Undiscovered Scotland

 

"Ghosthunter", written by Tom Robertson with Murray Scougall is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the less frequented byways of Scottish history and legend. You may or may not believe in ghosts, mountain creatures, or vampires, all of which feature in the book. It doesn't really matter: this is a well written, entertaining, and at times slightly scary excursion through the casebook of Tom Robertson, perhaps Scotland's best known ghosthunter.

The book is doubly interesting if you have been to or are thinking of visiting any of the locations in which the events described take place. This reviewer has difficulty believing that vampires really exist, but it has to be admitted that a visit to photograph the ruins of a deserted Lochmaben Castle on a hot summer day a few years ago took on an entirely different light on reading Tom Robertson's account of his encounters with a vampire there. Now I think back, it hadn't seemed the most comfortable of places at the time... Likewise his near fatal encounter with Am Fear Liath Mòr, the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui, which adds a new dimension to a story already in the back of the minds of many visiting that part of the Cairngorm plateau. Whatever your feelings and beliefs, the narrative carries you along very enjoyably, and even if you view the book as no more than a series of stories, it is an extremely good read.

Vampires and mountain men are atypical of Tom Robertson's core business, hunting ghosts, and most of the episodes in the book deal with his investigation of them. The opening chapter, on the Black Lady of Larkhall sets the scene in a way that is genuinely creepy, and shows how he became involved with ghosthunting as a child. You then find yourself embarking on accounts of a series of investigations of ghosts across Scotland and beyond; including an encounter at Shieldhill Castle in Lanarkshire which turned a pal's hair white in an instant. En route through the book the other side of the coin is represented by a couple of accounts of cases in which ghosts turned out not the cause of what was being investigated.