A ghost on the prowl.
I’ll quit town says mother.
By Bill Bryant.
A woman wants to flee a Scots town because she is convinced her dead mother is haunting her. Thuds in the night and a mysterious knocking are driving Mrs Ina Coutts and her two young daughters frantic with fear. It happens almost every night in their bright, well-furnished house in Campbeltown, Argyllshire. Neighbours have heard the noises which first started seven weeks ago. So have many friends… and the local police.
Sometimes it is a loud rapping noise on the bedroom wall. Other times it is a clicking noise like teeth clashing together. Occasionally the noise is like shoes being dropped clattering to the floor. Children’s shoes by the bed have been found disturbed.
Mrs Coutts went to the police after her daughter Rosemary, 12, and Muriel, seven, woke up in bed screaming a number of times. She took the children to stay in a Campbeltown hotel. But as the three prepared for bed in the hotel room, the mystery thumps started again. This time they were heard by the hotel staff and other guests.
Mrs Coutts said last night: “I’ve had more than I can take. I’m sure it’s my mother trying to get in touch. This was her house for 34 years and, although I’ve never believed before about the supernatural, I’m convinced it’s her.” Her mother, Mrs Agnes McKinven, 67, was on holiday in Wales when she died in March. Mrs Coutts added: “She was staying with my twin sister in Wales. Just before she went south she and I weren’t hitting it off too well. Maybe that’s why she’s trying to get in touch. She was particularly fond of my daughter Rosemary and these strange noises never happen unless Rosemary is there.”
Mrs Coutts called in her minister, and after prayers with him at her home, the noises in the night stopped… only to return a few days later. Three police officers visited the “haunted family” on different occasions, and heard the mysterious noises. Last night a senior police spokesman at Campbeltown said: “We inquired to establish whether the noises were caused by a practical joker. Police officers visited the house, heard the noises, but failed to trace the source.”
Campbeltown lifeboat mechanic, 34-year-old Andrew Mitchell, said: “I was with the police when they visited the house. It really shook them when the knocking started.” Mrs Coutts, 35, divorced, and with a teenage daughter Eunice working in Cardiff, added: “I want to get out of this town and right away to England to settle and bring up the girls. Before I go I will consult a medium… I want to try and stop the ghost following us.”
Daily Record, 14th August 1963.
The ‘ghost’ walks at midnight.
The “ghost” that haunts attractive Mrs Ina Coutts in her council house came visiting again last night… I had been keeping an all-night vigil with lifeboat mechanic Andy Mitchell in the living room of Mrs Coutts’s home at Campbeltown, Argyll. It was midnight when we heard a light switch clicking in the hall. We knew the hall was empty. Then we heard a much louder noise from the bedroom where Mrs Coutts’s young daughters – Rosemary, 12, and Muriel, 7 – were sleeping. As she sat sipping a cup of tea, 35-year-old Mrs Coutts shook with fear.
For spine-chilling seconds we waited, listening… then ran to the bedroom as the children wakened, screaming. While Mrs Coutts tried to comfort the hysterical children, Rosemary sobbed: “It was the ghost again mummy… the noise was right in my ear.” Later yesterday, as the children slept peacefully, Mrs Coutts told me sadly: “The girls are terrified and so am I. Almost every night now it happens – the clicking, knocking and mysterious thuds. I don’t think I can take any more.”
It was seven weeks ago that the “ghost” first came to Mrs Coutts’s home at 31 Smith Drive, Castlehill. Police called in to investigate were bewildered. When Mrs Coutts moved to a local hotel with her two daughters, the mysterious noises followed her there. Her friend, Andy Mitchell, nodded in agreement as she added: “Some people laugh when I tell them about it, but it’s no joke. Tonight I’m taking the children to a relative’s to sleep and I’ll stay with a girl friend.”
Daily Record, 15th August 1963