Gaelic-speaking 'ghost' caught on recording

The Scotsman ^ | Fri 17 Jan 2003 | CLAIRE SMITH

[vannrox]

Fri 17 Jan 2003

Gaelic-speaking 'ghost' caught on recording

CLAIRE SMITH

csmith@scotsman.com

NEW evidence of ghosts in Edinburgh’s underground city have been recorded

on tape by a radio producer.

Debbie McPhail claims to have made a recording of a ghoulish voice hissing the words: "Get out" or "Go away" in Gaelic.

Mrs McPhail described herself as "a cynical person by nature" - but said she had no explanation for the ghostly voice.

The otherworldly voice ruined a recording she was making in Edinburgh underground vaults with the former rugby international Norrie Rowan, who owns a section of the underground city.

Mrs McPhail said: "I found the place so creepy, I let the presenter go down to do the interview himself.

"When I was listening back to it, I could hear Norrie Rowan chatting and then I heard another voice.

"It was close by to the microphone because you can tell if voices are far away or not. I knew it wasn’t the presenter or Norrie because the voice had a slightly Irish accent.

"When the presenter came back up I asked him who they had met in the vault and he said nobody. I asked a colleague who spoke Gaelic and she said they could be saying ‘get out’ or ‘go away’."

Gordon Stewart, assistant director at Mercat Tours, which conducts visits around the vaults said the recording could be the first actual evidence of psychic phenomena in the vault.

"It is an unusual story and quite chilling. I think it could be the first time anything like this has been recorded in Edinburgh.

"People who come on our tours have been scratched, had their hands jostled and come into contact with unknown things."

Psychologist Richard Wiseman, who has conducted research into the paranormal goings on beneath Edinburgh’s South Bridge, said a third of the subjects in his study had some sort of experience in the vaults, including having their clothes pulled, hearing their names whispered or feeling tugs on their clothing.

But he said the phenomena could have been psychological effects suggested by the damp dripping walls and the dark dismal atmosphere of the underground city.

Dr Paul Stevens, a research fellow at Edinburgh University’s Koestler Parapsychology unit, said: "The vaults are not mapped in places and you don’t know what walls are backing on to.

"At one time someone there thought they were hearing strange sounds, but the wall actually backed on to a massage parlour and that was where the funny noises were coming from.

"It is very creepy down there, so even water dripping can sound like footsteps."

[Kenny Bunk]

Teach you to hang around Maine!

[Junior]

Fortean Bump.

You know, we need a Fortean list...

[ChemistCat]

Have you gone back? Tearing down buildings shouldn't have disturbed whatever was there...if anything was.

Did you believe in such things before you went?

[Morrigan]

We haven't gone back, although we have talked about it a lot. I kind of believed in "paranormal" stuff before we went, but I am one of those people that has to see something to believe it. My friend that went began believing in life after death after that visit. I always believed that there was something out there, call it God if you want, but something that watches over us. She didn't. She believed that when you died, that was it. Kind of hard to go on believing that when you are faced with the evidence that the soul DOES go on.

[VaBthang4]

"FR is turning into DU more and more each day."

Somehow life will go on.

"If you didn't wish to respond, you didn't have to."

I did wish to respond....so I did.

"Responding to a legitimate question with such a childish response it what I would expect from slashdot.org or du, not FR."

You did not ask a question.

Weak posts riddled with whining and false accusation...is that FR?

~Grin~

[TN4Liberty]

"People who come on our tours have been scratched, had their hands jostled and come into contact with unknown things."

The same thing has happened to me at the mall. So I stay away.

Seriously, what would prompt the person to find someone who spoke Gaelic of all things? I mean, did they say, "Gee, that sure sounds Gaelic?"

Just wondering...

[ChemistCat]

Good point. I would hardly recognize a few words of whispered Cherokee, and I LIVE among many.

[Karsus]

I asked what you ment. I some how expected a former member of our military to be able to explain whe he ment. Guess I was mistaken.

Good Day.

[Timesink]

This from the same paper that regularly published virulent anti-Bush, America-hating diatribes. This article pretty much seals their intellectual reputation.

[Morrigan]

Creepy sidebar to my ghost story in post 39. Ever since I posted that, my TV has been turning off by itself. All day. Is my TV on the fritz or is it something else.....

[Nubbin]

Creepy sidebar to my ghost story in post 39. Ever since I posted that, my TV has been turning off by itself. All day. Is my TV on the fritz or is it something else.....

Nah! It's just signal interference from the massage parlor next door. LOL!

[Mr.Clark]

That is the best. I'm going to steal that link from you.

[Morrigan]

LOL..if I hear someone say, "Get out", I ain't stickin' around...

[VaBthang4]

You were mistaken.

I think it is "meant" and "somehow"...


...with that said...you didnt ask me anything, you made a statement.

The Queen's English...learn it.


Good day to you.

[Defiant]

Feel free. On Monday, I'm going to buy stock in a heart medicine company.

[poindexter]

"We rented a house one summer in York, England. One night I heard a weird scream, but it was pub closing time, figured it was a patron. I heard the exact scream a few more times during our stay, by now figuring it was someones stereo. "

Probably Creedence doing "Travelling Band"!

[nutmeg]

ping!

[Barnacle]

While she was at work the next day, her teenage son used the camera to film some footage of their new dog. He taped over our Pineland visit.

Wouldn't you know it. My dog would always eat my homework.

Seriously though; I've had a thing or two happen over the years and I don't doubt your story.

[Consort]

Edinburgh

[MacDorcha]

I’m not one to doubt your experiences, but I feel it my duty to offer up a possible explanation-

Do you have any idea of what the composition of the buildings were then?

Is it possible that the banging you heard was simply loose things falling about within the walls? Decayed boards, plaster/paint chunks... dead animals (or even pieces of people)?

The lights, I can’t claim any explanation for, but then, again, I am not fully aware of your observations.

Just some thoughts....