Spotted! A Ghost at Glencoe!!!

Let me preface this blog entry by saying that I don't believe in ghosts. In my opinion, the vast majority of paranormal experiences are simply tricks of the brain. Our senses are often unreliable narrators that we believe without question, and that gets us into all kinds of trouble and causes people to believe some of the dumbest shit imaginable. Chemtrails, for example.

Having said that, while I don't believe in ghosts, I am open to the possibility so long as there is some kind of rational scientific explanation. I realize that that last sentence completely obliterates my credibility as a skeptic, but hey, my mind is that of artist; not a scientist. Maybe ghosts are something to do with the multiverse, simulation hypothesis, or quantum mechanics...three things I do not understand in the least which allows me to shoehorn paranormal personal experiences into some kind of rational, scientific context.

I know the chances of ghosts being real are infinitesimally small, but as I said, I try to keep an open mind.

First, a little background.

My wife and I recently returned from a two weeks-long trip around the UK. We visited (in order) Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Keswick, Oban, Edinburgh, York, and London, driving 1,300 miles in a rented Vauxhall. During our drive between Oban and Edinburgh we decided to stop at the site of the Glencoe Massacre, which is in western Scotland.

Now I'll give you a brief history of the massacre as I understand it. Feel free to skip past this part if you don't care to learn a little Scottish history and you just want to see the goddamn pictures.

The massacre took place in 1692 following The Glorious Revolution, which refers to the revolution that took place in England where the Catholic King James II was overthrown by English nobility and replaced by his nephew and daughter, Protestants William of Orange and Mary II (known as William and Mary...probably familiar to US audiences because of the American college established in their name).

The mostly-Catholic Scottish highlands wanted to return James to the throne, and staged the first of several Jacobite uprisings (Jacob = James) meant to restore their Catholic monarch to the English throne. The uprising was ultimately quashed after several battles, and Now-King William graciously offered amnesty to the clans who had risen against him on the condition that they pledge their loyalty. He issued the amnesty offer in August 1691, to be taken no later than January 1, 1692.

The clans did not jump at the offer, but after it became clear that James was unlikely to reclaim his throne, one-by-one the clan chiefs reluctantly pledged their fealty to the new king. None of them more reluctantly than Alastair Maclain, chief of the MacDonald clan in Glencoe, who waited until the last possible day (December 31) to sign.

Unfortunately for Alastair, he went to the wrong city. He arrived at Fort William only to be told that he needed to take the pledge at Inveraray, which was over 70 miles away. Alastair arrived in Inveraray three days later, and eventually gave the pledge to the Sheriff of Argyle about a week after the deadline had passed.

The MacDonalds had a bit of a bad reputation in the highlands. They were known as poachers, cattle rustlers, and general all-around ne'er-do-wells. Alastair's failure to sign the loyalty oath was seized upon by one of Alastair's enemies; John Campbell, chief of the powerful Campbell Clan. John Campbell brought this oversight to the attention of John Dalrymple, the English secretary of state, who, in turn, brought it to the attention of the king.

It was decided that the crown needed to make an example of the MacDonalds. And by "make an example," I mean, "completely wipe out."

A force of 120 soldiers were dispatched to Glencoe in February, ostensibly to collect taxes from the MacDonald clan. The troops were billeted in the MacDonald buildings, no doubt causing great hardship (as it was the middle of winter). After two weeks of waiting, the commander received the following order, directly authorized by the king:

"You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebells, the McDonalds of Glenco, and put all to the sword under seventy."

Early the next morning the troops set about the grim task of murdering their unsuspecting hosts as they slept. Militarily, the operation was botched pretty badly, partly due to the bad weather, but also due to the reluctance of many soldiers to murder the families who had hosted them for the last two weeks.

Regardless, 38 men were killed by the soldiers, and an additional 40 women and children died of exposure in the hills of Glencoe as they fled their burning houses. It was one of the most heinous massacres in modern English history, and every February 13th a wreath is laid at the site of the memorial to remember those who were lost.

History lesson over.

On our trip, Erika and I went to the Glencoe Visitor Center, a small museum with exhibits about the fascinating history and geology of the area. But before going inside we decided to do a little mile-long walk through a recently-clear cut forest to the site of ruins which date back to the massacre.

As we were walking we saw the stone foundation of a building and decided to explore a bit. I took a crapload of pictures because there was a cool, gloomy, spooky forest in the background.

Full disclosure -- part of my motivation for taking these photos was to try to capture something that would look like a ghost in the background, either to spook my wife, or to make for an interesting blog entry.

We originally thought the ruins we found were from one of the buildings involved in the massacre, but as it turns out the ruins were more recent -- dating from the last 200 years or so. The foundation from one of the original structures (which we came across later in the walk) was barely recognizable, and had been built over several times.

Anyway, once we were back in LA I decided to have a peek at the images to see if there were any spooky-spooky ghosts in the background. I zoomed in and started to pan around, and funnily enough I actually saw something that sent a legit chill down my spine.

Here are three of the photos I took. Please note, none of these photos have been digitally manipulated in any way.

Note: The woman walking behind the ruins in the first two pictures is my wife, not a spooky ghost. I know what my damn wife looks like, knucklehead.

Anyway, when I was looking for spooky ghosts I decided to zoom in on the third picture (because it was the clearest and best of the three) and I'll show you what I saw.

See it yet?

How about now?

Ah. There she is.

Color corrected.

And closeup.

From wide #1

And wide #2

So. What is that thing? I have no idea. I have several theories. It could be a Banksy-esque drawing, which seems kind of unlikely (that's a lot of effort to put into something so remote and ambiguous).

It could be an optical illusion of light and shadows.

It could just be a pattern in the moss, or a burn mark or some other natural phenomenon.

Most likely it's just another example of pareidolia, to be filed away with countless images of the Virgin Mary on toast, underpasses, pizza pans, and pretzels. I don't find images like this particularly compelling without further investigation, which would no doubt debunk this bit of silliness.

But...

If I were to stash my skeptic hat for a bit, I could dig up some pretty neat stuff that probably makes for a much better story.

I decided to do some very scientific Google research to see if there were any other reported hauntings at the Glencoe site. Scotland Magazine did an article, and there are several others making reference to ghosts in the area.

But one manifestation in particular stood out. A blog entry named The Banshee of Glencoe Scotland talked about the Scottish version of the banshee (called the Bean-nighe, or "Washer Woman") which was supposedly heard on the night of the massacre. I decided to do a Google search, and I found the following spooky-scary images of the apparition:

 

I don't know. What do you think? Is this a wee little Bean-nighe creeping about in the woods?

 

Another theory creeping around my brain is that, perhaps, the entity in the woods was actually a picture of my wife. Compare what she was wearing that day to the image:

 

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this with you. We didn't hear a banshee wail while we were there (it was actually quite quiet and peaceful) so I don't think either of our lives is in danger from this imaginary creature.

But...

In case one of shuffles off of this mortal coil in the next couple of days under suspicious circumstances, well, I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility that the wee bonnie Bean-nighe finally got to us.