We left for Inverness the next morning, and that beautiful city would become our base for the next week while we explored castles, ruins, and lochs. During one of our many travels, we had stopped along the side of the road so Pauline (our driver) and I could discuss our next destination while my husband slept in the back seat. We had just finished plotting our course when I heard, clear as day, "Ach! Boring!" in a clear, Scottish brogue from directly behind me.
I glanced at Pauline, but she was eerily oblivious to the opinionated entity in the back seat. Surreptitiously, I tried to crane my neck around, hoping to garner at least a glimpse of him, but my eyesight has never been up to par with my hearing when it comes to spirits. How I managed not to turn around and ask, "Well, where do you want to go?" still boggles my mind. Pauline had been quite clear during an earlier conversation that she didn't believe in ghosts, which still makes me chuckle after everything I've experienced, so I really didn't want her giving me THOSE looks for the rest of the trip.
Let me just give you a heads up. If you are ever planning to travel to Scotland, Urquhart Castle is a gold mine of spirit activity. At least it was for me. I was walking around filming with my video recorder when I happened to notice that my battery had seriously depleted in a short manner of time. I murmured aloud, "Wow, this thing goes through batteries really quickly." I got a response I really wasn't expecting. "What's a battery?" Near the ruined pigeon tower, a female whispered at me, "Friend, that's a lowlander..." but I never heard the end of that sentence.
Playing back my recordings when I got home, I found that when we were standing near the pigeon tower, you could actually hear what sounds like a group of men psyching themselves up for battle beneath the wind. They were hooting and yelling. I was amazed that I didn't catch any of that live, but sometimes you just don't.
My main reason in going to Scotland was to visit Eilean Donan. It might sound nuts, but I've dreamed about that castle since I was a little girl, and the pull to visit it was incredibly strong. It was there that I had another encounter that stays with me. We were walking up towards the castle doors, and I started wondering if my ghost was still with us. I whispered aloud, "Where are you?" in Gaelic and again, got a response that I will never, ever forget. His response to my query was, "I'm not going to leave you, I swear."
There were many, many more instances of EVPs and whispered comments, but none can compare to Eilean Donan and the hotel in Edinburgh for me. That trip completely changed my life. It validated every ghostly encounter I'd ever had previously and made me realize that I'm not crazy. There really are spirits all around us. Night, day, at home or anywhere...they'll show up where you least expect them and touch your life in ways that you never anticipated.
I was heartbroken when we left and had to come back home. His final parting words to me as we boarded the plane were, "Enjoy your life." I keep those words with me when life just seems to get harder and harder for how much more meaningful could those words be coming from someone who's no longer living?
One funny little side note about that trip. My husband barely slept at all. He kept telling me that he just couldn't get comfortable no matter where we stayed, and that the only good night sleep he had was our first night in Edinburgh. I had to laugh. I knew we were being looked after and slept like a baby our entire trip.
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