Scary | A Paranormal Podcast

00:30 Hello and welcome back to another episode of Scary. If you're new here my name is Will and each week I narrate your real life paranormal experiences as well as cover some famous paranormal cases along the way. If you have your own paranormal experience that you'd like me to narrate on the show you can send it to scaryaparanormalpodcast at gmail.com and it just might get made into a future episode. 00:55 Before we get into this week's episode, I need to say a special thank you to our new Patreon subscribers who are... 01:14 and kick ass nay thank you so much for signing up to the show's patreon and if this is something that you're interested in you can find the link in this episode show notes or simply go to patreon.com forward slash scary a paranormal podcast over there you can gain access to exclusive scary episodes as well as add free main episodes but now let's get into our next paranormal encounter I had an experience that happened to me in 2023 while staying in a holiday cottage in Groudl Glen on the Isle of Man. 01:53 Groudl Glen is a small, stunning, rugged Mannix Valley. that's Tikwa Forest and is steeped in atmosphere. 02:04 I stayed in a cottage, it was one of around 15 in this development and it was perched high on this hillside near the only road which was about 150 yards away. 02:16 The views were breathtaking of the sea. You could also see this miniature vintage railway on the other side of the valley. 02:27 The whole thing was built in the early 1980s. 02:31 The cottages aren't particularly old and they were well furnished. They were pretty well maintained. There was two bedrooms, a lounge, dining room, kitchen... 02:42 It also had these large glass patio doors that led out to this lovely elevated wooden viewing platform. 02:51 It was bright, airy, peaceful. I was genuinely happy to be there. 02:59 Unfortunately, that peaceful atmosphere didn't last long. 03:05 On the first night after settling into the master bedroom which faced the back gardens. 03:12 I didn't actually use the second bedroom. It felt oddly cold and musty. It also faced the small car park. 03:22 Plus there was two single beds in it so I was naturally going to take the master bedroom. I remember going to sleep around 10pm. 03:34 What happened to me that night still makes my skin crawl. 03:42 I was violently awakened in the pitch black in the middle of the night. 03:50 My leg was pretty much sticking up in the air. 03:55 I also remember the duvet was flung across the room and I found myself at the foot of the bed With my leg dangling over the edge. And I had this unmistakable sensation of being dragged down by my right leg. 04:15 And I just remember grabbing the sheets in an attempt to stop this dragging movement. 04:21 And I managed to scramble up in the bed. 04:26 and just trying to find the bedside lamp to turn it on. 04:31 When I eventually did, the room was empty. 04:41 But I still remember feeling the sensation of this hand that had tightly grasped around my ankle. 04:52 And that sensation was still lingering. 04:57 I was genuinely unnerved by the whole thing. 05:02 It wasn't a dream. 05:04 I have no history of sleepwalking or night terrors. 05:11 I ended up getting up and checking every room and there was no sound. All the doors and windows were locked. 05:20 I slept with the lights on in every room that night. 05:27 I ended up staying and the days that followed were quiet. 05:32 I do remember the bedroom felt very hot even with the radiator turned off. 05:39 I want to say it had this very heavy, almost suffocating feel to the room. 05:47 Then came Saturday evening. 05:53 I was facetiming my fiancee in the lounge and I heard this shuffling in the dining room. 06:00 The door was closed but the sound seemed to get louder, like somebody was fumbling around in the dark. 06:11 So I did call out and there was no reply. 06:17 I did think that maybe it was the maid bringing new towels, but they don't do this on Saturday evenings. 06:26 So I called out again and there was still no answer. But these noises just seemed to get louder and louder. 06:35 Eventually I could hear this fumbling on the door. 06:39 It was so loud my fiancé was asking what was going on. 06:44 And feeling brave I jumped up and I called out as I walked across the room to the dining room door. Which was no more than a few metres away. 06:58 And I remember as I approached the door I heard the handle spring compress and it was turning and just as I reached to grab the door handle to pull the door open. 07:12 The door opened and then it slammed shut. 07:16 And at that exact moment, the kitchen door flew open. 07:21 And all I can describe it as was this freezing gust of air that seemed to surge through the whole place. 07:31 I had had the kitchen radiator on during that time and there was no windows or drafts. 07:38 There was no logical explanation for this freezing cold gust of air. 07:47 After that happened, I immediately opened the dining room door. I was still holding my iPad and still on FaceTime. 07:54 And I found the room completely dark. 07:58 The curtains across the patio door were drawn. No one was there. 08:03 The back decking was empty. The steep stairs... 08:08 were quiet you couldn't hear anybody descending them the door itself leading out to this place was double locked my fiance was visibly concerned and my face must have said it all we continued talking for a bit and eventually that night i settled down to go to bed I then started to hear this scratching noise at the bedroom door. 08:40 I had left the hallway light on to catch any shadows under the door in the hallway. 08:45 There were none. 08:46 There was no shadows or no movement in the hallway at all. 08:51 I could just hear this scratching noise from something that I couldn't see. 09:01 As the week went on, I heard another movement in the kitchen one night, plates being shifted around and cutlery being moved, and again, there was nobody there. 09:13 And then one morning, I found my running shoes in the middle of the dining room, laces untied. I never untied them. 09:21 and i always have them placed under the chair at the head of the dining room table nearest the door and it honestly felt like someone was having fun at my expense i ended up asking the manager if anyone had access to the cottage and the answer was a firm no at weekends especially not at night During the day the cottage was well lit. There was large windows on every side. 09:52 But once it got dark it was a completely different story. It was pretty much pitch black and eerily quiet at times. 10:02 The only thing you could really hear was the odd car passing from miles away. And you could also hear the sea which was way down the valley. 10:14 But during my time there, the weather was calm and dry, which meant that the sea was too. 10:23 The final straw came about two weeks later. 10:27 I was on a Zoom call with my fiancé, sitting in the armchair, and I had my feet up. 10:33 I was wearing shorts, and mid-conversation, I felt something brush under my legs. 10:42 strangely it felt like a large hairy body and i glanced down and i'm positive that i saw the back of what i would describe as a black labrador sized dog that then vanished into thin air just below my legs it was terrifying After this happened, I remembered that a few days earlier I had noticed this head-shaped gap in the curtains of the bay window. 11:19 It was as though a large dog had sat on the sofa and poked its head through to look out. 11:26 I did think it was very odd at the time. 11:30 The strangest part was that the cottage that I was staying in was the only pet friendly one, but I didn't have a dog. 11:38 Not being able to relax or sleep soundly, I moved out the next day. 11:45 And I have searched extensively online, but I haven't found any similar reports. 11:52 If you've ever heard anything like this or know somebody who has, I'd be very curious to hear more. 12:01 Thank you Matt for sending in our first paranormal experience. 12:07 And now, let's get into our next episode. 12:14 Back in December 2010 I was working at an old hotel in Sheffield city centre in the UK. 12:22 To this day I can't explain what happened during one of my overnight shifts. 12:30 The hotel was an old 45 bedroom place, it was spread over several floors. 12:38 One of those floors was slightly dated and it had a particularly eerie layout, which made it feel kind of unsettling when it was quiet. 12:50 reception sat directly opposite this old lift and there was a staircase that led up to the bar and the lounge area above it normally the place would have been busy and noisy but over christmas the hotel had temporarily closed and although it was shut insurance requirements meant that somebody had to remain on site 24 hours a day there was a few different staff that did solo shifts and you would be completely alone in the building from midday till midday the next day basically there'd be no staff guests cleaners nobody you were pretty much just one person alone in this big building i was around 19 at the time and I kind of liked it, it was easy money, I could watch some shows on the computer at reception and relax for most of the time. 13:50 I'd go between there and upstairs in the lounge, watch something up there, go back down to reception. 14:02 I slept in the only ground floor bedroom in the hotel, and it was situated slightly above reception on this mezzanine level, which overlooked the lobby area and the lift. 14:14 The shift, I want to say, started completely normal. We were told to do a wander around just to make sure everything was okay. 14:24 It is weird walking around a place that is completely empty and you're on your own. 14:31 Hotels are a strange place when they're completely empty. 14:36 You can hear every noise. 14:39 You can hear pipes knocking on the wall, floorboards that are creaking for no reason, but I'm sure there is a logical explanation. 14:50 and you do kind of feel like there's somebody just about to turn a corner like a guest or something nothing frightening happened for most of the day and it got to around 10pm and everything changed I was sitting in reception using the computer and all of a sudden upstairs i hear the television in the lounge just explode at full volume it actually made me jump so badly i nearly fell off the chair i think i just assumed that maybe i left it on earlier or that it had some sort of timer or power issue I had to go upstairs and turn it off. 15:50 It was so creepy walking through the hotel and just hearing this TV blaring in a room you weren't in. 16:01 I don't know how it turned itself on or what happened. 16:05 I switched it off and when I did everything was silent again it nearly made me even more freaked out it just makes you hyper aware of every sound around you then so I'm a bit freaked out and I'm starting to make my way back down to reception and I hear the lift you can hear this mechanical rumble from downstairs The lift had been completely still all evening. 16:39 Nobody should have been using it. 16:41 Like I said, I'm the only one in the building. 16:44 And for some context, this place is completely locked. I have the keys in my pocket. 16:54 I slowly make my way back down to reception and I look at the lift and the indicator above the doors is reading 1, 2, 3, 4. 17:08 I just remember staring at the numbers when they were going off in complete disbelief. 17:16 The lift reached the top floor and it stopped and you could hear the doors open. 17:22 I genuinely felt sick at this point. 17:26 The only explanation in my head was that somebody had called the lift and gone to another floor. And then after a few seconds I could hear the doors close again and the lift started to descend. 17:42 And again I'm watching the display read 4, 3, 2, 1. 17:51 And then it gets to my floor... 17:54 And I just remember standing there waiting for somebody to come out of the doors, waiting for them to open. 18:03 And the doors eventually opened and it is completely empty. 18:08 It was like someone had called a lift up to the fourth floor and then called it back down. 18:15 There was absolutely nobody else in the building. I checked every floor afterwards. 18:22 I looked at every fire exit, it was still locked. Every door was secure. 18:28 Nothing seemed to have been disturbed. 18:31 I didn't sleep for a single minute that night. 18:35 I sat upstairs in the lounge until morning with every light on. 18:40 To this day, I still can't explain what happened that night. 18:47 Thank you to Luke for sending in our second paranormal experience. And don't forget, if you have your own paranormal experience that you'd like me to narrate on the show, you can send it to scaryaparanormalpodcast at gmail.com and it just might get made into a future episode. 19:03 The links for everything you need can be found in this episode's show notes. Thank you for listening and join me next time for another episode of Scary.