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Torry Battery in Aberdeen, once a defensive fortress, now whispers tales of ghostly apparitions and eerie encounters. GRAEME MILNE reveals first-hand accounts of the paranormal at this haunted historic site
With its unrivaled views of Aberdeen Bay, the Torry Battery was built between 1859 and 1861 as a defense against possible attacks from France. The defenses included 200-pound Armstrong guns capable of ‘dropping a ball from Torry to Newburgh’ (a village over miles away).
Despite its fearsome weaponry, the Battery was mainly used as a training ground for soldiers and served this purpose until the end of the Great War. It was subsequently used periodically for both temporary housing and defensive purposes until the end of World War II.
A steady stream of returning servicemen now returned to the city and, realizing the extent of the housing problem, the city council formalized a plan to enable families to move into a series of huts and outbuildings. Contemporary accounts and images show that it was undoubtedly a simple accommodation. This situation lasted until 1953 when the last residents moved, but did they?
Haunted at Torry Battery
I met Connie who told me about the following incident, the main character of which was her mother. In the late 1960s, her mother Sandra and three friends witnessed events at both the Torry Battery and nearby Duthie Park that were very frightening, to say the least. Her mother continues the story:
“It was the summer of 1968 at about 10 p.m. There were four of us on two motorcycles and we decided to stop at the battery for a cigarette. We drove into the gate and parked next to two cellars. We were standing next to the bikes and chatting for about 15 minutes when two girls entered the gate ahead of us.
“We’ve seen them all and actually, I said jokingly, we had to watch out for the ghosts. They both turned and stared straight at me for what seemed like an eternity, it was a cold stare that went right through me. They didn’t say a word, turned and walked away from us to the back of the battery.
“We all started talking about their strange behavior when the girls disappeared over a large hill. One of the boys who had been to the Battery before wondered where they were going, because there was no way out that way.
“Anyway, we decided to follow them when it started to get dark, and we were very surprised. We looked over the hills and into the old buildings that had been destroyed, but we couldn’t find them.
“We decided to get on our bikes behind the Battery, which at the time was walled and had barbed wire around it, but there was still no sign to be seen. We felt uncomfortable so decided to leave and go to Duthie Park.
“When we got there, the boys parked their bikes in the shelter and tied their front wheels together. We went to the duck pond where we sat and chatted and smoked a cigarette. It was around 11pm. We had only been there a few minutes when we heard the engines revving.
“My friend Hughie immediately recognized the motor from his bike, so we all ran back to the shelter. When we got there, both bikes were on their sides. The chain that connected them was broken and all the wheels were turning. Everyone was scared, including the boys. They had their keys in their pockets, so we got on the bikes and left.
“While discussing the matter a few weeks later, two different people told us that after World War II, two young girls had been found murdered on a mattress in one of the Battery’s basements.” Sandra ended by saying, “We all believed the incident was paranormal and never went back.”
I was indebted to Sandra for relating her experiences, which are among my favorites, but I could find no evidence that any murders took place.
The next incident at Torry Battery
The next incident occurred in 1995 and, as is often the case, came to light through a series of coincidences.
In January 2008 I was taking pictures of an old building and got chatting to site manager Ian. He told me about an incident that happened to some of his friends at the Torry Battery in the 1990s and which he claimed involved numerous apparitions.
At the time we couldn’t finish the interview so I came back about a week later and while we were in the two of us I started asking him to tell the story.
He began to talk about the incident in more detail and, when he discovered that I was a serious researcher, he admitted that he had been there that evening but had been reluctant to say so for fear of ridicule. I assured him that I took his story seriously and mentioned Sandra’s story as an example, without mentioning her name.
The only other employee in the business immediately contacted me and asked if the ladies’ names were Sandra. I confirmed it was and it turned out she was his best friend’s grandmother. After I twitched my jaw, he told me he knew about the “motorcycle incident” because he had heard the story firsthand before. Talk about a co-incident, or was it?
I do believe that certain things are true and assume that is the case here. Anyway, after the initial shock, Ian started describing his experience and since I was given permission to repeat it in full, I’ve included it here.
“It was the summer of 1995 and I was a student at the time. We met at the breakwater at the mouth of the harbor and stayed outside playing football and partying. This night there were three of us heading to the breakwater, myself and my two friends, Kevin Porter and Alan Black.
“It was a perfect night in the middle of summer, no breeze and still warm. It was starting to get dark and since we were running late, someone suggested cutting the battery. We were walking through the Battery when out of the corner of my eye I saw Alan looking at something. We were stopped in our tracks by the sight of a group of people wearing old-fashioned clothing, like something from the television program ‘Foyles War’. There were women wearing long dresses just standing there, and a soldier standing nearby, dressed in army green and a cap. There were others wearing flat caps.
“We sat with our feet on the ground and even though it only lasted a few seconds, time seemed to stand still. It was surreal, though not exactly frightening. The air was completely calm and I felt peaceful. The strangest thing was that there were children playing too, and a little boy, dressed in what looked like plus-fours and looking Asian, was running along with a hoop that he controlled with a stick. Like an old-fashioned toy. The only sound I could hear was the sound of the hoop rattling on the ground and the stick hitting it. We looked at each other and ran across the battery to the other side and ran all the way to where our friends were.
“When we arrived, we were out of breath and my friends looked pale. We told the rest of them what happened, and they laughed and thought we were winding them up. After some persuasion they agreed to come back with us and we did. It must have only taken about ten minutes between running to our friends and returning, but when we got there the place was deserted. There was no sign of life, not even a crispy packet on the ground, silence.
“My friends kept disputing what we were seeing, claiming it must be someone making a movie. They didn’t believe us, but we knew it wasn’t a movie set because there were no cars or vans driving around, where no one could go. There is no way they could have cleared the place in the ten minutes it took us to get back. The experience has stayed with me and felt more surreal and peaceful than frightening, even though we were alarmed to some extent.”
It goes without saying that both military and civilian personnel have used the battery in the past, so the descriptions given are very accurate.
Perhaps what we saw will never be repeated, perhaps it was the right combination of time and elements that opened this window to the past. If that’s the case, I think Ian was very lucky indeed.
Today I am pleased to say that within the remaining walls of the battery there is now a renowned café, offering porpoise watching and community space. Whether anyone else has or will see these figures again is a matter of conjecture.
Maybe they were just there at the right time, as seems to be the case. As always, the witnesses had no intention of seeing a “ghost,” which was unexpected, to say the least. Ghost hunters may want to take note.
Author and guide GRAEME MILNE has been writing about the paranormal for over 20 years, researching it in his home town of Aberdeen, where he met and interviewed many locals and collected their experiences in what became ‘The Haunted North’, parts one and two. It is not surprising that the city with its centuries-old history has more than its share of haunted locations.
Both books are now out of print and have recently been collected and expanded under the title ‘Aberdeen’s Haunted Heritage’. In more recent years, a move to Edinburgh and a new career as a tour guide provided further inspiration and helped shape ‘Tales from an Edinburgh Tour Guide’, a wry look at the capital’s obsession with the paranormal. Recently, a foray into supernatural fiction, “When Day Becomes Night,” capped off a busy few years. As of now, the author is currently working on a new volume of true ghost stories under the title ‘Scotland’s ‘Haunted Heritage’. Discover Graeme’s books on Amazon.
