EVP - Gaelic-Speaking 'Ghost' Caught On Recording

By Claire Smith
The Scotsman.com

New evidence of ghosts in Edinburgh's underground city have been recorded on tape by a radio producer.

Debbie McPhail claims to have made a recording of a ghoulish voice hissing the words: "Get out" or "Go away" in Gaelic.

Mrs McPhail described herself as "a cynical person by nature" - but said she had no explanation for the ghostly voice.

The otherworldly voice ruined a recording she was making in Edinburgh underground vaults with the former rugby international Norrie Rowan, who owns a section of the underground city.

Mrs McPhail said: "I found the place so creepy, I let the presenter go down to do the interview himself.

"When I was listening back to it, I could hear Norrie Rowan chatting and then I heard another voice.

"It was close by to the microphone because you can tell if voices are far away or not. I knew it wasnât the presenter or Norrie because the voice had a slightly Irish accent.

"When the presenter came back up I asked him who they had met in the vault and he said nobody. I asked a colleague who spoke Gaelic and she said they could be saying 'get out' or 'go away'."

Gordon Stewart, assistant director at Mercat Tours, which conducts visits around the vaults said the recording could be the first actual evidence of psychic phenomena in the vault.

"It is an unusual story and quite chilling. I think it could be the first time anything like this has been recorded in Edinburgh.

"People who come on our tours have been scratched, had their hands jostled and come into contact with unknown things."

Psychologist Richard Wiseman, who has conducted research into the paranormal goings on beneath Edinburghâs South Bridge, said a third of the subjects in his study had some sort of experience in the vaults, including having their clothes pulled, hearing their names whispered or feeling tugs on their clothing.

But he said the phenomena could have been psychological effects suggested by the damp dripping walls and the dark dismal atmosphere of the underground city.

Dr Paul Stevens, a research fellow at Edinburgh Universityâs Koestler Parapsychology unit, said: "The vaults are not mapped in places and you donât know what walls are backing on to.

"At one time someone there thought they were hearing strange sounds, but the wall actually backed on to a massage parlour and that was where the funny noises were coming from.