Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

The Ballechin House Hauntings
Hounds and Hauntings

by Gerina Dunwich

Built in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1806, the Highland mansion known as the Ballechin House is believed by many to be haunted by supernatural dogs and human ghosts.

Major Robert Steuart inherited the estate from his father in 1834 and lived there for more than a quarter-century with only his dogs for company. Steuart was a believer in reincarnation and transmigration (the passing of the soul into another body), but it was a certain odd request that earned him the reputation of an eccentric among the local townsfolk. He wished that after taking his final breath, his disembodied spirit would return from the dead and live on within the body of his favorite dog, a black spaniel.

Steuart died in 1876, leaving the mansion to his sister’s son John and his family. John knew well of the Major’s final wish but found the very idea of his uncle’s spirit taking up residence within the physical body of one of his dogs so abominable that he had every one of the animals on the estate put to death.

Afterward, strange and inexplicable occurrences began to take place in the house. Sounds like rapping, violent knockings, footsteps, explosions, and quarreling voices filled the air and an icy chill gripped the house.

John’s wife reported smelling the unmistakable odor of dogs when alone in the Major’s study and even claimed to have felt an invisible canine push against her when there were no animals in the house.

In 1892 a Jesuit priest, while spending two nights as a guest at Ballechin House, said he heard loud rapping and unexplained screams and animal-like sounds. The unnerving experience led him to the conclusion that the place was haunted.

The mansion was later rented out to a group of paranormal investigators, who invited thirty-five unsuspecting guests to stay at Ballechin House while the investigators conducted an experiment in the unknown. Some of the guests reported seeing the apparition of a black spaniel and hearing the tail of a ghostly dog hitting against the doors. One female guest claimed to have witnessed a pair of disembodied dog’s paws materialize on the nightstand table in her bedroom and then fade from sight. In addition to the spectral canines, a number of guests encountered ghosts of the human variety, including one of a weeping woman believed to have been a nun. A mysterious detached hand holding a crucifix and floating in the air was also seen.

In the year 1899, despite strong opposition from the Steuart family, the entire account of the ghost hunters’ experiment was published in a book called The Alleged Haunting of B-House.