We’re now well into the time of year where people’s experiences with the supernatural are taking center stage, and a post on the subreddit r/Ghosts is gaining a lot of traction, apparently featuring some spectral photography. And as with any such image shared online, debate over its authenticity and what it actually shows is raging.
In the photo, a translucent face can be seen floating in the window of a ruin in Douglas Park, a public area near the seaside town of Largs on the west coast of Scotland, and about 30 miles west of Glasgow’s largest city.
While the face isn’t in crystal clarity, it’s certainly distinct enough that it can’t be mistaken for anything else, which ironically is one of the reasons that some commenters doubt its legitimacy, as though ghostly visages should only be considered plausible if difficult to make out. The most obvious possibility is that the face is merely a reflection in the window, except that structure has no glass there for anything to be seen in. It also can’t simply be another person standing there, as the back wall of the ruin can be glimpsed through the head, and there’s nothing on the old stone that could result in pareidolia.
The building itself is an old shelter found in a small garden themed around Tam o’ Shanter, one of the best known works by Scots poet Robert Burns, with the area featuring recreations of a ruined church where the eponymous drunken farmer accidentally witnessed a black sabbath, and the bridge over which he escaped pursuit, as witches can’t cross running water.
It’s also worth mentioning that a few minutes’ walk away stands a Neolithic tomb, essentially a makeshift cavern created by large rocks buried in the earth for the walls and another slab on top for the roof, while further on stands an old mansion reputed to be haunted.
The ubiquity of image editing software means that any visual claim of capturing something otherworldly will be met with skepticism, but when something this clear is shown, it might make even the most cynical among us wonder, if only for a moment.