It’s about time I told a few ghost stories on this page. I have several, but an apt and fitting one for today (Halloween) is as follows:
Just a couple of weeks ago in mid October 2015, I received an email message from Liz McCorkindale in Blantyre who told me, “Paul, I have rushed to tell you this story, as it left me shaken. I’m sitting at my computer hands shaking. On Saturday evening, my husband and I were driving home from relatives in East Kilbride, down the road from Greenhall, you know the one into Main Street. (not the Expressway). As we sat at the traffic lights at the top cross, (Kirkton) something beyond my husband, out the window caught my eye in the graveyard. It was around dusk, so nobody would have any right to have been in there. It looked like a shadowy figure, tall and holding one of the gravestones. I screamed and my hubby nearly put his foot through the brake. At the same time the lights changed, so he drove on, as there were cars behind, but i tell you i definitely saw a ghost. It was so alarming, i pleaded with my husband to go back, but it was late and we soon arrived home.
I couldn’t settle, so today, i walked back to the cemetery. The gates were open, but i couldnt see anything. I got such a chill remembering the figure which looked like it had a pale complexion. There was no sign of anything. For the last 2 days I’ve been asking my hubby to come back with me to the cemetery, as i’m more curious than any of my family. He insists (as i had a few vodkas that evening) there was nothing there or it would have been a council worker, but i assure you what i saw wasnt of this earth!”
Living so nearby to this, what a story, i thought! Did Blantyre have a Kirkton ghost? Did something paranormal happen that Saturday evening in Main Street?
I didn’t have to wait long, and the answer came to me, via facebook (as most things do these days!). My old school colleague Janice Hamilton, is a photographer and specialises in how can i say, photographing more gothic, or darker photographs, a style quite different from the photos on this history website. Janice had started to edit her lovely photos putting them up on facebook, and I noticed at the bottom she had written, “photographed at High Blantyre Cemetery”. A quick conversation later, and I realised that the photos Janice had intended on sending me to put up on this page for Halloween, were ACTUALLY what Liz saw happening that evening!!!
Once it all clicked together, I had to email Liz to explain and that what she saw was actually a photoshoot. A professional photoshoot, which ended up producing the photos you see in this article (which Janice has shared!). All I can say, is it’s just as well Liz never saw those white faces, or a a ghostly child walking around in the cemetery too!
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