ON TUESDAY 57 members of Forfar Probus Club, plus eight Laurencekirk guests, were entertained at the Royal Hotel by retired Courier journalist Laurie Rogers, who related spooky goings on in the town over the centuries up to today.

Sightings centred around Castle Street and the Cross, with figures from the past favouring local hostelries the Osnaburg, Royal Hotel, Troopers, the Stag and Queen Street Tavern.

There were phantom bellringers, a 17th century cavalier, legless Roman soldiers and a suicidal chambermaid among others, although in spite of the well-documented hangings and burnings at the stake that went on in Forfar, only one coven of witches was sighted.

But the many credible witnesses in The Osnaburg bar who felt “a presence” prompted the Paranormal Society to stay overnight in 2007 with cameras, microphones and recorders, with no success. But a psychic with them was frightened by visions of a boy chimney sweep, a uniformed soldier and at the bar Harry Kettles —a deceased local worthy.

Laurie said that, with Forfar in the top 10 Scots “ghost towns”, it should, like Edinburgh, promote spooky tours or ghostwalks.