While there is a plethora of highly documented work on the existence and prevalence of ghosts in Scotland, many stories of sightings have also proved to be pranks of adolescents.
Who (or what) was behind the mask of the Campbeltown incidents remains a bit of a mystery.
During the 1930s in particular - with a surge in filmic, theatrical and literal representations of them in popular culture, coupled with the antics of the famous ghost hunter Harry Price at the Borley Rectory in England - ghosts were a popular fascination and a source of many mischievous deeds.
One such case was highlighted in The Scotsman on 4 August 1936. James Frail, a young man from Fife, was fined for breaching the peace after spooking Harry Bayne on a farm in Kelty. As the newspaper reported, Frail jumped out on the road in front of Bayne, emulating a terrifying spook before his victim "ran a distance of half a mile in a state of extreme fright and perspiring freely. Since then he had had pneumonia and, while that could not be deliberately attributed to the fright he had, the fact remained that he had been very ill since then."
While this story gives us all a chance to muse over the style of newspaper reporting from the time, it is only one of many instances of such impish fun.
Another tale comes from the far reaches of Campbeltown, on Kintyre. During the autumn and winter months between 1937 and 1939, The Scotsman noted how the citizens of Campbeltown, in particular women and children, were terrorised by practical jokers who masqueraded around the area.
A sentry on duty outside saw the ghost descending by jumps of ten to twelve feet at a time?
-The Scotsman
After the initial scares, a group of vigilantes was formed to find the perpetrators. The townsfolk patrolled the streets at night, armed with wooden clubs known as cudgels.
The citizens believed they were saved from the prank in October 1938, when a 16-foot padded dummy dressed in white, with outstretched arms and a wig made of wool, was found resting against the war memorial. The local police station retained the dummy and the town believed the antics were over.
Yet a week later the pranksters were back, appearing at the windows of uninhabited houses and those of elderly women, terrifying the locals with their ethereal shrieks and wails.
As The Scotsman reported on 8 November 1938, one "ghost" was forced to jump into the water of the mill dam after he was cornered in the local gasworks. It wrote:
Campbeltown is a peaceful place on Kintyre, Argyll & Bute, but the same could not always have been said some 70 years ago.
"Just when capture seemed inevitable, three whistles were heard coming from the midst of the mill dam, and a motor car, driven at high speed from the Tarbert direction, drew up opposite the dam. Before the vigilantes realised what was happening, a dripping figure struggled out of the dam, ran across the road, and jumped into the car."
Three days later, a bemused Scotsman reporter told how the spirit made yet another escape when the mystery person climbed on to a high wall to escape capture in a disused distillery before "a sentry on duty outside saw the ghost descending by jumps of ten to twelve feet at a time, clutching at narrow ledges as he paused to check the speed of his descent. He reached the ground safely and made off into the darkness." After this incident, the spook was coined was "Spring-heeled Jack" by the locals, acknowledging his athletic prowess. But was the ghoul's ability an exaggerated eyewitness account or the actions of a misty menace?
The incredulous newspaper coverage then experiences a lull until 21 October 1939, nearly two months after the outbreak of the Second World War. Taking advantage of the blackouts imposed by the British government to limit the German Luftwaffe's ability to spot its targets, the spectres returned to scare women and children at night while the locals struggled to catch them.
From the archive
A Modern "Ghost"
The Scotsman
8 November 1938
The last mention of the jokers in The Scotsman is made six days later when two travellers noted an apparition crossing a garden enclave followed closely by the volunteers. With this evidence, the residents insisted they would continue to "search incessantly". However, no mention is made after this date of the "ghosts".
Who knows what happened to Spring-heeled Jack and his accomplices, who plagued the people of Campbeltown. Perhaps they stopped when they were called up to fight in the war; perhaps, as Hitler's power encroached on their lives, they didn't want be a vain of the town's existence. Or perhaps, they simply disappeared into the shadows, awaiting a return to the town to terrorise the women and children once more.
http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=1086482006
