So, a second part to this story, and a second house! Last time, I told you about my Irish ghost. Fast forward to the 1990s, and I am living in a rather old fisherman’s cottage on the east coast of Scotland. The Deeds mention the date 1839, but that was the first formal registration of this house. There was an ancient, thatched dwelling on this site long before that. The sea boulder walls are two-foot thick, which plays havoc with the phone signal, but serves as a constant reminder of the need to keep out the North Sea gales.

What lurks within these walls? Nothing spooky at the moment. The house is at rest, but it wasn’t always so. For a brief period in the 90s, during a time when my neighbours were digging foundations for a new extension, I firmly believe that something was disturbed.

It began with random things we couldn’t explain. The smell of leather when we entered the house, and the sound of breaking glass. Yes, the sound of glass being smashed, or dropped from a height. My father was around at the time- the most ardent of non-believers!- and even he heard it. He went to great lengths to discover the cause, searching the attic and all through the house. The workmen next door had downed tools for the weekend, and there was no one else around, and anyway, we both agreed that the smashing sound had come from inside the house. There seemed to be no explanation.

Other spooky happenings followed. One of my sons woke up in terror having dreamed of ‘soldiers with dragon’s heads’ and I had a nightmare about a headless man on the beach. Worse, I woke up one night to the sound of asthmatic breathing. My first thought was to check on the family, and once I’d confirmed that everyone was sleeping peacefully. I climbed back into bed, only to dream about a heavy-breathing soldier standing at the door of my bedroom…

It’s easy to pass such things off as nightmares, imagination or whatever. But worse was to come. One night, I was awoken by the sensation of someone sitting on my side of the bed. The mattress tilted, and I opened my eyes and sat up, fully expecting to see that my husband, perhaps unable to sleep, sitting on my side of the bed.

But he was fast asleep beside me and there was nobody there…

Ghostly activity or over-active imagination?! I still cannot decide, although it’s strange that all the phenomena ended as soon as the excavations were done. Did someone or something object to their rest being disturbed? My home is just metres from a coastline once a magnet for Danish raiders. There have been battles on this soil, and shipwrecks out at sea. Past inhabitants of this cottage lived on the edge for generations, and not all their stories were happy ones.

It certainly makes you wonder. I will not be building an extension anytime soon!

On a lighter note, here are my recommendations for some dark-ish Halloween reading/listening/viewing.

The Uncanny Podcast, The best! Danny Robins is a master of spooky storytelling and his army of listeners make his job easy. The tales of ordinary folk are always the most scary. Danny has a Halloween ‘advent calendar’ of spooky soundbites plus some full length episodes to come. Available on BBC Sounds.‘The Gloaming’. This is an Australian folk horror/crime drama set in Tasmania. Lots of creepy settings, rituals and people driving around in the dark. Love it! Available on STV Player.Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix. I love his writing, and I’ve just finished How to Sell a Haunted House which was good, but for me, Horrorstor is the best, You’ll never look at Ikea in the same way again. Proof that any setting can be haunted in the right hands!

And of course, you could always buy my latest book…!