{"id":2752,"date":"2020-11-09T14:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T14:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/?p=2752"},"modified":"2020-11-09T14:30:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T14:30:50","slug":"the-haunting-of-ballechin-house-october-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/2020\/11\/09\/the-haunting-of-ballechin-house-october-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"The Haunting of Ballechin House – October 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It wouldn\u2019t be Halloween without a ghost story, and this month\u2019s treasure provides just that. The Alleged Haunting of B— House<\/em> was published in 1899 and compiles first-hand accounts of events perceived by guests, staff and tenants at Ballechin House, Perthshire, in the 1890s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Title
Title page from The Alleged Haunting of B— House<\/em>, 1899 (Clarke Miscellaneous Collection, Clarke Misc. 437)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 1892 Ballechin came to the attention of The Marquess of Bute via a priest who had experienced sleepless nights there, having been disturbed by unexplained noises. Bute had an interest in the occult and was part of the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.). Five years later, Bute leased Ballechin to enable members of the Society and selected guests to visit as part of an investigation to record any perceived phenomena for a sustained period. Ada Goodrich Freer, another member of the S.P.R., arrived at Ballechin with a friend on the 2nd<\/sup> of February 1897. She and other visitors maintained journals and wrote letters during their stay. These first-hand accounts, made between February and May 1897, along with reflections from the editors (Freer and Bute), make up the core of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n