Clare McKenzie recently wrote to me asking, “Hi Paul, I was curious about the area down the Calder near the waterfall. We called it the witches house as it was in under trees and it was the remains of possibly a small house or shed. The young ones now use it as a drinking area and is littered with cans and bottles. Can you shed some light on what it was originally as I had a very strange experience here recently when I went a walk with my girls.
When walking with my girls and their friend I took them in to the trees to see the “witches house” as the day had been quite adventurous in and out wee hidey holes. When coming from the trees to the main path they went a different way from me and were quite happy that they bet me to the path, they were shouting back to me “ha ha mum we bet you!!!” And at this point I heard from the area we had just came from the same thing “ha ha mum we bet you ha ha!!”. It couldn’t have came from the
Old postcard showing the outbuildings at side of Milheugh House
girls because at that point they had ran ahead and I could see them in front of me. This voice was different from theirs and slower this could be an echo/ someone in the bushes I know!!! But it did make me shiver lol“
Clare’s story is curious as echoes dont slow down, or generally change pitch. So, either somebody else was nearby intent on frightening the family, or it was “something else!”. The outbuildings in question are no longer there, but there are some ruins and foundations still within the current bushes. To put things in context, this old postcard shows the outbuildings on the side of Milheugh House, which would today, have just been up from the Calder falls. I wonder, has any other readers experienced strange or ghostly “going on” in the Calder?