A remote and abandoned house in the middle of nowhere \u2013 what could go wrong? BBC Radio\u2019s Danny Robins investigates a Highlands horror story <\/p>
On a cold winter\u2019s night in the wilds of the Scottish mountains, two young climbers in need of a place to bed down where they can stay warm and dry think they get lucky when they come across an old house. But all is not what it seems. What happened in that remote house is forever carved on the memory of Phil MacNeil. \u201cIt was many months before I could sleep without the light on,\u201d he says. Phil is 65 now, but, lithe and athletic, looks at least a decade younger. As I meet his piercing blue eyes, it is clear that night has obsessed him for nearly 50 years.<\/p>\n
We need to cast our minds back to February 1974. Phil and his friend Jimmy have been tipped off about this place, known as Luibeilt. It\u2019s a bothy, a simple dwelling used by climbers and hunters. They\u2019ve been told it\u2019s owned by people happy to let climbers stay the night, but, when they arrive, the two lads have the odd sensation that the house has been abandoned \u2013 and in a hurry. The dining table is still set for Christmas dinner, with the crackers unpulled. It has a whiff of the Mary Celeste, the 19th-century ghost ship whose occupants vanished, never to be accounted for.<\/p>\n
Phil and Jimmy search the house. Upstairs, the rooms are empty except one containing a dismantled metal bed and a large rock sitting on the windowsill. Satisfied that they are alone, the pair make their beds in the living room. They blow out the candles and darkness envelops them. And then they hear it\u2026 the bed upstairs \u2013 yes, the one that was dismantled \u2013 is now sliding across the floor. More unnervingly, the rock falls with a bump and starts to roll around.<\/p>\n
The pair eventually fall into an uneasy sleep until they are wrenched awake at 4am. \u201cThings in the room were flying around, all over the place,\u201d says Phil. I can feel his stunned disbelief even now, as he remembers objects hurtling towards him. The chaos continues until, above them, footsteps start. It sounds like someone in hard shoes, pacing. The steps leave the bedroom and start to come downstairs, closer, closer, until they are by the living room door. Phil grabs his climber\u2019s ice axe, ready to confront whoever or whatever \u2013 is there, but when he throws open the door\u2026 they are entirely alone.<\/p>\n Read other instalments of Danny Robins\u2019 series:<\/strong><\/p>\n The ghost of Brooklands racing circuit<\/a><\/p>\n Alanbrooke Hall, Belfast<\/a><\/p>\n The Battersea Poltergeist<\/a><\/p>\n