565AD: The Saint stood on the banks of the Loch, ready to encounter the water monster that lurked below. Earlier that day a local man had been bitten by the monster while swimming and the Picts wanted revenge.Despite the danger St Columba ordered one of his followers to swim across the loch and bring back a boat that was moored on the other side. Robbed of its earlier feast, the monster surfaced and darted at the follower with a roar, its jaws open. Everyone on the bank was stupefied with terror; everyone, except Columba, that is. A firm believer in the authority of the crucified Christ, he raised his hand, making the sign of the cross. Invoking the name of God, he commanded the beast, saying, “You will go no further, and won’t touch the man; go back at once.”

read more Loch Ness Monster from a Ghost Hunter’s View.

MJ Wayland is a writer, researcher and historian specialising in ghosts, supernatural belief and fringe history. His research has appeared in dozens of publications and he has consulted and appeared in over one hundred television programmes and documentaries. During the last ten years he has lectured internationally as well as appearing at The Sunday Times Literature Festival (alongside Professor Bruce Hood) and various festivals and universities across the UK.

About MJs latest project, Britains Lost Ghosts :

How can a country lose its ghosts?

I have been a researcher and investigator for over twenty years and spent many eye damaging years sat silently in dusty libraries wading through the archives looking for “lost” ghost stories. Over the years I have realised that more and more ghost encounters, reports and stories are waiting to be discovered in our nation’s archives and libraries.

Social media and the advent of sites like kickstarter, allow the opportunity for me and a small team to really have a good crack of excavating Britain’s lost haunted heritage, but we need your help.

We need money to help with two projects. Firstly we need money to help initiate and implement an exhaustive research project to find and publish these lost ghost sightings and experiences. A project that means visiting cities, towns and other archives to discover original references to these lost ghost stories. We will then undertake further research about the locations and people involved, so that we have the full social history of what was happening at that time.

Secondly, we will compile based on our first researches, a book detailing some of the more intriguing, credible and scariest hauntings that we uncover. We hope to launch the book as a manifesto for our future work in the nation’s archives and also to help raise further money so that we can continue this work into a history that is still languishing in the archives.

We really appreciate your help and in return we have pulled together some amazing things for you from a signed book to having an exclusive tour and afternoon tea with me.”

Sound interesting? I thought you might like it…

Donating is easy. Just click on this link – Britains Lost Ghosts

Thank you 🙂