Help, our village is haunted... by a mysterious hum

IT is a mind-numbing mystery that has tormented villagers for months.

A bizarre noise which reverberates through their homes in a constant low-frequency ‘hum’ is torturing residents day and night.

The phenomenon is causing headaches, disturbing sleep and even exacerbating health problems.

Blan and Robert Bremner, from Ardersier, Inverness-shire, first noticed the low-frequency noise a little over eight months ago.

They described it as a deep humming, as though a ferry engine had been left idling in the nearby Moray Firth.

At first they simply dismissed it. The couple had just moved into a rural farm cottage and were having a new flue installed in their chimney. They assumed the unusual sound was something to do with the renovation.

But as the months dragged by, the ‘hum’ became increasingly intrusive and now the Bremners say it is affecting almost every aspect of their lives – including their health. Other villagers have also shared their stories of the hum.

Mrs Bremner, 63, a retired GP receptionist, said: ‘We can hear it all the time, day and night. It’s especially bad when the weather comes down.’

Mr Bremner, a retired electrician, said the constant hum was now affecting his daily life and forcing him to sleep on the sofa or in the porch to try to avoid hearing the noise.

The 66-year-old said: ‘We started hearing the noise on February 9 when we moved into our home. Then when our new chimney was put in it seemed to act like an amplifier for the noise. It’s everywhere around Ardersier and Nairn.’

He added: ‘I’m sure it’s making my arthritis flare up. I went to bed and woke up at 2am feeling awful. We can hear the hum in the bedroom.

‘We have no idea where it could be coming from. All we can hear is a constant and throbbing hum, resonating throughout the house.

‘Our neighbour can hear it, but they’re away most of the time.’

It is not the first time that a community has been blighted by a mysterious hum. The so-called Largs Hum has been plaguing locals and baffling scientists in the Ayrshire town for 25 years.

A similar pulsating noise drove residents from their homes in Whitehills, Banffshire.

Environmental health officers have so far failed to link any hum to anything at all, ruling out local power stations, power lines, and even low-frequency submarine communications.

But there is no shortage of theories in Ardersier, where oil rig decomissioning, the local airport, electricity sub-stations, ferries and wind farms all feature in the speculation.

Mr Bremner said: ‘We’re surrounded by wind farms. We think it could be that but you’d think it would stop when they stop but it doesn’t go away.’

A Highland Council spokesman said: ‘Our environmental health service has received one complaint from a resident two miles outside Ardersier regarding an unidentified humming noise.

‘Officers have attended but on each occasion the noise was inaudible and was not detected.’