Is our house haunted by a Screaming Banshee or Howling Hound ?

I am posting this in the hope that somebody here may have an explanation for this weirdness.

My husband and me moved into this 200 year old farm house about 13 months ago. We live pretty secluded, with our 2 dogs. It is a working farm..our closest ( only ) neighbours are in a farm cottage...right on the outside edge of the road leading into the farm..maybe 150 yards from the main two story farmhouse where we live.

So last year we had only been living here a few weeks when we were both woken up, around 230am, by the most eerie screeching sound coming from directly outside our bedroom door ( which we always leave open ) The sound was a few seconds long...extremely loud..and the most uncanny noise I have ever heard in my life. The first association that came to mind..was the sound a banshee would make.banshee

We both sat bolt upright, immediately awake....my husband's like WTF??? He is very laid back in demeanor..doesn't do drama at all..composed, ex military but I heard total fear in his voice that night. Strange thing also...both dogs, hardly stirred at all...the big one sleeps on her bed at my side of the room..and she just lifted her head up and looked, as if to say.." what's up with you humans? " ..and the little dog didn't budge from the foot of the bed. To be totally honest..we were both so scared by the unearthly screech that we didn't even dare get out of bed to investigate. We just stayed in bed..and eventually got back off to sleep.

The following day, I just put it down to a new house and air settling through the heating system of radiators. Husband readily accepted my reasoning and we just didn't talk about it.

Until last night....

I say last night, but again it was the wee small hours..and I hadn't been sleeping well earlier but had finally drifted off. Sharply woken by the screeching howl of a dog, and my husband leaping out of the bed and running to the the top of the stairs. He called our big dog's name...and I was saying omg..Bella ( her name ) thinking that I had heard her..howling ..in total pain or anguish.
Almost as soon as I said her name, I immediately felt her nudge my arm and begin panting..from her usual spot, on the floor, at my side of the bed. She had been sound asleep ! So I say..." uh..Bella is right here " to my husband, who is still standing, dazed and half asleep at the top of the stairs, thinking he is calling down to our dog.
All the while, little dog is half awake, lazily eyeballing me from the bottom of the bed.

So husband gets back into bed...and asks me what did you hear....I says.. " A dog, howling. A soulful, eerie howl. That seemed to come from within the house...downstairs ? "
Ok ...he answers, that is what he says he heard too.

Any ideas ATS ?
Neither dog seemed to have heard it. Not last night...and not last year. Or if they did, they didn't react. Just to be clear, big dog Bella is a guard dog..who attempts to launch herself through the door at the post - man or each and every delivery guy who arrives at the farm.
Their hearing is so good...they alert me long before anyone even gets close to the house.
There are no other dogs in the area, but if there were..our two would go nuts if there was a strange dog encroaching on their territory.
Not sure if my heating system theory works for last night's event. Our heating has been serviced and used daily for over a month. And also...the sound was very distinct...clearly a dog howling.
Although I cannot be 100% accurate..it is approximately 1 year since the last keening eerie screech woke us both up.
Lastly...husband sleeps like a log. I am a very light sleeper and wake up fully a few times each night.

Would be interested to hear your theories.
Please don't scare the $hit out of me though !

a reply to: cosmickat

Interesting, but with two events only, so far, I don't know that I'd be looking for a ghost, just yet. The year apart is interesting, and I would make a note somewhere of the date, just for later reference. However, I'd guess this is wildlife, and not a big concern. An owl could be responsible for the shrieking sound, and a stray dog, or coyote, for the other. if they were outside, and the dogs asleep, and the didn't catch a scent, it's possible they wouldn't react much. Something about the design of the house, heating vents, etc., could be causing the sounds to carry further than one might expect, too. That the dogs didn't panic makes it less likely to be something supernatural, too, I'd think. Pets tend to respond to that sort of thing.

In any case, perhaps some inexpensive cameras, both outside, and in whatever area you think is most likely inside, would be a good plan. Having pipes and whatnot checked, too, wouldn't hurt, just in case there is some odd issue there. Air in pipes can sound pretty freaky.

Keep us posted, though!

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

thanks
We do have barn owls..no coyote though..Scotland. no wolves either.
and you are likely right in that if it was truly supernatural my dogs would have been jumping. They can sense so much more than we can.

I am thinking old house noise.

Just that the howl last night was so distinctive.

I will certainly remember the date Friday 13th !

My parents live a farmhouse. Screeching/howling sounds can be made by cats fighting over property rights or territory. It'll start off a low growling then move to a higher pitch/screeching. Other blood-curdling sounds come from rabbits being eaten alive by hawks and owls. On some occasions we actually had some stray critters come into our house and sleep in our rooms. If it was outside your door, it might have been a cat wanting feeding.

Have you tried getting a night-vision webcam (really just a ring of red lLED's) and putting them where you think the sound is coming from. Some just need a memory card to record video.

a reply to: stormcell

This is something we can try. Not very big on tech, but I am sure it can't be too difficult to install something around the house. Thanks for replying.

The biggest thing is that the dogs do not hear it.
I have a lot of experience with dogs, having had many greyhounds as well as a boxer. They can hear everything we can, and certainly things we have no clue that are going on. That kind of leaves it with the notion that the sounds are only meant for those in the house. If more than one hears it, then that eliminates sounds in your head. The implications are perplexing.

a reply to: charlyv

yes ! very perplexing.

that is what is getting me. If my dogs didn't react..they didn't hear it...so was it a sound at all ?

a reply to: cosmickat

No idea about the experiences. The priority explanation for me would be your imagination on overtime whilst your senses adopt to the new surroundings. It's interesting nonetheless

Main reason I wanted to post was to say I love your avatar picture. Does the book live up to the cover?

a reply to: Kandinsky

thanks for replying.
not sure it is just imaginary. would have to be a shared kinda of auditory hallucination..as my husband heard the exact same sounds at the same time. So..... it's a weird one !

not read the book. Love steampunk and all things zombie-esque, so the art work really appealed. It is on my list of books to read though !

a reply to: cosmickat

Yeah, I was wondering if your fella was retro-remembering after your sudden awakening? It can happen, but I'm certainly not stating it's the case here. I'm in the 'WTF' team for this.

Keep updating the thread if anything happens again and be wary of projecting supernatural anxieties! It's a short step from 'anomalous experience' to getting goosebumps every time an old floorboard settles.

(...yes, it's the steampunk thing for me too. The avatar really caught my eye and enough to image search it)

a reply to: cosmickat

You should attempt to record it. A PC with a mic and audacity can cover the house for days. Perhaps some EVP could come out of it. Would be something to try.

''They '' have the ability to make only certain people see or hear things ,if it was an animal sound the dogs would have reacted IMO ,and they didn't, so the scream ,was evidently aimed at you and your husband ,I had two screams while I was asleep, that woke me up ,one in the bedroom and one close to my face ,sometimes animals can see ''something '' but humans aren't able to see it .I read a story of a fellow in India hunting a man eating tiger ,there was a haunted ruins and water well, at night he saw the tiger prowling around the ruins and there was bizarre sounds emanating from the well [where several people suicided into the well ]he said the Tiger was oblivious to the sounds from the well ,but he could hear them .I don't know what the solution is ,apart from moving out ,but you can be anywhere and they will harass you ,try and find out the history of the house etc might yield some answers.

a reply to: ozb1777

Thank you..dare I ask who "they" are ?

a reply to: cosmickat

Demonic spirits ,those that sided with satan when he rebelled against the creator ,don't let anyone tell you they are ghosts or lost souls of people who have died ,that's all a lie ,or that they don't exist .They are bent and twisted and their main object is to mislead and corrupt humanity and drag as many humans down to destruction with them ,they know their [end] time is near and angry about it ,and putting more pressure on humans to be violent ,perverted and twisted and cruel, narcissistic as they are ,which when before the flood they had full rein to do as they pleased ,and could create a human body to live and mate with humans and totally run amok ,killing ,torturing ,raping ,humans as they pleased .now they have been restricted from doing that, but use other means to control manipulate humans as much as they can until they are abyssed .

I would have to agree with ozb177. If you want more information on the perspective that "ghosts", and as an example, "lost child" ghosts (but not limited to that circumstance) are more often than not actually demons trying to trick you into interacting with them, Google Adam Blai. He is a former psychologist-skeptic (or has a masters in psychology, something like that) turned Catholic demonologist. Or even if you just watch that show A Haunting, often times what appears to be just a ghost turns out to be something much worse. But it almost always starts out appearing as something other than what it is, and its when it progresses that the true nature of it is revealed.Lots of people will tell you they have "spirit guides", etc., but they are only dealing with whatever information those "guides" convey to them.

Also, things happening around 3 am is also a sign of something evil. It has to do with the fact that Jesus died at 3 pm.

It also makes sense from what I've read (a subject I'm interested in as an internet hobby but certainly no expert) that demons are capable of causing only certain people to hear noises. The idea that animals might be precluded from hearing things directed at you seems consistent with that. Although I myself had never heard of humans hearing something while animals did not, most often it seems its the animals that are the more perceptive ones. At the same time, the fact that I have never heard that does not mean anything.

Or it could be one of these other reasonable explanations these fine people have suggested it could be.

And I'd really love a link to that story about the tiger @ozb177, sounds interesting!

a reply to: cosmickat

Reminds me of the book series Morpheus Road where the main character encountered Hell Hounds.

a reply to: jwlafferThat's interesting about the 3pm ,when I was a kid we lived in a house built in the 1880s and at 3am every morning I would wake up and couldn't go back to sleep and had things happen to me only my younger brother sometimes experienced it .After I made the above post my brothers dog got killed and I was very fond of that dog ,I don't think it was just a coincidence .The story of the Tiger was in a book by Kenneth Anderson ,cant remember the name, but he also had a chapter in the book on spirits ,ghosts etc in India ,one of the methods to get in contact with them, was to go to a graveyard at night and use the foulest language possible to attract them ,sort of a good reason not to swear .

originally posted by: cosmickat
So husband gets back into bed...and asks me what did you hear....I says.. " A dog, howling. A soulful, eerie howl. That seemed to come from within the house...downstairs ? "
Ok ...he answers, that is what he says he heard too.

Banshees are the female version of the Rephaim whilst wraiths are the male type.

Maybe, just maybe, she, being a lost fallen raphah is asking for forgivness from Jesus Christ and sees you as the only link from her dark world - Tartarus to Heaven through you.

WHen Banshees scream your head pratically explodes; so surviving her scream / screech is simply getting you to know she is there.

A good link to her would be via you thinking "Banshee" before falling asleep. A dream will very probably allow her to talk to you.
Lets hope you remember the dream.