Ghost reveals murderous past at North-east hotel

Pub owner holds seance

By Alan Majury

Published:

SPOOKY: The Burnett Arms hotel in Kemnay.

FOR more than 80 years, she has haunted a North-east hotel.

The ghost of Maggie Duffton has been seen floating around a Kemnay hotel in a pink wedding dress.

But now she has finally made contact with locals.

Maggie, a former owner of the Burnett Arms, told a group of 20 people of the building’s dark past during a seance on Friday.

She revealed the hotel’s murderous past to those who attended the spiritual investigation.

Malcolm Edwards – the hotel’s current owner – was hoping to get to the bottom of local folklore.

The story goes that Maggie’s coffin is buried inside a walled-up vault in the hotel cellar.

Local legend has it that three coffins were donated after Maggie’s death in 1934.

One coffin supposedly lies in Kemnay cemetery, while the other two are buried in the vault below the ladies’ toilet in the hotel. One holds Maggie’s cash, and the other her body.

It is claimed her body has never left the pub since her death.

And the owner also claimed that the seance revealed that murders had been committed in the hotel.

Malcolm said: “It went well and we managed to find some spirits to speak to. We managed to contact Maggie and her daughter Agnes and they told us that a few murders happened at that time. At some points, the glass was moving quite violently.”

He added: “I personally am not going to leave it until I am standing in that vault.”

And they even inserted cameras through the walls on two occasions, which Malcolm said showed something box-like on the other side.

He is hoping to get to the bottom of the hotel’s spooky past when he tears down the wall within the next few weeks.

amajury@ajl.co.uk