Ghostly goings on during my bike ride

Dear Editor

There is an old saying “seeing is believing” – but sometimes what you see is hard to believe and defies logic.

During the early 1970s, then a keen cyclist, on a summer Sunday morning, I had cycled via Little Glenshee then home by Moneydie, a popular run.

From Moneydie the road climbs steeply and, nearing the top of the brae, a road to the left leads to a farm.

Dismounting the bike, I walked to this point, when something to my left caught my eye. What happened next was beyond what the Good Book would say, beyond all understanding.

A man walked across my path, crossing the road. He wore a bonnet, jacket and trousers, below each knee was string – known as Nicky Tams – and he wore boots and glasses. He was holding something in one of his hands.

What struck me was this man did not appear solid bodily – he looked not unlike the negative of a photo, although I saw him distinctly.

I could see through him. As he reached the fence he vanished.

I am not a person who drinks or indulges in any form of substance – I was alert, sound of mind, but what I had witnessed found me not only a feeling of disbelief but confusion, and I stood rooted to the spot.

Was it my mind or imagination? This man was so real, distinctive.

This preyed on my mind for a long time. I knew what I had seen but had no-one to confide in.

Then one day, in Perth’s old Sandeman Library, I came across a book ‘Diary of a Ghost Hunter’ and read of the author’s experiences with the paranormal.

Finding his address, I wrote to him detailing my experience.

In his reply he said he was convinced I had witnessed evidence of the afterlife, the spirit of a man who in a previous life had an association with the location.

He called it an “entity” – some may refer to it as a ghost.

To this day I still think that perhaps I was fortunate in seeing spiritual evidence of the hereafter, as I’m sure many people have.

Thomas Brown Church Street Bankfoot