BBC Radio 4 for BBC Sounds 

Can a ghost attach itself to a person as well as a place?

“I felt I was being followed. I had this feeling that this presence was somewhere, wherever I was.”

This case is too big for one episode, and it gets more terrifying as Phil McNeil goes back to Luibeilt and kicks the metaphorical (or should that be metaphysical?) hornet’s nest. Rather than loose ends being tied up here, they are left even more frayed, and I found Phil’s further testimony deeply disturbing listening. Riveting, though, in a rather macabre way.

Ciaran O’Keeffe cites another case, the haunting of Borley Rectory, where similar ‘adjacent room’ phenomena have been reported. Evelyn Hollow explains that it could be Phil creating the presence rather than the bothy, as a result of the trauma he’s experienced in his family life and the energy that history has created around him. That’s what really gets to me, in the context of Phil’s disclosures this week, and I find myself genuinely worried about him, even though the events described go back many years.

I’ll keep this spoiler free as I’d urge you to listen and enjoy the carefully sound-scaped episode, but suffice to say there are more locations involved, with one focus: Phil. It would be easy to look at his story as some story of twisted ‘confirmation bias’, as he explained in episode 10 that following his first trip to that bedevilled bothy, he immersed himself in all things paranormal. As always for me though, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you haven’t actually caught the eye of a demonic presence. Give those bastards an inch (and Phil does) and they’ll take a mile.

My take on case 11: Does Phil confront his demons or provoke them? It’s a deep question, as Danny says, but my view is that it could have been the latter.

Verdict: A complex, fascinating and truly chilling continuation of a tale to make that winter cold seep deeper into your soul. 9/10

Claire Smith