Hello and welcome to Stories of Scotland, a podcast exploring the great histories and mysteries

of this land. I'm Annie, your resident Poltergeist. Ooh!

And I'm Jenny, a terrified tourist with an iron stomach, frantically live streaming the ground as I run away from Annie's terrifying whales.

For the most spooky time of year, Halloween, or as it's known in Old Gallic, Sahuyn, is upon us.

The harvest is over, the equinox has passed, and the nights are closing in.

Folk are retreating into their homes and around their hearths, avoiding the darkness at all costs.

Because in the dim corners where shadows dance and the...

Annie, do you hear that?

Wait, what is that?

Why, I think it's none other than the jangling of the beaded curtain

that separates our world from the other.

The world of the supernatural.

The world of spirits and ghosts, fairies and foe, and most terrifyingly of all.

My heating bill?

I mean, if you've just been dealing with them by shoving them through the veil instead of opening

them, then yes, your heating bill too.

I was really hoping that some fairies would kindly deal with my heating bills.

Well, Annie, at this time of year, the veil is at its thinnest,

and if you're not careful,

you're about to get a pile of bills

from beyond the grave.

Well, we have such an exciting

...