Do you believe in ghosts? Well, I am more than a little sceptical about such phenomena existing. A few days ago on an exceptionally windy night I was watching television when I heard the most mournful howling. Believing it was just the wind I ignored it. We have lived here for five years and in all of that time I had never heard the wind make a noise like this. As much as I struggle to not hear the eerie sound kept coming from the chimney.

You would think I would be afraid but I found myself curious more than anything. I went over to the chimney and listened. It was definitely there. I decided to go outside to see if I could see if anything had altered at the top of the chimney. From what I could see nothing had changed. The one thing I did notice was the wind had become cyclonic and was constantly changing direction. This must be causing the sound.

Satisfied that I had identified the source of the noise I went to bed. As I turned down the covers I heard strange noises coming from the lighthouse tower, which is right next to my bedroom. It was the not the same type of noise that I had heard watching television but similar. This was getting weird and weirder.

Before I drifted off to sleep I listened to the strange noise and thought about ghosts. Ghosts usually haunt places special to them and it is more often than not the place they died. As far as we know the only person who had died at Eshaness was the husband of the owner we had bought the lighthouse from. He had had a heart attach painting the fence and is buried at the cemetery down the hill. He had loved the lighthouse and was always doing things to improve it. Yes, he certainly would be the type of person who would come back to spend his 'ghost time' at this place he cherished. I had always felt bad that through death he had to leave here so much so if he was back that was great! Whether it was the cyclonic wind or the ghost of the former owner it was not something to worry about and I drifted off to sleep.

Sharma

I love to hear from you so contact me by Email at sharma@sharmakrauskopf.com

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have three books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse, the day by day journal of a year at Eshaness entitled A Year in the Lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can find out more about these books and others I have written at my official author web site.