There is the story of the haunted cottage of Benalder. The stalker who lived there hanged himself on his front door, and there were accounts of ghostly trampings and apparently supernatural noises which had disturbed climbers occupying it. Mr Murray recounts the experience of a first-hand witness.
“He and a friend had spent a most disturbed night in the coattage. They were having an after-supper pipe in their sleeping bags when they heard footsteps entering the room next door and tramping noisily on the wooden floor.” They investigated, but found no one there. Later the footsteps recurred, this time outside on the cobbles.
“The noise was that of heavy-nailed boots on the stone, pacing back and forth, up and down the front of the cottage, and this was accompanied by brief pauses when Grieve and his companion strongly sensed that they were being watched from the window. They had the additional feeling of being regarded with hostility as intruders.”That drove them into the open with electric torches, but as before, nothing was to be seen.
“Again they retired to bed. And again footsteps entered the room next door. After some aimless tramping there came a moment’s pause, then the quite distinctive sound of heavy furniture being dragged over the floor.” The two men knew there was no furniture next door, but they went to look and found – a bare and empty room. They gave up and retired to bed. Apart from continued noises no untoward event occurred.
But the mystery of the haunted cottage still remains.
The book contains many excellent diagrams and mountain photographs. [Undiscovered Scotland, by W.H. Murray].
Dundee Courier, 2nd February 1951.
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