A hardened ghost hunter fled from a haunted Fife tower in terror after hearing ghostly voices.
Gregor Stewart, who is a self-described “open-minded sceptic”, found a research trip to the Tolbooth Tower in Pittenweem too strange for comfort.
Investigating the tower along with his son Kyle, 17, the pair had lasted around three hours but were suddenly so spooked that they left the building as soon as they could.
Gregor, an author of two books about haunted locations, had set up a digital recorder during their time in the tower and when it was played back there was a voice around the time the two began to feel unwell, which neither Gregor nor his son heard at the time.
The Tolbooth Tower, which housed witch trials in the 18th century, is well-known in paranormal circles for unexplained activity, including an ‘entity’ which has apparently affected many people on tours over the years.
Gregor, 43, said: “There were only two of us in the tower at about 10 o’clock at night.
“We had been feeling fine for about three hours when, all of a sudden, my son started feeling light-headed and I felt my knees go. We just grabbed our stuff and left. We did not want to be in there anymore.
“That is the first place I have investigated that I have been spooked and had to leave.
“I had been asking whether whoever is still in the tower objects to the tours and on the recording you can hear a response which seems to say: ‘Definitely… too much talking’.
“Our own voices on the recording are quite faint but the extra voice speaks over us and is much clearer. Although neither of us heard the voice at the time, within a few minutes we both felt so uncomfortable we left.”
The tower was at the centre of the little-known Pittenweem witch trials. At least 26 “witches” were tortured and 18 of them killed in the fishing village in the early 18th century.