Gary Robertson 🂡 Ever since I was a child I was fascinated with the paranormal.
Like most kids I wanted answers to the mysteries of life death and perhaps what's next if anything at all. Whilst Scooby Doo would have us believe all ghosts are in fact unscrupulous investors desperate to lay claim to some piece of prime real estate, every year many people claim to witness paranormal happenings. unexplained events. So I started thinking about this and here are my Top 4 haunted locations worth a visit. Who knows your story might become part of the lore of these lands.
From Gretna to Stranraer, the A75 trunk road is the main artery of travel between Scottish and Irish ports and allegedly the most haunted road in the UK if not the world. Ghostly visions of old hags, eyeless apparitions, and strange unearthly creatures abound along every mile of this stretch of tarmac. Couples are often seen walking hand in hand in my middle of the road wearing period Victorian clothing only to disappear in the blink of an eye. One of the most bizarre sightings ever to have taken place there was in 1962 by the Ferguson brothers who were shocked to witness a "phantom furniture van" appear on the road and disappear as quickly. Make of this as you will.
Cannock Chase Woods in Staffordshire are considered by many a hotspot of paranormal activity. Whilst Rendlesham Forest has its infamous UFO sighting, Cannock Chase has so much more to scare you. From your standard wailing apparition to the pigman - a half man half pig being that inhabits the woods but most frightening of all the Black Eyed Children. Sightings of these BEKs go back many many years, young children who as the name suggest have solid black eyes: soulless creatures who will lure you into the forest and inflict upon you a horrific death. Many are led to believe these are the victims of child killer Raymond Leslie Morris who in the 1960s murdered 3 children in Cannock Chase Woods
Leap Castle, Co Offaly Ireland. Whilst investigating this piece I knew Leap Castle would ultimately make the list. A must for all paranormal investigators and indeed a castle with a fascinating history stretching back hundreds of years. In the 1500s O'Carroll the former head of the O'Carroll clan and "laird" of Leap Castle invited local clans people to a feast and as they sat to sup and share stories they were massacred by the O'Carrolls. The murder of a priest in what is now known as The Bloody Chapel by his own brother, reports of demons, ghosts and elementals abound. In 1922 a previously unknown dungeon was found and it is reported that 3 cartloads of human bones were removed from this sinister room.
Oystermouth Castle on Swansea bay Wales dating back to the 12th century, this imposing building has witnessed many battles and bloodshed. The most famous apparition associated with Oystermouth is "The woman in white." And whilst there seems to be some confusion as to whether she was a former servant or prisoner, one thing that is generally agreed upon is the manner of her death. Chained to a post and whipped to death for reasons unknown she wanders the grounds in tears and has been witnessed by many from children to adults. Rather creepily enough the actual whipping post itself still stands in the dungeon as a stark reminder of darker days past.
⏩ Gary Robertson is a patron of TPQ.
Rendelsham is likely bollocks though.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine wrote the book Australian Poltergeist were he and another friend investigated a polt in the adorably named town of Humpty Doo.
Check it out. For those who scoff I know this guy well, and he isn't a bullshitter. VERY odd stuff happened that they all saw.
And for a constant unexplained phenomena which nobody understands check out the Hessdalen Lights in Norway. Scientists are there and haven't the foggiest what's going on.
all of its is bollix!!
DeleteI am so glad Gary does his gig with us as it brings a new dimension to the blog. There are parts of the brain that when stimulated imagine all sorts of things. We don't have physicalist explanations for all the phenomena we observe but in time we are likely to. We will certainly never have a non physicalist explanation.
The paranormal industry like the faith healer one is a hoax.
I found this Steve after reading your comment. Documentary of the Mystery Hessdalen Lights Norway Solved
DeleteWhatever it is there is a natural explanation for it.
That link actually proves my point, they don't have a clue what those lights are.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am 100% sure that all phenomena which has been observed will, eventually, one day be understood in a physics model.
But I will slightly disagree on one of your points, I believe that 99% of claimed observed phenomena is either misidentification, hallucination, fabrication or dumbfuckery. But there are a about 5 people who I know personally who have come face to face with the truly weird and are still profoundly affected by it.
And if you knew them too, you'd be struck by their sincerity though of course this does not mean you have to believe what they impart.
1, Biologist in Australia comes face to face within 10 meters in remote bush with a 8 foot tall hair covered biped. He and his wife later drive passed another in a different part of the state. There are no bears in Australia and he knows what he is looking at is undocumented by science...yet.
2, Previously mentioned author. Many inexplicable events in the Humpty Doo case and he is of the firm belief that it will one day be recognized and understood by science ..." No juju magic shit either"
3, By far the most strange case I know of. Friend I know has been on several documentaries due to his weird ability to 'know' when UAP's are about to appear in the skies...which are then filmed by the doco crew. He has no issues taking genuine people out to see him in action either, so if somehow he's hoaxing it he is making David Copperfield look like drunken Uncle in the felons club. Weird doesn't come close to it.
And a few others which I can't really wrap my head around. Besides, almost every person you know probably have had an inexplicable event happen in their lives at least once!
it proves the search for explanations using the scientific method is unrelenting.
DeleteIt also shows an honesty about the scientific method in terms of its limitations - what it does not know it cannot claim to know. So long as it does not suggest that maybe it is caused by hobgoblins.
Inexplicable events have a physicalist cause. It just takes time to establish them.
"Inexplicable events have a physicalist cause. It just takes time to establish them."
DeleteYep, and every single one of those people I mentioned agree with you ( as do I).
But at the moment it's a wee bit confounding lol
it is one of the beauties of nature - also the potential to make new discoveries. Imagine a world with nothing new to be discovered. Just the same old, same old. That would be as boring a life as conjured up in The Third Policeman
DeleteTotally, and I just had another thought; The REALLY weird stuff goes on in the realm of particle physics and quantum mechanics, perhaps all this is connected in some weird cosmic soup kind of way.
DeleteAnyhoodle, my hangover is finally wearing off after the Teutonic Tuchel showed Papsmear Gonorrhea up for being the overthinking hack he is! Smile, smile, wherever you may be...
It's ALL made up!
ReplyDeleteWe've evolved and adapted to navigate this dimension, developed perceptual hardware and software that generates colour and apparent solidity.
We 'fast think' by pattern matching to stored libraries of images ... hardly surprising then that occasional mismatches arise.
(Check out Dr Jill Bolte: My Stroke of Insight)
I agree that it is all neurological but do not feel it is made up by everyone in the sense of intent to deceive. I don't think you mean that either. It is like the Near Death experience when the brain is shutting down and scanning itself.
DeleteNo deception but lots of misunderstandings.
DeleteFor example, we tend to experience vision as if we believe that we are really looking out two windows, whereas in reality the eyes are more akin to two satellite dishes, receivers collecting bytes of data which are in turn filtered & processed to create adapted representations internally of what's going on outside.
If we don't realise how weird and fucked up that is, then we really don't get it!
full of misunderstandings. I don't really care how many people insist they saw statues move, no matter how honestly they believe they saw it, I don't believe a word of it.
DeleteUFOs are real. There is aircraft in the sky that pilots, astronauts can't explain, you can watch their footage. While I think the milky way is crawling with life, it's highly unlikely that these UFOs are extraterrestrial. Going on physics as we know it. The distances involved, they would have to bend space or some other obscure knowledge. It's far more likely they are top secret military craft which begs the question, what kind of technology they got? The tic tac thing was going twelve hundred miles per hour and went from thirty thousand feet to sea level in a second. You can't say he hallucinated they released his flight footage. What is it? Have they drones that can move like that?
ReplyDeleteCaoimhin O'Muraile
ReplyDeleteI have an open mind on these things. There may be a case for when you are dead there is a fourth dimention, nothing to do with the various religious tales. On the other hand it could be a case of when you're dead thats it, finito. I'd like to believe in the fourth dimention theory.
I remember as a youngster going camping at an old RAF WW11 aìrodrome, suppossedly haunted by dead pilots. One of the older lads got me so scared with these tales I attacked him holding him down with a knife at his throat. I was literally scared stiff, hyped up with fear. I would never have dared attack the older kid, I was about 13 he sixteen, if not pumped up with fear. I would have, in a state of panic drove the knife through his throat if not pulled off by others in the company. I supposse it proves, more than the existence of ghosts, that fear can drive us to anything.
I have an open mind - open to the scientific method and what it might produce. What could possibly sustain existence of the type you hope for after death? I hope for Sweet FA after death and never entertain the possibility that there might be anything else.
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