'Nicky Tams'

© Brian Allan 2002

Word count: 4,704

First Visit

* When I first took this case, I had no idea that there would be follow up connected to 'Nicky Tams' more than a year later, the follow up proved rather more alarming and personal than the original case. *

Following a report in the national press regarding a haunted pub 'Nicky Tams', situated in Stirling's historic Baker Street close to the castle, I contacted the publican offering to evaluate the claims. The licensees, Andrea Lindsay and her husband Chris, were interested in discovering the identities of alleged spirits and invited me along for a chat. The pub, which dates from 1704, has recently been renovated and presents a friendly, homely atmosphere, which is reinforced by the warmth of its owners and staff. Over a cup of coffee, Andrea and Chris explained what had transpired.

The couple, who had only recently bought the premises, could see a lot of potential in the place and decided to give it a face-lift. To this end they shut up shop for six weeks and steeled themselves for a lot of late nights and hard work. Fortunately, Chris is a skilled joiner and carried out all the woodwork by himself with friends in various building trades helping out. Not long after the renovation began they started experiencing some odd sensations and feelings. As the layers of accumulated paint, plaster and paper were stripped away they had the distinct impression that the pub itself was in some bizarre fashion pleased with what was being done. In many ways this was truly a journey back in time; each surface uncovered representing a face from the past. It was when the restoration work moved upstairs that the odd happenings began.

On another occasion, late at night a plumber carrying out work on the upstairs toilets glimpsed a strange, dark, ethereal form over by the kitchen door. Understandably the man was quite startled, to the point where he insisted on company while he completed his work. Andrea, who did not give much credence to tales of the supernatural, had some encounters herself. On one occasion when she was deciding what style of bar to install, she felt her wrist being gripped gently, as if some long dead occupant was giving their approval to the changes.

In another incident, when she and Chris were sitting, relaxing after the customers had gone, small luminous spheres emerging slowly from a bricked up fireplace. She was so surprised by this that she did not think to alert Chris; by the time that she did the small radiant spheres had vanished. Interestingly, this type of phenomena called 'orbs' is fairly common at the scene of alleged hauntings and may indicate the presence of electromagnetic fields analogous to those producing ball lightening. The bar staff have also had their share of unexplained happenings. Compressed gas supplies to the beer pumps were found turned off, glasses, for no apparent reason fell off the gantry at the rear of the bar. In another instance, some electrical equipment failed then spontaneously restarted, when inspected, no fault was found. A customer heard sounds emanating from a cupboard in the gents' toilet, unfortunately the sounds although identifiable, as voices could not be understood. I felt that there probably was something unusual happening here and agreed to carry out an investigation. We contacted talented psychics Anne Marie Sneddon and Jim Lochhead who have ably assisted us with cases in the past and they agreed to come along to see if they could be of any help

The Investigation

We met outside the premises at 9.30am on Sunday 28th of March 1999, Andrea and Chris had opened up especially early for us and were already at work tidying and cleaning ready for Sunday's trade. We entered and introduced AnneMarie and Jim who in their quiet style were quickly at work seeking anomalous 'energies' within the building, which revealed some rather unexpected results. While the psychics were getting a feel for the place Chris gave us a brief history of the building. As I mentioned earlier, the building was erected in 1703 as a bank, and continued in this form for quite a while. The building then changed hands and usage, becoming a public house, 'The Caledonian Vaults' and had continued under this name as a pub since the 1730's until Andrea and Chris bought the premises this year (1999). During the renovations, when the floor was being re-laid, the original bank vaults were uncovered, these had for whatever reason been filled with earth and rubble and Chris had neither the time nor money to have them excavated. Chris informed me that when time allows, it is his intention to excavate the vaults and utilise the extra space.

While AnneMarie consulted her dowsing pendulum, Jim moved over to a dark, snug, welcoming corner adjacent to the cellar door. In Jim's opinion, there were two presences seated at the table here, he sensed that they knew each other and were content to sit there watching what was happening round about them. Jim placed them as originating from the 1870's. They were both ordinary working men dressed in the clothes they wore at their employment, which, by today's standards were rather unkempt and scruffy. There was a very positive feeling in the corner; Jim's sensed that the area is 'lucky'. How do you quantify 'lucky'? There is nothing you can measure, nothing that can be proved, in this instance, we must take the word of an experienced clairvoyant. As it later turned out, this feeling proved remarkably accurate. AnneMarie who had detected a third presence standing close to the cellar door joined us. This one was slightly different from the other two, slightly aloof and from a more recent era, she felt that this one moved around and was most likely to be responsible for the mischievous occurrences that had taken place. Both of the clairvoyants felt that this entity had caused problems with the gas to the beer pumps, Andrea was able to verify that the gas would inexplicably be found turned off.

AnneMarie asked me if I would like to experience the energy field emanating from one of the entities seated at the table, which I did and felt the faint tingling sensation that this causes. Andrea, who had been watching the proceedings, was asked if she would like to participate. She approached the table rather timidly and extended her hand to the area being indicated by AnneMarie. She stood for a few moments, her hand just below the mediums; she shook her head and said that she could feel nothing. After a few more moments, she called out in surprise and jerked her hand back, her face a mixture of surprise and delight. She looked at her hand then at us, "My hand just went to sleep," she exclaimed, and did not seem eager to repeat the experience. Hearing the noise, Chris who had been tidying up, came over to the group, Jim asked him to 'touch' the entity standing by the cellar door. While he was doing this, we went back to the main floor in front of the bar where AnneMarie again consulted her pendulum. After a minute or two, she announced in a quiet voice that a murder had taken place here, precisely where we stood in the public bar.

She felt that the atmosphere was varying from light to heavy and that the energy field of the presence was moving around. There was a great deal of hostility, anger and resentment, the resentment was directed at us because the spirit had a clear purpose, an unfulfilled task and did not wish to be banished. This was not a concern because both Andrea and Chris had, at the start, made it clear that this was not part of their agenda, they only wanted to know who, or what, was there. AnneMarie told us that this murder had occurred in the 1920's, witnessed by an old, bearded man who had been sitting in a corner beside the door. She sensed that this spirit had been seen by several people in the bar, not only the staff, but customers as well. Again, this was born out by Andrea, was told us that a shadowy, black outline had been glimpsed by a number of people, always from the corner of the eye, never full on. Another a strong impression sensed by the clairvoyants was that the bar had been a place where people formerly met, but not for drinking.

The stairway leading to the upper level of the building proved to have its share of mystery where once again the phenomenon of anomalous faces was to recur. The varnished pattern on the wall revealed a host of faces; some of then appeared to be representations of the spirits inhabiting the pub. The more we looked the more appeared, literally seeming to stand out from the wall in a disconcerting manner. Before moving to the upper level our clairvoyants felt that they would like to look in the cellar at the rear of the building. This was cut back into the bedrock of the hill itself, its arched roof was constructed of small rough stones mortared into place. In here, the presence of a small child was detected, a boy hunched down in a corner. He did not appear to be particularly frightened and was just keeping out of sight, perhaps wary of our presence. AnneMarie was able to make a link here, in her opinion the child hiding in the cellar and the embittered, hostile presence in the bar were one and the same. She went on to explain that in the spirit world, although time has no relevance the ageing process can and does take place. She felt that this child had been the murder victim and his spirit was still here, grown to adulthood and seeking revenge. While I do not necessarily accept all explanations given regarding psychic perceptions, this was only one of many impressions sensed that day which were, on checking later, proved to be disturbingly accurate. We did not wish to upset this spirit child further and turned our attention back to the bar and the framed photograph that appeared to be the catalyst in these uncanny events.

Our two clairvoyants stared intently at the picture, after a minute or two AnneMarie expressed the opinion that although this man appeared to be a clergyman, there was another side to him, a darker side. She sensed that although an authority figure he had not been particularly liked by his contemporaries. There was a strange heaviness surrounding the picture that suggested that he might have been connected with witchcraft. This impression did not mean that he had been involved in the actual ceremonies, but it was also quite likely that he had attempted to prevent them. It is possible that his likeness had been sealed away by whoever was involved with the coven in an attempt to gain power over his spirit.

AnneMarie could discern faces in the photographic emulsion around the edges of the picture where dampness had caused some degradation in the chemicals. These faces which we could all see, had the rather distorted, malignant appearance of 'Lower Astral Entities'. This, as far as she was concerned this was all the evidence that she needed, but I required something more concrete. Andrea told us that she had attempted to discover the identity of the man in the picture from the previous owners of the premises but to no avail. The only lettering on the photograph is the name Campbell, (which, curiously, is Andrea's maiden name) but this appears to be the identity of the photographer and not the sitter. The real mystery here, is why, (speculation about witchcraft aside), permanently seal up the picture in an alcove, what was there to hide, is there something that someone would rather was removed from sight and memory?

We were now ready to evaluate the upper story, so we climbed the stairs and spread out. AnneMarie moved ahead of the rest of us when suddenly she stopped and laughed aloud. "I just bumped into someone." she exclaimed, we looked but could see nothing. Andrea told us that this was the precise spot where her mother had also experienced the disquieting sensation of having someone walk through her. AnneMarie did not seem to be particularly put out by her encounter, quite the reverse, she seemed to find it quite amusing, I'm not sure that I would have the same 'sang-froid'.

Jim, who had been slowly walking around the floor, felt that an area about half way along the wall was significant. AnneMarie agreed with his impressions, in her opinion this area was where occult rituals had been carried out. As it later turned out this was another remarkably accurate impression. Both of the clairvoyants were keen to point out that not everyone involved in witchcraft was necessarily evil; their motives were often the problem. As we have learned, the reason for most ordinary people becoming involved in these ancient, arcane rituals concerned power, sex and money, sometimes all three. After some further discussion with Andrea and Chris, we decided that most of the possibilities had been exhausted for the time being, so, resolving to verify our findings, we parted company.

The following morning, I contacted the local police headquarters at Randolphfield in Stirling, but to no avail. I then tried the news-desk at a local newspaper, the 'Stirling Observer' who likewise were unable to help. In view of this, I called in to talk to the ever-knowledgeable antiquarian bookseller Bob McCutcheon and struck gold. Bob who's shop is only a minutes walk from Nicky Tams had a few ideas, but wanted to check his facts and asked me to call back the following day.

I did this and thankfully he had unearthed some information that could be relevant to our investigation. In the mid 1700's, after the building ceased being used as a bank, the owner of the building had been a man called Bryce. He had, over a considerable period of time, (probably years), operated a Masonic lodge on the upper floor of the premises. Here was one explanation for the impressions that the clairvoyants sensed concerning rituals being carried out and people gathering there but not for drinking. Another reason could of course be that the original purpose of the building was as a bank. As far as the murder was concerned, Bob told me that there had been a murder in the immediate vicinity in the 1920's, but not actually on the premises, it had been in a building directly opposite. This grisly story related to a child of four who had been killed on March 12th 1925, the unsavoury deed had the additional dimension of paedophilia attached to it.

Another murder in this area was perpetrated in 1907 but there are no specifics concerning this event other than in was in the area of the pub. According to Bob, the original bank vaults had not been filled in until comparatively recently, he remembers there being access to them as late as the 1970's. There is no obvious reason for them being filled, perhaps it was to reduce the rates bill on the premises, or perhaps it was for structural reasons. On the other hand it is possible that there was something down there that was best hidden, perhaps connected with the picture that had been sealed in an alcove. Although by no means conclusive, these facts do help corroborate what the clairvoyants sensed. We must bear in mind that impressions perceived by clairvoyants are not necessarily clear images, but can be pictures, words, feelings and impressions, as such they are open to interpretation where slight variations can creep in. After some checks, regrettably we failed to identify the enigmatic man in the photograph, nonetheless we can look on this case as an affirmation of the skills of the two psychics who assisted us. When their conclusions are compared with local knowledge, there are very close parallels. Two are particularly interesting, the proximity of the murdered child and the use of the upper floor of the building for Masonic rituals. Lastly, remember the 'lucky corner'? Andrea told us that a customer filled in his lottery card sitting there and got five numbers up. They had joked with him about buying everyone a drink from the proceeds: he hasn't been seen since.

Second Visit

Fourteen months after the original case, I was once again contacted by the Lindsays regarding 'uninvited guests' on the premises, this time in their own living quarters above the pub. The young publicans were naturally upset that their own living space was now apparently attracting the attentions of an unwelcome entity. The problems began manifesting when they couple first moved into the flat upstairs after carrying out some necessary renovations. In the early hours one morning shortly after moving in, at around 4am, Chris was abruptly woken from his sleep with the sensation of hands round his throat choking him. As he sat up in bed Andrea also awoke and was understandably concerned for her husband, but assuming it had been some sort of nightmare they settled down and eventually managed to get back to sleep. The next incident occurred a few nights later, again around 4am. Andrea awakened to hear the sound of scraping and rattling from the kitchen waste bin, thinking that it was their dog, Patsy, she called to the dog, only to discover that she was fast asleep in her basket at the foot of the bed. Andrea woke her husband and asked him to check the flat, which he did, but found no evidence of the cause of the noise.

The next happening was a little more alarming, again Andrea awoke around four am to hear the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs leading to the flat. She clearly heard the front door open then close, followed by the sound of footsteps in the hall leading to the bedroom. The footsteps stopped at the bedroom door and she had the distinct impression that someone looked into the bedroom, the footsteps then proceeded back down the hall. Thoroughly alarmed, she woke Chris and insisted that he check the flat once again which he did, there was nothing out of place. The disturbances have followed a similar pattern ever since, Chris experiences the sensation of being choked and Andrea hears footsteps in the hall. Another odd aspect to the case concerns kitchen cutlery that goes missing, but bizarrely only the forks! The Lindsays claim that there isn't a fork left in the flat, gradually over the period of a few months they have steadily vanished. For some reason the dogs lead also vanished, they searched the flat high and low, but there was no sign of either the forks or the lead, until a few weeks ago, in a basket beside the bed, a basket that had been searched repeatedly, the lead suddenly reappeared lying on top of some clothes.

I paid them a visit on Sunday the 7th of May and discussed the situation with them. I used the opportunity to take some magnetic field readings in the public bar where some of the previous sightings had taken place. Interestingly, there was a particularly strong reading in excess of 100 mg (milligauss) behind the public bar adjacent to a group of beer taps. They were non-illuminated and there was no obvious source of EM radiation. This was the exact location where the shadowy figure had been seen several times. We took other readings in the pub; these proved to be typical of domestic premises, around 1.2 - 1.5 mg. The high level 'hotspot' may be significant, as it is a regular feature found in the manifestation of apparitions. Based on these observations and a discussion with Chris and Andrea, I decided to return with my psychic colleagues to bring a little peace to the flat.

The Third Visit

I arrived at Nicky Tams just prior to 2pm and sat in the bar to await the others. First to arrive was Lucy Dawson, a reporter with the Capital news agency in Edinburgh. A few minutes later Maria Croce a reporter from the Daily Record joined us, as did Anne Marie Sneddon and Jim Lochhead arrived, we chatted briefly with Andrea and the reporters. Anne Marie took me to one side and told me that she sensed a change in the premises, a change for the worse. There was a negative, dull feeling about the place that had not been there during her previous visit. As time was getting on, we decided to begin, Andrea and Chris who were not quite ready gave me the door keys for the flat and we left the bar. Once upstairs inside the flat AnneMarie and Jim entered the rooms that comprised the small dwelling, both of them looked strained, the same negative energy from the bar seemed to be permeating the flat. The focus of the energy was in the bathroom near the window, both Jim and Anne Marie could detect the presence of a man who apparently was the source of the negative energy.

They invited the reporters to 'touch' the energy field; the first to do this was Maria. She went over to the bath beside the two psychics and extended her hand towards the source of the energy. Abruptly, voicing a surprised cry, she jerked back and laughed nervously, she felt as if someone had jagged her fingers with a pin. Lucy tried next and commented on the sensation of coldness and tingling on her fingers, Jim explained the significance of the sensations. Anne Marie sensed that the entity could be extremely aggressive, probably as a result of his upbringing. They felt that he had been harshly treated as a child and suffered beatings on a regular basis for little or no reason. This aggression manifested itself with Chris when he experienced the sensation of choking.

Andrea had remained unscathed because since a man (or men) had inflicted the aggression on him, she as a woman embodied a source of compassion. I noticed the TriField meter was registering a low but steady magnetic field; this was the reverse of my previous findings when there was no measurable field at all. When the psychics moved into the living room, the meter readings gradually increase to a steady 2.5-mg, this, according to AnneMarie, was an indication that the presence in the bathroom had moved into the living room where we now were. I don't know whether it was suggestion, but I could feel coldness at my feet gradually creeping up my legs. I am not sure what causes this, and it has occurred on other cases so it was not especially unusual. According to the mediums, this coldness is a sign that 'spirit' is present; this does not however fully explain why it should manifest itself as a cold sensation. It does not register on our temperature measuring devices therefore the sensation appears to be subjective and therefore may be an aspect of 'mind' or consciousness rather than a physical manifestation.

The psychics were agreed that the entity would be better removed permanently from the apartment, its continuing negative presence would slowly build in strength increasingly drawing energy from the occupants until it became a real danger. Since both Chris and Andrea were clearly troubled by the ongoing phenomena, they readily agreed to the recommendation. As before in circumstances like this AnneMarie asked for water and salt, both traditional tools used in spiritual cleansing or use a more emotive term, 'exorcism'. The mechanism of cleansing as the mediums perceive it consists of asking their 'spirit guides' to take the distressed (or restless) entity with them, sending it to, as AnneMarie put it, a place of healing.

The water and salt were provided and mediums took them, sprinkling some of each at the entrance to all the rooms effectively sealing all the exits. At their bidding we all congregated in the centre of the room and stood quietly in contemplative silence while the psychics summoned their guides. In a matter of seconds it was all over, no noise, no histrionics, just a gradual lessening of tension, a feeling of winding down and peace. AnneMarie smiled, telling us it entity had gone and there should be no more trouble in the flat, both Chris and Andrea were visibly relieved at this news. Prior to the reporters leaving the flat, we had a brief discussion and it transpired that while still downstairs in the bar prior to coming up to the flat, they had made an interesting discovery. While Chris and Andrea were in conversation, a customer overheard them and volunteered information on the identity if the mysterious man in the photograph.

According to the customer, a Mr. Blueitt, the image showed one of his ancestors, his (paternal) great grandfather also named Blueitt. Evidently, he had been involved in a business that traded as a butcher's shop from premises beside the bar during the late 19th century. The alcove in which the photograph was found had originally been a passageway giving access to a lane running between Baker Street to the unfortunately named Spittal Street. Some of these lanes, which provide easy access between the streets still exist, others however have been sealed off at both ends and are now voids between the old buildings. This at least solved one of the enigmas; the man in the photograph had been identified, although precisely why he had been consigned to a sealed alcove in the first place is not at all clear. Perhaps it was just forgetfulness, or maybe there were unpleasant memories associated with him, we shall probably never know.

CONCLUSION

That there are 'energies' present within the building is beyond doubt, whether there are 'ghosts' is another matter. A mediums' psychic capabilities are of a different order of magnitude from ours; therefore it is likely that they perceive their surroundings in a unique fashion. Impressions that we either totally ignore are to the mediums, part of a separate reality. Although it is doubtful that the discoveries have a great deal of historical significance, nevertheless, little by little, the layers of mystery are being stripped away and the story of the site revealed. It would be satisfying to think that through our efforts, the spirits, if that is what they are, will at last, now that they have been recognised, find rest, solace and comfort. On the other hand, is it possible that until the reasons for the photograph being sealed away in darkness have been uncovered, the spirits are condemned to their eternal, lonely vigil in the building? Only time will tell.