When I was a teenager I lived with my Grandparents in an old converted distillery building. I believe we had a resident ghost as every night I would hear heavy footsteps pacing through my room into the hallway and from there into the kitchen and back. I never thought much of it back then and we certainly never talked about it. I never saw anything strange though and nothing ever happened.

We have three cats now and two of them regularly 'see' something that I can't see. I believe that whatever it is though is good natured as the cats try and play with it and there is no hissing or spitting.

Our neighbour recently told me a really spooky story though... he was driving from Dunfermline to Culross (don't know if any of you know that area, it's where I live), and on the way to Culross is a graveyard that I've passed many times myself. Anyway, my neighbour and his daughter were in the car and they saw this young girl, about 12 years old, dressed in black, standing by the graveyard. They both saw her. And then she vanished right in front of their eyes and they both saw this happening as well. My neighbour is one of these people who believe that there has to be an explanation for everything and he certainly doesn't believe in ghosts. This happened just a few weeks ago and I was pretty freaked out.

Inghinn

That's very interesting Inghinn, I have heard stories about that graveyard, I also stay in this area, a lot of history about here, never passed by that graveyard though, but my husband used to work beside guy's that used to hang about in that graveyard at night, but don't think they saw anything, but lived in hope.

I - two terrific stories.

My mother used to work at a hospital built on top of an old coal mine. One night she looked up to see two brown creatures the size of Hobbits scurry down the hall. She said it lasted about twenty seconds. When they disappeared Mom did a double take. "Don't worry, said the nurses next to her," we saw it too. She said that had she been alone, she might have doubted her eyes, but not with two other people who same the same thing.

Ta! Then I will do so as appropriate.

Two generations of my family have seen an apparition in St Botolph's Priory churchyard, Colchester. The figure is that of a tall man in a black coat and a tall hat. My grandmother used to call him "Sandyman's Port" because he apparently looked like the man on the label of the Sandyman's Port bottle (I've never seen this, I'm guessing because they stopped making the stuff years ago).

My grandparents owned a house in Colchester where several strange things happened. One day I was there alone when I heard heavy footsteps thunder down the stairs. I opened the door and looked up the stairs but there was no one there. On another occasion a TV remote was flung across a room - my sister saw this happen and no-one was near it at the time. There were several other similar incidents and a continuous oppressive atmosphere in some parts of the house - you'd find yourself running down the stairs because of a strong feeling that someone was right behind you. It was all pretty creepy and still a talking point in the family to this day.

I remember the port bottle, despite not actually having drunk any. It was a silhouette like this http://www.goldingyoung.com/catalogues/Ct040204/lot289.jpg

Tim - two great tales. My college had two theaters, one far creepier than the other. There were several occasions when I was working late with another person or two and we all exchanged glances and left. We knew that whatever was in there, it had decided it wanted us out for the night. The one night we didn't, we finishing focusing the lights and left. When we came back the next morning, all of the lights had been refocused, all to shine on the same spot. The theater was locked when we left, and locked when we returned...

Thanks for the link mysteryshopper - gives me a better idea of what was seen.

Wombat - I know what you mean about the feeling that something doesn't want you there, I think that was what I was getting at in my post. I know that there was some recent research which pointed to certain sound frequencies that could cause "spooky" feelings and even visual images. What do people think; could this be relevant to some hauntings?

The idea of infrasound producing hauntings is certainly widespread but there is little evidence to support it. Infrasound can certainly make people feel uncomfortable, though I'm not sure it would be described as spooky.