McGregor is well-known for its whitewashed cottages, its 19th-century ambience, its apricots and its wines.  It's also regarded by many as an ancient sacred site, a place where ley-lines meet and unusual energies are generated, and for this reason is popular with healers of all disciplines.  Until fairly recently, it was also home to several practising witches, although most of them have, for whatever reason, moved on.

It's a little less well-known for its collection of strange stories and anomalous accounts, its mysterious manifestations, its ghosts.  But if you've lived in the village for some time, you'll know (unless you have a hide like a rhinoceros) that in McGregor, things are not always what they seem...

Halloween, or Samhain, as it is properly called, has just been and gone (although in the Southern Hemisphere we should properly be celebrating Bealtain at this time of year), and this is traditionally the time of year when things that go bump in the night make their presence a little more strongly felt.

I can't remember now whether it was at this time of year that an acquaintance of mine rented a house in Darling Street which was part of a deceased estate, so she would have somewhere to live while starting to build on her recently-purchased plot.  Every night, she said, in spite of the heat, someone would come into her bedroom and put a carefully folded blanket across her feet.

I bought my first house in McGregor from the widow of a very conscientious householder.  Because I have a lot of dogs, I used to leave the kitchen door to the garden, which bolted from the inside, standing open during the night so the dogs could go in and out as they pleased.  It also meant that my housemate, who lived in a granny flat in the garden, could get into the kitchen to make himself some tea in the morning, if he woke up before I did.

We routinely woke to find that the kitchen door was locked and bolted from the inside.  Our householder, it seemed, was still doing his job.

One of the front bedrooms of the same house was occupied by the cool and appealing presence of a young, dark-haired woman dressed in white, in late Victorian or early Edwardian style.  That was my first choice of bedroom, but after a while, I felt that the dogs were disturbing the ghost, so I moved into another bedroom to give her some peace.  I couldn't begin to explain to anyone how I knew what she looked like, because I never saw her.  She was simply a calm and very attractive presence.  But I found out later that she was a well-known village ghost, and that there had in fact been several sightings of her.  I wish I knew who she was.  I rather liked her.

And then there is the rather disturbed individual who occasionally visits the dining-room of one of the most popular bed-and-breakfasts in the village.  He goes unnoticed by most, but the more sensitive among us will occasionaly get the distinct feeling that someone unhappy is standing right behind their dining chair, with his hands on their shoulders...

But it's not just ghosts who frequent McGregor.  Several of us have seen small, bright lights, about a foot off the ground, moving extremely fast across gardens or pieces of open veldt, apparently unobstructed by trees, fence posts or walls.  Some folk claim to have seen silent and almost motionless craft hovering over the village at night (although this might just have something to do with the fact that the South African gliding team, who train from an airfield in Worcester, do a lot of night-flying practice in this area...)

And then there was the strange tale of the lady who used to visit McGregor quite frequently and stay with friends near the top of the village.  One night, unable to sleep, she got up and stood on the stoep, looking out across the village, and saw a modern, domed building she had never seen before on the slopes of the hill on the other side of town.  It had various objects, which she took to be telescopes, protruding from the roof, and so she assumed it to be a small observatory (something that would make a lot of sense in McGregor, with our crystal clear night skies and glorious views of the Milky Way).

The next morning, at breakfast, she mentioned the 'observatory' to her hosts, saying that she thought it was a wonderful idea.  They looked completely baffled, insisted that there was no such thing as far as they were aware, and asked her to point it out to them.  So she took them out onto the stoep to show them.  It was gone.

More prosaically, when a communications satellite started to break up in orbit a few years ago, several pieces of debris landed in a field on a farm in Agterkliphoogte, not far from the village.  Clearly, the place has an affinity for visitors from space!

McGregor has become a lot more, well, normal and upmarket in recent years - some would say to its detriment - and many of the ghosts have left, driven out by 4x4s and cellphones.  But you never know.  Pay us a visit and you might, just might, get a little more than you bargained for!

Comments

Eeeek!! Written by on 2006-11-20 21:46:56 This gives me quite a chill. Would love to know what other people have seen/heard/experienced in McG!

Dining Room Written by on 2006-11-20 22:26:47 I know about the one in the BnB dining room (never mind which one). I was sitting there with a very psychic friend one night & got a chill down my spine. I said I felt as though there was someone right behind me, and she said, there is!!

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