The enduring fascination with a 'haunted' bothy

Deep in the Lochaber hills lies Luibeilt Lodge.

It was a gamekeeper's residence before later being used as a mountain bothy, a place where hillwalkers could find relief from bad weather or spend the night.

Some of its visitors claim to have experienced spooky goings-on while staying there, giving rise to claims the lodge was haunted.

BBC Radio 4's Uncanny explores Luibeilt's story in its new Christmas special.

Night had fallen and it was pouring rain when the Uncanny team reached Luibeilt to record material for the show's new podcast.

Series presenter and writer Danny Robins and co-producer Simon Barnard were joined by hillwalker Phil MacNeill for the trek from the Highland village of Kinlochleven to the lodge, or what remains of it today.

The roof, doors and windows have long gone.

Phil has history with the place.

On a winter climbing trip in 1973, the then 18-year-old member of Glasgow's Langside Climbing Club and friend Jimmy Dunn had planned to spend a night there.

Luibeilt was still a climbers' refuge at the time.

Phil recounted his experience of the 1973 visit for Uncanny's 2021 Christmas special.

He said unexplained activity kicked off soon after he and Jimmy decided to try and get some sleep in a downstairs living room.

First they heard footsteps, then loud other noises including the sound of a dismantled metal bed frame in an upstairs room being put together.

Phil recalled being awoken at 04:00 when the living room "erupted" with the sounds of objects - including the men's ice axes - being thrown "all over the place" in the darkness.

The room fell silent again. Phil lit a candle but says it was sent "flying across the room".

Next, the sound of footsteps again, but this time stomping down a spiral staircase from the upstairs to the closed living room door.

Grabbing his ice axe, Phil went to the door and threw it open but he said no-one was there.

It was then the two friends decided to make their escape out of an open window.

In the new podcast, Danny describes Phil's story as "a case that haunts my dreams like no other".

He said he had to see Luibeilt for himself, and even spend the night there.

It's a walk of just over three hours from Kinlochleven through stunning mountain scenery.

But weather conditions can change quickly and Lochaber is one of Scotland's busiest areas in terms of mountain rescues - volunteers of the local team have been on more than 160 callouts this year so far.

For the Christmas special, a new witness has come forward - historian and keen hillwalker John Beech.

He said he and a friend sought shelter at Luibeilt while on a climbing trip on an October day in the 1980s.

John said: "This storm came from nowhere - torrential rain, gale force winds and it was pitch black."

The lodge was in a poor state of repair but was a better prospect than trying to brave it outside.

After laying out their sleeping bags, John and his friend heard heavy footsteps above them.

"You couldn't mistake it for anything else. I used to live in tenement flats," said John.

They heard footsteps on three occasions before deciding to head upstairs to investigate, believing someone was playing a joke on them.

John said: "I shone my headlamp into this room and thought: 'This is impossible'

"There were no floorboards. No-one could walk across that. There was just a series of joists."

He said he later heard a story from mountain rescuers who described seeing the lodge's front door handle being repeatedly turned but finding no-one on the other side of the door.

John said he did not believe in ghosts, but keeps an open mind.

Uncanny's resident sceptic, psychologist Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe, said there were many rational explanations for the unsettling experiences.

These included vibrations and sounds made by hydro-electric power schemes in the area.

During their visit to Luibeilt, Danny, Simon and Phil said they heard sounds they could not easily explain away.

Danny added: "I had a strange sense of someone being outside the tent."