True Stories: My own Haunted Home Experiences
With Halloween just around the corner, throughout this post, I am going to share with you some of my own haunted experiences. I am a person who does not believe in something fully unless I have seen or experienced it myself. So the accounts you are about to read actually happened in not one, but three properties that I lived in. I lived in these homes with my children, in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Come on my journey to tell you all about my own haunted home experiences.
Haunted Home Occurences
The Shadow Man in the Doorway
Many moons ago, around 20+ years now, I lived in a haunted home. It was a flat facing a graveyard {not that I think there is a connection} and obviously, it being a haunted home was unbeknown to us at the time of moving in. Although thinking back, perhaps it wasn’t and it was what was soon to happen that sparked the new paranormal activity. After moving in, for a few months, everything was fine. At the time I was carrying our firstborn son and in the throws of decorating his nursery at the end of the hall. However, one night, my partner {at the time} suffered a nightmare. Or, at least that’s what I thought it was until he told me about his occasional sleep paralysis attacks. Which was something I had never experienced or heard of before his confession.
Sleep Paralysis
From what I have read online, sleep paralysis is that moment between sleep and consciousness. And you are unable to move. You could be sleeping and dreaming of being awake and unable to move. Or, completely awake and half asleep and again, unable to move. Either way, it sounds horrible, right? Anyways, my partner at the time during this particular night didn’t just say my name in his sleep but screamed it. Over and over again. Which, as you can imagine was terrifying. I did wake him as I didn’t really know what else to do and after doing so, he came too and was sweating, eyes bulging due to fear and he needed a minute to catch his breath.
I asked him if he was OK. Which, I think is always the most stupid question to ask anyone because they are quite clearly not OK! But we are only human at the end of the day. He said he was being held down by a Shadow man and that whatever he did, he couldn’t move. This is why he started to call out my name in his sleep, subconsciously or whatever, for me to help him.
Ice cold room with no explanation
From that night? Our bedroom was ice cold, like, see your breath cold. Our radiators worked fine and the rest of the property was warm. We never slept in that bedroom after that night and I hated having to walk past it to use the bathroom. You would get the worst feeling of unrest, fear and restlessness from it. Just horrible and to this day I have no explanation for it, other than whatever he experienced during his sleep that night? He created or brought something into our home that from that evening, decided to make our home, its own.
Two little boys & the Grown Man
Some years later, my two sons and I moved into a lovely home together. I’m not sure if I thought about it at the time, but looking back I now realise that the experience above and this new home was a 10-minute walk from each other. Across the road from the local graveyard in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. And once again, everything was fine for the first months until the first unexplained occurrence.
The Matchbox Mini
I was trying to fix a tilted frame in my dining room/kitchen. It would never stay straight and it was starting to bug me. The fridge freezer was to my left with one of my son’s matchbox mini’s on top of it. Just sitting on all four wheels, as they do. And out of nowhere, it tilted. As in, it sat on its side, which should not have been able to happen because it was a car! And the top half of cars are tilted to mimic the shape of an actual sized vehicle. But there it was, sat on its side and I tried to think nothing of it as I placed it back on the wheels and continued fixing the tilted frame that would never stay straight.
Windchimes playing
Our lower floor had the living room with an archway that leads you into the dining room/kitchen area. No doorway and I loved the whole open feeling about it. So, I hung a little wind chime ornament and it looked lovely. On this particular evening, I had just put my sons to sleep upstairs, got into bed myself and after a while, heard windchimes being played. It was one of those sounds that you thought maybe a neighbour had some in their garden?
It continued for some time, so I had to get up and investigate. I could not believe my ears because with every step I took down my stairs, the windchime sound got louder. Telling me that it was 100% coming from inside our house. I walked into our living room, turned on the lights and immediately saw the windchime in my archway…playing. No windows were open, no drafts anywhere that I could feel. But on closer inspection of the windchime? It looked like a finger was just gliding back and forth across the chimes. It was the spookiest sound and I took it down and put it in a drawer.
Being watched
Being a single Mum, you cannot just ‘pop to the shops’ to get bread without packing up the kids to take along with you. And this Mum needed bread and milk for the next few days, so I packed up the kids, put them in my tandem buggy and off we went. It was early evening and I always leave a light or lamp on to make it look as though someone is home. The shop was literally a 5-minute walk from our home, but you can never be too careful, right?
On our walk home, I noticed a single vertical slat from our vertical blinds, was tilted. As if someone was peeking out? There was no shadow behind it, as you would expect to see if someone was peeking out of the blinds. And when we got inside {and I wish I was kidding} but the vertical slat was swinging. Almost as if they saw us coming home and ran off to hide.
Haunted Home encounters continued…
Mummy, can Thomas & Ryan have dinner too?
A few weeks after the vertical blind encounter, my son started playing with his imaginary friend. This was a very new thing for him and I just thought it was something he conjured up because his little brother was too tiny to play with him. Kids always find a way to entertain themselves, right? Well, it escalated to the point where my eldest was telling me that Thomas was hiding my laundry and thought it was funny. Which was happening! Items of clothing were being found under beds, in cupboards etc. I just put this down to him acting out in some way, as young children do!
One afternoon, Rhys asked me if Thomas could have dinner and for me to make him up a plate. And as I was dishing up dinner that afternoon, he asked me if I could make up another plate for his little brother, Ryan. He told me that he had on a red jumper and had blonde hair and that he was really nice. Nothing more was really said about it and I thought nothing much of it, at the time.
Being passed on the stairs
One evening, after putting the boys to bed I was walking up my stairs and out of nowhere, I felt this rush of cold air whizz by me on the stairs. And still to this day, I do not know if it was a trick of the light, but I could swear there was a faded shadow in the direction of the cold air that rushed by me.
This proper freaked me out and I tried to put it into the back of my mind. That was the only time anything like that happened in the house.
‘Ryan’ written in wood
One night, I heard noises coming from my attic space. Noises I had heard before and part of me worried if I had mice or even birds living in my roof space! But this night was different. The noises were different. However, I tried to block them out and thankfully at some point, I fell asleep. In the morning, I decided to brave looking in the attic for the cause of the noise. I climbed up the ladder, took off the brand new wooden slate that had been fitted a few weeks before. As our old one wasn’t doing a great job with insulating that part of our home.
And when I climbed into the loft I noticed a box of kitchen knives, that I had been bought for Christmas, but didn’t need at the time, opened. One knife was near the opening of the loft hatch with little wood chips around it. I tried to think what the hell could have done this and what it was doing there? But when I grabbed the attic slat to put back and that’s when I noticed the name “Ryan” scored into the fresh wood.
Hearing footsteps on the stairs
This was a frequent occurrence – hearing footfalls coming up the stairs. They were clearly the footfalls of a grown-up and I never got a good vibe from these happenings. From the boys, there was never anything bad ‘felt’ if that makes any sense. They just felt like children wanting to play or get up to mischief, you know? But with this one? I never got a good feeling when he was acting up.
Thankfully it was only ever the passing on the stairs and hearing it walk the stairs that occurred. Thankfully!
Bedroom clash in the dead of night
Do you know that feeling after getting your children down to sleep for the night and settling down in front of the TV? It’s an amazing feeling, right? Well, on this particular night, it didn’t last long. At this stage, both of my boys were in their own bedrooms at this point and out of nowhere, I heard this huge crash from above the living room.
My first thought was Ethan’s cot – had it collapsed randomly? But then again, Rhys’s bedroom was next door to his, so I bolted up the stairs. Peeked into Ethan and he was surprisingly still asleep. Therefore, it had to be from Rhys’s. I walked into his fairy-lit bedroom and saw him all bed hair and dazed stood next to his bed, looking as confused as I was.
He had a huge box of Duplo blocks that my Dad had bought him the previous Christmas. This had been pushed off his table, onto the floor and each and every block was 6 inches apart across his bedroom floor. They were even behind the door. This proper scared me as we had never had anything like this happen before and I remember just scooping up Rhys and bringing him into my bedroom for the night.
Meeting Ryan
I was fast asleep and loving every second of it before being disturbed. I cannot remember what it was exactly, but all I remember is that something didn’t feel quite right. If you can understand that. The bathroom light was on in the hallway, as always, in case my eldest needed the bathroom during the night. And I caught a glimpse of something at the foot of my bed. It was one of those “did I just see that or imagine it moments?” and then I saw it again, but clearer this time.
It was a little blonde-haired boy, in a red jumper and waving. It was only for a second. Almost like he didn’t have enough energy {I suppose} to be clearly or stay for longer. It was the oddest encounter and it was the only one I ever had, like that, while living in that house.
The little girl in the bathtub
Another good few years later, after living on the mainland for a while. I moved back to Northern Ireland. And once again, as fate would have it, I moved close to the haunted home I lived in previously. The one with the grown-up and two little boys? This house’s back garden looked out onto the back garden of the previous home. All completely by chance, you understand.
And ever since we got settled, I began to feel uneasy. This felt like a haunted home almost immediately. It was a feeling I had only ever previously felt in the previous home. When the grown-up would walk up the stairs etc. It wasn’t a nice feeling and it made you feel as though you were not alone. That is the only way I can explain it.
Whenever you’d be in the bathroom, that’s when you felt it the most. Like something was staring at you from beyond the door. It was honestly a horrible feeling of fear and when you’re in your own home, fear is not something you should be feeling. But after a few weeks of this, one night as I used the bathroom {at night, so no lights on} I noticed a figure in the corner of my eye.
From what my peripheral vision picked up, it was a little girl laying in the bottom of the bathtub. I dared not look directly at her, based on the uneasy feeling she emanated. But she wore a long nightgown and just lay there. Almost like she was wet from being in the bath fully clothed.
We didn’t live in this haunted home for very long, which I am pleased about. Because the vibe this little one gave off was not good at all. And clearly, if I had looked into the history of the house, I may have found out about her untimely death in some horrible fashion for her to be giving off some dark and scary vibes.
There you go…
So, there you have it. My own personal encounters with the paranormal and living in a haunted home – believe it if you will. I’ll say again, I don’t believe in things like this unless I experience them myself. So all of this 100% happened and still baffle me to this day. However, my own paranormal experiences aside, I would love to hear any of your own haunted home encounters! Leave them in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, perhaps you’ll enjoy the other Halloween posts I have on my blog!
Happy Halloween!!
