'Ghosts' written by Andrew Murphy

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'Ghosts ' fact and fiction written by Andrew Murphy

A Strange Event

On Saturday 27 January 1996, I had been out photographing some snow scenes from the Calton Hill in Edinburgh.  Around about 4:00 pm in the afternoon I was taking a walk along the South side of Princes Street with my cameras in my bag.  I sometimes take them with me just in case I come across something that catches my eye that I might want to photograph.

As I walked along Princes street on the South side, I looked down into Princes street gardens West at the Ross Bandstand.  This is where I sometimes sit in the summer and listen too the jazz and rock performers. - some of the worlds greatest. It was also in Princes street gardens that I videoed Queen Sonja of Norway at the Norwegian monument in 1994.  But these events were all in the summer when the sun was shining and the flowers and trees were all in full bloom.  In the winter, the gardens are empty and the leaves and events were all gone until later on in the year.

With snow on the ground and the bandstand deserted, Princes street gardens West was almost empty apart from a few people taking a short cut through it.  I decided to take a photograph of the bandstand for my photographic records of locations in Edinburgh.  I took the photograph at a speed of 1/30 and an aperture of f2.8 which is not fast.  But there again it's not a slow speed with a 100 ISO film.  When I took the photograph there was no one in front of my camera. It was just the scene and emptiness of the bandstand with snow that I had wanted to capture.  So I made sure no one was on the path when I was photographing.

I had a few negatives left on the spool that I had in my camera, so I decided to use them up so that I could get the spool developed.

A few days later I received my 6"x4" photographs and went through them to check that they were all right.

The photograph of Princes street gardens West caught my eye because there appeared to be images of two people in the bottom right hand corner of it.

                                                     

                                   Look at the bottom of the photograph on the right hand side

I checked it with a magnifying glass to see if it was an error.  I also looked at the other photographs to see if there was any images on them.  There was nothing.  So I looked at the negatives  to see if the image was on the negative.  It was, but only on the one photograph of Princes street gardens West.

I asked a number of people what they thought it could be, but no one was able to give me an answer.  I have been told that it was trick photograph, a reflection, a printing error or superimposed.  But no one has been able to give me a proper explanation as to how the images could appear when there was no one was in the area that I was photographing.

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My camera was working alright and the lighting was good enough for me to photograph and take the pictures.  Even if someone had walked in front of the camera, they would have had to be traveling very fast to create an image on the negative.

I have looked at this photograph a number of times and wondered what the images were.  And I have shown it to various people to see what they made of it.  up to now, I have no logical explanation.

On Wednesday 22 May 1996, the Edinburgh evening news had a story in it about three ghosts which were at the Dreadnought hotel in Callander, Perth.

The story went on to say that a ghost expert was going up there to see if there where ghosts and he was going to try and locate them.

At this point I must state that I find it very hard to believe in ghosts  and the paranormal.  Although I do believe that there are certain things on this earth that can't be explained.

I wrote a letter the Edinburgh evening news on the same night and asked why people should go to Callander to see three ghosts when they could go down to Princes street gardens West in Edinburgh and see two ghosts?  In the letter I explained the photograph that I had taken.

On Thursday evening 23 May 1996, I had been out.  When I came in around 9:00 pm, a message had been left on my telephone answering machine asking me to contact a Duncan Hamilton who is a reporter working with the Edinburgh evening news.  He wanted me to phone him as soon as possible about the photograph that I had written in about.

I phoned Duncan Hamilton that night and told him about the photograph and explained about the two images that appeared on it.  He asked me if he could see the photograph and the negatives the next day.  He explained that they would only need them for one hour.  I would then be able to pick them up again.

I agreed to this and went to the news office on North Bridge on Friday 24 May 1996.  There I gave Duncan Hamilton a loan of the photograph and negatives at 10:00 am.  I was told by him that he would be able to return the photograph and negative back to me by 11:30 am the same day.

At 12:00 noon I had not received a phone call to pick up my photograph.  I was going out for the day and I would be passing the evening news offices.

So I phoned the office to talk to Duncan Hamilton and tell him that I could pick them up while I was passing the office.  He was in the photography room with the chief photographer who was examining the negative and photograph.

Duncan Hamilton explained that they couldn't understand why the images were there and he asked if they could keep the photograph until the evening so that they could examine them a little bit further.  I said I would pick it up later on in the evening when I got back home.

When I got home about 3:30 pm I phoned Duncan Hamilton to see if they had finished with the negative and photograph and if I could pick it up.  I was told that the photograph was genuinely authentic, it was not a fake or super imposed.

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They were now lost for words with it and they would like to hold onto the photograph and negatives until the next day.  They were going to call in a ghost expert to examine it and see what he could make of the photograph and negative.  I agreed to them holding onto it so that they could examine them in detail and give me an answer.

On Saturday 25 May 1996, I phoned Duncan Hamilton at 11:45 am to see if they had come to any conclusions about the photograph and negative and the images.

I was told that the chief photographer was intrigued by the photograph and negative and they would like to hold on to them until Monday.  He had examined them over and over again to try and establish the causes of the images.  Up to now he was at a loss for words because the photograph and negative were 100% genuine.  He wanted to check it against other ghosts photographs that he had.  This was so that he could compare them against other photographs.

Duncan Hamilton said there was no explanation for the images and that they had tried to get in touch three ghost experts for an explanation.  They were unable to get in touch with them until Monday 27 May 1996.

Up to now they were totally lost for words on this photograph and negative because it was not a fake.

Originally they only needed it for an hour to start with.  This was to establish if it was a fake and so that they could discredit it.  But they had been unable to do this because the photograph was genuine.  I told Duncan Hamilton I was quite willing to let them hold on to the photograph and negative until Tuesday 28 May 1996.

This was to give them all the time that they needed to get the experts that they required to examine the photograph and negative in depth.

                                                                          

                                                           Blowup of images on the photograph

On Sunday 26 May 1996 I phoned my friend Gavin and told him about the photograph and negative.  His father who had died recently had been very interested in the subjects of ghosts and had some very obscure and old books on this subject.

I was taken aback when Gavin phoned me on Monday 27 May 1996 and told me that he spoken to a friend who had told him that he had a recollection that there had been a murder in Princes street gardens West within the last ten years.  And as far as he can recall the victim was wearing blue denims.  I was told by Gavin that I would need to look further into his friends story to confirm it and to see if the story was true.  I would also need to check up and find out when this alleged incident happened.

The images on the photograph do look ghostlike.  One of the images looks like an old man with a white beard, a brown jacket and black trousers.

He appears to be standing reading a plaque on one of the seats at the top path of Princes street gardens West.  The second image looks like an apparition walking along the path just behind the first image.  It looks as if it could be wearing some kind of blue clothing.

Looking at closer at the picture, it might be possible to say that it looks like a blue denim suit.  The railings running along the top path of the gardens can be seen going clearly through the second image.  This makes the second image look stranger and more like an emerging apparition.

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I can't recall any murders or stabbing in this area within the last ten years myself.  But, it could worth investigating so that this story can be verified as being true or false.

On Tuesday 28 May 1996 I phoned Duncan Hamilton to see if the Edinburgh evening news had completed their tests on the images on my photograph and negatives.  I was told that they had made two copies of the photograph to send to two ghosts experts.  One was in London and the other was in Cornwall.  I was told that I could now pick up my negative and photograph at the front desk of the evening news offices. 

They would now have to wait for a reply to see what the experts who are the best in their field said.  Once they received a reply from the experts, the Edinburgh evening news would like to do a story on the images on this photograph and negative if I don't mind.

I told Duncan Hamilton what my friend Gavin had told me the previous night about a fatal stabbing in Princes street gardens West within the last ten years.  He told me that he would be able to go through the old Edinburgh evening news cuttings to see if this story was true.  He would then be able to confirm if this story was true.

I asked what his chief photographer had made of this photograph and negative over the weekend.  I was told that the chief photographer had thought at first that it could have been done with a very slow or a very fast shutter speed on the camera.  But with the shutter speed being set at 1/30 and the aperture at f2.8 there appeared to be no reason why these images should have appeared on the negative.

We will now have to wait for a professional opinion from the ghost experts who have now been sent a copy of this photograph.  They have also been told of the circumstances surrounding the photograph and negative and how the Edinburgh evening news has carried out tests to authenticate the photograph and negatives as not being fakes.

On 28 May 1996, I decided to go to the library to see if I could uncover the murder story that Gavin had told me about and also to get some copies of a story from 1988.

In the Central library on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, I asked for a book covering murders within the last ten years in the Edinburgh area.  I was given four books containing the cases, sentences and circumstances surrounding these murders.

The only murder that I could find concerning a park in Edinburgh was the murder of someone which happened on Saturday 17 May 1988.  That crime was committed in Dobbies park on Regent road - over a mile away and a different park.

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The murder which was brutal was carried out by two teenagers who were found guilty of the crime and sentenced to be detained without limit of time on 3 August 1988.  Could this have been the park that Gavin's friend was talking about believing to be Princes street gardens West?

After going through all the books I found nothing concerning a murder in Princes street gardens West or anything remotely connected with a murder in that area.

This is a strange photograph and I am still trying to work out if it really is a photograph of two lost souls wandering around in Princes Street Gardens West?  We may never know the answer too that question. No answer or suggestion has ever been forthcoming.

The second record that I wanted to retrieve were news clipping from the Edinburgh evening news.  The story was published in two sections and I have them stuck in my own book of news clipping, letters and photographs.

I can recall the story quite clearly because at the time it was published I contacted the Edinburgh evening news to give them another slant on the story.  The story that caught my eye was published on Wednesday 13 May 1988.  The story started with the headline of:

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EVER HAD THAT NOT ALONE FEELING?

Close encounters of the spooky kind are giving two Edinburgh students shivers up the spine.

Voices whispering at daybreak and unearthly footsteps at dusk have led Drew Watson (19) and his friend David Moran (20) to the conclusion that they are not alone in their High street flat.

Since January, the boys claim they have had two "ghostly experiences" at Paisley Close and said they were sure no "earthly being was involved".

Drew said "The first experience was in January, I was still in bed and was just about to get up when I heard a voice call 'Drew' in my ear.

"It was very clear and strong, I knew it could not be David because he was out and I rushed to the door, but it was still locked.

"It left me with a strange feeling and I know what I heard was not my imagination".

The second incident was on Monday last week when David was returning from Napier College.  It was about 6:30 in the evening when he turned off the High street. into Paisley Close.

"I was walking down the close when I heard footsteps behind me.  I continued down and then stopped to look and see who was coming.  "There was no one there and the footsteps had stopped.

"I entered the stair and started to climb when I heard the footsteps again.  When I stopped on the stair and looked round, there was no one behind me but the sound of the steps continued and came right up to me".

David rushed into the flat to tell Drew and the two became convinced there were ghosts in the building.

Drew said they had made inquiries about the history of Paisley Close and found that the building which they live in today had once collapsed."

"It was in the middle of the 1800s when the block collapsed.  People rushed to look for survivors, but it seemed that everyone had perished.

"Then someone must have heard something because they discovered a man, John Paisley, who was buried alive.  It's believed he shouted 'Heave awa' lads I'm no died yet', and the close is named after him.

Drew and David said they didn't believe in ghosts until recent events and they stressed they were not figments of their imaginations..

David said:  We consider ourselves to be pretty level-headed people and we've got exams coming up which are taking up most of our time.  We would not waste time inventing a tale like this, but we do believe that there is something strange in the close.

When I read this story I thought that I could have an answer to the voices and the footsteps which the two people in Paisley Close had heard.  I phoned a reporter at the Edinburgh evening news and told him what I though could have been the causes of these unexplained happenings.  And on Wednesday 18 May 1988 they published a story with the headline of:

Ghostbusters:

It's the name of the game!

What's the connection  between a shoeshine man and spooky feelings in an Edinburgh High Street Close?

"The answer is my name" says Andrew [Drew] Murphy who contacted the "Evening News" after a recent tale of ghostly goings on caught his eye.

Mr Murphy explained a very down-to-earth explanation for the unearthly voices and disembodied footsteps troubling two students in Paisley Close.

CALLED

Drew Watson (19) had told of hearing his name called when there was no-one there.

His friend David Moran (20) heard the footsteps on another occasion.

When not at the Waverley Bridge with brushes and polish, Mr Murphy can be found at home in on the Royal Mile, which is only yards from the reportedly haunted house.  But Friends don't want to climb to his top floor front door.

                                                         COINCIDENCE

"They stand in the Close and shout for me then go back into the High Street again.  By coincidence my name is Drew - short for Andrew.

Mr Murphy added an assurance that his friends were very much alive, not all the stuff that ghosts were made of, and rather amused by the whole affair.

But what about the footsteps?  Mr Murphy thought that after the fright over the voices, some kind of paranormal paranoia might have gripped the students.

He had not had any spooky encounters himself during the six years at his present home.

I dismissed these stories of the ghosts which were reported in the Edinburgh evening news at that time apart from friends walking out to the High street.  That part of the story was wrong.  Because I live at the back of the building, my friends would wait at the bottom of my stair.  And if I was in I would lift up my window to let them know that I was in my house.

When I think back to this story, I should have found out exactly when the students heard the ghostly voices and if it was at a time that my friends had shouted up to my house.

If they had looked out of their window they should have been able to see me and my friends making conversation from my window.

I do have a tendency to dismiss the idea of ghosts and in hindsight it may have been that I should have spoken to the two students to see if they could tell me at what time they heard these voices.  We could then have established if it was my friends who were shouting Drew and what Drew?

I consider myself to be a practical person who I always tries to look for an explanation of things that I do not understand.  That doesn't mean to say that I am right when I find an answer to a something that can't be explained.

There are far to many stories of ghosts and strange happenings for most of us not to have some kind of doubt within our minds.  But what kind of proof would we need to convince us that there is something that can't be explained?

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Fiction written by Andrew Murphy

The Christmas Wish

The snow was falling very gently one Christmas evening.  In a house on the Canongate in Edinburgh while a mother sat reading her small daughter  a Christmas story in front of the great big fire knowing that she was down to her last one and a half farthings.

The child sat there with her eyes wide not knowing that her mother could not afford to buy her a very special Christmas gift that was in a toy shop further up the road.

She tucked her small daughter in to her bed that night with tears in her eyes thinking to herself if only Joe her husband had still been here, her daughter would have received that very special gift.

Joe her husband had been killed a few months before in an accident at his work and times had been hard for her since.

Later on that night the mother crept in to her daughter’s room and put what she could afford in to her daughters stocking which had been hung at the end of her bed.

She then went to her bed with the thoughts of her husband Joe running through her mind.  The day they had walked up the Canongate looking in the shop windows.  They had seen the doll in the toy shop and Joe had promised with the deepest of love that his daughter would have it on Christmas day.  The mother drifted off to a tearful sleep that night.

She was awakened the next morning by the sounds of her daughter’s happy laughter.  When she got up and went through to her daughter's bedroom she saw her playing with the doll that her husband Joe had promised to give her for her Christmas.

She walked away quietly knowing that she had received one of the most precious gifts that Christmas.

The one that had come from Joe.

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A Girl Called Mary

This is a very strange story set out in the Black Isle’s of Scotland.  It’s a story of Christmas eve when the snow was falling softly.

Mr Thomson was just about to go to his bed at eight O’clock that night when he heard a soft tapping on his door.  He opened his door to find Mary who lived on a neighbouring farm which was two mile away standing at his door.

Mr Thomson said come in lass, what are you doing out on a night like this and sat her down beside a great big fire which was burning in the hearth.  He went away to get her a cup of tea so that he could get some heat back in to her.

They sat and talked for a long time before Mary told Mr Thomson she would have to go back home.  Mr Thomson saw Mary to the door and asked her if she wanted him to walk her back home to her farm.  Too this Mary replied “no Mr Thomson, no one can walk me home”.

Mr Thomson went to his bed that night puzzled by what Mary had said.  Next morning it had stopped snowing and Mr Thomson decided to go and see Mary’s parents and take them their Christmas presents.

AS he walked across the snow he could see no traces of footsteps in the snow, and yet there should have been.  When he arrived at Mary’s farm her parents were distressed.  Mr Thomson soon found the reason why.

Mary had died at eight O’clock the previous night, yet Mr Thomson knew that he had sat and spoken to Mary until ten O’clock that Christmas eve.

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The Master and the Servant

The year was long ago set in Edinburgh.  The servant was sent down to the local market for a message by his master.

Down at the market, the servant had to push and shove his way through the crowds to get what his master required.

As he went about his business he came across a hooded figure in a robe with a hood similar to one that would be worn by a monk.

The hooded figure turned and looked the servant in the eye before disappearing in to the crowded market.

The servant who was frightened ran back to his masters house and shouted, “master, master give me a horse so that I can get away from this place”.  “Today I saw death in the face, and when death stares you in the face you must surely get away from the place you saw him”.

The servants master who was a kind man said “here servant take my horse and ride to Glasgow where death will be unable to get you”.  With his masters blessing the servant rode off as fast as he could.  The master being a curious man decided to go to the market to see if he could see the same figure that his servant had seen.

He pushed and shoved until he came across the hooded figure that his servant had seen.  He put his hand on the hooded figures shoulder and pulled him round so that he could ask him why he had scared his servant away.

The hooded figure looked the servant’s master in the eye and replied by telling him that he had an appointment in Glasgow later on that night after he had dealt with some business in Edinburgh first.

Fact Written by Andrew Murphy 1996 and 1988, fiction in 1979

All copying in part or whole of 'Ghosts' is strictly forbidden, as is printing or using any parts for any other kind of use ©

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