My fright night in ‘haunted bothy' at Luibeilt Lodge

Luibeilt Lodge, pictured in the 1920s, was used by deer stalkers before being turned into a bothy

On a Christmas climbing trip in 1973, two young climbers experienced a frightening series of events in a remote mountain bothy.

Phil MacNeill was 18 and a member of Glasgow's Langside Climbing Club when he and his friend Jimmy Dunn set out from the city for the Lochaber hills.

They took the train to Balloch and then hitched a lift north to Kinlochleven, near Fort William, from where they set out on foot about 10 miles (16km) to Luibeilt Lodge.

A former deer stalking lodge, now in ruins, the building had been adapted for use as a bothy - an overnight shelter for hillwalkers and climbers tackling the area's mountains, which include Britain's tallest - Ben Nevis.

The men, whose story has been recounted by Phil for BBC Radio 4's Uncanny show, were told there were people living off-grid at Luibeilt, but it remained open and welcoming to visitors.

Phil and Jimmy hoped to use it as a base for their climbing trip.

Phil MacNeill was 18 when he visited Luibeilt Lodge in 1973

When they arrived the door was locked. Looking through windows the men could see dishes in the sink but no-one inside.

The pair headed off to do some climbing in the snow and ice before returning at about 21:00.

"It was pitch dark," says Phil. "We shone our torches through the windows and nothing seemed to have changed."

The men were able to get inside through an unsecured window.

"It was much colder inside than outside," said Phil. "It felt odd. It became obvious the place had been vacated very rapidly."

There was a table set for Christmas dinner, with crackers still to be pulled open.

Exploring the property, the men noted each room was furnished and appeared to have been occupied, except one - a bedroom directly above the living room.

The small bedroom had a dismantled metal bed frame lying against a wall and a window with the curtains open. On the window sill there was a large stone.

The property is a ruin today

The climbers went down to the living room and crawled into their sleeping bags for the night.

Phil says: "It was extremely cold, and the silence was palpable. It enveloped you.

"Almost the minute we blew out our candle there were noises upstairs."

First they heard footsteps, then noises of the bed being put together followed by what sounded like the rock from the window sill being rolled across the floor.

Phil next recalls being awoken at 04:00 when the living room "erupted" with the sounds of objects - including the men's ice axes - being thrown "all over the place" in the darkness.

"I am absolutely petrified," says Phil.

'Flying across the room'

The room fell silent again. Phil lit a candle but it was sent "flying across the room".

Next, the sound of footsteps again, but this time stomping down a spiral staircase from the upstairs to the closed living room door.

Grabbing his ice axe, Phil went to the door and threw it open but he says no-one was there.

It was then the climbers decided to make their escape out of an opened window.

Shining their headtorches to the upstairs bedroom window, Phil says they saw the curtains were now closed. The men fled for Kinlochleven.

Phil, who has sought out other people's experiences of the bothy, believes no-one could have been hiding in the lodge or arrived after they did.

"We would have seen their footprints in the snow," he says.

Phil says he was petrified by the experience

Uncanny's host, Danny Robins, says the case is one of the most terrifying of the series.

Psychologist Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe and writer and Edinburgh-based paranormal psychologist Evelyn Hollow, regular contributors to the show, offer different explanations for what happened.

Ms Hollow says Scotland is "saturated" in the paranormal and is "one of the most haunted countries in the world".

She suggests the source of the goings was a poltergeist - a potentially violent ghost that can move objects.

But Dr O'Keeffe suggests if it was not other people in the house then the men may have been feeling the effects of tiredness and the extreme cold.

He says this can influence levels of consciousness, alertness and judgement and may have led to mundane sounds being misinterpreted as something sinister.

He says there have been other examples of "haunted" bothies.

Dr O'Keeffe says: "At Ben Alder cottage there was similar phenomena reported. In that case it was found it was a stag using its antlers and banging on the side of the wall."

The Uncanny Christmas special is available on BBC Sounds now and will broadcast on Radio 4 at 23:30 on Christmas Day.