Speaker 1: On a stormy night on the small island of Guernsey,
Speaker 1: a young paranormal expert joins a skeptical history teacher to
Speaker 1: record the first in a series of podcasts based on
Speaker 1: the island's incredible folklore and paranormal history. As the expert
Speaker 1: regales his horrifying stories, the teacher learns that we all
Speaker 1: have our own truth, our own story ghosts that haunt us.
Speaker 1: Starring Olivier nominated actor and former Blue Peter legend Peter Duncan,
Speaker 1: When Darkness Falls is a spine chilling ghost story that
Speaker 1: delivers a twisted, terrifying and thrilling tale that the Guardian
Speaker 1: said will leave you cowering in your seat. Catch the
Speaker 1: brand new UK tour of When Darkness Falls from September
Speaker 1: fifteenth in a town near you. Select nights will also
Speaker 1: feature myself delivering a live episode of Unexplained. For more
Speaker 1: details or to book tickets, visit When Darkness Falls dot
Speaker 1: co dot uk. If you dare welcome to Unexplained Extra
Speaker 1: with me Richard McClane Smith where for the weeks in
Speaker 1: between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for
Speaker 1: one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show.
Speaker 1: In last week's episode, The Mask That Each the Face,
Speaker 1: we took a trip to seventeenth century Edinburgh in Scotland
Speaker 1: to hear the strange tale of Major Thomas Weir in public.
Speaker 1: Major Weir was a much respected member of the Presbyterian community,
Speaker 1: well known for his puritanical devotion to the church and
Speaker 1: for demanding the same devotion from others. When approaching his
Speaker 1: seventieth birthday, we are confessed that his true self fell
Speaker 1: somewhat short of his public image, after revealing that for
Speaker 1: decades he'd participated in numerous acts of adultery and fornication,
Speaker 1: committed incest with his sister jean and even indulged occasionally
Speaker 1: in bestiality. Both Thomas and Jane Weir were convicted of
Speaker 1: the crime of incest and executed. Jeanne's alleged culpability in
Speaker 1: what was judged to be an equal incestuous relationship seems
Speaker 1: particularly tragic given that this began when she was ten
Speaker 1: and her brother was twenty. As such, from to day's
Speaker 1: legal perspective, it's likely that, rather than as a willing participant,
Speaker 1: she would have been recognized as the victim of decades
Speaker 1: of abuse at the hands of her brother above all. However,
Speaker 1: it was Jeanne's alleged confession that both she and her
Speaker 1: brother had made packs with the devil that many found
Speaker 1: to be the most scandalous aspect of the whole affair.
Speaker 1: Although neither were convicted of this, it was enough cause
Speaker 1: for concern to the court that they insisted that Weir's
Speaker 1: famous staff, which was allegedly a gift from the devil
Speaker 1: and the source of Weir's supposed supernatural powers, be destroyed
Speaker 1: in the execution fire along with him. Inevitably, in the
Speaker 1: wake of Weir's death, more stories of unusual behavior began
Speaker 1: to emerge. Some claimed that when he walked the pitch black,
Speaker 1: winding streets at night, his staff would totter on ahead
Speaker 1: of him, lit up like a flaming torch, to lead
Speaker 1: the way, while others said the staff had a complete
Speaker 1: life of its own and would regularly hop along the
Speaker 1: street unaided, running errands for its master. Some claimed also
Speaker 1: that the Major was often seen at night riding away
Speaker 1: from his home on a headless horse in a whirlwind
Speaker 1: of flame, and that for many years after his and
Speaker 1: his sister's death, strange lights and unearthly music could be
Speaker 1: seen and heard coming from inside their deserted house, as
Speaker 1: though some strange Eldridge festival was taking place in their absence.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, the time in which the Weirs lived
Speaker 1: was one of great superstition, with the fear of witches
Speaker 1: and witchcraft in particular, either genuine or invented for political purposes,
Speaker 1: an ever present paranoia. In sixteen eighty five, George Sinclair,
Speaker 1: a mathematician and brother of mister Thomas Sinclair, the man
Speaker 1: who first revealed Major Thomas Weir's confession to the authorities,
Speaker 1: published a book titled Satan's Invisible World Discovered, which contained
Speaker 1: a number of stories that neatly outlined the leading superstitions
Speaker 1: of the day. Among them, although never referred to who
Speaker 1: as such, is one of the earliest ever recorded cases
Speaker 1: of an apparent poltergeist. It started with a curse. In
Speaker 1: the autumn of sixteen fifty four. While out somewhere between
Speaker 1: his home in Glenlouse and the County of Dumfriesshire in
Speaker 1: the south of Scotland, Gilbert Campbell was stopped by a
Speaker 1: man at the side of the road, Alexander Agnew, of
Speaker 1: no fixed abode and who was said to often beg
Speaker 1: for money around the Dumfriesshia area, asked Campbell if he
Speaker 1: had any spare change. When Campbell replied no, it was
Speaker 1: claimed that Agnew then threatened to harm his family in
Speaker 1: return for his lack of charity, before skulking off back
Speaker 1: down the road. Not long after this incident, Gilbert's daughter
Speaker 1: was calling a pail full of water up from the
Speaker 1: Glen Loose village well when she heard the gentle sound
Speaker 1: of a glass whistle, like something a child might blow.
Speaker 1: Then a voice just like her own whispered sharply and
Speaker 1: suddenly into her ear. I'll cast you into that well, Janet,
Speaker 1: it said coldly. Janet pulled herself away and hurried back
Speaker 1: into her house, having not mentioned it to anyone. It
Speaker 1: was a few days later when out of nowhere, the
Speaker 1: Campbell home, a humble stone cottage with a turf roof,
Speaker 1: was apparently bombarded by stones being flung at their door
Speaker 1: and windows, as well as coming down their chimney, clattering
Speaker 1: into the hearth, and scattering about the house with great force. Soon, Gilbert,
Speaker 1: who worked as a weaver, found that whenever he picked
Speaker 1: up a piece of material or thread to use, it
Speaker 1: had been cut up as snipped by an invisible pair
Speaker 1: of scissors whenever he turned his back. Before long, the
Speaker 1: same was happening toward their clothes too. After moving his
Speaker 1: materials and equipment to a neighbor's house, things appeared to
Speaker 1: have calmed down until one evening, as Gilbert and his
Speaker 1: wife lay in their bed in the black of night,
Speaker 1: the bedclothes were suddenly whipped off by something unseen. Hurriedly
Speaker 1: lighting a candle, the couple looked about in horror to
Speaker 1: find the lids of two large trunks had been pulled open,
Speaker 1: and the contents within strewn liberally around the room. A
Speaker 1: few days later, neighbors were returning from a service at
Speaker 1: the local church when they saw the Campbell's home was
Speaker 1: on fire. However, thanks to their quick action, the flames
Speaker 1: were extinguished before any significant damage was caused, and so
Speaker 1: things apparently continued for a good three months until one
Speaker 1: night in February sixteen fifty five, a strange, impish voice
Speaker 1: was heard calling out to the family from within their home,
Speaker 1: demanding they make sacrifices to it. Though that had long
Speaker 1: been rumors about the peculiar goings on in the Campbell house,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until the devilish voice announced itself that the
Speaker 1: family asked their local minister to help get rid of
Speaker 1: whatever it was that had attached itself to them. Late
Speaker 1: one night, the minister arrived at the Campbell's home accompanied
Speaker 1: by his wife and four other accomplices, to find the
Speaker 1: family in great distress, with Gilbert and his wife joining them.
Speaker 1: While the children stayed in their beds, the group prayed
Speaker 1: loud lee and solemnly together. No sooner had they finished
Speaker 1: than the mysterious voice rang out again, offering to reveal
Speaker 1: the names of five witches that it claimed were currently
Speaker 1: living in Glendue's village. Having them proceeded to do so,
Speaker 1: the voice was then said to be met by a
Speaker 1: stern rebuke of the minister, who was under no allusion
Speaker 1: as to what it was. The Lord rebuked thee satan
Speaker 1: and put thee to silence. He hissed. Then a loud,
Speaker 1: pained yell was heard crying out to them from some
Speaker 1: indeterminate distance. As the minister and the voice then proceeded
Speaker 1: to bicker back and forth, quoting scripture to each other,
Speaker 1: the rest of the group searched the property to try
Speaker 1: and determine where it was coming from, but found nothing. Finally,
Speaker 1: the minister demanded to know who the voice was, to
Speaker 1: which it replied that it was an evil spirit from
Speaker 1: the bottomless pit of hell who had come to vex
Speaker 1: the house, and that Satan was his father. Then the
Speaker 1: group gasped in horror at the sight of a hand
Speaker 1: and forearm that appeared suddenly in the room, which then
Speaker 1: beat down upon the floor and shook the entire house,
Speaker 1: as a loud voice boomed out, come up, my father,
Speaker 1: come up, before the arm then promptly disappeared. Things were
Speaker 1: said to have continued along a similar vein for another
Speaker 1: few hours until the group finally called it a night.
Speaker 1: The minister advised the family simply to try and ignore
Speaker 1: the voice and never do its bidding, or else they
Speaker 1: might be seen to be obeying the devil leave at
Speaker 1: the Campbell family. The haunting is said to have continued
Speaker 1: unabated for the next few months, forcing Gilbert to seek
Speaker 1: further help from the local synod. After months of requests,
Speaker 1: in February sixteen, fifty six members of the Senate finally
Speaker 1: agreed to visit the Campbell's property and offered their prayers
Speaker 1: in an effort to banish the malignant entity from their home.
Speaker 1: From that day on, the supernatural attacks on the family
Speaker 1: was said to have steadily diminished until April, when they
Speaker 1: stopped entirely. It was around that time, sixty miles east
Speaker 1: of Glenluce, in an unrelated incident, that the itinerant Alexander Agnew,
Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with blasphemy. It isn't clear exactly
Speaker 1: what he was initially arrested for, however, At his trial,
Speaker 1: Agnew was asked repeatedly about his views on God. Among
Speaker 1: his numerous responses, he stated that regardless of whether God
Speaker 1: existed or not, he had no obligation to worship him,
Speaker 1: and that it wasn't God that gave him meat, but
Speaker 1: the wives of the country. For this, Agnew was convicted
Speaker 1: of blasphemy, and on Wednesday, twenty first of May sixteen
Speaker 1: fifty six, he was hanged for it. It was sometime
Speaker 1: around August later that year that Gilbert Campbell's wife found
Speaker 1: a small piece of putrid meat wrapped up in the
Speaker 1: folds of the sheet in their bed. Over the next
Speaker 1: few weeks, she and Gilbert noticed more and more meat vanishing,
Speaker 1: only for it to reappear in unusual places. One evening,
Speaker 1: when preparing dinner, Gilbert's daughter Janet, claimed she had a
Speaker 1: plate wrenched out of her hand by something invisible, before
Speaker 1: it was then thrown through the air toward her. Not
Speaker 1: long after this, the family were played by strange noises
Speaker 1: at night, as though something were moving about the house.
Speaker 1: On another occasion, a voice was said to have roared
Speaker 1: out loud before telling the family it would burn down
Speaker 1: their house. A few nights later, the family came home
Speaker 1: to find one of their beds on fire. This story,
Speaker 1: as it appears in George Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered,
Speaker 1: was apparently told to the author by one of Gilbert
Speaker 1: Campbell's sons. It isn't made clear, however, if the incidents
Speaker 1: ever came to an end. Any suggestion that the alleged
Speaker 1: sudden return of peculiar activity in the Campbell family's home
Speaker 1: had anything to do with Alexander Agnew's death is of
Speaker 1: pure speculation. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to
Speaker 1: help support us, you can now do so via Patreon.
Speaker 1: To receive access to add free episodes, just go to
Speaker 1: patron dot com forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained.
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, forward slash un Explained Podcast