Gothic Glasgow tour guide tells of spooky encounter

As we gather outside the Ramshorn Church's wrought iron railings, he beckons to one member of the group to assist as he demonstrates the grisly method grave robbers or "stiffy lifters" used to extract the bodies bound for the city's medical schools. More of which later.

Groups are encouraged to share their own supernatural experiences but the reaction of one visitor took the charismatic Irish host by surprise.

He recounts the story as we gaze down a dimly lit street in the city's Trongate area.

On this dark and cold Autumn evening, it's not difficult to imagine that Old Wynd lane, near the Panopticon music hall, has a sinister past.

"It happened about five weeks ago," says the host, known as Vincent P (he is as mysterious as the subjects of his tales).

"We had a a Russian witch, actually she was a white witch, on the tour. She was into Tarot card readings and crystals and that type of thing.

"It got to the point where I was about to tell the story about the area and this lady burst into tears.

"I though maybe I had said something to upset her," he says.

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"She explained that she was a very psychic person and she was feeling the presence of a young man who suffered a violent death in the vicinity."

This is Glasgow after all, former crime capital of Scotland, so it's not entirely surprising but he says the details she provided were "very specific".

"I hadn't even mentioned that a young male had suffered a violent death there, back in the 19th century," he says.

He is referring to a horrific unsolved case that dates from 1870. 

William Macewen, Glasgow's Police Surgeon at the time was called to examine the body of 25-year-old man who had suffered a terrible fate.

"He had several fractures to his skull, a six-inch strip of scalp had been ripped off his head," explains the tour guide.

"But neighbours denied any disturbance and he remains a John Doe, no one knows who he was." 

His Gothic Glasgow tour attracts a wide mixture of people, he says, with a mix of natives and tourists.

Tonight's all-female group includes Americans and Germans and a young woman from Liverpool who recounts how her granny often brought a child home to play with her and her siblings. A little girl she insist was a ghost.

"For some people seeing is believing and they want scientific evidence, which is fine," says Vincent.

"You get people who are somewhere in the middle - they would like to believe but I need to see something - and then you get people who are total believers and say, yes I've had experiences, I've seen things, I've had things done to me.

"I hope by the end of the two hours I've at least given people food for thought."

We are told to meet outside the King's Theatre at 7.45pm and there is no mistaking our host. He is dressed in a fedora hat, black suit and overcoat and is carrying what looks like a doctor's bag.

Bella Lugosi, the Romanian-born actor, who performed her is said to have been buried in his Dracula cape.

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"Dogs will not enter the props room," says our host apparently due to ghostly goings on in the 188-year-old theatre and we are left wondering why they might be there in the first place.

From here to the foot of Hill Street and Glasgow School of Art where Bram Stoker sponsored an award for the "best imaginative work of the year".

The Dracula author was acquainted with former director Francis Newbery and named one of the main characters in his book Renfield after the city centre street.

Further up the street we are introduced to former resident Dr Edward William Pritchard.

The English doctor was convicted of murdering his wife and mother-in-law by poisoning them so he could run off with his young lover.

He was also suspected of murdering a servant girl, but was never tried for this crime and was the last person to be publicly executed in Scotland on July 28, 1865, watched by a crowd of 10,000 bloodthirsty Scots.

As he wept at his wife’s graveside, Dr Pritchard begged for the coffin lid to be lifted so he could kiss her lips one last time before she was lowered six-feet into the ground.

The fake tears earned the killer the nickname of "The Human Crocodile".  

Grisly tales are interspersed with interesting little nuggets about the stars of stage and screen who visited the city. We learn that Hollywood actor Carry Grant enjoyed a nightcap in Lauders pub - in an area once known as 'poverty corner' while Maryhill-born actor David McCallum, received more fan mail than Elvis after playing The Invisible Man.

Outside the Ramshorn church, Vincent reaches into his bag and retrieves the first of many grisly props, an iron pole with a hook that he places under the nose of my friend.

It was used by grave robbers to drag bodies from their final resting place. Children, he says, were often dropped down into the earth to prise open the coffins.

Vincent moved to Glasgow from Ireland around a year ago where he kept thousands of tourist entertained on the popular Dublin Ghost Bus Tour.

While Edinburgh has its fair share of walking tours exploring the darker side of Scotland's capital, he noticed a gap in the market in Glasgow and spent a year scouring the archives, newspapers, books and museum archives for interesting material.

"I found some amazing history and stories," he says. The Gothic-revival churches and tall building, which attracted Batman filmakers to the city, make for a very atmospheric evening tour.

"I was brought up in the 1970w watching old Hammer Horror movies and I've always had an interest in the supernatural and macabre.

"I love Edgar Allan Poe and all the famous Gothic books like Dracula, Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde.

"I started the tour in May this year and I'm delighted with the reaction" says the guide as the tour ends at Tam Shepherd's Trick Shop, the world's oldest family-run magic shop, where shoppers are still prepared to queue for the spookiest Halloween costumes.

To book a tour, priced £12, visit www.gothicglasgow.com