perceive as ghosts. My belief is that we all have the ability to see these images, but as we get older and our parents wean us from our invisible friends we soon forget to ‘look’. It has been a great adventure turning up at haunted sites to check details. I have met those who have witnessed the apparitions and sketched the locations, taking photographs too.

So, what is a ghost? Well, there are many theories, and the one I promote from my own research and findings is that a ghost is a video-type image generated at times when all the elements are right for it to appear. Could this be why we tend to see more ghosts at night, the low-light energy images showing up better in the dark? Why do we tend not to see many in daylight – are they still there, but not strong enough to be seen? My theory is that we all have a battery of energy to see us through a full life, from birth to natural death. If we die before our natural time, murdered or the victim of a sudden accident, then we leave a trace image of ourselves powered by the remainder of the battery power that can go on for many more years than if we were alive. Imagine it a little like a projected image through sheets of time, and as time moves on so fades the image.

The Roman soldiers that walk in the cellar of Treasurer’s House in York have been getting fainter in image as time passes. We do not typically hear reports of giant mammoth spectres, so time must play a part in erasing their images. There are one or two ‘ghosts’ that do not fit this theory, and they tend to be the destructive ones who are often linked to suicides or girls developing into young women, plagued with a poltergeist for a short time.

There are more ghosts in Great Britain than in any other part of the world, according to the Ghost Club, and this could well be down to the mix of early invaders from Europe, each bringing traditions and stories to add to those already told here. Whatever the cause, there are many more tales waiting to be discovered and new ghosts making debuts all over the country – so look out for them.

The stories in this book are based on a combination of my own findings and first-hand accounts from people I have met or been in touch with after my appeals for ghost stories related to Britain’s waterways. Local variations are taken into account when writing them up, and in this respect various tourist information centres, canal societies and local press contacts have been very helpful. Additional research has been carried out via the Internet and other books, with the parnormal database being used as a point of reference to follow up stories.

If you have any of your own stories about ghosts that inhabit the waterways, be they canals, pools, lakes, lochs, rivers, or any body of inland water, do let me know. May I take this chance to thank you for reading this far, and hope that the rest of the book is of interest to you.

Allan Scott-Davies

CHAPTER ONE

SCOTLAND

BEAULY FIRTH, THE OLD INN

Not only known as a place where smugglers and distillers of illicit whisky would meet, the inn has its share of ghosts too – or so it would seem from the stories put out into the community by the smugglers who gathered there. For many years, people would keep away at night for fear of running into one of the headless coachmen who pounded the narrow lanes to and from the inn. Little did they suspect the ghosts were really smugglers, who used a form of fluorescent paint to make the phantom headless coachmen appear spookier by glowing in the dark.

There is one resident ghost, however, reputedly one of the later landlords who lived, breathed and loved the inn, so as age caught up with him he reluctantly put it up for sale. The night before he was due to move out he suffered a heart attack at the top of the stairs and died. Ever since he returns to visit his beloved tavern, checking the cellar and an old wooden till he used that is now on show, before sitting in his favourite seat, watching the customers enjoy a night at his inn – just as he did in life. But be warned – do not sit in his chair or you may well be pushed out of it!

TARBAT COTTAGE, FEARN

Near Fearn, in the parish of Tarbat, so the ghost story goes, was a muddy pond that once had clear waters washing up against the low bridge from the burn that fed it. Nearby was a cottage with a heather roof, in a style typical for the area. It was here that a grisly murder was committed.

A young pedlar of pots and pans arrived at the empty cottage, enjoyed a small but simple meal, then bedded down for the night. A highwayman who was keen to make a profit attacked him in the middle of the night. He stole the pedlar’s goods, chattels and money, before clubbing him to death and throwing his body into the pond. Some time later, the pedlar was seen rising from the lake and walking towards the cottage, as if looking for something – or someone. The locals noticed too that the lake was becoming darker in shade every spring, and began to silt up slowly year on year.

At the water’s edge and also in Tarbat Cottage a figure in grey was often seen apparently searching for something. Some sixty years after the murder the sightings faded and the old cottage was bought by a local man who rebuilt it, restoring it to its former glory in preparation for his wife. He lovingly carried his new wife over the threshold on the first night of their honeymoon in their new home. On their third evening together as newlyweds they were preparing for bed, when they heard a great commotion in the kitchen with sounds of banging and thrashing. They watched with horror as their bedroom door opened and the figure of a young man entered the room. The new owner of Tarbat Cottage pulled a poker into his hand from the bedroom fireplace and went toward the intruder, ready to strike. As he did so the intruder spoke, telling them that sixty years ago a highwayman had murdered him, throwing his body into the pond. He informed them that his correct allotted time to die as an old man was fast approaching, and smiled as he proceeded to age before their very eyes, slowly fading into the fabric of the cottage. The next day the skeleton of the young pedlar was found in a newly dug trench where the pond once was. His remains were taken to the nearby churchyard and buried with due ceremony. The ghost of the pedlar has never been seen again.

Tarbat Cottage remained a loving home and a small burn returned to the site of the pond in the following spring, filling with gleaming water that reflected back onto the cottage. Had the man not restored the cottage and moved in, the ghost of the lonely pedlar may still be roaming in search of his killer and goods.

RIVER CONON, HIGHLANDS

Beware if you walk or paddle in the river at Conon Bridge, for it is in the shadows of the bridge that a spirit lurks, appearing as a wave before pulling its victims under water to drown. Dogs have also been known to drown there. The spirit then throws its victim into the air and pushes the lifeless body to shore. The river is also host to the king otter, who, if caught, will grant one wish in return for freedom.

In the shadow of Canon House on the river is a ford. It was here that a servant of Lord Seaforth, on his way home from a party with his two friends, was attacked by the spectre of the river. The servant was crossing the ford on horseback when he emitted a sudden scream and there was frantic neighing, as both man and horse were grabbed and pulled under the water by a large black shape that leapt from the river. The two men watched in horror as their friend’s body was thrown to the air before being pulled back into the river. His horse made it to the other side and galloped off home, but despite days of searching, the servant was never found. His ghost appears nearby to warn others away from the ford.

RIVER KYLE, CARBISDALE CASTLE

The castle was built in 1905–1917 for the dowager Duchess of Sunderland, as part settlement after a long legal case over her husband’s will, contested by his son. It a safe haven for the King of Norway during the Second World War and in 1945 it became the showpiece of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. The ghost of a gardener haunts the grounds and attaches itself to girls who are the same age as his lost daughter, who was fifteen years old. He walks along the river bank where his daughter was swept away in a flash flood as she paddled in the shallows. The figure is dressed in a hooded coat, with only part of his face showing.

LOCH ASSYNT

There are a number of stories concerning the area of Loch Assynt, including the sad tale of a pedlar, Murdoch Grant, who was murdered as he travelled around the paths, trading goods and lending money.

It was known that Murdoch carried all his cash on him, as he mistrusted banks, and his home was often broken into. He was last seen alive on the morning of 11 March 1830 as he set off to sell his wares at a wedding in Assynt; a wedding at which he never arrived. A month later, his body was discovered floating in the loch by a courting couple. Murdoch Grant’s body was removed from the loch and laid in a coffin. In a strange local custom the residents of Assynt were asked to press their forefinger on the forehead of Murdoch to prove they were not the killer. This is a tradition known as ‘touch-proof’, as it was believed that a guilty person would bleed from the finger on contact with the corpse.

Only one person refused to do this, saying he was an educated man who did not believe in such poppycock. He was the local schoolmaster, Macleod. Suspicion immediately fell on him, supported by the fact that he was known to be in debt and had a reputation for buying favours of women and living beyond his means. As there was no factual proof, and Macleod claimed his sudden wealth had come from an inheritance, the police had no evidence against him. However, Macleod did not get away with his crime. What he did not count on was Kenneth Frazer, a local man with the gift of second sight.

Frazer walked into the magistrates’ court and told an astounded audience of how Macleod had met Murdoch and tried to extend a loan. Murdoch refused and Macleod had hit him on the head then stole the rucksack, taking the money and some of the goods before hiding it in a nearby hollowed out tree. Macleod was arrested for the murder and quickly confessed. He was sentenced to the gallows. Since 1830, each year on 11 March, the sickening noise of lead hitting flesh is heard, followed by a long sigh then running footsteps.

On the shore of the Loch Assynt stands Castle Ardvreck, occupied for nearly one hundred years by an old dowager who liked nothing more than stirring up gossip in the area. One such piece of gossip concerned her daughter-in-law, who the old dowager despised and who had just given birth to a baby boy. The dowager told her son that the baby was not his and that his wife had been having an affair with a woodsman. Enraged, her son rode off to punish his wife for the accused infidelity. Things became so bad that the wife was forced to seek help from her two brothers, and begged them to come and visit her to try and make her husband see sense and realise that the whole story was just a vindictive rumour started by his mother.

The brothers duly arrived, and within a few minutes of meeting the husband a massive row ensued. The younger brother had studied the black arts and, being the strongest of the pair, he forced his sister’s husband to the castle where he demanded an audience with the dowager to find the underlying cause of the matter. The brother demanded answers to the questions about his sister’s reputation, and as to where the story of her affair had originated.

The dowager refused to say anything, whereupon the brother drew some strange symbols on the floor of the room and shouted out a command towards the loch. At that moment, the waters of the loch boiled up and from them emerged a tall shadow of a man. ‘Has she been unfaithful?’, the brother asked him. ‘No, she is faithful’, came the reply. The shadowy man stayed, asking for payment in the form of a human soul. Her son offered the dowager to the shadow man, but she was not accepted. The ghostly apparition then vanished.

The husband returned home full of remorse and ready to beg his wife’s forgiveness, only to find his wife in a state of distress: their son had passed away at the same time as the ghost vanished. His wife said she had seen a shadow take the baby boy, saying he was collecting her husband’s debt. In the years that followed the crops repeatedly failed and no fish were caught in the loch. At the end of five years there was a massive fire that destroyed the castle in which the dowager perished, carried off to the depths of the loch by the shadow that had been summoned.

It is believed locally that if you see the shadow of the man you will suffer a death in your family within the year.

LOCH MULLARDOCH, HIGHLANDS

Loch Mullardoch is well known for its spectacular walks among the Munro peaks in a remote part of the Highlands. A pair of walkers was descending the peaks when they noticed a small cottage at the edge of Loch Mullardoch that did not appear on their map. Stopping for a break they noticed the cottage seemed to shimmer in the heat of the sun, and they decided to walk towards it to see if it was inhabited as they were looking for a new home in the area. A small dip in the hill meant that they lost sight of the cottage for a short while. When they came over the top of the hill they were surprised to find the cottage had vanished. They asked about the cottage later that evening when they rested their weary limbs in the local inn. To their surprise they were told that, yes, the cottage was well known locally. It had been a lodge for the nearby hunting estate and was just as they had described, but it was now some 30ft below the water of the loch after the water level was raised in the 1950s.

MORAY FORTH, CASTLE STUART, HIGHLANDS

Eight bedrooms in this hotel are named after the clans who lost men when they fought alongside Bonnie Prince Charlie at nearby Culloden in 1745. Perhaps it is the anger felt by these lost men that lives on in the haunted tower of the hotel? After the battle, as the dead and wounded returned home past the castle, many looked up at the tower and saluted it.

Such was the strength of feeling regarding the tower that the Earl of Moray offered a reward to anyone who could stay in it all night to find out what haunted it. A local poacher, Big Angus, took the challenge, and so, after a drink with the Earl, he went upstairs to meet the ghost. The next day he was found in the courtyard, dead, a look of sheer terror on his bloodied face. Also strange was that the window of the tower did not look as if it had been opened – in fact, it could not be opened.

BURN OF LYTH, ACKERGILL TOWER

Ackergill Tower has a long history behind it, that of a feud between the Keith family, who owned the tower, and the Gunn family, who lived across the Burn of Lyth. The two families often raided each other, and on one such raid Helen Gunn was kidnapped and brought back to the tower, where the males of the Keith family drunkenly fought for her while she watched on in horror, surrounded by servants. Helen managed to escape and ran up into the tower room where she prised open a window and leaped out to her death to escape being raped by a Keith male. Her ghost runs up the stairs and is seen exiting the window in the form of a mist moving towards the burn, which she then crosses over on her way home.

RIVER SPEY, BOAT OF GARTEN

On the river bed at Boat of Garten sits an inscribed stone protected by a guardian, a white horse, to make sure that anyone who touches it is cursed.

The legend, which can be traced back to the Middle Ages, goes that a witch would sit on the stone and wait for the village inhabitants to bring her food and drink. The villagers grew tired of her demands and constant moaning. Finally a group of men beat her up and threw her body into the river. Some days later a beautiful white horse appeared standing on the stone as the river rose around it. The villagers worked hard to save it from the waters. As they pulled the horse ashore it turned into the witch, who cursed them all before turning back into the horse and galloping off into the nearby woods. Since then, anyone attempting to sit on the inscribed rock is thrown off, and the white horse appears as if to chase the offender away.

ALLT LAGAN A’ BHAINNE STREAM, INVERNESS-SHIRE

The remains of a bridge sit either side of the Allt Lagan a’ Bhainne stream, haunted by a ghostly Highlander who looms up out of the mist with two deer hounds by his side, proclaiming, ‘that way lies your road’, as he points to the broken bridge.

A new footbridge spans the stream these days, so do beware and make sure you do not follow his directions over the ghost bridge and end up in the stream! The ghost is not always seen, but the sense that someone is in the mist pervades the immediate area surrounding the bridge and dogs will often refuse to cross it.

THE LOCH NESS MONSTER

It would not be fair to bring up the Caledonian Canal without mentioning its most famous inhabitant of all – the Loch Ness monster. The Loch Ness monster was first reported in AD 565, in the writings of St Columba, said to have appeared in the deep waters of Loch Ness that are now overlooked by Urqhuart Castle. Nessie, as she is fondly called, has been seen throughout the centuries rising out of the waters of the loch before returning to her deep underwater cave. Many witnesses relate having taken pictures of the ghostly monster swimming in the loch, describing its long neck and distinctive body measuring approximately 40ft long, only to find later that the film is blank and just shows the loch and surrounding landscape.

Some believe Nessie to be the spirit of the loch that appears at times when Scotland needs something to believe in, or is in danger from invading forces. Since 1933 over 3,000 people have reportedly seen the Loch Ness monster, including scientists, police officers, visitors and locals. There is an on-going investigation into Nessie, but like a ghost, she remains a mystery that has many of us intrigued as to what, and who, she really is.

The Loch Ness monster.

ODHAR, CALEDONIAN CANAL

A well-known seer from Scotland, known as Odhar, predicted the opening of the Caledonian Canal. Odhar said that in years to come boats would sail through the hills of Inverness – a prediction that was met with much ridicule at the time. His words were to come true: the great Caledonian Canal opened in 1822 and ships sailed through the hills of Inverness, just as he predicted.

LOCK SEVEN

At lock seven of the Caledonian Canal there have been sightings of an old man carrying a windlass (the winding handle to open and close lock gates) looking down the canal as if waiting for a boat that never appears. This has put off boaters entering the lock for fear that he is waiting for a boat coming in the other direction. It is not until the real lock keeper arrives that the witnesses of the ghostly visitor realise what they have just seen.

LOCH MORAR

During a fishing trip in 1969 two friends, Duncan McDonnel and William Simpson, were rowing on Loch Morar when they hit what they described as a long serpent of 30–40ft in length with three humps and a head a foot wide. The monster became angry due to the collision and retaliated by smashing into the boat with its thick tail. McDonnel shot at the monster with his rifle, causing it to disappear back into the waters of the loch.

The monster has been nicknamed Morag, and over the years she has attracted the attention of the Loch Ness Monster hunters who have visited and tried to capture her image – without results, yet.

LOCH MAREE

In Loch Maree is the spectre of the Muc-sheilch (pronounced Mook Helluch) that has been seen by many anglers and farmers. The Muc-sheilch is described as the monster that moves silently across the water, as a giant eel or snake would do. One man was so excited by the thought of capturing the monster that he part drained the loch and then used quick lime to poison the rest of it. Nothing of the monster was found and the locals ran him out of town for the damage he had inflicted on their loch and fish stocks. That was back in 1850 and the spectre of the monster continues to be seen as a large ripple crossing the loch.

Muc, in Gaelic, means whale, so could the beast be the ghost of a long-gone whale trapped in the loch as the waters receded after the last ice age?

FEARDER BURN, ABERGELDIE, BRAEMAR

Where the Fearder Burn meets the River Dee stands the old mill of Inver, once haunted by a giant black hand. The hand terrorised the mill for hundreds of years and the Davidson family seem to have suffered the longest. One dark and cold night, John Davidson saw the giant hand while he was working in the mill. Engrossed in the work of milling, he looked up from the stones to see the black, sinewy, hairy hand floating above him. He claimed that as he fought the hand, it revealed that it was from a murdered soldier who had had his hands cut off with his own sword before his captors threw him into the River Dee to drown.

After the fight, Davidson was seen digging in the far corner of the courtyard. The hand had indicated that the sword would be found in the close vicinity. John Davidson was rewarded for his effort and unearthed a wrought basket-hilt broad sword that later hung above the fireplace of the mill for many years. The giant hand stopped terrorising the area from that day on, but the figure of a soldier is still seen around the mill and in its grounds.

SPINNING JENNY, RIVER DEE