MJ STEEL COLLINS tells us about the ghostly goings on at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, warning us to beware the theatre’s boiler room!
The Tron Theatre is located in the Merchant City area of Glasgow and has been used as a theatre venue since 1981, originally, the site was that of St Mary’s Church, which was allegedly burnt down in 1793 by drunken members of the Hellfire Club.
The church’s steeple survived intact, and can still be seen today. The building has taken on many incarnations during its history including a meeting hall, a place of execution and a police station.
Due to the theatre’s colourful history it is no surprise that there have been several reports of paranormal activity within the building over the years, theatre staff often report feelings of being watched, one male staff member felt what seemed to be an icy finger across his neck, another saw an office door handle open on its own.
Two phantom children and a man dressed in full horse riding apparel has been encountered, a dark apparition with a threatening presence has been witnessed in the boiler room, which is on the former site of St Mary’s crypt.
Supernatural phenomenon seems a regular occurrence in the theatre’s Victorian Bar, but the most paranormally active site is reported to be the two back rows of the auditorium.
Several groups have investigated the Tron, including The Ghost Club and the Scottish Paranormal Investigations. During their visit they allege to have contacted numerous spirits, including a child of about 8 years old, a teenage girl with a missing hand, a town crier and a thespian called Arthur. When The Ghost Club investigated they recorded the sound a little girl, someone moving in the auditorium when it was empty and were given the name Robert Adam, which is linked to the church’s past. Walkie-talkies and equipment suffered technical problems, batteries drained quickly in the vicinity of the notorious boiler room,
When The Ghost Club returned for their second visit – they again encountered whatever lurks in the boiler room. Eight months earlier, it was recorded in the accident logbook that a workman fell off his ladder, some believe he was pushed. The team psychic immediately picked up on the ladder accident and alleged it was caused by the boiler room ghost. Also contacted were prisoners and a noose was seen, likely dating back to when the building was used as a police station.
Clearly, the audience share the theatre with a cast of spooky characters… I don’t think I’ll be going to the toilet alone at the Tron Theatre again!
Ghost threw a stone at me at Glasgow Tron Theatre
(Article originally published in Spooky Isles on 1 March 2018.)
Guest writer MICHAEL McCANN tells how a ghost hunt at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre rekindled his passion for the paranormal
To say I was obsessed by the paranormal in my younger years would be an understatement. From the age of 11 till I was around 18 years old, I must have read hundreds of books on the subject.
From the UFOs of Bonnyrigg to the Bigfoot in North Western United States, there was no subject that I was not well versed in. Then life happened, new job, new girlfriend, new hobbies, new friends – my obsession with the reported UFO crash in on the Island of Jura in 1996 or the strange case of Sigmund Adamski in the 1980s could not have been further from my mind.
It wasn’t long after the death of my mother in 2008 when I rekindled my interest in the paranormal.
I found myself joining a group of intrepid ghost hunters in a well-known Glasgow bar discussing many of Glasgow’s haunted locations, when the subject of an investigation came up.
A member of staff at the famous Glasgow Tron Theatre had contacted the group and asked them to investigate something that was going bump in the night.
I had never taken part in a real paranormal investigation before and I was pensive, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face down ghosts that weren’t in the pages of the dusty books of my book self at home.
It was the 19th of December 2008 and as the last of the theatregoers filtered out the building, gradually the building began to fall quiet and still.
Our psychic for the evening was a woman called Sadie, a short woman with short blond hair who wore a black bomber leather jacket. She wanted to lead the group in a protection prayer to keep us safe from any evil spirits that may attack us should they take a disliking to our presence.
As sceptical as I was of this practice, I was secretly glad of it. The lights were turned off and it was time for us to begin our investigation.
I sat near the back of the theatre, alone and in the dark I was drawn to the area where the band would sit.
I could sense a presence, I am not a psychic to my knowledge, I barely believe in the ability so I would never claim to “sense” anything, however, the only way I can describe the sensation is that I sensed a presence. “An over active imagination,” I told myself.
I moved from the back of the theatre to the front row facing the stage. After a few moments the snare drum vibrated and with a ping something landed at my feet in the dark. I turned my torch on to search the floor and at my feet lay a small stone.
At 2am, I am on the stage with the group and the psychic. The psychic produces a tape recorder and suggests we try a simple EVP experiment where we ask a question to the ghostly presence that has joined us on stage to see if we can get a response.
I patiently wait my turn and as the tape recorder comes to me there is only one question I want to ask. “Was it you who threw the stone?” and through the dark on that stage in a theatre in Glasgow on a cold December morning, a mans gruff voice cried out “Correct”.
MICHAEL McCANN is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker and screenwriter from Glasgow, Scotland. He is also a co-organiser of The Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference and host of the Weirder Things Podcast.
