In the spirit of spookiness, I took it upon myself to attend one of the famous 'Isle of Man Ghost Tours'.
I chose the Douglas walk, the thought process being that it was close to home, convenient some may say. However as the date drew closer, my anxieties began to kick in.
The walk is something I believe should be experienced by all Manxies at least once, so I promise to not give too much away.
Recently moving to the capital, I promised myself that if the walk showed any signs of nearing my area, I would immediately abort mission.
Arriving to the Jubilee Clock at 8pm dead, me and my fellow ghost walkers crowded in. Exchanging looks of excitement, with an underlying fear of the unknown.
Our host Alan Shaw assured me that we were in safe hands. Alan has years of experience dealing with the paranormal, which instantly eased my troubles.
The walk lasted two hours, which to my relief resulted in no detours to my flat. I reassured myself that I would get a good nights sleep, without the looming presence of the supernatural.
My expectation of the walk was that I would be left with some form of trauma from all of the horrors that were due to be unveiled. This was thankfully not the case.
Travelling through the heart of Douglas, I was captivated by the history of the tales I was being told.
My thinking may be naïve, but I prefer to believe that ghosts are not bad people.
One of the stories Alan recounted on the walk involved the former newspapers office on Athol Street.
Alan relayed the encounter the sports editor at the time had one night when he was working late.
After investigating, the journalist followed a noise down the corridor. He was shocked to come across the ghost that haunted this building with his own eyes.
He did what any sane person would do, go get help!
Gathering backup, they heard a loud bang.
This ended up being the office that the sports editor had just fled from, collapsing from the ceiling and being destroyed.
This is known as a 'crisis sighting'. Further solidifying my hope that ghosts do have in fact have empathy.
The spirit must have had a premonition that this was going to happen and luring the sports editor out of the building saved his life!
Talking about his own experiences with the supernatural, Alan said: ‘I do believe in ghosts because I’ve seen them. Only in the corner of my eye, but enough to know that they’re real.
‘There’s only been a couple of times where I’ve come across a negative entity that I’ve had to get rid of, but most of the time they’re happy and friendly.
‘No one has ever been left traumatised by the walks we do, but there’s been a need for some clean underwear at times!’
There are walks hosted every week in Douglas, Peel, Castletown and Ramsey. For more information email [email protected] or visit ‘Isle of Man Ghost Tours’ on Facebook.