Spooked! Lecturer tells of ghostly goings-on at college.
By Linda McConnell.
Ghostly goings-on are spooking staff and students at Paisley’s Reid Kerr College. And yesterday a lecturer lifted the lid on the strange hauntings. Alan Carstairs revealed he has witnessed several weird happenings which he claims “cannot be rationally explained.” Now his claims are set to feature in a major documentary about the world of the paranormal. They include:
The sound of heavy footsteps in a securely locked building; Dramatic falls in temperature in classrooms; Heavy vats of glaze appearing on tops of tables overnight; Opening and shutting of locked doors.
Alan, who is a senior lecturer in art and design, said: “I was a bit sceptical at first but I cannot find any rational explanation of what has happened. I wouldn’t call it a ghost as such, but there is something there.” He described one particular incident when huge vats full of pottery glaze had been left in one room and reappeared the next morning in another classroom. “The containers are extremely heavy but they were all lined up on the table and the pottery was ready to be glazed.”
In another incident he told of hearing violent knocking on a door, but when he went to investigate found no-one there. “I opened the door and there was a huge rush of cold air. When I went back into the classroom which had been very warm it was absolutely freezing.”
Staff at the college have dubbed the spook the Ghost of Gateside after the building where the incidents have taken place. Gateside was once a children’s nursery but taken over by the college in the late 1970s. It has since been used as a project area for trainee plumbers, joiners and other tradesmen.
Alan is set to tell his story next month in a major documentary about the paranormal. The 13-part series, being produced for Sky Television’s Discovery Channel, is described as “a sensible treatment of the paranormal.” Tricia Robertson, of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research, will present the programme featuring the Paisley college and Glasgow Airport. Glasgow Airport have also given permission for the crew to film at the terminal building early next month. Last year the Paisley Daily Express revealed ghosts from the Glen Cinema disaster were apparently haunting staff at Cantors furniture store.
Paisley Daily Express, 24th February 1996.