If you have experienced any strange happenings that you would like to tell us about then e-mail us at strangebuttrue@www.kilmarnockacademy.co.uk . |
No Ordinary Moggy
Over the years there have been many
reports - some of them from teachers at
Loudoun Academy - of wild animals roam-
ing the Irvine Valley. These reports are
largely unconfirmed but many of them
centre around Morton Park in Darvel,
usually on Friday nights.
Well we have received exclusive photo-
graphs of one feline creature, taken in
daylight on the road that leads past the
Darvel transmitter. "The animal was walking
along a long, straight stretch of road and
as we approached slowly in the car, it
turned to watch us. As we edged closer
it went through
the hedge and vanished."
While the photographs are taken from a
distance, they reveal an animal with a
ringed tail, spotted body and tufty ears. It
was bigger than
the average domestic cat
and had a dark line running most of the
way up its back and light tufts above
its eyes
- definitely no ordinary moggy.
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What's Really Planted at "The Allotments"?
Over the years, several teachers at the
school have cultivated plots at the allot-
ments in New Mill Road. 'The Allotments' is
an area of ground, near the town centre,
that accommodates a large number of indi-
vidual plots on which budding Beechgrove
Gardners can grow vegetables, plants and
flowers. It has been like that for as long
as any local living person can remember
and during the summer it is a rush of act-
ivity and colour.
However, has it always been like this? Well,
not according to historical maps of the area.
The Kilmarnock map of 1896 shows this area
of ground as being a cemetery. Does anyone
out there know what's really planted at the
allotments? If you do then let us know,
although this is one mystery where you may
not want to dig too deeply in search of an
answer.....
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Time to Redecorate
It is not uncommon when redecorating to come across evidence left behind by workmen from previous generations: one member of staff found potato crisp bags from the 1970's under his floorboards while another found pages from a 1929 newspaper packed behind the linseed mastic that was used to seal his window frames.
In 1998, one teacher moved into a house that was built around 1872 but in which only two families had lived in the previous 116 years. When he moved in at first, he painted the existing wall covering but recently he got round to decorating the main lounge/living room properly. He decided to strip off the old "wallpaper" which turned out to be old plain paper with an early type of artex or plaster covering it. Removing this layer was painfully slow but, on clearing one area of wall he came across the pencil writing pictured below. It said: "R Weir, Painter 17th April 1903". It is pretty unlikely that this writing would have survived if the wall had been stripped, rubbed down and washed since the writing was put there. Consequently, one might deduce that the painter did it - and at a time when Holmes and Watson were still residing in Baker Street. One might also reasonably conclude that the wall covering was of fine quality, to have lasted 102 years, and that, ultimately, it was time to redecorate.
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A Giant Crisp!
One of our regular surfers has submitted this
picture of a giant potato crisp (American
Translation: potato chip). When we pointed
out that we would like to verify this unusual
find, the surfer in question informed us that
she had eaten the evidence. She added that
after consuming the giant crisp, she
didn't
have to eat anything else for three
days.
If you have any pictures of unusual objects
or happenings then e-mail them to us at the
address shown at the top of the page.
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