CCTV in Lanark, a small town in Scotland has picked up what many are saying is the ghost that has been haunting the area for years. The footage was taken May 12, just after midnight. When it was scanned by security, they picked up a mysterious amorphous figure that seems to change shape and destabilize as the tape progresses.
Though it is easy to look at any shape and attribute human characteristics to it, the figure does seem almost at times to resemble a human looking down. The shape almost looks like a child wearing a bulky coat. As the figure floats about, it can be seen disappearing momentarily and reappearing again. The film appears to be recording at a rate of two frames per second.
John Stirrat, the general manager of the Lanark Mill Hotel where the footage was taken is perplexed by the images depicted on the film. “It is the strangest, eeriest thing I have ever seen,” he told one local news source. Mr. Stirrat considered himself a skeptic for years before finally seeing the footage. Now he says he isn’t quite sure. Skeptics of the film say it surely must be a flaw in the camera, but as it continued to film later, it was clear it was in perfect working order. It would seem whatever was being filmed in this image was an object of some sort that was actually present on the ground or floating in the air. It is possible, however, that the strange figure may have partially been created due to lens flare. Because the film is black and white it is difficult to discern if the figure’s head is actually more than a light anomaly. But even if it was, this would only deepen the mystery, suggesting the strange phantasmal image was actually glowing quite brightly as it floated around the pavement.
New Lanark has had plenty of time to accumulate spiritual energy. First founded in 1785 when the nearby river provided power for an old cotton mill, Lanark was a place of harsh working conditions for manufacturers attempting to keep up with the harsh demands for productivity at the time. As the years passed, eventually the old cotton mill was abandoned with the creation of new methods for powering cotton processing. The village, however, remained and even became famous as the years went on. Today it is now considered a model community thanks to the work of Robert Owen, reformer and famous philanthropist. The mill remains even today, restored after a considerable amount of work, as a tourist attraction. But could something else have been partially restored as well?
But the visitation seem to be more than just by picture snapping tourists wishing to get a sense of the past. It seems the past may be coming back as well in the form of restless phantoms to lurk in the dark alleys behind where the visitors sleep at night. Is this figure simply an anomalous trick of the light? Or is it something more?