Scottish House
My family boughtour family house in 1974, a year after I was born. Towerhill,Blairmore is nestled on the side of Loch Long, Scotland.Originally, about one hundred odd years ago, it was a coach housefor an adjacent property. Its foundations lay close to a very olddrover's road. In fact, our garage is built right on top of theold road, some people have stopped by the house during the pasttwenty years surprised they can't follow the old road they werefamiliar with in earlier years.
In 1978-84, when my father was rebuilding parts of the house, hedug down to the original flagstones of the coachhouse. We foundsome horseshoes and the lid of an old large pot.
There are a total of three levels of the house. The firstcomprises currently of an open plan living room, dining room,kitchen. There's a closed laundry room/bathroom, hallway, backporch, front porch, with one step up to a small bedroom(1), alarger bedroom(2) and the bathroom. Stairs between bedroom 2 andthe bathroom lead up to my parents large bedroom that runs fromone side of the house to the other, and an attic(1), a drop downladder into my parents bedroom goes to the third level; attic(2)I think its amusing that in all the 18 years I lived there, Inever stepped into this attic. The front windows of the houseoffer an excellent view of the loch, the front of my parents roomoffers a good view of the loch and the property to the right ofus. The windows in the kitchen face left towards the top of theloch and in some winters its through this window we can see theAurora Borealis. All other windows either face the path that runsbehind our house and the huge slate embankment there or the paththat leads to our driveway.
When my parents originally bought the house, a hallway connectedthe living room, dining room and kitchen. My parents current roomwas split into one tiny room at the front of the house and theirlarger bedroom. The only way to access attic(1) was through atrapdoor in the ceiling of the downstairs (next to laundry room)hallway.
The small room on the second level at the front of the house wasmy room for the first 4yrs I lived there, and when my fatherstarted reworking the house, he opened up one wall of this roomto the attic(1).
Enough about the house design.
The house is situated a number of steps down from our driveway,that's long and sided by only 4 other houses. To the front of ourhouse is a long set of steps and a long path leading to the mainroad. The path acts as a walled boundary to the properties to thedirect front and to the front side of us. Both these houses arecloser to the level of the loch. To the right of our house, byabout 100 yards dense with bushes and a wall with one tiny gateset high in it, is another house. Very old also and deliciouslybuilt.
Our property is short in front of our house due to the sharpincline of the bank that runs down to the house in front. A verynarrow path runs around our house to the right, passes the smallabove mentioned gate and passes the window of bedroom(2) with aspace of 3 feet across. It then passes along behind the backporch and meets our back door to open out into the high kitchenwindow and then to our moderately sized front garden (left of thehouse). Steps run from here up to the driveway, which was builtover the old drovers road now interrupted by our garage and apile of rubble my father created.
We own roughly 2acres of sweet Scottish woodland, sparse behindthe driveway and garage. Behind our property runs a small roadthat services a golf coarse and some property on the 'high road'.A burn runs alongside our driveway and cuts through the propertythat we own that runs in a sharp angle up to the 'high road'.
The view from our house is broad, comprising of a full view ofthe Clyde to Glasgow and a good portion of Loch Long to Coal Portand the opening of the Clyde into the sea.
Now. I'm not sure where to begin with the things I've seen/feltaround my house and in it.
I could start with my pre-knowledge. My older sister (15yrs olderthan me) and one of my brothers (11yrs older) were in theoriginal dining room, this was probably 1974 or 75. My mother wassitting in an armchair there. She suddenly saw my sister andbrother dash to the front window and gasp. She looked and sawnothing. Apparently they had seen a greenish object flash downthe loch from the narrow end to the clyde. It scared them both.
When I was apparently 4, I looked out of my window (front of thehouse, second floor) and pointed into part of the neighborsgarden, which at that time was a neatly kept raspberry place. Italked about how I could see the lady next door. The lady who'dI'd been referring to loved to tend her raspberrys, however,she'd died a few days before this instance.
I got frustrated a lot in my preschool years because things wouldkeep disappearing of mine, then show up in the oddest places,such as jammed behind radiators, in obscure holes in the wall. I'knew' who it was. I never had a name for them, but it was thosepeople that lived in our house with us. I don't remember everseeing these people, but knew they were the root of a lot oflittle mischief I often got into trouble for. My parents say Inever had imaginary friends. I don't know the validity ofsomething I've never seen, but I've 'felt' too much aboutsomethings in and around our house to totally disregard this.
The first actual memory I have was from when I was seven. I'd gotinto trouble for removing something from attic(1) and not puttingit back. I came through my parents room and opened the door tothe attic. There was only one skylight in the attic at this time.The light was faint through it. My father's work area was justinside the door to the right and there was a luminous greendisplay clock there. However, when I opened the door; at the farend of the attic, a shady white image moved quickly from one sideof the attic to the other (behind some storage area). I wasscared shitless, ran in the shortest distance I could into theattic, threw down the thing I needed to put back, and ran downthe stairs to the living room as fast as I could. Terrified, Ireported the image to my parents, they first tried to explainthat it was the skylight, "It's never done that before."and then they tried to blame the flashing display from the clock,"The clock doesn't move side to side." They wereskeptics and put it down to fanciful imagination.
When we moved into the house, we found a few things in the atticthat might have been left by the previous owners. Things such asWWII casings for ammunition.
My parents never left me alone at home until I was about 11. Afew times, when I'd been in the house alone, odd things wouldhappen. Keys placed in the middle of the huge breakfast bar inthe kitchen, would smack into the middle of the kitchen floor.When I was in my parents room, I would get so terrified of theattic I couldn't stand to be there. (Later when I was 16, thiswas where my bedroom was, and where at 17 I tried to kill myself).Shadows would move in the corners of my eyes. (Strangely enough,my mother's noted this happening in one area of the house. Shedoesn't spook easily and she knows the house better than I do.)
Even other people would notice things. One evening, my mother wasplaying on her organ, this had been my paternal grandmothers andshe left it to my mum. I'd disappeared up into the attic to givesomething to my father. I came down to find her talking as if shewas talking to someone. When I appeared to her side, she lookedshocked. "I felt you behind me." She picked up playingthe organ really well and she sometimes feel that my grandmotheris somehow helping her. Very odd for my mother to say stuff likethis.
There's been times when we've been sitting in the living room andvery suddenly the most fragrant rush of air will drive by us.Yes, there's been flowers in the room some of these times,however, there are no draughts that hit the living room in thatway.
One night while bedroom(2) was mine, I was up late reading. Iheard a tapping at the window that faced the embankment. I wasterrified. Mum tried to explain it as a deer in the walkway. Thewalkway however is far too narrow for deer.
The property around the house terrifies me at night. For a reasonI'm unsure of, that's lead to me being scared of dark woods, Ifeel watched when outside the house at night. So much so that myskin crawls. I could explain this as a typical fear of darkness.
My sister, now 37, refuses to be in the house alone. She feelsincredibly uncomfortable there. My mother feels the exactopposite.
My mother related to me recently about how my father had taken asudden interest in the paranormal (he does every few years,though seemingly a skeptic) and was at the time contemplating, inthe garden, the energy of the land and ley lines.
Perhaps most of these things could be put off to being theresults of an imagination. Maybe so, but they've affected my life.