VIDEO: What is mystery noise giving Perthshire villagers sleepless nights?

Residents in Almondbank say they are being kept up all night by a high-pitched whistling noise - and no one can identify the source.

By Morag Lindsay

November 20 2024, 6:00am

Vicky and Arthur Frater are among the Almondbank residents baffled by the nuisance noise. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

Residents in a Perthshire village say they are being driven to despair by a mystery nightly noise.

Neighbours in Almondbank first noticed the high-pitched whistling sound six or seven weeks ago.

It starts up around 7pm every evening and continues overnight, stopping around 7am the next day.

The pattern continues at the weekends.

And it’s at its loudest in the back gardens around Gellyburn Road and Lumsden Crescent.

One local has compared it to “a torture chamber”.

Gellyburn Road with terraced, two storey houses — Gellyburn Road, Almondbank – a perfectly normal street, except for the noise. Image: Google Maps.

Another thought they had tinnitus until they realised it stopped when they left the village.

But they’re still no closer to discovering the source.

And now the best brains at Perth and Kinross Council are on the case.

‘Almondbank noise is wrecking our sleep’

Gellyburn Road resident Vicky Frater is praying they find the cause soon.

“I’ve gone through about three boxes of Paracetamol,” she said.

“I’ve got headaches all the time.

“People can’t sleep,” Vicky added.

“You can try to drown it out with music or the TV, but when you go to bed it’s really loud.”

Vicky and Arthur Frater seated on sofa in their home in Almondbank — Almondbank residents Vicky and Arthur Frater say the noise is driving them mad. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

Vicky’s husband Arthur has been collecting recordings of the noise on an app and sharing them with the council.

“All the neighbours are talking about it,” he said.

“One of them sent his drone up. Everybody’s wondering what’s going on.

“We thought it would stop eventually, but it’s been weeks now.

“It’s quite worrying when you don’t know what it’s coming from.”

Environmental health team on the case

Arthur says he’s asked all the utilities companies if the noise is connected to work they’re doing in the Almondbank area, but to no avail.

Local employers say it’s nothing to do with them either.

And the neighbours have tried their own tactics to diagnose the cause.

“We switched the power off house by house to see if it stopped, but it didn’t make any difference,” Arthur said.

“So it’s definitely not coming from the electricity supply to our houses.

“That still doesn’t tell us where it is coming from though.”

BT Openreach and SSEN both told The Courier they have no equipment in the area that might be causing the din.

A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “We can confirm we are investigating the reports of the unexplained noise causing disturbance for some residents in Almondbank.

“Officers from our Safer Communities and Environmental Health teams are working together with those affected in an effort to identify the source of the noise and seek a resolution to the issue.”