On a stormy night on the small island of Guernsey, a young paranormal expert joins a skeptical history teacher to record the first in a series of podcasts based on the island's incredible folklore and paranormal history. As the expert regales his horrifying stories, the teacher learns that we all have our own truth, our own story ghosts that haunt us.
Starring Olivier nominated actor and former Blue Peter legend Peter Duncan, When Darkness Falls is a spine chilling ghost story that delivers a twisted, terrifying and thrilling tale that the Guardian said will leave you cowering in your seat. Catch the brand new UK tour of When Darkness Falls from September fifteenth in a town near you. Select nights will also feature myself delivering a live episode of Unexplained. For more details or to book tickets, visit When Darkness Falls dot
co dot uk. If you dare welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In last week's episode, The Mask That Each the Face, we took a trip to seventeenth century Edinburgh in Scotland to hear the strange tale of Major Thomas Weir in public.
Major Weir was a much respected member of the Presbyterian community, well known for his puritanical devotion to the church and for demanding the same devotion from others. When approaching his seventieth birthday, we are confessed that his true self fell somewhat short of his public image, after revealing that for decades he'd participated in numerous acts of adultery and fornication, committed incest with his sister jean and even indulged occasionally
in bestiality. Both Thomas and Jane Weir were convicted of the crime of incest and executed. Jeanne's alleged culpability in what was judged to be an equal incestuous relationship seems particularly tragic given that this began when she was ten and her brother was twenty. As such, from to day's legal perspective, it's likely that, rather than as a willing participant, she would have been recognized as the victim of decades
of abuse at the hands of her brother above all. However, it was Jeanne's alleged confession that both she and her brother had made packs with the devil that many found to be the most scandalous aspect of the whole affair. Although neither were convicted of this, it was enough cause for concern to the court that they insisted that Weir's famous staff, which was allegedly a gift from the devil and the source of Weir's supposed supernatural powers, be destroyed
in the execution fire along with him. Inevitably, in the wake of Weir's death, more stories of unusual behavior began to emerge. Some claimed that when he walked the pitch black, winding streets at night, his staff would totter on ahead of him, lit up like a flaming torch, to lead the way, while others said the staff had a complete life of its own and would regularly hop along the
street unaided, running errands for its master. Some claimed also that the Major was often seen at night riding away from his home on a headless horse in a whirlwind of flame, and that for many years after his and his sister's death, strange lights and unearthly music could be seen and heard coming from inside their deserted house, as though some strange Eldridge festival was taking place in their absence.
Needless to say, the time in which the Weirs lived was one of great superstition, with the fear of witches and witchcraft in particular, either genuine or invented for political purposes,
an ever present paranoia. In sixteen eighty five, George Sinclair, a mathematician and brother of mister Thomas Sinclair, the man who first revealed Major Thomas Weir's confession to the authorities, published a book titled Satan's Invisible World Discovered, which contained a number of stories that neatly outlined the leading superstitions of the day. Among them, although never referred to who as such, is one of the earliest ever recorded cases
of an apparent poltergeist. It started with a curse. In the autumn of sixteen fifty four. While out somewhere between his home in Glenlouse and the County of Dumfriesshire in the south of Scotland, Gilbert Campbell was stopped by a man at the side of the road, Alexander Agnew, of no fixed abode and who was said to often beg for money around the Dumfriesshia area, asked Campbell if he
had any spare change. When Campbell replied no, it was claimed that Agnew then threatened to harm his family in return for his lack of charity, before skulking off back down the road. Not long after this incident, Gilbert's daughter was calling a pail full of water up from the Glen Loose village well when she heard the gentle sound of a glass whistle, like something a child might blow. Then a voice just like her own whispered sharply and
suddenly into her ear. I'll cast you into that well, Janet, it said coldly. Janet pulled herself away and hurried back into her house, having not mentioned it to anyone. It was a few days later when out of nowhere, the Campbell home, a humble stone cottage with a turf roof, was apparently bombarded by stones being flung at their door and windows, as well as coming down their chimney, clattering
into the hearth, and scattering about the house with great force. Soon, Gilbert, who worked as a weaver, found that whenever he picked up a piece of material or thread to use, it had been cut up as snipped by an invisible pair of scissors whenever he turned his back. Before long, the
same was happening toward their clothes too. After moving his materials and equipment to a neighbor's house, things appeared to have calmed down until one evening, as Gilbert and his wife lay in their bed in the black of night, the bedclothes were suddenly whipped off by something unseen. Hurriedly lighting a candle, the couple looked about in horror to find the lids of two large trunks had been pulled open,
and the contents within strewn liberally around the room. A few days later, neighbors were returning from a service at the local church when they saw the Campbell's home was on fire. However, thanks to their quick action, the flames were extinguished before any significant damage was caused, and so things apparently continued for a good three months until one night in February sixteen fifty five, a strange, impish voice was heard calling out to the family from within their home,
demanding they make sacrifices to it. Though that had long been rumors about the peculiar goings on in the Campbell house, it wasn't until the devilish voice announced itself that the family asked their local minister to help get rid of whatever it was that had attached itself to them. Late one night, the minister arrived at the Campbell's home accompanied by his wife and four other accomplices, to find the family in great distress, with Gilbert and his wife joining them.
While the children stayed in their beds, the group prayed loud lee and solemnly together. No sooner had they finished than the mysterious voice rang out again, offering to reveal the names of five witches that it claimed were currently living in Glendue's village. Having them proceeded to do so, the voice was then said to be met by a stern rebuke of the minister, who was under no allusion as to what it was. The Lord rebuked thee satan
and put thee to silence. He hissed. Then a loud, pained yell was heard crying out to them from some indeterminate distance. As the minister and the voice then proceeded to bicker back and forth, quoting scripture to each other, the rest of the group searched the property to try and determine where it was coming from, but found nothing. Finally, the minister demanded to know who the voice was, to which it replied that it was an evil spirit from the bottomless pit of hell who had come to vex
the house, and that Satan was his father. Then the group gasped in horror at the sight of a hand and forearm that appeared suddenly in the room, which then beat down upon the floor and shook the entire house, as a loud voice boomed out, come up, my father, come up, before the arm then promptly disappeared. Things were said to have continued along a similar vein for another few hours until the group finally called it a night.
The minister advised the family simply to try and ignore the voice and never do its bidding, or else they might be seen to be obeying the devil leave at the Campbell family. The haunting is said to have continued unabated for the next few months, forcing Gilbert to seek
further help from the local synod. After months of requests, in February sixteen, fifty six members of the Senate finally agreed to visit the Campbell's property and offered their prayers in an effort to banish the malignant entity from their home. From that day on, the supernatural attacks on the family was said to have steadily diminished until April, when they stopped entirely. It was around that time, sixty miles east of Glenluce, in an unrelated incident, that the itinerant Alexander Agnew,
was arrested and charged with blasphemy. It isn't clear exactly what he was initially arrested for, however, At his trial, Agnew was asked repeatedly about his views on God. Among his numerous responses, he stated that regardless of whether God existed or not, he had no obligation to worship him, and that it wasn't God that gave him meat, but the wives of the country. For this, Agnew was convicted of blasphemy, and on Wednesday, twenty first of May sixteen
fifty six, he was hanged for it. It was sometime around August later that year that Gilbert Campbell's wife found a small piece of putrid meat wrapped up in the folds of the sheet in their bed. Over the next few weeks, she and Gilbert noticed more and more meat vanishing, only for it to reappear in unusual places. One evening, when preparing dinner, Gilbert's daughter Janet, claimed she had a plate wrenched out of her hand by something invisible, before
it was then thrown through the air toward her. Not long after this, the family were played by strange noises at night, as though something were moving about the house. On another occasion, a voice was said to have roared out loud before telling the family it would burn down their house. A few nights later, the family came home to find one of their beds on fire. This story, as it appears in George Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered, was apparently told to the author by one of Gilbert
Campbell's sons. It isn't made clear, however, if the incidents ever came to an end. Any suggestion that the alleged sudden return of peculiar activity in the Campbell family's home had anything to do with Alexander Agnew's death is of pure speculation. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add free episodes, just go to patron dot com forward Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained.
The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, forward slash un Explained Podcast