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The Scottish Highlands’ most haunted hiking stopover - Luibeilt Bothy

Revised December 2024

On Christmas Day 2021, the BBC released a podcast episode written and presented by Danny Robins, titled “Uncanny: Don't Sleep in This House”, followed by another spooky episode, “The Curse of Luibeilt”. These delved into a harrowing tale set in December 1973, when two men, Phil MacNeill and Jimmy Dunn, encountered a series of spine-chilling events at a remote mountain bothy nestled in the desolate Scottish Highlands called Luibeilt (pronounced Louis-belt), a former hunting lodge. The lodge was a serviceable house until the 1980s when the long period of no maintenance and vandalism finally did for the building. Little more than walls exist today, with the roof gone.

This part of Scotland has quite a history. For example, the Massacre of Glencoe on February 13, 1692, in which 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.

People living near Luibeilt can be described as tough folk with an unforgiving Highlands landscape and, in times of old, a constant struggle to survive with terrible weather and settlements few and far between. There is no proper road to the site, and access is by foot, with difficult cross-country hiking, crossing streams, and boggy ground.

The term bothy comes from the Gaelic word bethan, which means hut, and climbers use these because there is no other form of shelter out in the remote wilderness. Bothies usually offer no modern amenities—no running water or electricity. Even a fireplace might sit dormant without fuel. Described by mountainbothies.org.uk as places where "your comforts have to be carried in", they are rugged sanctuaries in the wilds of Scotland, Northern England, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

In the eerie stillness of these remote havens, what transpired during that ominous Christmas hike of 1973 remains shrouded in unsettling mystery. Echoing whispers of curses and unexplained occurrences haunt the desolate landscape to this day.

Is this a case of poltergeist activity, as suggested by Edinburgh-based paranormal psychologist Evelyn Hollow, who also contributes to the show or just a case of over-vivid imaginations and environmental factors such as infrasound or the wind?

Luibeilt Bothy Scottish Highlands — The intact Luibeilt Lodge

Phil MacNeill and BBC Uncanny

Phil MacNeill was 18 and a member of Glasgow's Langside Climbing Club when he and his friend Jimmy Dunn headed out to the area to the east of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles, around Christmas time in 1973. The mountain has a summit of 4,413 feet (1,345 meters) above sea level.

They took the train to Balloch and then hitched a lift north to Kinlochleven, near Fort William. From there, they set out on foot about 10 miles (16km) to Luibeilt Lodge, deep in the Lochaber hills. Phil and Jimmy hoped to use it as a base for their climbing trip.

The building was a former deer stalking lodge, now in ruins, and at the time the two young men headed there, the building had been used as a bothy by walkers.

History of Luibeilt Lodge

The Elliott family lived in the Luibeilt Lodge until the 1920s, after which it fell into disrepair. Prior to this, William Elliott died suddenly at the property in 1894. In April 1890, John McAlpine, a deerstalker at Luibeilt and Kinlochmoor Forest who lived there, took his own life by hanging in a barn attached to his house. McAlpine left the lodge in the morning shortly after breakfast, and not having returned by noon, his wife, Jane, went out to look for him. She found her husband suspended by a rope tied to one of the crossbeams.

The arrival at the Luibeilt Lodge bothy

When Phil MacNeill and Jimmy Dunn arrived at the bothy, the door was locked, but looking through the windows, the men could see dishes in the sink, but no one seemed inside.

They left what baggage they had with them in an outhouse and began a walk into the hills. They decided to head off to do some climbing and returned to the old lodge at around 9 pm. Phil said, "It was pitch dark. We shone our torches through the windows, and nothing seemed to have changed."

The men got inside the building through an unsecured window. They considered that because Luibeilt was so far out from any other town or village, there would be no chance of the inhabitants returning on a cold winter evening at that time of night, so they hoped they would get a peaceful night’s sleep and be ready and refreshed for their adventures the following day.

But once inside, they noticed something. "It was much colder inside than outside," said Phil. "It felt odd. It became obvious the place had been vacated very rapidly." Strangely, there was a table set for Christmas dinner, with crackers still to be pulled open. It was like the previous occupants had left in a hurry.

Exploring the empty building, the men saw each room was furnished and appeared to have been lived in, except the bedroom directly above the living room. Inside was a dismantled metal bed frame lying against a wall and a window with open curtains. On the window sill, there was a large boulder made of rock.

Phil and Jimmy searched the entire house, went downstairs to the living room, and got into their sleeping bags.

Phil said: "It was extremely cold, and the silence was palpable. It enveloped you. Almost the minute we blew out our candle, there were noises upstairs.”

Nothing happened for a while, but then they heard footsteps and noises of the metal bed being put together. This was followed by what sounded like the rock from the window sill being rolled across the floor. After that, somehow, the two men managed to drop off to sleep, believing they may have imagined some of the strange noises.

But at 4 am, Phil said the living room "erupted" with the sounds of objects, including the men's ice axes, being thrown "all over the place" in the darkness. Phil remembered, "I am absolutely petrified”.

Then the noise stopped as quickly as it had started, and Phil lit a candle, but it was sent "flying across the room".

Next, the two men heard the sound of footsteps again, but this time, moving down a spiral staircase outside the closed living room door. The footsteps rhythmically descended the stairs, one by one, in the pitch dark, until they stopped at the closed door to their room. By this stage, Phil had grabbed an ice pick and was ready to strike the intruder as he swung the door open. But, no one was there, “I slammed the door shut, and the footsteps went straight back on the spiral staircase, emerging to the top and wandering across the bedroom above.”

Now petrified, the two men quickly packed up their things and exited Luibeilt in terror via the living room window.

Before they fled to Kinlochleven, they shone their head torches toward the upstairs bedroom window where they had seen the metal-framed bed earlier and the sound of the rolling boulder. Phil says they saw the olive green curtains were now closed. The men fled the scene.

Sceptics believe the noises of the bed, rock and steps on the stairs were just another visitor to the bothy walking around the property. But Phil dismisses this theory, believing nobody could have been hiding in the lodge or arrived after they did, "We would have seen their footprints in the snow.”

Psychologist Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe and writer and Edinburgh-based paranormal psychologist Evelyn Hollow aired their theories during the Uncanny podcast.

Hollow says Scotland is "saturated" in the paranormal and is "one of the most haunted countries in the world", postulating that the source of the two men’s experiences was a poltergeist.

Dr O'Keeffe suggests that if there were no other people in the house, the men may have been feeling the effects of tiredness and the extreme cold or even hypothermia. He said in the program that this can influence levels of consciousness, alertness, and judgement and may have led to everyday sounds being misinterpreted as something ghostly.

Dr O'Keeffe said: "At Ben Alder cottage, similar phenomena were reported. In that case, it was found that a stag was using its antlers and banging on the side of the wall."

Gibson Street Glasgow

But the strange story didn’t end there after the two men returned from their highlands climbing trip.

The weird events continued at Phil’s home at 39 Gibson Street in Glasgow.

Phil told Danny in the second podcast that when he returned from the bothy, he became increasingly troubled at the thought of going anywhere alone, along with the strange sensation that he was never actually truly alone. Whatever presence they had encountered at Luibeilt had somehow followed them to the flat he shared with fellow hiker Bill in Gibson Street.

Phil explained that Gibson Street had always had a reputation for being quite a spooky spot, but he had taken these stories with a pinch of salt. He’d heard that. The building was supposedly haunted, and two American students had experienced poltergeist activity in the 1950s.

For the first six months of 1974, Phil noticed things happening in his home that he hadn’t encountered before. One day, when he pulled back the carpet in the flat, Phil uncovered a cross made of old newspaper with what he believed to be a bloodstain in the middle of it. He also found a trap door on the floor, which he found unusual, and at that moment, the fitted lightbulb in his kitchen suddenly unscrewed itself, fell and shattered on the floor.

The return to Luibeilt Lodge

Luibeilt Lodge in 2022 — Luibeilt Lodge n 2022

After these weird events, Phil returned to Luibeilt to understand further what he had been experiencing since first staying there. In 1975, Phil and Jimmy, with David, a skeptical friend, hiked back to the isolated Lodge in the highlands.

The three men arrived and lit a candle, but soon after, noises from outside came from the gravel path that separated the bothy from a nearby river and sounded like someone was dragging something.

The noise got closer to them until it was soon inside the house, behind the closed door of the living room where they were planning to sleep.

Phil said, “I clenched my fist leaving my thumb and my little finger extended out of my clenched hand and that in fact, is a demonic sign and I cast a huge shadow with my outstretched hand on the ceiling.”

While he wasn’t sure why he made the gesture, he said he felt as though there was “this incredible reversal of the noises” and that he had now overcome whatever was in Luibeilt that night.

Then, in 2021, Phil returned to Luibeilt in the summer with some friends and by now, the building was an uninhabited shell compared to their visits in 1973 and 1975. The roof was down, and the building was in poor condition. Ominously, Someone had spray-painted on the wall, “This house is haunted; this house is evil.”.

Luibeilt BBC Christmas Special December 2024 - John Beech

Danny Robins, left, and Phil MacNeill outside the ruins of Luibeilt Lodge

Phil MacNeill joined uncanny series presenter and writer Danny Robins and co-producer Simon Barnard for a hike from the Highland village of Kinlochleven to the lodge. The podcast episode “Uncanny Christmas Special: Return to Luibeilt” was first broadcast on December 13, 2024.

For the Christmas special, a new witness called John Beech came forward to support the story given by Phil MacNeill. John is in his 60s, a keen hillwalker and a former historian at the National Museums of Scotland. He said he and a friend sought shelter at Luibeilt while on a climbing trip on an October day in the 1980s.

John told Uncanny, “Yeah, it was early 1980s. I guess I would have been about 24 or 25 years of age at the time. My friend and climbing partner Colin and I had decided we were going to hike the main Mamores Ridge. And this is a range of hills quite close to Ben Nevis. And our intention was to come down the last peak, hike eastward through Glen Nevis, cross the river and stay at the old Luibeilt or Meanach Bothy.”

Meanach Bothy is another building where climbers can stay the night. It sits almost directly opposite Luibeilt on the other side of the river. “We had planned this trip for a couple of months. And it was the last weekend of October. It was the weekend the clocks went back. I remember that. And so we knew we had to get off fairly early because it was going to get dark quite early. There had been some snow, so we both had our ice axes and crampons in case we came across any ice or whatever.”

“The hike went without incident until we came off the last peak. And then this storm just came from virtually nowhere. Torrential rain, really gale-force winds, and it was pitch black. And we came to what should have been the river crossing point. And we both looked at the river and it was just impossible. It would have been suicidal to attempt to cross it. And then our headlamps shined across. We could see the bothy just beyond in the far bank. Luibeilt Bothy.”

“ We were surprised to find the door open. I mean, there was no furniture or anything like that, but it was shelter from the storm. As we walked into the main room, I took my rucksack off. I noticed there was a huge sheet of corrugated metal tied up to where the window would have been. There was no glass. And it was fairly solidly tied onto the window. “

Just like Phil and Jimmy initially did, John felt great relief to be inside sheltering Luibeilt from the raging storm. He and Colin begin to bed down for the night. “We were laying out our sleeping bags, and as we were doing that, we heard footsteps, someone walking across the floor above us, walking from right to left. Couldn't mistake it for anything else. Heavy footsteps.” Confirming they were were footsteps and not something else, “Yeah. I used to live in tenement flats. You know, it was definitely someone walking across the floor.”

“And then it happened again. Again from right to left. So this time we shouted up, you know, hello, you know, anybody up there?Nothing. And we thought, this is strange. And so we let it go for a few minutes. And then it happened the third time, and I thought, right, that's enough. At this point, I thought somebody's at it up there. You know, playing a joke or trying to scare us.

Anyway, so we got our headlamps, and we walked up the stairs, and if there's only one room to the right, I shone my headlamp into this room, and I stopped, and I thought, that's impossible, because there here were no floorboards. I looked at Colin, I said, hold on a second, and he said, what? I said, look at that. Absolutely no one could have walked across that floor. It was just a series of wooden joists, about an inch and a half wide, about a foot or so apart.”

After that, “ We came back down again, we got the camping stove out to cook our dinner, and the storm was getting worse. It was torrential rain, the wind was just screaming down Glen Nevis, and we were just sitting back, leaning against the wall, and then the footstep started again. I looked at Colin and I said, Right, something is going on here.”

“I grabbed my ice sacks, seriously, and we were both looking at the stairwell. The next thing we knew, the corrugated sheet of metal, which was tied up onto the window, flew off that window, flying halfway across the room. It didn't just fall, it flew across there. Both of us jumped three feet in the air. I screamed because I was convinced that something was coming through that window. The wind was howling in, the rain was pouring in, so we had struggled to get it back up there. And we tied it back on. I thought, those knots were tight, because I looked at them, I checked them. I looked at Colin. I said, how did it untie both those knots at the same time?”

John didn't speak to anybody about that night for nearly 30 years, “Colin and I decided not to tell about our experiences in case people laughed at us”. Until 2009, they both went to a dinner organised by the Lochaber Mountaineering Club, the same group that Phil had been part of in the 1970s. “During the dinner, one of the guys said, hey, remember that time with that old house at Luibeilt? Three or four of those guys were stuck on that side of the river. Couldn't get across to the bothy.”

“They stayed in the old lodge house. And now, the main door is an old round handle, right? It's really difficult to move. And they said this door handle started moving really, really rapidly. Well, they thought someone was trying to get in. Maybe they were trying to pull the door open instead of pushing it. So they were shouting, push it, you idiot, push the door. And then it stopped. And a few minutes later, it happened again. The door handle was moving quickly. So one of the guys saw, for goodness sake.

So he walked up to the door and pulled it open, but no one was there. So he came in, and he said, there's nobody there. And just as he said that, it happened a third time. So he pulled the door open, but nobody was there. So they were talking about that, and we told our story. And the guys didn't laugh.”

Asked what he thought it was, “ I have no idea. I mean, Colin and I weren't imagining things. And we don't scare that easily. I still don't believe in ghosts.”

Uncanny's psychologist, Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe, said there were many rational explanations for the unexplained experiences, including vibrations and sounds made by hydroelectric power schemes in the area.

During their visit to Luibeilt, Danny, Simon, and Phil said they heard sounds they couldn’t easily explain. Danny said on the podcast: "I had a strange sense of someone being outside the tent."