Ghostly Garlieston
a second incident occurred which was to prove far more disturbing…
On the 8th March, we travelled to Wigtownshire to give a talk on ghosts and superstitions at the John McNeillie Library. Following this highly successful and enjoyable event, we decided to make the most of our visit by conducting an investigation of the Garlieston Straight Road, a thoroughfare well known for its spirit activity in the Haunted Machars and beyond…
As is often the case, many feelings and ‘impressions’ were expressed through John. On this occasion, we had no contact with the spirit we believe to be Albert Johnstone, however an abundance of diverse communications took place. It began whilst parked up at one of the Kilsture Forest road ends. John picked up a female spirit called Isabel Thornton and could ‘see’ an image in his mind of a lovely big house and a harbour that she enjoyed looking out at. I don’t have all the details written down yet, however a short ‘conversation’ ensued and Isabel told us she had a number of brothers and sisters, I think her description was ‘Too many!’ She referred to staying at a place called Criccieth/Cricketh - we’re not sure of the spelling - the only place I could think of with this name is in Wales, although I guess it could be the name of a house as Isabel told us she was in Scotland. Communication is rarely straightforward and as we’ve explained before, can be pretty confusing. Unless we can find e.g. historical sources to verify it, we can never be sure if the information is totally accurate. It might be a collection of mixed messages or in some cases, spirits giving false information.
Following our ‘conversation’ with Isabel, a second incident occurred which was to prove far more disturbing. John picked up a male presence and began to feel the actual weight of someone ‘sitting’ on him. This was different to alot of the info John gets as in this case, he was picking up the physical manifestation as well as the psychic impressions. He felt very uncomfortable during this short but significant incident although we recognise the spirit person responsible may not have intended to cause alarm. Mary, who was sitting with John in the back of the car, remarked on feeling colder than usual but did not experience the full intensity of the presence.
Next, we drove to the other end of the Straight to Penkiln Farm road end. John had a most unusual experience here; he could see between 20 and 30 spirit people who appeared to be looking at us sitting in the car with great curiousity. John got the impression they might be easily spooked, if you’ll pardon the pun, as if they were unsure of us and what we were doing there. In some cases, he said they ventured close to the car and he truly wished one of us could see - unfortunately we couldn’t. In terms of spirit people, John has never experienced anything of this magnitude before and we found it fascinating.
Last but not least, we were driving back along the road and I asked James to stop by a piece of woodland where in the past, Derek, a former team member, has experienced powerful feelings. Derek initially referred to a strong sense of presence watching him from the woodland as if they didn’t want to be seen. The same presence has been reported by a visitor to the area who went for a cycle along the Straight back in 2008. All the hairs stood up on their neck, the classic tell-tale signs. At one point, they felt the spirit had stepped out onto the road and was watching them cycle away - the gentleman in question did not dare to look behind him! Derek was unable to determine whether the spirit was male or female or indeed, anything much about them. He initially referred to the spirit as ‘It’ for he doubted whether or not this being was even human. Later on, as he became more sensitive to spirit energies, Derek felt the spirit was that of a man who had some kind of mental illness/disturbance and possibly a physical issue e.g. a deformity, which may have affected his ability to communicate. We encourage you to check out our Garlieston investigation reports, available on request, as these will give you detailed background information.
For the first time, John picked up on the physical appearance of who we believe is the same spirit person and gleaned a fair bit of detail. He described ‘seeing’ a male figure, it was difficult to tell his age, probably between 18 and 30 years old; his face and body appeared to be badly deformed. John envisaged the man walking around in the woodlands, picking up stones and feeling them. I asked at the time if he might be blind, but John couldn’t tell. I wondered if the soul had been shunned by those around him and found a sense of contentment among nature, the birds, creatures etc. who wouldn’t judge him and enjoyed the simple pleasures of examining the stones and their textures. I don’t tend to be as sensitive as others in the group, this is just a theory I had.
I don’t know what it was about that night, for John it seemed like many doors had opened and wherever we went on the road, things happened. We have often discussed the possibility of the Garlieston Road being like a portal, even Albert Johnstone described it as ‘one of those places’. On this occasion, it undoubtedly lived up to that description.
See also: Mostly in the Machars; Garlieston Straight Road - Latest Update
Have you seen a ghost on the Garlieston Straight? Are you familiar with any local stories or historical information which might tie in with John’s experiences? If you would like to share information, request an investigation report or indeed, speak to us about any other aspect of our work, please contact us through our website or by phoning 07791 047835 or 07912 145865. You can also follow us on Twitter.